WILDFIRE ↝ E. MUNSON

[8]

"We'll be back in the morning with food, alright?" Dustin asked Lily and Eddie, who both sat on the concrete floor of the boathouse, nodding, eyes looking anywhere but at the other.

"Alright," Robin said. "In that case, good luck, and stay safe."

Lily watched as the group slowly exited the boathouse, back to the cars parked outside the house up the hill, the only source of light left in the room coming from Lily's flashlight, as well as a faint red glow from a digital clock sitting on the table next to Eddie's fast food wrappers. While Eddie had calmed down considerably in the past few minutes, he still sat quietly, eyes now trained on the ground below them. However, Lily rose to her feet, walking the length of the room and angling her flashlight around in search of a place to sleep.

Near one wall sat an old canoe, where she began to pull off a few lifejackets from where they hung against the wall in an attempt to cushion the boat, wiping away any cobwebs that clung to the sides. The extra lifejackets she carried over to Eddie's side, the Munson boy watching as she deposited them in the other boat, though he still had yet to say a word to her.

"What are you doing?" Eddie asked as he watched her.

"Figured this would be more comfortable than just sleeping in a wooden boat." she said. "Did you sleep here last night?"

"Can't say I slept, necessarily, but yes, I got here last night." he said, fidgeting with the rings on his hands as he rose to his feet, moving the lifejackets around on his own boat.

"Where's your van?" she asked. "Max said she saw you drive away last night, but I didn't see it when we got here."

"Stashed it in the woods about a mile east where nobody'll find it, just outside of Hawkins city limits." he said, still watching her as if he didn't trust his own two eyes that he was seeing her here. "We don't need to do this, you know, make small talk and sing 'Kumbaya' thing, or whatever." he continued with a sigh.

Lily nodded as Eddie climbed into the boat, placing the broken beer bottle he'd held against Steve's throat at the top, in case he needed something to protect himself with in the middle of the night. He covered himself up with the tarp as an awkward silence settled between the two of them, a million different things wanting to come out of Lily's mouth, but she didn't know how to voice them.

When Lily had run into Nick at Starcourt Mall that night, the first thing out of the girl's mouth was that she never wanted her brother to find out about the true happenings in Hawkins behind closed doors. Anyone who knew was in danger, as Lily herself had been kept in the dark until that night at the pool when not knowing wasn't an option for her anymore. Now it seemed as though the same were true for Eddie, but she wouldn't even know where to begin telling him what really happened underneath the town they both reluctantly called home.

"Goodnight, then," Lily said awkwardly, breaking the silence as she made her way back over to the canoe, Eddie humming quietly in response as he turned away from her.

Lily climbed into the canoe, shedding her cheer cardigan and instead covering herself up with it like a blanket as she curled up on the lifejackets. It was uncomfortable, with the damp air rising from Lover's Lake seeping in through the opening in the wall and clinging to the makeshift cushions. Despite the layer of lifejackets separating her from the canoe, she could still feel the wood from one of the edges digging into her back, and she noisily tossed and turned as the minutes passed, trying to find a better sleeping position.

Eddie's sigh broke through the boathouse as he sat up in the boat, and Lily rose up onto her elbows, turning her attention to him. "Hey, uh, you don't actually have to stay here." Eddie offered. "I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself, it's fine. You can go home, or run off to McKinney's, whatever it is you do these days. You don't have to spend your last spring break before going off to college sitting here with me, because you and I both know this is the last place you want to be."

Lily shook her head. "I'm not leaving you here alone." she said adamantly. Whatever had gone on between her and Eddie in the past didn't erase the need she felt to help him, to make sure this Vecna creep, whoever they were dealing with, didn't take anything more from her than the incident at Starcourt Mall already had. "I know you, Eddie, and you didn't do this. You don't deserve to be left defenseless if someone comes after you for something you didn't do. Besides, if this is what we think it is, we're going to need numbers."

"You don't know me." he snapped, his voice devoid of all emotion as the color slowly drained away from Lily's face. "And I certainly don't know you."

"Eddie-" she began, but he cut her off.

"We are not friends, you made that quite clear when you showed up at my place to shove your Hellfire shirt in my hands and walk out of our lives." he continued. "I knew the Lily Mayfield who played D and D and would slip me an extra quarter during her shifts at the arcade, not the cheerleader who pretends that I don't exist."

Without another word, Eddie curled back up under the tarp with his back facing her, an uncomfortable silence settling between the two of them as she laid back down, eyes studying the cracks in the tin ceiling of the boathouse. She knew she deserved his words, she knew she'd hurt both of them when she left, but she couldn't help the tears that threatened to prick at her vision before she forced her eyes shut, for what would inevitably be a sleepless night, the boathouse quiet except for the occasional sound of one of them shifting in their boats, and the soft sound of the waves of Lover's Lake hitting the walls.