Bad Habit - {Eddie Munson x y/n}

Step One

It was a long drive from The Earle Hotel back to yours and Eddie's apartment alone. You sobbed and cried and wailed and screamed along to the lyrics of whichever Fleetwood Mac song blared through the stereo the whole way back to Hawkins. You're furious and rightly so. But you're sad most of all. Though you're angry and hurt by Eddie's decision to keep the truth of the Alice situation from you, walking away and leaving him on a bad note like that was still extremely difficult for you to do, but you knew you had to in that moment. You need some time alone to really process all of the information and to deal with the feeling of betrayal laid on you by Eddie.

Eddie is not the type of guy to keep secrets from you. You know every minor and major detail of his life, his intrusive thoughts, his inner monologue, nothing is off the table between you guys. The only big secret he ever kept from you, and you from him, was when you were both so clearly in love with each other but hid it from the other person. That's the only time Eddie has ever kept anything hidden from you. You don't blame him for that one though, you were both terrified kids, scared of losing each other at the time.

And now here you are, all this time later, scared of losing each other again. He thought he was doing the right thing, but he clearly was not. You'd of been hurt knowing someone was flirting with your man but you'd of told him to tell Warren right away and end the mess before the inevitable disaster ensued. But alas, that's not how things have worked out unfortunately and you find yourself separated by miles again, both feeling equally heartbroken.

You curl up on the sofa under a heavy blanket and flick the TV on, desperate for a bit of distraction. You should call Amy and Chrissy before they hear anything from Jeff and Gareth, no doubt Eddie has spoken to them already in the studio. But for now, you can barely bring yourself off of the sofa. Your bones feel heavy and tired. You feel sick and anxious, wondering what to do and what will happen next, both with your relationship and with Eddie's situation at work.

The TV doesn't make for a good distraction at all, there is a riot going on in your brain, you are combing over every detail of the events at the bar last night, the argument with Eddie this morning and the whole story that he finally revealed to you. You wonder if Warren heard from the other Nova employees about the hair pulling situation, you hope they told him everything though, about Alice openly flirting with Eddie in front of you and her snarky comments, you don't want to look like the crazy girlfriend you've been made to feel like.

You can only hope that Eddie does the right thing now and plans to speak to Warren to end the Alice situation, even though it's come too late, it's better late than never. You wouldn't be able to cope with him going into work everyday knowing Alice had gotten away with her games. You're not sure you could sit back and trust that it had stopped and you wouldn't believe Eddie even if he tried to convince you that it had. That trust has a big, fat crack in it now and it will take some time to glue it all back together.

At the same time, you do hope Warren can see this from Eddie's point of view. He didn't cheat, he didn't give into the temptation Alice was clearly laying on thick for him, you genuinely and wholeheartedly trust that he didn't accept any of her advances, the look on his face confirmed that for you.

If Eddie goes to speak to Warren and he doesn't believe it's the whole truth or he's pissed at Eddie for bringing drama into his office, what could that mean for Corroded Coffins reputation at Nova Records, you wonder. As much as you're infuriated by the entire ordeal, you would hate for this to negatively affect all the hard work not just Eddie, but Gareth and Jeff have put in to get to where they are now. All tainted by some bitch would couldn't keep her hands to herself.

You get it. Eddie's a handsome guy, he's talented, he's charming, his smile would melt an ice berg, he's friendly, he's funny. But no means no, and if Alice can't get that through her thick skull then the girl has got some serious issues. She doesn't owe you any loyalties, you only just met one another last night after all, but where's the girl code? You don't chase somebody else's man, especially not when the feelings clearly aren't reciprocated.