The Cheerleader's Freak (In Progress)

20

"-and now I'm here with you, not knowing what's going to happen next," the strawberry blonde sighs, looking at the floor while messing with his fingers. "That's uh...pretty much it," 

Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows processing what he had just told her. The visions, the abuse from his father, the drugs, the whole waking nightmare thing going on, and his leg snapping. It was a lot and she knew it from firsthand experience with some of it. 

"That's...definitely a lot," she says after a minute, looking at him with her arms draped over her crossed legs. "How long has this been going on?"

"Seven days," Chris says, meeting her gaze. "So basically a week,"

Evelyn nods. "Hopefully the little shit will figure this out so we can get this curse or whatever off of you,"

"Curse?" Chris questioned. Evelyn remembered that he didn't know the background knowledge of what the gang had told her, and she knew he had to catch up.

"Okay uh, what I'm going to tell you is going to make me sound...insane, but we've already crossed that bridge with all the shit going on so just try to keep up with me here, okay?" Evelyn says as Chris nods, her knowing he was confused. "The guys told me about some shit about another world under ours. It holds some creatures, I guess you could say and sometimes it bleeds into ours, and that's why they say Hawkins is cursed, and they think something from this world, called the upside down is messing with you and the reason some kid died," she says as she looks at Chris, seeing the gears turn in his head as he looked at her. 

"Is that what he is? Something from this upside down?" Chris asks, looking at her. She furrowed her eyebrows. 

"He who?" 

"Remember the scary guy I told you about? He had no nose, he had like vines on his neck and he had like a claw for a hand," Chris said. It sounded vaguely like Vecna, but it didn't exactly match the description of what he did in the game. Evelyn nods, making a mental note to tell the others of that later.

Evelyn sighs. "And that's why you wanted drugs? To make these little visions of yours go away, and your dad?"

Chris nodded. "It was getting too much from me and I just needed something to like put me in a calm state or something like that. I've never been like that, at peace since I was five when my mom divorced my dad,"

Evelyn nods, the mention of parents already making a pit in her stomach. "Yeah well, being high just makes you super out of it and you don't know what's going on and you see things, but it's not as bad as what you were seeing,"

Chris nods. "Kind of sounds fun and dangerous at the same time,"

"That's why I get high all the time," she winks at him to tease and sees him turn a shade of pink. She furrowed her eyebrows at him curiously. "Am I that flattering to you, Cunningham?"

He shakes his head which makes Evelyn raise an eyebrow and he flushes further. "No-No, that's not what I meant- I- w-what I meanDon't worry Cunningham I was just messing with you. What, you've never been flirted with?"

"Well kind of but not really. Justina flirts with me and other guys sometimes, I guess you could say,"

"I'm sorry, did I just hear your girlfriend flirts with other guys? That's a bullshitty girlfriend of yours if you ask me honestly,"

"Well she's not really my girlfriend, my dad just forces me to date her because she's the most popular girl in the school to boost my status,"

"Well, we just might live in the goddamn eighties, but I'm pretty sure I am the most popular girl from what attention I get every day,"

"People curse and yell at you and call you names,"

"I didn't say the attention was the most positive thing in the world, Chris," she says as she smirks. "I'm pretty sure school freak trumps the status of bitchy popular girl," which makes Chris laugh at that sentence.  

"I wish all my friends were like you, you're better than most of them," he says while looking at the floor. "Most of my friends ignore me,"

"I wouldn't necessarily call them friends there,"

"Well they're the only thing I've got to hold on to, nobody else wants to be my friend," the sentence made Evelyn feel bad for him, there was so much depression and anxiety in this tortured boy and he had no friends on top of it.

Evelyn leaned over and nudged him with her shoulder. "Hey, if you need friends, you always can have a spot at the Hellfire Club. You may not understand just exactly of what's going on but once you know everyone in the club you'll learn and you'll meet new people, even if they're not exactly your cup of tea,"

Chris's face lit up at this. "Really?"

Evelyn nods, "Yeah, of course. I may be a cold-hearted freak but I have a soft spot for lost sheep," 

"You're not cold hearted," 

Evelyn snorted. "Not heard the rumors? I'm a terrifying demon freak who plays a fantasy game,"

"You're not a demon freak, and if anything you're probably the kindest person I've met all my life," which got Evelyn's armor to crack as that comment hit her straight in the chest.

She looked at him and he had this fond softness in his eyes, and she felt her heart begin to warm in her chest. This boy just said she was the kindest person to him all of his life, and that almost drove her to tears. 

She looked at the ground. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no Cunningham, you just- said something that just made me feel a certain way," she says as she meets his eyes again. "So I'm the kindest person to you? Even after I left you when you got attacked by someone?"

Chris shrugged. "You were scared, I would have done the same thing. You running saved me somehow because I snapped out of it with the radio,"

Evelyn tilted her head. "I did? What did the radio have to do with saving you though?"

"When you knocked it over, it started playing my favorite song, Dancing Queen, and it snapped me out of it,"

"So I saved you by running?"

"I guess so," Chris says, cracking a grin at her. Evelyn returned it while her heart was continuing to radiate warmth.

What was this boy doing to her?