As the weeks shortened and graduation loomed like a rainstorm blowing in upon the school, for the first time ever, Eddie had the thought he might actually graduate.
Never before had he seriously considered this to be a realistic possibility…entirely on the basis that it wasn't. He knew his grades from the previous years were likely the worst in the graduating class, so he'd always seen the end of another year as an almost amusing parade and show from the people that would soon be long-gone memories while he lingered in the places they vacated.
But this year…this year, all of a sudden, the thought hit him like a stack of bricks that - despite being sure he'd graduate this year - he might actually.
He'd be lying to say it didn't scare him.
His future had always been easy. Just go to school another year. Simple. No thoughts, no muss, no fuss.
He had stopped dreaming of what would come after high school long ago.
Firstly, his grades were the best they may ever be, with the help of his smarty-pants girlfriend who led him the whole way. He could tell even his teachers were shocked by his sudden change. He was turning assignments in on time and completed, not just half-high scribbles across a page that vaguely resembled words. He was taking time to take his tests, not drawing pictures on the back, and choosing letter combinations that made him giggle. He was doing the work as best as he could, which was still shocking at all.
So on that basis alone, he may graduate.
He also had half a mind that the school might just graduate everyone. What with this year, with this specific senior class (two murders, one attempted murder, a psychopath revealed) he figured teachers would be understanding that people's minds perhaps weren't at their best as everything transpired.
Maybe they were sure this class was cursed and it would be better to just shove them out of Hawkins High and lock the door behind them, starting new with a class of less problematic newly-minted seniors.
Yeah, Eddie was 99% sure he was going to be handed a diploma this year.
Well, if that was the case, Eddie was surely going to participate in a time-honored tradition one last time.
Senior skip day.
It was historic. The Hawkins Skip Day was on the penultimate Wednesday before graduation. Look at him! Using shiny new words that Chrissy had taught him!
Okay, so he did a skip day pretty often, but the Hawkins Skip Day was so much a part of history that all the teachers expected it. He heard that a straight-attendance senior last year had arrived at their first-hour class and a teacher told her to 'go and live a little' and promptly kicked her out.
That was the local legend of course.
Either way, the teachers just played a little dumb and marked all the seniors present. No one was going to fuck with the Hawkins Skip Day. They'd probably participated in themselves as seniors far too arrogant and carefree to think that the world didn't owe them any trouble.
It took far less convincing of Chrissy than he thought it would. He'd brought it up, ready to present her with a list of reasons why she totally should skip. He did so rubbing lotion onto the tattoo on her shoulder, her hair pulled to one side.
"Oh, that," Chrissy just said, "Of course, I'm partaking."
"Of course?" Eddie snorted, "Who are you and what has Vecna done with you the real Chrissy?"
Chrissy turned, holding her blouse up with her arm, rolling her eyes.
"Everyone skips. So yes…of course," She smiled, "But you wanna know something fantastic?"
"Yeah?"
She leaned in, "My parents weren't born and raised here."
Eddie frowned. That seemed like an odd non sequitur. How had they gone from talking about skipping class to talking about the origin of her parents?
"Which means," Chrissy said, seeing his confused expression, "That they have no idea that a Skip Day exists and no idea when it would be. And Matty'll be in school, so we have my parent's house to myself." She said, practically dancing with excitement.
"And if they happen to come back?" Eddie asked, "Your dad will kill me if he finds me in your bed. Quite literally I think. And you'll all cry over my body riddled with bullets. Can't you see it?" He nodded to himself, "I mean, it would be a nice funeral, I'm sure."
"You hide. You've made yourself scarce before. You know the emergency exits." Chrissy said, putting her tank top back on, "Oh, come on. You're really going to pass up this opportunity?"
Eddie sputtered, "I never explicitly said that. I'm just playing the devil's advocate. And all you really had to say is 'hey, Eddie, we can have sex all day' and I was already there, you know?"
"Good." Chrissy tugged her sweater back over her head, and leaned up to peck his lips, "So...it's settled."
Three days later, on the Wednesday in question, Eddie waved goodbye to Wayne. Wayne just sipped his coffee.
"Isn't it the second Wednesday before graduation?" Wayne questioned.
"I don't remember days," Eddie said ever-so-connivingly. Wayne chuckled, flapping his newspaper.
"I went to Hawkins High too, son."
"Yeah, yeah," Eddie waved him away, "I know that you know but do we have to talk about knowing shit?"
"Just…" Wayne shrugged, not making a move to stop him or try to talk him out of it, "Don't subtract or add to the population today."
"Ew." Eddie said, shaking out that latter thought as he grabbed his leather jacket from the hook, "I'm off, Wayne! To have a full protective day of knowledge pounded into my head!"
"Sure, kid," Wayne said, "And I'm the King of England."
"I didn't realize. Your majesty," Eddie bowed low, "Have a great day."
He heard Wayne laugh a bit as he left.
He met up halfway with Gareth on the path they usually took to school.
"You know what?" Eddie asked, "Everyone expects me of all people to skip. So you know what would really blow teachers' minds?"
"What?"
"Actually showing up," Eddie said with a wry grin. He imagined the look on his teacher's face as the only senior sitting politely in class. It was enough to give him a snicker.
"God, you are a changed man! I never thought I'd see the day Eddie would choose to go to school," Gareth said, eyes wide. Eddie slapped his shoulder.
"Hell naw, man. I got places to be. Girls to woo." He said, "We still up for the diner at 3pm?" It was a class tradition as well for the seniors to take over the local diner at 3pm and count down to the end of the school day at exactly 3:12pm together.
"See you then, man," Gareth said, "I'm off to go to a party. See you on the flip side!"
Chrissy was waiting for him a block away from her house.
"I'm waiting for my parents to go to work," She said, sitting on a bus bench with a view of her driveway, "It'll be soon."
"And then we do dirty, dirty things in your bedroom?" Eddie asked eagerly.
Chrissy giggled, "Yeah. Sure."
He sat with her, looping an arm around her shoulders. He was almost about to say something about how he was going to graduate, for real, this time, but Chrissy gave an excited squeak.
"They're gone! C'mon!"
Eddie figured that this could all very much wait.
She used her spare key to open the door and they walked into a very empty Cunningham residence.
"Mom? Dad? Matty?" Chrissy called out cautiously. They both held their breath in waiting, but there was no answer.
"Good." Eddie said, closing the door and pushing her back against it, kissing her hard, "You won't even know what happened to you by the end of today, Chrissy." He stepped back, tilting his head as he looked at her.
"What?" Chrissy asked, her lips already puffy and her cheeks splotched with color.
"Seeing if I'm able to do this." Eddie said, grabbing Chrissy by her legs and hoisting her over his shoulder, "Ah, light as a feather."
"Eddie! I swear to god if you drop me-," Chrissy giggled, pounding on his back lightly.
"Never, babe," He assured, bringing her bedroom. He lightly threw her on her bed, "Take your clothes off."
Chrissy grinned impishly up at him, biting her lip, "Yes, sir."
If he wasn't hard before, he was now. He groaned.
"What are you doing, Chrissy?" He asked, "You're trying to cause a heart attack, eh?" He asked.
"Not at all, sir. Just doing as you asked," Chrissy replied with wide, innocent eyes. And it worked. With the slight quiver in her voice, her absolutely pure expression, and the fact they were in her pink bedroom, Eddie would never have been able to guess (if he didn't know) that she was anything but a never-touched virginal people pleaser.
He licked his lips, watching as she shed her clothes, "Take my pants off," he whispered, voice husky. His own fingers had begun to undo his belt…but if Chrissy could do it for him…
Sitting on her bed, she complied. He took his own shirt off, so she didn't have to get up, and palmed himself.
"I think you owe me a favor," He whispered. Chrissy looked up, grinning, as though the thought thrilled her.
"Is that what you want, sir?" She asked.
"Yes," He breathed. Chrissy looked up at him, frowning slightly.
"You're going to have to be very specific. I tend to get confused easily." She said cunningly, tapping her chin.
"I want you to take my cock in your mouth," Eddie instructed. Two could play this game of chicken. Eddie liked winning. He wasn't going to let her rattle him. She was having far too much fun winning right now. He pressed a thumb to her bottom lip, "I want to see it disappear down your throat."
"Of course," Chrissy purred, leaning forward. The first touch of her lips against him had him almost losing it all right there; his marbles, his sanity, and this back-and-forth game. He thought of catching Gareth and the disgust he felt for Midge and that managed to keep him from coming right there.
His hands had no place to go but her head, fingers burying themself in her golden locks. As she took him all the way in, he cursed under his breath, pushing lightly on her skull, snapping his hips at a pace that wouldn't ruin her completely, though his instinct was to just go at it.
"Oh, fuck," He whispered, drawing himself back, "I would have been done very quickly if we continued, and I have no intention of that."
Chrissy looked up at him, a determined flare in her iris. "You know…you can be rougher."
"Huh, really?" Eddie asked, not waiting to cross boundaries because she felt like she had to. He grasped a condom from his backpack, watching her expression carefully.
"Yes. I can take it." She assured.
"So if I do this…" Eddie clambered over her, hovering. He grasped both of her tiny wrists in one hand, bringing them above her head and pinning her arms to the pillow, "And this?" He used his free hand to push one of her legs against her chest, at the underside of her thigh, grasping the flesh with his nails, "You're okay?"
"Mhh, yes," Chrissy assured, "Please."
Eddie paused at her entrance, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "Please….what?"
Chrissy groaned, trying to buck up, "Please, sir," She released a breathy, wanton moan, "Take me. Please." She was almost reduced to inaudible babbling.
"You're going to make so much noise for me, baby," Eddie said, pressing his forehead against her forehead as he snapped his hips forward, "And I'll go so hard you'll feel phantom touches of it for days afterward."
Chrissy managed a weak, watery moan and Eddie kissed her jawbone, biting lightly, "Think that's loud enough?" He asked.
"No," Chrissy replied, her words ending in a low groan of pleasure. It became Eddie's mission to elicit all sorts of sounds out of her, like a scientist, testing different angles and movements, charting the way she responded to all of them.
He almost had the thought to tell her to wait for him to come, but it wasn't needed. The very thought of it, and the power she gave him for this brief moment, was enough to send him over the edge.
He flopped beside her, both of them panting and sweaty and satiated…for now.
"I'm gunna need you to do that two more times today…at least," Chrissy said, curling up on his chest.
"I am but your humble servant," Eddie said.
As they lay there, basking in the afterglow, Chrissy ran circles around his skin with her nail, lightly.
"I got a scholarship to Butler University."
Eddie didn't know how to reply to that other than a surprised, "Oh. Wow. Didn't you know you were…uhm…considering."
"I wasn't. I mean, I was. I got accepted. But they were going to offer a full athletic ride to Jason. They figured giving me that money might make sense." She swallowed, "I think I'm going to take it. I don't want my parents to have anything to do with my choice. I don't want them holding anything over me."
Eddie pulled her close, kissing the top of her head, "You'll be great there. And long distance isn't so bad. I mean, we can call, and it's not a bad drive and-,"
Chrissy pulled away abruptly, "Long distance? What do you…you aren't…coming with me?" She asked, her voice breaking slightly.
Eddie pursed his lips, frowning, "You know I didn't get accepted anyway. S'fine. I don't need college. Lots of technical work pays super well, you know?" He said. He had no idea what was next, and yes he knew he had to figure it out quick, but god could he have two seconds to pause?
"I know you didn't but…you're not coming with me?" She asked again, confused.
Eddie blinked at her "You deserve the college experience. The dorms. Not a boyfriend holding you back. I'd look like a weirdo."
"You wouldn't. And fuck anyone who disagrees or thinks it's odd," Chrissy said, her expression furrowing, "They have no idea what we've been through. How I just want to be there…with you…just you."
Eddie stared up at her light pink ceiling, "I can't. I can't…leave Wayne. I'm all he has."
Chrissy grew silent. He looked down to see tears collecting in her eyes, though she was stubbornly trying not to cry.
"Awe, fuck."
"No, you're right. You're totally right," Chrissy wiped her eyes with her hand, "I'm sorry for not thinking of your uncle." She sniffled, "You're a good person, Eddie. The very best I know."
"Now I know you're lying. Because you're the best person."
"Yeah, but I can't say myself. I'd sound narcissistic," Chrissy replied, forcing a smile, "I think I just got excited. I'm sorry."
"Naw. It's a nice thought, though," Eddie said. And he did want it. But he sort of got the feeling Wayne liked him around and maybe was secretly relieved he failed twice already. Plus, what did Indianapolis have for him? Other than Chrissy...nothing. His life was in Hawkins and probably always would be. He could date the popular cheerleader, but he couldn't outrun a fate his parents and his parent's parents were gifted; you would live here, and you would die here.
That's how it worked for the Munsons.
Someone rang the doorbell.
"Probably just the mailman," Chrissy said, getting up and tugging her clothes back on.
"Yeah-,"
But Eddie was interrupted by Steve's voice coming through the walkie-talkie.
"Hey, you two! I'm guessing you're here. Get dressed if you're indecent and then come on out. I have an adventure for us."
Eddie wouldn't say it, but he was so glad Steve arrived, pushing back an uncomfortable conversation and the fallout of it to another time.
"How'd you know we'd be here?" Eddie asked.
"Well, you weren't at your trailer, nor at my place," Steve said.
"No, I mean, here…" Eddie waved a hand around. Steve blinked.
"Eddie. The Skip Day has been the same day for like forty years now. Of course I knew you and Chrissy wouldn't be in school. Thus why I'm here."
Chrissy arrived behind Eddie, "Hey Steve, what's going on?"
"I have Chrissy and Gareth in the car. Get in. I'm buying you all a graduation gift." Steve instructed, "C'mon! Time's wasting!" He said, motioning to the car. Eddie and Chrissy exchanged looks before shrugging.
Eddie was intrigued.
"Ooh, girl. Your shirt is on backward," Cheryl whispered as Chrissy got into the car. Eddie's face turned bright red. Gareth looked pointedly out the window while Steve just cackled.
"Glad to see you feeling better, Chrissy."
"Can you tell us where we're going?" Gareth asked, still refusing to look near Chrissy at all.
"Nope!" Steve said, rolling out of the driveway, "Just sit back and relax. We'll be there soon."
Eddie wasn't sure his definition of 'soon' was the same as Steve's, because it took a goddamn 45 minutes for them to arrive at their destination.
"A…weapons shop?" Chrissy said, less than excited as she hopped out, "Uhm…you shouldn't have?"
"You're buying us guns for graduation? That's weird." Eddie said.
"Not a gun. Unless you want a gun." Steve motioned for them to come around to his trunk. He opened it and threw a blanket aside to reveal…a bat with nails.
"Nice bat?" Cheryl asked, confused.
"Look, the world is weird and fucked and you never know what's coming for you. It's fairly necessary for you to be able to protect yourself from whatever is coming at you…ex-boyfriends, aliens, supervillains…whatever it is."
"Can we backtrack to aliens?" Gareth asked, looking at Steve, unsure if he believed him or not.
"Point is that everyone should be armed. But you need to be connected to your weapon. My nail bat is certainly strange, sure, but I trust this baby with my life. Seriously." He said, closing the trunk, "So go off. Whatever weapon you choose…well, because after high school, I don't know where you all will be. And I just want you safe."
"Okay, dad," Cheryl rolled her eyes, teasingly, "So I could pick a katana?"
"Sure. If that's what feels right to you."
"My god, he's serious," Gareth mumbled.
"Well," Chrissy said, the first to move, "I personally have been nearly killed too many times this semester to sit this out. You coming, Eddie?"
Eddie shook out the absurdity of the situation to bound after her.