Head Over Heels - Steddie

16

Eddie's life had always been complicated. It couldn't be ignored.

From the moment he entered the world, all around to his first step, touching his first guitar, finding his first favourite song, starting school and all the way to where he was sitting today, playing new combinations on his favourite guitar inside a trailer that he had been living in since he was eight.

He had always blamed it on his parents, and everyone who hear the story of his childhood would probably do the very same thing. His father was probably the biggest problem, if the truth was to be told. Which it wasn't, cause not even Eddie's Uncle wanted to talk about the tragic love story of Eddie's parents.

His mothers name was June and his fathers name was August, which Eddie had always found beautiful, since both his parents was named after two months that he absolutely loved.

They had met back in 1964 when June was 16, August being 7 years older than her and looked more or less like Prince Charming back in the days. Black, curly hair with a strong jaw and walked around dressed in the finest suits in town. You could often find him sitting in a bar along with his father, watching the young girls on the dance floor while listening to jazz and drinking the finest martini you could get your hands on in 1964.

And that was where August met June. Her first night at the bar being her 16th birthday, and you could see all over the room that August fell for her straight away. She was the brightest little girl in the room, her hair a flaming orange and her dress the cutest little light blue - making her eyes look like a bright mix of the ocean and the heaven. Just about everything that charmed a 23 year old man. Innocence, and beauty.

Their relationship started immediately, cause Junes father had always wanted her to marry rich and August was the perfect man for a young, beautiful woman like her. They got married two years later, got Eddie one year after the wedding, but the bad side of August had already grown attached to her before their son was born.

Abuse, manipulation, and disloyalty. He would often come home drunk, push his wife to the bed and make love to her without permission in the beginning, and then it continued to beatings. Black eyes, bruises on legs and arms, and what pained June the most was that little Eddie was sitting on the sofa watching it all. Having absolutely no idea what his father was doing to his mother.

June always blamed it on the war when Eddie asked about his fathers abusive side and why he made his mommy cry in the middle of the night so often. "His father went into the war." "He was born in the middle of the war."

Eddie, as a six year old, tried to understand the best he could about the situation and just nodded when his mother told him to go into his room instead. One year later, June had gotten caught up with the alcoholism as well. Her only escape being the hidden whiskey bottle under the bed that she drank from when her husband was working.

And that's probably where everything went down fall, and the love story of the two month named lovers became tragic. August father died in the mine, along with his son, leaving June and little Eddie alone with no heritage at all. On the day that June and her son got the news, she had dragged him out of the house and pushed him into the car and drove off to the trailer park a mile away from where they were living.

She had just followed him to one of the trailers, leaned down and looked him in the eyes with her hands on his cheeks. Her eyes was watery and Eddie could remember it very well, the pain he could feel in his chest looking at his mother that day.

"You'll have to stay with Uncle Wayne for a while, alright, baby?" She whispered with a breaking voice and couldn't help but sob. Eddie looked up at her, both confused and worried but all he could do was nod and throw his arms around his mothers waist.

She hugged him back, released herself from the hug a second later and knocked on the door, kissed her son on his forehead and then ran back to her car and drove off before the door could be opened.

When the door finally got opened, a man in his late 20s was standing on the other side and looked down on Eddie with a irritated grimace.

"Who are you?" He grunted. Eddie looked up at him and swallows hard.

"Eddie." He said, his voice high pitched like a little kids. His curls was messy placed on his head and his freckles was shining in the sunlight. His uncle looked down on him for another second and his face turned from irritated to worried.

"Where's mom and dad?"

Eddie sighed.

"Papa's dead." He said emotionless. He hadn't let a single tear fall down his cheek, cause deep down he wasn't feeling bad for his fathers death. He knew it would make his mothers life better, and his too. Cause even though his young age, he has seen way too much to not understand what was going on.

"Is that so.." Uncle Wayne sighed deeply and his lips rolled into a thin line. It looked almost like he was just about to cry standing there at the door frame. "Why don't you come in, son? Let me make you some sweet tea. Would you like that?"

All Eddie could do was nod and walk inside the trailer, and he felt more safer than he had ever done in his own home. It smelled nice, and it looked nice. It wasn't too messy, it was plants everywhere and he was very careful to take his shoes off and put them aside when he stepped inside.

One week later, he was sitting at Uncle Wayne's kitchen table with a small birthday cake in front of him, celebrating his eight birthday.

"Isn't mama coming?" He asked. His uncle cleared his throat, and while he grabbed the knife and started cutting a big slice of cake to his nephew, he explained the situation for little Eddie.

"Your mother isn't coming. You'll stay here with me from now on, is that okay?" Wayne talked carefully. He had never been accompanied with a child before, since he hadn't any kids on his own and he was never in the state of visiting his sister - even though he knew that he had a nephew waiting for him to come by.

Eddie just nodded and smiled softly, somewhat disappointed but the big piece of cake made him forget all about it.

Eddie found out later that his mother had decided to end her life the day she drove him to Uncle Wayne. He cried a little, sat on his knees beside the bed at late night and gave her a prayer with folded hands. It was the last time he prayed, and the last time he cried about his mother as well. He accepted it pretty fast, even though it hurt him very badly some days.

And that's where his nickname Freak actually started. The rumours about his father were finally announced, and shortly after that was the news about his mother too. He just believed that he was an unlucky child, but that changed quickly when his uncle one day came home carrying a guitar he had bought cheap from a coworker at the plants.

Eddie looked at it like it was magic, and the first week he couldn't let go off it. He said goodbye to his guitar when he went to school, and he played it all the time when he got home. His uncle was just happy that he had found something to make the boy feel good about, and Eddie absolutely loved it.

A few year later, he found his friends and started a band, and his uncle taught him all about the funny plants that he worked with. He got Eddie into dealing, which none of them complained about since they really needed the extra money.

He felt really good about his life, even though his tragic past. And getting Steve Harrington to enter it was just another plus on the side.

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I felt like we needed a image of Eddie's childhood to understand more about his character. I'll make one about Steve tomorrow :) Thank you for 50k read btw!! Absolutely amazing!!!