the shire is burning [eddie munson x OC]

chapter fifty four

Eddie woke up to a cold bed and a pounding headache.

The first thing he notices is the sunlight streaming in from his window, which strikes him as odd because he usually pulls the makeshift curtains made up of old sheets tightly shut before bed. It irritates him, making him throw his arms around as if he's a child, before finally one arm settles stretched out across the other side of the bed and one rests across his eyes.

But as his arm sweeps over the empty side of the bed, he notices the second thing: Willow's perfume.

The smell of her hits him square in the face, a mix of her perfume and shampoo having woven itself into the sheets and pillow beside him. And it only confuses him because the bed is cold . She's not there - not even recently, since there's none of her warmth lingering.

Am I just imagining things? Why would she have even been here in the first place?

And then it hits him. Finally, the grogginess of restless sleep lifts, and the memories of the previous day, the previous night, flood his mind.

The fight with Jason. Getting suspended. Willow showing up to the school. Willow punching Jason. Willow running off.

Willow. Willow. Willow.

He remembers leaving the school and going straight to the Hideout, and he remembers thinking about how he was going to regret his actions after the third shot of whiskey. But then the memories begin to blur, until eventually they become nothing more than snapshots of Gareth and Jeff showing up, and.... And... did Eddie cry to them about Willow?

"Fuck," he groans, rolling over in bed, burying his face in the pillow that smells of Willow. He stiffens, realizing that it's definitely not his imagination.

The pillow definitely smells like her.

He continues to force himself to remember the night. So, he cried about Willow, drunkenly, to his friends. Then what?

Oh.

Oh.

They called her. She showed up at the Hideout. And he can't remember exactly what he said in his drunken state, but he remembers burying his nose into her neck, and he remembers seeing a single tear fall down her face, and-

Fuck, what did he say?

It hurts to continue to remember, to the point that he has to lift his aching head and just accept the sunlight that's berating him. There's a sinking feeling in his stomach, worse than the night he actually confessed to Willow all of his feelings.

Did she drive him home? Did she spend the night? What time was it?

His eyes glance around his room as if there might be hidden clues for him. Maybe her shoes, or maybe a jacket. Something besides the fading scent of her between his sheets. Something to tell him it was real and not just a whiskey-induced hallucination.

But he comes up empty-handed. Maybe he is going crazy.

It's not until he finally glances at the bedside table to his left that he's proven to not be certifiably insane. His Garfield mug sits there, mostly untouched, and it triggers even more memories.

Willow arguing with Gareth.

"I regret it. I wish I had gone after him. Fuck, I wish I had never ran after Steve to begin with. It wasn't worth it," he recalls hearing Willow say through muffled glass.

Gareth leaning across Willow, them fiddling with his van somehow, and the jealousy that sparked in Eddie's chest.

"Get off my girl, Gareth."