wanted - Eddie Munson

every moment

May 30th, 1985

It was the last day of school, my last day of school entirely. Graduation was in two days and I'd decided that after the ceremony I'm going to tell Eddie how I felt. I was positive that I was dreaming the night of prom, Eddie never mentioned what he said so he must've not said anything at all. Regardless of the dream, I couldn't keep my feelings to myself any longer. I wanted him to know how much he meant to me. I wanted him to know that I loved him with my whole heart, even if he didn't feel the same.

Eddie and I have been walking into school hand in hand for a while now and it didn't take people long to figure out that we were together. Of course, this brought on a slew of new insults from the jocks but by now we were used to their hurtful words. We'd even begun to egg them on, giving them more and more to bully us with solely because we thought it was funny.

The school day was coming to an end and each of my teachers was giving speeches to their classes. All saying the same thing, that they were proud of us and congratulations on graduating and that we were a great class. Blah blah blah.

A countdown had begun in my last class, waiting for the bell to ring and dismiss us for the last time. My peers all chanted the numbers as the seconds went by, and a loud cheer let out as the bell finally rang. I walked out of the classroom and over to my locker, cleaning out the pictures and clothes I had stored in there. It felt bittersweet honestly. Someone else will get this locker next year and decorate it with their pictures, leaving no trace of any of the students before them. As I closed my locker for the last time I heard someone speak from behind me.

"Hey," I turned around to see Eddie standing there with a soft smile.

"Hey you," I replied as I stepped closer to him, wrapping my arms around his waist in a hug. He pulled me closer with a light squeeze before pulling away.

"You ready to go?" He'd seemed off for the last few days. He wasn't as energetic or touchy. When I asked him what was wrong he just shook his head saying that it was just the graduation thing.

I sighed and looked back at the hallway of students one last time before nodding. We walked out of the school and saw Max walking down the hill from Hawkins Middle.

"Hey uhm, after we drop Max off, can we go grab a bite to eat?" He wouldn't meet my eyes and he looked like he was upset about something.

"Yeah of course. Is everything okay?" I asked in hopes that he'd tell me what was bothering him.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just need to talk to you about something." He replied as we reached his van.

"My favorite couple!" Max announced as she reached the van. We all got in before she spoke again. "How was your very last day of high school, B?"

"It was great, didn't do anything in any of my classes besides talk," I answered with a shrug. "How was your very last of middle school, Max?"

"Eh, same old same old. Took my last exam today," She stated.

"I'm sure you did great on it."

After that, the drive was silent except for Eddie's music playing. I looked over and saw him tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. Something was wrong, I just wished he'd open up about it. We pulled into the driveway and Max got out.

"Tell mom I'm hanging out with Eddie, I'll be back in a couple of hours," I said and she nodded before going inside.

Eddie pulled back out of the driveway and continued to drive in silence. We reached a little diner and went inside, sitting at a booth. We'd both placed our orders and we were still sitting in silence until I'd had enough.