MATILDA, eddie munson.

007.

FEBRUARY 1ST, 1986.
📍 cunningham house
8:02 AM

stroking her bare stomach gently with her fingertips, matilda stared at her figure in the mirror. she'd always struggled losing weight, but that didn't mean she was fat by any means.

she naturally had a wider ribcage and more prominent hips, which thick thighs came along with. but no matter how much exercise she did, or how many different diets she tried or how many times she'd purged after feeling like she ate too much, she never seemed to thin to the point it was noticeable.

her mother always claimed she was lazy, or that she binged behind closed doors, but that wasn't the case. matilda tried everything to live up to her mother's standards, but always fell short of them.

"tillie, we need to go!" she heard chrissy holler up the staircase.

stirring out of her trance of insecurity, matilda wiped a tear that had escaped her eye, walked over to her bed and grabbed her t-shirt off of it.

"coming!" she replied to her sister, pulling the top over her head, taking one final look in the mirror before leaving the room.

- 📻🪐🏹 -

FEBRUARY 1ST, 1986
📍hawkins high school
11:30 AM

strolling into her physics class, she immediately rushed to her seat. she took of her headphones and placed them into her backpack, getting out her textbook, a notepad and a pen.

"is that one of the tops you bought over the weekend?" eddie asked, taking a seat in front of her. "it looks good. i knew i should've got it too. we would've looked awesome."

matilda sent him a small smile in response, making him furrow his brows at her dry reply.

"what's wrong?" the boy queried, taking note of her dull expression. "you look sad."

"i'm fine," she told him, attempting to sound convincing, though she knew she was not.

"liar."

"i-"

luckily, before she could try to come up with an excuse, mrs shires, the physics teacher, began the lesson.

"please all turn to page 29. we're going to be looking at sources of heat energy today.."

- 📻🪐🏹-

FEBRUARY 1ST, 1986
📍 hawkins high school
12:12 PM

doodling eyes in her notepad, matilda had paid zero attention the lesson, distracted by her own thoughts.

she hadn't slept or eaten in two days, had a pounding headache, could feel her hair going frizzy, and was one bad comment away from crying.

"let's see who hasn't contributed yet," mrs shires said, eyes darting around the room for her victim. "matilda, seeing as you're listening so intently. can you give me a natural energy source we haven't mentioned?"

still zoned out from the lesson, the blonde didn't respond. she didn't notice thirty pairs of eyes watching her, wondering why she wasn't answering the teacher.

"matilda."

noticing members of the class looking at each other in amusement, eddie had enough and turned around seeing his friend completely oblivious as to what was happening.

he reached across to her table, tapping lightly on her notepad, whispering, "mattie."

seeing his fingers near her drawings, mattie looked up. "hm?" she flushed when she noticed half the class staring back at her.

"glad to have you back, miss cunningham," mrs shires spoke harshly. "i asked you to name me a natural energy source that we haven't spoken about yet."

"oh, um," tillie thought really hard, but struggled to focus with all the eyes on her. she had no idea as to what has already been discussed in the lesson, and so had to guess. "body heat."

"explain further," mrs shires demanded.

"um, well," she swallowed, trying to recall how body heat was created. "as they use.. no, as they burn up energy, they produce heat. they being the cells in our, uh, our body, um.."

mrs shires sighed, "you need to focus, miss cunningham. no more ridiculous drawings, we're not in art class. this is physics."

"right," matilda nodded. "sorry."

mrs shires began to talk again, as matilda looked down in embarrassment. faltering, eddie struggled to decide whether to check on tillie, but decided to turn and face the front as the rest of the class did.

however, he heard snickering from across the room, and saw two girls clearing making fun of tillie. he glared at them, and eventually they backed down and began to listen to the teacher again.

blinking back tears in her eyes, the blonde tried to reassure herself that she didn't have long left of school, which she knew was a lie. she had lunch next, and then another two long lessons after that. if she went home early, her mother would be furious at her for missing school, despite feeling as shit as she did.

"hey, matilda," she turned to her right to listen to the boy beside her. "looking a little tired. did myles fuck you a little too hard last night?" he whispered with a chuckle.

and that was the final straw.

matilda stood up from her desk, hastily, collecting her books as she did, before grabbing her bag and leaving the lesson, ignoring her teacher's calls for her return.

"miss cunningham! miss cunningham, get back here or i will give you a detention!" she heard mrs shires holler down the hallway at her retreating figure. "sit back down, mr munson. miss cunningham!"

matilda turned the corner, finding a private space, and slumped down against the wall, tears streaming down her face.

- 📻🪐🏹 -

raise your hand if you are an emotional mess like mattie 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️

this chapter is a little shorter than my others but i didn't want to make it too long so i separated it into two - this part and the next

speaking of, you may get mad at me for the next chapter..

thank you to everyone reading, commenting, voting and adding this book to their reading lists! i appreciate you angels 🫶

WORD COUNT - 979.