Eddie Munson X Reader - 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭

1 - Forced Pretty

TW// Parental Verbal Abuse and ED mention.

1981, I was thirteen years old when I first opened a fashion magazine. I looked through the pages and admired the confident girls with perfect bodies and lovely faces, I wished so badly to have what they had. Unfortunately, wishes wouldn't have helped me become as beautiful as they were, I had to work for it and my mother made that very clear when I asked her why I wasn't pretty. At the time, I was in 8th grade, and had no friends and only made conversation with the school faculty. I didn't fit in anywhere, not with the freaks, the band geeks, the cheerleaders, or the nerds. I was a loner, and there wasn't a group for boring people. 

When I came home one day in November, my mother had a fresh bruise on her cheek. I knew it was from my father, ever since he got fired from his last job he had become a drinker. My mother was to weak and fragile to do anything about his abuse, so I tried to stay away from home as much as I could. I often went to skull rock, before it became a designated make out spot. 
"Mom, are you okay?" I asked, she was smiling brightly as she gripped tightly onto a box of clothes, leaving marks in the cardboard.
"Of course honey, I've decided that you will no longer be...the way you are. You will drop the alternative rock and start listening to whatever the girls listen to these days. And you wont be wearing t-shirts and dark outfits anymore, its time to spice it up a little. If you really want to be pretty you'll follow my directions." She ordered, at the time I was thrilled, I didn't care that she was taking all my personality and throwing it away. I was happy because I thought it would help me fit in, it obviously did but it wasn't me who was fitting in. It was the girl me and my mother created. I guess she wanted something to distract herself from my father, she spent so much time putting me in cheer classes and changing who I was that she didn't realize she was ruining me.

After 8th grade summer, I had a new wardrobe and cheerleading skills, I also lost a lot of weight thanks to my mothers strict dieting. I was only allowed two meals a day, no snacks, and both meals were around 500 calories each. When I got hungry she would remind me that nobody on the cheer squad would be able to hold up someone as big as me. All her harshness seemed to have worked, because in 9th grade I had plenty of friends and made it into the cheer squad. The captain, Chrissy Cunningham, had even become my best friend halfway through the year. Things felt like they were finally going good, at school at least. When I got home my father would verbally abuse me depending on how late it was or I would run into my mother who had just been abused herself. And after she gets hurt by my father, she always has something for me to change about myself, it can range from a new haircut to no dinner for a week. I started hating going home even more just because of them. My mother was worse, mainly because my father left me alone most of the time. So she was the one being targeted, meaning I would be targeted by her once she collected herself. 

March 1986, five years later and I am still the same, besides my body growing and all that. My mother and father are the same as they were in 1981, but I'm never at home to experience it. I'm either at school, cheer practice, or out with friends. I am currently dating Chance, Jason's best friend. Jason, Chrissy, Chance, and I hang out the most, usually on double dates. I wouldn't say I love the guy, it was more of a forced relationship by everyone around me. But I don't mind him, and I guess that's the best I'm gonna get in a small town like Hawkins. I still listen to rock, just more privately, if my mother caught me listening to it she would end me. And Chance doesn't really like music, his whole life is basketball. Chrissy is too sweet to listen to rock, she would probably tell Jason and he would say something like, 'Maybe you should be friends with the freaks.' I don't really feel like dealing with that, so I'll probably keep it to myself. 

It's almost one pm on a Friday, I am sitting at a table with tons of basketball players and a few cheerleaders. Chance is talking to all the guys, telling a story about some homeless guy running after him when he went to California. I was zoning out, thinking about this year, senior year, I can't feel anything but happiness at the idea of leaving my parents and finding my own little place to feel safe. I think about my future, poking at the lunch I'm not gonna eat. Chrissy has been in the bathroom for quite some time, I was about to go check on her when Jason jerks up from the table. I hadn't been paying attention, but the whole lunch room was looking at Eddie Munson. He was standing on a table, I just know he said something offensive by the look of Jason's face. 
"You wanna say something, freak?" Jason shouts, Eddie makes a face and a noise I've never heard anyone make comes out of his body. I let out a soft laugh, it was louder then I intended because the whole table looked at me. Eddie also looked, smiling directly at me, he knew I wasn't laughing at him but rather with him. 
"I am gonna go check on Chrissy." I stated, standing and walking before they could say anything, they went back to chatting as if I never left. I walked down the middle of the lunch room, Eddie was still standing in the same spot on that table as I passed him. He was staring down at me, jumping to the ground and walking up beside me. 
"Y/N, the prettiest cheerleader, finds me funny?" He asked rhetorically, I stopped walking when I got to the lunchroom doors. I pretended I didn't hear him call me pretty, he probably didn't mean it.  I glanced at the basketball table, they weren't paying attention, so I knew Eddie wouldn't be attacked just talking to me.
"A guy like you can get hanged for talking to a girl like me." I said, grinning at him so he knew I wasn't being serious. I wasn't sure why I even stopped to talk to him, something about Eddie Munson intrigued me. Maybe I wanted to talk to someone who's whole life wasn't about throwing balls.
"What happens if you are seen talking to me? Are you accused of witchcraft?" He joked, I wasn't sure why he was talking to me either. He was already as different and unique as it got, why would he want to have a conversation with a boring and basic cheerleader?
"And then I am also hung." I said, sighing and shaking my head sarcastically. I smiled, looking back at the basketball table to see Chance staring us down. Eddie looked at Chance as well, sticking his tongue out at the boy. I held in another laugh, Eddie Munson was much more childish then he seemed from far away. He looked back at me, he had the sweetest brown eyes I had ever seen. They were so soft and gentle, I couldn't see a speckle of anger in them. 
"Well you better get going, Y/N. I'd hate for you to get hung." He said, crossing his arms, I was shocked he knew my name. I knew I was popular, but I didn't know he paid attention to me. Chance had the whole basket ball team eyeing us now. 
"You better go too, your group needs their leader." I said, nodding my head at his table where one of them was being held hostage in a headlock by some jock. He whispered something under his breath before smiling at me and rushing off, shouting at the jock harshly. I looked at Chance before rushing off, not wanting to deal with his questions yet. Eddie was probably bored and just felt like messing with another one of the popular kids, so I thought nothing of our conversation as I walked away.

I entered the bathroom, Chrissy rushed by me as I opened the door. She was upset again, something was happening but she wouldn't tell me what. I was going to go after her, but I heard a soft whispering calling me to the end stall. Unfortunately, in a moment, I was going to experience the same thing that has been tormenting her. Vecna's curse.