Chapter Text
Eddie had been expecting Steve Harrington to never talk to him again. To ignore his existence and go about his perfect high school life without so much as a glance in his direction. Which was fine by him, too.
He had graduation to look forward to, getting the hell out of Hawkins all together and never looking back. It was pretty much the only thing that kept him going at this point, victory and triumph, escape from the living hell of being forced to spend day in and day out with a bunch of people who thought it necessary to point out on the daily what a freak he was.
Somehow, he’d failed to consider the option that he wouldn’t get high enough grades to actually graduate, and that he’d end up stuck here for another, miserable year, forced to endure even worse ridicule from his ‘peers’. Especially now, that he wasn’t just a freak, but a moron too.
Which wasn’t even true. He just couldn’t seem to focus in class, and Mrs. O’Donell held one hell of a grudge against him— even before he put that cow shit in her mailbox.
Point is, he didn't think he’d be here this year, and he definitely didn’t think Steve would somehow corner him in the bathrooms when he was supposed to be in class. “You stalking me, Harrington?” Eddie asked, turning to lean up against the sink behind him, opting for nonchalance.
Sure, Steve Harrington made him impossibly nervous, his stomach felt like it was housing a whole slew of butterflies fluttering away in there. But there was no way he was gonna show that outwardly, no way he was gonna give the guy the satisfaction of knowing.
It was bad enough that he’d almost thought something might have changed between them, after that night. That maybe, they’d share a knowing look in the halls and… sure, he wasn’t naïve enough to think someone like Steve Harrington might start actually talking to him.
But he figured they shared a secret now, some mutually assured destruction, and if that wasn’t a bond then what the hell was?
It was pretty quick that he’d realized how ridiculous that thought was, because Steve went back to treating him the exact same way he always had, not a single flicker of recognition in those deep, dark brown eyes when he hurled an insult Eddie’s way in the halls.
Eddie never thought he’d stop being the freak of Hawkins high, but he had thought maybe Steve wouldn’t be the one to say it. It was stupid then, and he was reminding himself this very moment not to be stupid again, now that Steve was actually looking for him.
“What?” Steve asked, his face twisting into a frown as he processed Eddie’s joke, clearly not getting it. “I just wanted to talk to you.”
“Yeah, well… I’m here,” Eddie offered. It was the best Steve was gonna get from him. Part of him wondered how much it would bother Steve if he simply left— if he pushed him out of the way, and denied him what he wanted. Eddie figured it was a rare occasion indeed where Steve didn’t get exactly what he wanted.
And sure, it was tempting, but he was also kind of curious about what kind of thing could have pushed Steve to finally break his ‘Eddie Munson barely exists’ routine. Rather than give up any sort of clue, Steve averted his eyes, the toe of his shoe pushing at a wad of discarded paper towel on the floor.
Eddie would have called him nervous, if he didn’t look so painfully bored with this entire thing. As if Eddie was the one who’d stalked him after he’d asked to be excused from class. “There’s a party at Jason’s tonight.”
It was kind of funny, the way Steve said it. As if he expected that somehow Eddie had missed the news, as if the entire school wasn’t going on and on about how Jason’s parents were gone for the weekend, and that there was most definitely going to be a massive kegger there.
Words been, it might even rival the ones King Steve himself throws. If Eddie didn’t hate Jason Carver so much, he might have taken a little pleasure out of the idea of Steve’s parties being usurped by someone else in the popular sphere.
“He’s inviting Billy,” Steve continued, leaving Eddie to wonder if he’d somehow made a face that made it seem as if he was open to having more pointless facts thrown at him. This one however, did make Eddie pause.
A slight, soft smile hitting his face. Billy Hargrove, pulled into Hawkins on the wings of a hurricane and upset the status quo. He joined the basketball team and he was good, and he hated Steve— didn’t subscribe to the whole king thing, apparently. Maybe he thought the crown would look better on his own head.
Eddie had been hearing little whispers of things, seen a little himself, too. Billy was trying to knock Steve down a few pegs, he’d be lying if he didn’t say he kind of enjoyed the idea of it.
It made sense that he was going for Carver, because Jason and his little goon squad had always played second fiddle to Steve and his entourage— and maybe he’d been willing to stay in his place until Steve graduated before, but after getting a whiff of a chance at overtaking him even before that? There was no way Jason wasn’t considering it.
Still, Eddie had no idea what that had to do with him.
“Is this some kind of lead in to an invite?” Eddie asked, trying to cut to the chase. “Because there is no way in hell I am getting caught dead at a Jason Carver party.”
“I’m not inviting you,” Steve corrected quickly, shrugging. “You get that, right? I’m not inviting you.”
Eddie frowned, nodding his head. “Right, okay… so you’re… just telling me about it?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
What the fuck.
“You ignore me for half a year, and then you follow me into a bathroom just to tell me about some party that literally everyone already knows about— and I’m definitely not going to, like ever. No matter what. Not even if you were asking me?” Eddie rattled off, feeling like an idiot who’d lost the plot somewhere along the lines.
“I didn’t ignore you,” Steve lied, as if that was the important thing in that rambling of words.
“Oh, right, I forgot about that one time you looked me directly in the eye and called me a freak,” Eddie recalled, annoyance slipping into his tone.
“So, what? You’re mad at me because I didn’t come into school the next day wanting to hold your hand?” Steve scoffed, not bothering to rise to the same level of energy that Eddie was hitting, his frustration ramping up as Steve remained seemingly unaffected.
“I’m not— not mad. I don’t care. I just don’t get why you’re talking to me now, or what the hell you want,” Eddie managed to get out, fully aware that he’d lost his cool now. It wasn’t like it mattered, he had no hope of ever being on equal footing when it came to Steve Harrington. He might as well accept it.
“Whatever,” Steve sighed, clearly unable to handle the level of energy Eddie was bringing to the fight. To Steve, it probably barely constituted a fight, anyway. He was already pushing away, backing towards the door, a hand on the handle. “Forget it,” he allowed as he left the room, leaving some disappointment in his wake that Eddie couldn’t even begin to understand.
Eddie stood there a while longer, trying to figure out what the hell he’d missed.
Jason Carver wasn’t the guy who’d started the whole Freak thing, no. In fact, the guy who’d started it had already graduated, was long gone and — Eddie hoped, failing at life every single day of it. Probably not though, because karma wasn’t real, and Eddie was the one stuck in nowhere land having to repeat a whole year of school with the people who hated him.
But even if Jason didn’t start the thing, he was the one person who seemed to take the most enjoyment out of it. It was his own self-righteous quest to try and prove that Eddie was some kind of Satan worshiping devil man, out to corrupt anything and anyone he laid his hands on.
Eddie himself found all that weird, religious shit creepy as hell, and way worse than anything he was into. That opinion didn't change at all, now that he was standing in the guy’s house, staring up at a massive cross hung up on one of the walls in the hall.
“Jesus christ,” Eddie murmured, blinking up at the opposing, dark wood pieces crossing over one another, the man himself hung up on it like an ill omen. “Literally.”
If anyone asked him what he was doing here, he wouldn’t have been able to give them an answer. Well, maybe he could. If it was ‘I have zero respect for my own health and safety’ or ‘I just wanted to know how bad of a time I could subject myself to if I really put my mind to it.’
Of course, both of those were somehow simultaneously true, and yet not the reason he was actually here. He’d come because he was pretty sure Steve ‘I’m not inviting you’ Harrington had invited him.
God, he was pathetic.
“Hope I don’t end up like you today,” he said, nodding at the suspended corpse. Yeah, people like Carver’s family hang up dead guys around the house, and they say he’s the weird one.
“Making friends, Eddie?” An almost familiar voice called out to him, and he frowned as he turned. Nancy Wheeler, smart, perfect, pretty cute all things considered and… definitely, not in her scene.
“What are you doing here?” He asked, frowning even harder at the little flush that hit her cheeks.
“Steve invited me,” she admitted, clearly pleased to be able to say as much.
What the fuck. So Nancy Wheeler gets a full blown invite, but Eddie just gets ‘not invited’? Well, that hurts.
“I have no idea what I'm doing here,” Eddie admitted, enjoying the way Nancy laughed at that, as if he’d told a joke and wasn’t dead serious. He should probably leave, but Nancy was coming up to him and grabbing his arm, pulling him towards the kitchens where there was probably booze.
Getting absolutely wasted in an attempt to drown the shame was a good, second option.
“I’m actually glad you’re here, I was feeling really out of place and— well, it’s kind of nice knowing someone else is even more out of place than me here,” she paused, seeming to realize what she’d just said. “Oh, sorry.”
“No, you’re absolutely right,” Eddie quickly agreed. “I’m just waiting for the part where the basketball team busts out and dumps pigs blood all over me like I’m Carrie.
Nancy laughed again, which made Eddie feel a little better. He was always good at being the class clown. “They wouldn’t do that,” she said, shaking her head.
Here’s the thing… they definitely would. Eddie couldn’t help but look up into the rafters, making sure he wasn’t walking under some suspicious looking bucket. He’d never get that shit out of his hair.
“Nancy! You came!” Now there was a familiar voice that he’d expected to hear tonight. Eddie froze a little, head jerking in the direction it’d come from.
Steve Harrington was sitting there, limbs loose, relaxed and probably a little drunk— draped over a chair in the living room. Surrounded by Tommy and his girl Carol, Tina, Adam, Jason and his friends, and oddly enough, Billy.
Nancy had stopped in her tracks, too, a hand coming up to push the hair behind her ear, flush growing deeper. Eddie wondered what people would think if he had the same reaction to Steve. Probably nothing good.
“You should sit with us,” Steve offered, gesturing to Nancy. If it weren't for the fact that Jason was staring literal daggers in Eddie’s direction, he might’ve thought he was invisible to them or something.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Carver bit out, eyes still lasered in on Eddie while Nancy managed to pick her way across the people crowded around the living room floor, finding a spot next to Steve on the couch.
It was so goddamn easy for her. She was supposed to be there, no one even thought twice about it, the way she fit perfectly into Steve’s side.
“Relax, Jason— obviously, he came with Nancy,” Steve said, shrugging.
“I definitely wasn’t invited,” Eddie pointed out, smiling in a way that suggested he wasn’t having fun.
“Yeah! And you’re not welcome either!” Andy chimed in, always the good little soldier.
“Oh come on guys, lighten up,” Steve began, smiling a little as he beckoned Eddie to come closer. “Let him hangout, I mean, I happen to know for a fact he has something in common with at least one of us.”
It sounded like a trap. Definitely was a trap. He could see the teeth in Steve’s smile, the warning in his voice. Eddie knew he didn’t mean the two of them, that there was something else going on here. But it was a little too late to turn tail and bust it out of there, so he let himself be pulled in, falling to sit on the floor in the only open spot, right next to Billy Hargrove.
They’d never actually talked, but Eddie was somewhat aware of him. Mostly, because the school never shut up about him. They seemed obsessed. Being closer now, Eddie kind of got it. For one, he smelled nice, he dressed even nicer, and there was something to that whole, Californian allure.
Right now, he seemed entirely bored with the proceedings, more focused on his beer.
“You know, Billy likes metal too,” Steve said casually, gesturing between the two of them.
“What?” Eddie said, at exactly the same time Billy seemed to wake up, lifting his head and narrowing his eyes in Steve’s direction.
Steve, for his part, looked thrilled. “Just, you guys both like the same kind of stuff, that's cool,” Steve went on, sounding like he didn’t actually think it was particularly cool. “I bet you two could get together, listen to a record backwards or something,” he paused here, to laugh.
Jason was now glaring at the both of them, silently fuming. Billy was about to open his mouth to say something, when Steve cut him off. “Like that weird, Satan-y shit? Is it real? Does all that metal talk about like, killing people and stuff?”
“Yeah, it’s real,” Jason said, still glaring at them.
“Fuck off, that's stupid,” Billy bit out, his hackles raised now. “It’s just music.”
“Yeah?” Steve challenged, looking thoroughly pleased now. Like he knew he was winning. And he probably was, because Carver, who’d been a pretty big fan of Billy up until now, was looking like he couldn't distinguish between the two of them anymore. “Because Eddie has one of those patches on his jacket— and I’m pretty sure it's real. So like, do you just hide it better, Billy?”
It probably should have hit him sooner than this, but to be fair he was still trying to catch up with what was happening, as it was happening. But that was the moment he got it. That he’d been called in here as a sacrifice, a way for Steve to set Billy up to fall. To ruin the chances he had at getting in too buddy buddy with Carver and his zealous friends.
And it hurt way more than it ever should have. Because Eddie knew this whole thing was weird and fucked up from the moment he’d set foot here, and he should have seen the worst coming. Figuring he’d already served his purpose quite nicely, Eddie unfolded his legs and stood abruptly.
He could feel Steve’s eyes on him, but it was hard to meet them. “Right, well on that note— I think I’m gonna head home now.”
“Good, because I think you should get out,” Jason added, nodding at him.
“It was my pleasure, boys,” Eddie said, playing up his exit like he wasn’t bothered one bit. As he turned, he heard Jason’s voice ring out again.
“You too.”
Glancing back, he caught the incredulous look on Billy’s face as his friends turned against him. “What?” Billy asked, as if he’d misheard.
“He
said,
you should get out too,” Andy added in for him, looking about ready to stand up and start a fight. “If you know what’s good for you.”
Billy looked ready to take that fight, but he also seemed aware that it was like, at least five against one here, and that he didn’t have any hope in hell of coming out on top of that one. So he stood, stepping forward for one, impossible moment, and spitting straight into Steve’s face, before pulling back and turning to stomp out of the room, pushing past Eddie on his way.
Steve’s expression was almost comical, shocked, with Billy’s spit rolling down his cheek. Now, their eyes properly met, and Eddie searched desperately for any sort of apology there, finding nothing.
He turned too, following on Billy’s heels to leave the party, feeling like even more of an idiot than he did when he’d failed to graduate last year.
“What a bunch of, fucking, stupid ass, bullshit!” Billy was outside, pacing and howling about the injustices of the Hawkins High elite as Eddie joined him, watching him stalk over to Steve’s car and pull out a switchblade. “You gonna say anything?” He asked, tone dark and dangerous as it leveled on Eddie.
Eddie simply mimed zipping his lips shut, eyes wide as he watched Billy begin to etch the words ‘faggot’ into the hood of Steve's car. It would have been funny, not because Eddie thought calling people that word was funny— hell no. But because he knew it was probably the thing that would hurt Steve the most, and Billy didn’t even know it.
So yeah, it would’ve been funny, if it didn’t kind of hurt him, too.