no stranger could it be (eddie munson x oc)

the funeral

She'd been dreading this day.

Maria had managed to make it through her small eulogy with only a couple cracks in her voice, addressing a crowd clad in black while she wore the same, but her distress didn't end even after stepping off the altar.

However, it wasn't the funeral of her best friend that sent her stomach rolling into knots, at least not entirely, but rather a certain group in attendance.

Chrissy's boyfriend and his posse kept to themselves during the ceremony and speeches, mourning like the rest but passing murmurs between one another on occasion. She watched them, chest tight.

She'd been there when they shook down Eddie's band mates, watched as Jason nearly broke the hand of their drummer. She kept her mouth shut, not about to admit her old allegiance.

She drew the line at breaking into the house of Dustin Henderson, instead hanging back, gathering whatever intel she could about Eddie's whereabouts as the boys did. Only she needed to get there first.

Tagging along with the basketball team as one of the girlfriends used to be tolerable with Chrissy at her side, but the witch hunt was getting out of hand, into dangerous territory, and her friend was no longer here to fix it.

She was reminded of that last part as the funeral progressed, and the casket lowered into the ground.

A large crowd had gathered, the late girl loved by many, and among them were classmates she and Chrissy would have made fun of, especially for being such ugly criers. She scanned the group, making mental notes of whose chin scrunched the funniest, whose lips turned down in a silly way.

Her gaze stopped on the flat faces of peers Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley, and she paused. These two were not ones Maria would have expected to see, but she supposed paying respects to a classmate, or former classmate in Harrington's case, was only fair. If only Chrissy knew The Hair himself was attending her ceremony, she'd be in stitches.

The gears in her brain slowly turned against the rust the grief had caused. She studied Robin, who muttered something to her friend under her breath, and a memory surfaced. These two knew Henderson, and Henderson knew Eddie. It wasn't much, but it was more of a lead than Jason had. Hopefully.

Taking the chance while she had it, Maria slowly slipped behind some crying attendees, around the pack of Jason, Andy, Patrick, and their men. They were focused on the casket as a line formed to say last goodbyes, and she was about to move across the group unnoticed, when a hand grabbed hers.

Maria stiffened, but turned back to see Andy. He regarded her with concern, though his face always showed an aggressive amount of whatever emotion it was trying to portray.

"You okay?" The right-hand man of the jock squad frowned at his girl.

Maria took her hand back. He let go. "I'm fine," she whispered, as to not disrupt any words being said at the grave. "I just need to step away."

Andy stared another moment, but gave a small nod of understanding, or as close to understanding as he could get. She turned away, and continued through the crowd, toward the back where her classmates stood.

Maria slipped into the spot next to Steve and stared ahead. Tapping his wrist, she whispered.

"Harrington."

He jumped under her very light touch and pulled his arm back, startling Robin in turn. "Jesus," he hissed under the loud speech of a religious official. When he blinked through the sunlight to see the girl at his side, his brow creased.