Hold Me Steddie

'86, Baby

The remanence of the cigarette's nicotine runs through Eddie's veins deliciously as he sits at his lunch table. He can physically feel his muscles relaxing from their prior strain, so far today has been the definition of 'needing a fucking smoke'.

Eddie mindlessly picks at his lunch, which today is whatever the fuck he could find in his trailer cabinets this morning. He believes they're nuts, yet he likes to close his eyes and pretend they're the fries from All-American Burger.

Every lunch (when he actually decides to come into school) he sits with the other members of the Hellfire Club. They seem to worship him a bit, which he can't complain about, it's rather nice to be so highly respected when the rest of the school compares him to dirt. It's honestly fair enough since he couldn't care less about them either.

Eddie holds respect for very few people in his life, that being Uncle Wayne and the Hellfire Club, plus a few exceptions.

"That's bullshit! Obviously Kas would still slaughter him!" Gareth exclaims at Jeff, his hands gesturing in frustration.

With Eddie being at the head of the table, Gareth sits to his right, followed by Jeff, so it becomes rather impossible for him to tune out their heated bickering.

"Not if Vecna has a Demogorgon army this time!" Jeff asserts back with just as much heat.

"There is no 'this time'!" Issac intrudes at Eddie's left, "Vecna is dead!"

So you think, Eddie muses to himself, he'd been planning the end of his DnD campaign for a long time now, and he's hardly sure the group will be left with a pulse by the end.

"Ladies, ladies! Do me a favour and shut the fuck up for a second." Eddie smiles as the three halt their conversing instantly. "All will be revealed tonight. As for now, I have something even more amusing than you boneheads screaming at each other like little girls." He pulls the magazine out from his back pocket and holds it high about his head like he's won a legendary trophy.

"I didn't think I'd live to see the day that Eddie 'The Freak' Munson buys a magazine," Jeff laughs and the others chuckle along in agreement, Gareth grinning at Eddie knowingly.

Eddie smiles at Jeff sarcastically. One thing he does notice though is how unfazed he feels by being called 'the freak' again. His heartbeat doesn't waver. His temperature doesn't rise. So why the fuck did Harrington's earlier falter almost kill him on the inside?

He decides to tuck that question away in the overflowing box of questions in his brain that he doesn't want to answer right now.

"This, my dear boys, belonged to my close friend Patrick." He holds the magazine for them to see as they begin to lean in, their interest visibly rising.

"You stole it from him?" Isaac gawks in admiration.

"No no, I... borrowed it permanently," Eddie smirks, he shouldn't feel proud, yet since when does he not do things he shouldn't?

"It's true," Gareth states, "he did ask very politely whilst hanging out the car window." They all laugh in unison as Eddie opens it to his favourite page.

"I found this article in particular extremely insightful, so prepare your little brains for some class-A information." Eddie clears his throat and the three observe him like a prophet. It makes him feel warm inside; a soppy fact he'd never admit.

"The Devil has come to America." He mockingly lowers his voice for effect, embodying the thoughtless news presenters he sees on TV. It seems to work as he sees the boys' grins widen. "Dungeons and Dragons, at first regarded as a harmless game of make-believe, now has both parents and psychologists concerned." The magazine now covers his face entirely, mostly so they can't see his serious expression cracking as he also suppresses laughter. "Studies have linked violent behaviour to the game, saying it promotes satanic worship, ritual sacrifice," he begins to raise his voice for emphasis, "sodomy, suicide! And even-" Eddie slams the magazine down onto the table, making the boys jump in their seats, "murder!" He pulls a psychotic expression like he does when he hosts an intense DnD campaign.