𝙳𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝙼𝚎 ||𝙴𝚍𝚍𝚒𝚎 𝙼𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗

037

I heard a knock on the door, which woke me up. I looked around and saw I was still in Eddie's arms. He was looking down at me as held me. 

"I'll get it, Beautiful," He said before trying to get up. I pulled him back and held onto him harder. 

"Don't leave me," I said quietly. There was another knock at the door. "Come in." The door opened revealing Dustin. 

"Hey," He said softly as Eddie and I sat up to look at him. "Steve and Chrissy are downstairs. They made dinner too if you are hungry." 

"Thank you, Dusty," I said quietly. 

"Dani, do you want to talk?" He asked and I looked up at Eddie. 

"Yea, I think we should." I motioned Dustin to sit on the bed with us. 

"Do you want me to go?" Eddie asked as he motioned to go. 

"No, you can stay." I grabbed his hand intertwining our fingers. I told Dustin everything about Owens and Brenner, and what was happening with me. 

"I'm going to kill Jason," He said getting up. "How could you not tell me about this?" He asked in a gentle but worried voice. 

"I just couldn't, Dustin. I'm your big sister and you didn't need to know those things about me. Not then, you were so little." Dustin reached for me and gave me the tightest hug ever. 

"I love you, Dani." 

"And I love you," I responded as I squeezed him a little tighter. We let go of each other and I looked at him then at Eddie. "I guess we can go downstairs now." I got off of the bed as Dustin headed out of the room first. 

"You did it," Eddie said, smiling as I turned back to him. I smiled a little as he wrapped me in a hug. "I am so proud of you, Dani." We stayed like that for a minute before he let go and we walked downstairs to everyone else. 

"Hey, D," Chrissy waved as she was sitting next to Steve on the couch. 

"Hi," I looked around and noticed Nancy and Robin also there. I walked into the kitchen to see lasagna on the stove. "Have you guys eaten?" I asked turning back into the living room. 

"No, we wanted to wait for you," Max said, looking back at me. I began grabbing plates and set them on the counter. 

"Well, we can eat whenever." I grabbed my purse before walking to the door. "I'll just be a minute." I walked outside to the side of the house and pulled out a joint before lighting it. I took a long drag and I leaned against the house. I finished up the joint before walking back into the house and everyone was in the kitchen getting their food. I noticed Eddie with two plates as I joined him in the kitchen. 

"Here you go," He said handing me the plate. 

"Thank you." We all walked into the dining room and sat around the table. "Mom, did you make this?" I asked Steve. 

"Your stepfather and I made it," He joked looking over at Chrissy. She smiled back at him, which made me smile. Everyone talked amongst themselves while we ate. I bounced my leg up and down anxiously before I felt Eddie's hand rest on my knee. 

"You ok?" He asked in my ear. I looked up at him and smiled. 

"I think so." I set my hand on his and gave it a squeeze before he pulled it away and we went back to eating. "I think I would like to do something for my birthday," I said quietly and Chrissy smiled. 

"Yay! I'm so happy you changed your mind," She looked at Eddie and then back to me. "Or someone else changed your mine." I looked over to Eddie whose cheeks flushed slightly red and I laughed a little. "So where do you want to have it?" Chrissy asked getting into full party planner mood. 

"You know what, how about you guys surprise me." Chrissy looked to Eddie then smiled. "What?"

"I'm just glad you changed your mind," He said before smiling back down at his food. Once we finished eating, everyone began leaving and it was just Dustin, Eddie, and I. We wear sitting on the couch as Dustin and Eddie played the Nintendo and I read my book. There was a knock on the door and I anxiously looked up at Eddie. They paused the game before Eddie got up to answer the door. He opened the door and I turned from the couch to see who it was. Jason. Standing all cocky, smiling as he saw Eddie at the door. 

"Where's Dani?" He asked rubbing his hands together. 

"Get her name out your filthy mouth," Eddie said as he stepped outside, closing the door. I quickly got up and looked out the front window and saw them shoving each other before Eddie threw a punch at Jason. Jason grabbed his face as his nose began to bleed. I felt Dustin walk up next to me and we just watched them fight, until it started to look bad. I ran to the door and opened it as Jason was crouching over Eddie hitting him. "That's it?" He asked smirking as Jason stopped punching him for a second, before continuing. I ran to them and pulled Jason off of him and when he spotted me he tackled me to the ground, trying to undo my clothes. He had my hands pinned above my head as he reached down, caressing my thigh. I closed my eyes trying not to panic as I felt him get off of me. I open my eyes to see Eddie throw Jason to the ground and began kicking him. "Don't you fucking touch her again, you hear me?" Eddie was now on top of Jason punching him again. I got up and tried to pull him off. 

"Enough Eddie, please." He looked back at me and saw the cut on my lip and stopped. He quickly got off of Jason and cupped my cheek. 

"You're hurt," He said looking down at my lip. "I'm gonna kill him." He turned back to Jason, who was struggling to get up before I grabbed his hand. 

"Eddie, I think he learned his lesson." I pulled him towards the door as he turned back to Jason. 

"If you ever even think about her, I will kill you, Carver." We walked inside and I locked the door as Dustin watched Jason walk off to his car, before seeing Eddie. 

"Shit, man, your face," He said in shock," Dani, you are ok?" I nodded my head and grabbed Eddie's hand, pulling him upstairs. I sat him on the side of the bath tube as I went to grab the first aid kit. I walked back in and he had taken his shirt off. He had bruises and cuts all over and I felt the tears in my eyes fall down my cheek. I sat on the closed toilet as I began cleaning his cuts up. 

"What's wrong?" He asked wiping my tears with his thumb. I stifled my tears and ignored his question. "Shit, shit." I stopped wiping his cuts and looked up at him. 

"I'm sorry, Eddie." 

"No, it just hurts." He grabbed my hands and gently brought them to his lips. "Your lip is bleeding." I brought my hand to my lip and pulled back to see it was bleeding. 

"He bit it," I said quietly, looking away from Eddie. He grabbed my chin and pulled my face up to look at him. 

"He will never hurt you again." I smiled at his words before I continued cleaning him up. Once I was finished, he insisted on him cleaning up my lip. 

"Ow, that hurts," I said as he wiped my lip with the cotton swab. I grabbed his hand and held it. "Eddie, I can't thank you enough." He looked at me and smiled, making me feel warm inside. I moved his hands around my waist and sat on his lap. He looked at me shocked and kissed him before I could overthink it. It was all I wanted to do and I wasn't going to let my anxiety get in the way. He was gentle with my lip and pulled away. 

"Dani, are you sure?" He asked and I smiled. 

"Yes, Eddie. I can't be afraid forever." He smiled before pulling my face back to his. He picked me up and carried me into my room, gently laying me on the bed, never once breaking the kiss. He gently began kissing my neck as I played with his hair. He gave me one more kiss and laid next to me. I felt his hand next to mine and grabbed it, twisting the rings on his fingers. 

"You can have one if you want," He said looking down at me. 

"They are yours, Eddie. They look much better on you," I smiled before placing another kiss on his lips. I laid my head on his chest as I traced the bandaid on his chest. "I don't want to lose you either, Eddie Munson."