MATILDA, eddie munson.

054.

MARCH 27TH, 1986
📍the upside down - the woods
22:09 PM

treading through the dark, decaying woods of the upside down was not enjoyable for tillie whatsoever. maybe if she had eddie by her side to make light jokes about the situation, she would've felt a lot more comforted.

"uh, i don't mean to freak anyone out," robin announced, shining her flashlight on a tree. "but i swear we've seen this tree before."

nancy shook her head. "that's impossible."

"that would suck, right?" robin scoffed. "if vecna destroyed the world because.. cause we got lost in the woods."

"with my luck, it'll probably happen," tillie remarked, almost tripping up on the uneven ground. "see?"

"we're not lost, guys," nancy told them, making robin chuckle and run ahead. "robin, hey. watch out for the vines! hive mind. remember?"

"thank you," robin called back, now several meters in front.

tillie could sense that steve wanted to be alone with nancy for a moment. "i'll go make sure she doesn't actually get lost," tillie told them, before running to catch up with robin.

"woah!" robin exclaimed, turning around and seeing a figure behind her.

tillie quickly shone her flashlight in her face. "look, it's just me."

"jesus, tillie," robin sighed, as the two began to walk alongside each other. "you scared the shit out of me. you know, now is not the time or the place to be sneaking up on people."

"yeah, sorry," tillie laughed it off awkwardly. "uh, are you okay?"

"a little on edge," robin replied. "why?"

"you've just been kind of.. different since we left the army store, earlier," tillie responded, stepping over a vine. "and i know jason and some other members of the basketball team were in there. did they say anything to you, or..?"

"no. it.. it wasn't that," robin replied, shaking her head. "listen, have you ever seen eddie with another girl?"

"i think i'm the only girl eddie has even spoken to," she said, a hint of amusement in her tone. "until recently, anyways. why?"

"in the store, i saw, uh, this person.. no, this.. this boy that i like, with his girlfriend," robin told her, a sad expression on her face. "so, that's why i was kind of upset."

"a boy?" tillie repeated in a confused tone. she'd always gotten the vibe from robin that the girl wasn't straight, so was puzzled to hear her talk of liking a boy.

"why'd you say it like that?" robin laughed awkwardly.

"sorry, i just, i kind of thought.. i mean, i was expecting you to say.."

"a girl?" robin finished, realizing the blonde already knew. "you're right. it wasn't a boy. it is a girl. i like a girl. steve made me think that she liked girls too. but, then i saw her with her boyfriend, so.."

"that doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't like girls, though," tillie responded softly, taking note of the hurt in robin's voice. "i know someone who likes girls. she was in love with one, her best friend. but because of society's eagerness to discriminate against everyone and everything, she couldn't be with the girl she loved. she even got married to a man, to try and keep her feelings a secret but they ended up getting divorced a few years later. now she's older, single and still living with the secret, but a little happier at least."

"she sounds amazing," robin smiled.

"yeah, she is," tillie laughed. "she owns a diner up on ensley road. i would recommend. the food is great, but her company is even better. she's called danah. i think you two would get along well."

"yeah, from the sounds of it, i think we would too," robin spoke in agreement. "maybe, after all this shit it over, i'll go check it out."

they continued walking in a comfortable silence for a while, but tillie could sense something was still bugging the girl.

"tillie," robin blurted out.

"yeah?" tillie hummed.

"can you do me a favor and not tell anyone about me?" robin questioned. "not even eddie. only steve knows about me. and now you, of course. my parents kind of know, but i'm just not ready for everyone to know, you know?"

"your secret's safe with me," tillie smiled, as they found themselves exiting the woods and looking across the road at a house in front of them. the creel house.

"holy shit, we found it," robin grinned, before turning around the get the others. "you guys!" she called as she ran up to them. "awesome news! looks like we weren't going the wrong way after all. me and tillie found it. come on!"

steve began following her slowly, but the girl was too enthusiastic for that, grabbing onto tillie and screaming, "let's go!"

"okay," steve sighed watching robin run off, dragging tillie with her. "ro..slow down! ro..robin!"

the two girls lead nancy and steve the short distance back to where they were previously stood, looking up at the creel house.

tillie noticed a flashing light in the playground beside the house. "guys, look.."

"erica," steve stated, before they all headed over there.

- 📻🪐🏹 -

MARCH 27TH, 1986
📍the upside down - the creel house
22:22 PM

"so far, so smooth," robin commented, the four of them waiting for erica to reply to their signal.

"yeah, we're not even at the hard part yet," steve replied.

tillie's head was turned by the loud cries of the so-called demobats, many of which swarmed around the house in front of them. she realized that shortly, all of them would be surrounding eddie and her worry only grew.

she'd seen how vicious they were with steve yesterday and didn't want anything like that to happen to neither eddie nor dustin. she just hoped that, if it did come down to it, eddie would abort like he said earlier and not try to protect her like she felt he would.

they heard erica's voice talk to them. "moving into phase two."

- 📻🪐🏹 -

tillie and robin being besties for five minutes straight 💞💞

literally just dawned on me that this book will be finished by the end of this week.. erm WHAT

WORD COUNT - 1061.