Y/N Wheeler is often the forgotten sibling. Always in the background, she grew up ensuring that everyone else's needs were met besides her own. When she meets Eddie "The Freak" Munson, he starts to show her what it's like being your unapologetic sel...
Monday morning was quiet. I could tell that I wasn't the only one not wanting school to start up again. Nancy, Mike, and myself all sat at the dining room table silently eating breakfast together, each of us appearing to be in our own worlds. I'm sure each of us could use a few more days of our Spring Break.
Gathering our things and heading to the car was just as quiet. It wasn't like us to all be so quiet so I knew something was going on, I just didn't know what. Although Eddie said he was going to try to figure out what was going on with Mike at lunch, I was determined to figure it out before then. I turned around to face Mike sitting in the back seat. "You okay?" I asked.
"Fine." Mike said back blankly.
"You don't seem fine." I countered.
"Don't worry about it." He replied and looked out the window.
I hesitated a moment, but decided it was worth pressing the issue. "Did something happen when you were in California?"
Mike let out a loud sigh. "You're not going to leave me alone until I tell you something, are you?" He asked slightly annoyed.
"You would be correct." I confirmed.
We stared at each other for a while before he finally decided to tell me what was going on. "Okay, don't make a big deal out of it, but... El and I broke up."
At his admission, Nancy joined the conversation. "What happened?" She asked concerned.
Mike replied quickly. "Nope. We're not talking about this. You wanted to know what happened. Now you do. That's it."
I could tell that no amount of sisterly jokes or questions would get him to expand on it. I accepted that if and when he wanted to talk about it, he would come to me. "Well, we're here if you want to talk about it." I told Mike while motioning between Nancy and myself. Nancy nodded her head and agreed.
As we wrapped up our conversation, we arrived at school. Nancy took off before I could ask what was going on with her. It's like she knew she was going to be next after I had spoken with Mike, but she knows she can't avoid me forever. I'll just have to talk to her after school.
Mike had gone off in his own direction as well so that just left me to talk into the school by myself. I was at my locker grabbing my binders and books when someone shut my locker door loudly. Robin often met me at my locker in the mornings so I assumed it was her. However, when I looked up, it was Eddie's face staring down at me and not Robin's. "Oh, hey Eddie." I greeted him, pleasantly surprised.
"What's up, other Wheeler?" He asked.
"I figured out what was going on with Mike." I replied eagerly.
This sparked Eddie's interest. "Oh yeah? What was it?" He asked.
I whispered to Eddie. "He and his girlfriend broke up."
"Shit." Eddie responded with compassion in his voice.
"You can't tell him I told you though!" I added with urgency.
Eddie drew an ex over his heart with his fingers. "Your secret is safe with me."
It was definitely weird interacting with Eddie at school. It probably wasn't the case, but I felt like everyone was staring at us while we had our conversation. As I grabbed my backpack off the floor and swung it over my shoulder, I assumed Eddie would head to class, but he remained by my side. He walked and chatted with me all the way to my first class of the day. I definitely didn't feel invisible in the halls today.
______________
I had yet to catch up with Robin by the time lunch came around. But we met at our usual table and I got her caught up on the events of my Spring Break. "That's so exciting, Y/N." She replied genuinely.
"So how was your Spring Break?" I asked her. "Did you do anything fun?"
She let out a small laugh before responding. "If you can call working at Family Video almost every day fun, then yeah."
"Dang, that sucks." I sympathized.
"It wasn't all bad, Steve worked most shifts with me so he kept it entertaining." Robin added.
I don't know why, but I felt slightly jealous that she got along so well with Steve. I guess I just wanted her to have as much fun with me as she had with him.
"Well I'm glad Steve was there to help." I replied dryly, not wanting to talk about Steve. Luckily, Robin moved onto a new subject rather quickly. She was in the middle of telling me about how Vickie looked at her in band today, when a loud voice interrupted our conversation. "Hey, Wheeler!"
My heart dropped into my stomach. I turned around to see Eddie motioning me over to his table. Apparently he wasn't going to let me eat my lunch invisibly either. I looked at Robin as if for reassurance. "Well what are you waiting for? Your man awaits." She joked.
I got up and walked over to Eddie's table. When I arrived, the table grew quiet. Eddie looked at me. "So glad you could join us, take a seat." He said as he gestured to an open spot to his right. I awkwardly sat down, not knowing what to expect. I turned to look at Mike, hoping that he could tell me what was going on, but he was staring at his food and pushing it around on his tray. Clearly in his head still about his break up.
My attention was drawn back to Eddie when he spoke up. "We were hoping you could give us a woman's opinion on something?"
I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. "Oh, um, sure?" I responded.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Great." Eddie responded with a cheeky smile. "As you may or may not be aware, some of the boys and I are in a band. Anyway, we were wondering what women find more attractive, playing the drums or the guitar?"
Suddenly all of their eyes were on me, waiting for my response. I almost laughed at how comical the situation was. I guess this was Eddie's way of getting me more involved. "Well what do you guys think?" I asked throwing the question back to them.
"Guitar, for sure." Eddie blurted out.
One of the guys named Gareth rebutted. "No, it's definitely the drums."
"So really I'm just settling a debate here?" I asked amused.
"Absolutely." Said another one of the guys who I didn't know the name of.
A little smirk grew on my face. "Sorry Eddie. I'm gonna have to say drums."
Eddie threw his hands to his chest in response to my conclusion, acting as if I broke his heart. Gareth celebrated by high fiving some of the other guys.
"Well I appreciate your opinion even if it wasn't what I was hoping for. We'll let you get back to your lunch." Eddie thanked me and gave me a smile before I made my way back to my table.
When I returned to my spot by Robin, she immediately turned to me. "So what was that all about?" She asked excitedly.
"Just had to settle a silly debate." I replied.
What I didn't tell Robin was that I felt so giddy afterwards. I loved that Eddie called me over and had me talk with his friends. This was something that I could definitely get used to.
