"No, no, Gareth; you're flat," Eddie said, pausing his sick guitar riff to point at his friend, "And honestly, it's making my ears bleed."

Gareth huffed, "Fuck you, Munson. My pitch is perfect. It makes girls cry. It gets me laid."

"With pain, maybe," Eddie said with a grin, "Maybe they're sobbing because their brains are being melted from inside out. And sleeping with you? Clearly, you're ruining their ability to think clearly." He said with a grin.

"Have you ever thought you're off-pitch?" Gareth pointed out, trying to flick Eddie's guitar. Eddie raised it high above his head.

"Absolutely not!" Eddie said, horrified at the accusation, "I am a guitar god, Gar," He said seriously, "I have never, ever, ever been off-pitch."

Gareth turned, tapping the microphone with a groan, "Why did we let him back into the band again?" He muttered angrily.

"It was your idea," Jeff pointed out, rather unhelpfully for Gareth's case, "Ole Donnie boy was driving you up a wall."

"I forgot that this one is incorrigible. The other one was just an irritation."

"You might be pitchy, Gareth," Vince added, hating any sort of confrontation.

"I was not!" Gareth insisted, "I was told by Ms. Click that I have a perfect signing voice! I know when I'm off-pitch. Munson is just on a power trip!"

"Oh, oh!" Eddie squawked, "Sue me if I want us to be perfect! You'd be nothing without me! I built the band! I write the arrangements! I came up with the goddamn name-,"

"Uh, this a bad time?"

The group of four sung their heads around and stopped in jaw-dropped silence as Chrissy Cunningham peeked around the edge of the garage, "I can come back," She added at the deep, confused silence.

"No, no," Jeff coughed, "Probably best. We don't want a fist fight. Let's all just…uh, take five." He picked up a tuning whistle and threw it to Gareth, "Just in case, man."

"You all suck a bag of dicks," Gareth muttered but stalked off to check, now that everyone was saying it.

Eddie suddenly realized how sweaty his fingers were holding his guitar and decided it would be very bad to drop his most expensive possession. He set it down abruptly, mechanically, like a robot was controlling his emotions.

Then, he had nowhere to put his sweaty hands, so he shoved them a bit too aggressively into his pockets.

"You okay?" Vince questioned.

"Fine," Eddie muttered, "What, uh, whatcha doing here, Cunningham?"

As far as his band knew, she'd come to his place to get drugs. Past that, they had no idea they hung out at all, or that Eddie was spending most of the day trying to banish dirty, dangerous thoughts from his mind about her. Or that she, in the most unbelievable of events, apparently wanted him too.

"I thought we had a…"

Eddie frowned at her. They had plans to meet for her to partake in more drugs but that was tomorrow.

"It's Wednesday."

Vince coughed next to him, "It's Thursday, dude."

Eddie turned, setting his guitar down carefully, pressing his fingers together as though explaining something to a small child, "We always practice on Wednesdays, Vince." And Fridays, but that was not in question currently.

"Except we moved it this week. Because Jeff had to take his little sister to her dance practice, remember?"

The change of date did bob into his mind. Of course, Eddie had been high on LSD at that point, so his memory facilities weren't perfect.

"Awe, fuck."

He could have been getting high with Chrissy this entire time? Damn it!

He used to think that nothing could get in his way of playing guitar, but between the two…it was a pretty close race what he'd rather be doing, and his answer was changing second by second based on the way she was smiling at him.

"So what exactly is she doing here?" Vince asked.

"Drugs," Chrissy said, blinking innocently at him. Her matter-of-fact voice mixed with her doe-eyed expression shut Vince up right away. He just looked at Eddie, then back at Chrissy, and shook his head.

"How did you even find us?" Eddie asked. They were in Gareth's garage, all the way on opposite sides from either his and Chrissy's house.

"I have my ways," She said simply, clear she wasn't going to let him know. She also gave him a flirty smile, but he caught her catching herself right before it. She could flirt with him all she wanted in front of the Party, but from the way his band was looking at her like she was an alien, it was obvious that she recognized they knew nothing.

"Ah, fuck," Eddie rubbed his forehead, "Can you…wait around? We'll probably finish up in about an hour or so."

"I have nowhere to be," Chrissy said, and like she owned the place, found a milk carton to sit on.

Vince and Jeff exchanged mystified looks. Though they liked to pretend they were getting tail, neither were masters of the opposite sex. The best any of 'em had was Jeff, and that was only because he had a girl he was going steady with. He was loyal but everyone agreed that it was probably a moment of lapsed judgment he got a girlfriend in the first place. God knows that he didn't have any finesse with getting her to agree to a date.

Gareth came back with a juice box but it dropped as soon as he saw Chrissy.

"What's that?"

"A milk carton, idiot," Eddie shoved him, "And Chrissy, yes, is sitting on top of it."

He floundered, "Why…wha…she…why is she here?"

"Waiting for you all to finish so I can buy drugs from Eddie," Chrissy said simply.

Gareth gave a rickety laugh, "So it's fucking true then! What she was doing there?"

Eddie sent him a nasty look, "Of course, it is man. What do you take me for? Why did you think she was there?"

"Got in a fight with her All-American boyfriend or something. Wanted to screw the local weirdo as payback. I dunno," Gareth admitted. He caught Chrissy laughing behind her hand and prayed she wouldn't make a joke of it, because wasn't that exactly what she wanted to do?

"Naw, I'm just her supplier," Eddie said, swallowing hard.

"Hmm, didn't take you for the type. No offense either way," Gareth said, nodding at Chrissy.

"None taken. But what's it what they say? Never judge a book by its cover?" She asked. Gareth sighed and started for his instrument. He paused, screwing up his nose.

"What?" Eddie demanded flatly.

"We've never had a girl here…not even Evelyn," He said, referring to Jeff's girlfriend.

"We have girls at our show loads. Suck it up, Gareth," Vince said, itching to keep playing.

"It's different! What if it's like ships?"

"Huh?" Eddie scratched his head.

"You know, never bring a woman on a ship. Bad luck and all."

"I didn't know you were superstitious, Gareth," Chrissy spoke up with a laugh.

"I'm not! Except, well, maybe!" He said, crossing his arms.

"If a demon comes to haunt us, I'll take responsibility," Eddie said, "Now 'cmon, Metallica won't learn itself."

He'd seen death. He'd seen hell. He sincerely doubted that any superstitions were true since those damn bats weren't coming after him every time he stepped on a crack. He used to sort of be a bit superstitious. But now that he knew, he felt like he was less of a coward, more sure of himself.

Chrissy sat, absolutely enthralled, during the entire practice. Gareth's worries that she'd just 'mess them up' were unfounded. If anything, Eddie played at his absolute peak knowing that Chrissy was sitting there, watching him.

Everyone else seemed to notice too.

"Hell, maybe she's our good luck charm! I've never gotten that solo right," Jeff said happily.

"No, no-" Gareth groaned, "Don't start, please, don't start."

"I dunno, man. You weren't off-pitch this time." Vince added.

"Ii was never pitchy, to begin with!"

"Or maybe she's a good luck charm?" Vince said.

Eddie hid a smile behind a cough. It would have been much too obvious for him to call her his lucky charm, but everyone else?

"There's only one way to find out," Eddie said, "You should come to our show. Tuesdays, the Hideout. It's-,"

"I know where that is!" Chrissy said, and at everyone's surprised faces, she coughed, "Jason goes there on Thursdays to play pool."

"Little Mr. Perfect, going to a seedy dive bar?" Gareth snorted, "Wonders never cease."

"But I'd love to!" Chrissy added, face bright and full-smiling.

"You, uh, think you can bring some of your hot cheerleading friends?" Vince asked shyly, "I know that I'm not a looker, but I'm a musician, and girls think that's hot, right?"

"Vince" Jeff sighed.

"Oh, come on," Jeff said, face bright red, "Doesn't hurt to ask!"

"I'll try. I'll see if there's any interest, really." Chrissy said sincerely. Jeff was beaming, and Eddie could see his thoughts turning now, wondering how he could nab a cheerleader next week.

"You might be alright, Cunningham," Gareth said through narrowed eyes, "But…"

She looked at him, blinking, "But what?"

Gareth held his tongue, looking between Eddie and Chrissy. He just gave a smile that was semi-forced, something that Eddie knew meant that there was a thought he wasn't saying.

"But nothing. Just me being stupid, is'all. Ignore me."

Chrissy paused, her face screwing up in confusion, "Oh, erm, okay."

But Eddie knew. Eddie knew that Gareth knew that there was something going on. Hopefully, he was imagining it to be one-sided. He didn't think Gareth would be the one to screw him over by telling someone, and god, he hoped his gut was right.

XX

He gave Chrissy a ride back to his place.

Of course, the band side-eyed that a bit. While they knew that Eddie sold drugs to help with the bills, going so far as to drive a customer to where the drugs were? Well, he could claim that if nothing else, he had stellar customer service.

In a car alone together made his heart do funny things; like want to stop them over on the side of the road and let himself melt away into the naughty things he wanted to do, or say something really stupid like 'god, you're the most gorgeous thing that's ever walked the earth'.

So, just like last time, music is at full blast.

The song that was cueing up was Blasepmous Rumours. He half-glanced at Chrissy, wondering if she would make any notice of it.

And she did.

God, she was perfect.

"Yeah, I agree, I'd like to have a discussion with God too," Chrissy snorted, referencing his note he'd made on her playlist, "And not one where I sit in a pew hoping he hears me."

"I never really believed. Hope that doesn't turn you off our friendship," Eddie shrugged.

"You're being accused to be a Satan worshipper. I didn't really think you were the church-going type," She said, then shook her head, "And of course. You can believe something and still befriend others. And recently I…" She pressed a finger to the windows, swallowing hard, "Just, well, of course, I can."

Eddie wondered if it was a crisis of faith.

Then, like there was a God listening and instead of smiting Eddie for his sacrilege and lack of belief, he put on the worst next song that could come on.

Head Over Heels.

It's not that Eddie disliked the song, on the contrary, it was one he much enjoyed.

So much to the fact that he'd put it on Chrissy's playlist.

But of course, when it had come for a quippy little remark…

"Why didn't you say something with this one?" Chrissy asked, and Eddie winced so hard the car swerved a bit.

Because of that.

Because if he'd written what he wanted to write, he'd be a love-sick silly fool.

Because fuck, he'd never understood the lyrics. He didn't know what 'head over heels' meant until he'd met Chrissy this year. He thought that that sort of emotion, the way you fall for someone so fast, was just movie plots made by Hollywood to sell a lot of money.

Jokes on you, Munson. You're literally in one.

Eddie coughed, brushing his fingers through his hair, "Really?" He tried to play it off, "Huh, must..of…forgot…" He said, realizing how stupid it sounded coming out of his mouth as it exited. Because the next question, inevitably, was:

"Okay, what were you going to say?"

"You're nosy," Eddie teased, hoping she'd drop it.

"It's my playlist," She pointed out, "I think I have a…" She paused, "I think I should be able to ask. I was going to say 'a right', but that seems a bit much."

"I dunno," Eddie mumbled, sure his face was bright, bright red, "Just, well, it's a good song. I just needed to fill the space. No empty air, right?" He said, looking over at her, just a quick glimpse. He wished he hadn't. The disappointment she so clearly tried to hide broke his heart in two.

He had to grip the steering wheel very firmly with both hands to not cause an accident because he was kissing her in the middle of the road, whispering sweet nothings and reassurance in her ear.

"Of course," Chrissy said, but her voice was a bit shaky, "It's a good song. I agree."

There was no need for music the rest of the way because there was a dead silence that neither could break.

"Let's go get high?" Eddie asked as he opened her door. Luckily, Chrissy gave him a soft laugh. He wasn't completely out yet. Though, he knew it would be better for them both if he just…stopped hanging out with her. Better for her, better for him.

It was a passing thought whenever someone at school accused him of some heinous crime.

If he were a better man, he'd have the willpower.

Alas, he most certainly did not.

He ushered her inside.

"It's…clean?" She squinted, "Wayne?"

"What, you think I go to Steve's for a few days and he goes to town?" He asked with a laugh, the idea preposterous. Wayne was many things but a homemaker he was not.

"So…you?" Chrissy asked.

"Yeah, whatever," Eddie played it off, "Needed a good deep-cleaning and organization."

"Wow, your carpet is actually really nice," Chrissy said, following him into his room.

"I think that was an insult, but I'll take it as a compliment," Eddie said, "And, ah-a! Look, so easy to find!"

Yes, damn it, he'd cleaned his room for her. But he wasn't going to admit that out loud.

"Two seconds, huh?" Chrissy sat on his bed, "I mean, the first time, it took you-,"

There was a moment, in which it was like she forgot about the first time. But as she looked down at her cast, it seemed hard to ignore.

Somewhere deep down, Eddie wondered if he'd been faster with finding the drugs if he would have been able to save her the pain of breaking an arm entirely the wrong way.

But he couldn't sit like this, guilt eating him away. Well, he could, but he wasn't.

Because:

"It doesn't matter. Let's just get high and forget about it," He said, waving the tin under her nose.

"I must have reached my minimum now," Chrissy said, finding a few dollars from her purse.

"Nuh-uh, Keep it, Princess," Eddie insisted.

"But-,"

"We can fight about money at school later," Eddie said, handing her a joint.

"We don't talk at school," Chrissy pointed out, a bit sourly.

Eddie grinned, "Exactly. Keep your money, Cunningham. You never know when you'll need a few extra bucks."