Don't Go There || Eddie Munson

going away

       "Holy buckets, no way!" Eddie stared longingly up at you where you stood in the tree house from his side of the fence. Of course, of course he would get punished the day it was finally finished and safe to climb up. He was gripping the metal bar at the top of the fence with both hands as he'd done hundreds of times just before he'd jump over, but now, his father sat on the back porch with a cigar keeping a not-so-close eye on his son. He wasn't allowed to come over or play with you for three days, something about not getting his chores done in his given time frame. The little loophole was that you two could still talk, just not play. But, he couldn't come to your yard and you couldn't go to his, making the tree house a lot less fun. You hoped that this would be the thing to bring his interest back in you two playing together. The last few weeks he'd not come out when he usually would, because he was inside hanging out with two boys from school he'd befriended. The excited gleam in his eyes told you the tree house would indeed work just how you wanted it to.

Eddie looked back at his father, who was seemingly on a work call, and, deciding he was out of ear shot said to you, "I'm coming over later."

Your heart sped and you fought a smile as you glanced behind him to his oblivious father before looking back to Eddie's determined face. "How?" you mouthed silently. "When?"

You focused hard to understand when he mouthed back, "After dinner."

You nodded excitedly and gave a thumbs up; couldn't risk his dad hearing your excitement.

~

    After clearing your plate, you sat alone in the tree house for almost 15 minutes. Seconds before you'd decide it was too scary to be outside alone at night, Eddie's dark brown head of hair came into view. You clapped as quietly as you could, and he beamed at you once he was inside. He looked around in awe, though there wasn't much yet to look at, and plopped down next to you. You two quickly got to making plans of how you'd play in it, that it would serve as your secret base and club house for two. He told you he couldn't stay long, so after a short ten minutes he went to climb down the ladder-- and slipped. He cried out immediately, and you hopped down to where he was as quickly as possible. If it hadn't been for that, he would've gotten away with his first attempt at "sneaking out." Unfortunately, you had to go to your parents, who went to his, and he was punished for even longer. He had a scar on his right temple for as long as you knew him after that.

The two of you didn't get to play in your tree house nearly as many times as you'd hoped.

~

    More and more often you found yourself going over to your great aunt Clara's house who lived a couple blocks away. It was always on days you'd rather have been playing with Eddie, but he was with those two boys from school who had replaced you as his closest friends. Aunt Clara's house was always warmly lit with lamps instead of overhead lights, and her decor was all cherubs and lace doilies and candles in old metal holders. Not much for a nine year old to play with, and she was a little too old to run around with you, but she treated you better than either of your parents did. Sometimes she would even invite your aunt Juniper over, who was only 7 years older than you; you always tried to act more mature around her.

The autumn that you turned ten, your parents told you that you didn't have choice in the matter of you all moving, it was already decided. In a month no less. You'd no longer share a fence with Eddie. What would become of your shared tree house? Who would hunt all the dragons? And if all that wasn't bad enough, it wasn't just down the road. Or across town. It was halfway across the country to the northern east coast. Your face fell, as did your heart, but you knew you might as well argue with a wall before going up against your parents decisions. You ran to your room, threw yourself onto your flower patterned bed and cried until your eyes burned and your face was puffy, and you eventually fell asleep.

A couple days later, you headed for the back yard, hoping Eddie would still listen for you guys' signal for each other to come out: shaking your shared fence hard enough for the other to hear the clinking. You were hoping he wouldn't take too long to come out, but when you opened the door, you saw him already in his own back yard, with his two new best friends. You were able to walk over to the fence unnoticed, and Eddie only realized you were there when his friend with the mo-hawk stopped tossing the foam football. He finally turned to face you, and he almost looked like an entirely different kid. His childish freckles were all faded, and he already had all his grown-up teeth. His hair was longer than it'd ever been, and for some reason, it made your heart flutter. He dropped his hands from their position of waiting to catch a ball, and trotted unenthusiastically to where you stood at the fence. For the first time, you felt nervous talking to him; you chalked it up to us having an audience.

"I have something to tell you," you mumbled, glancing cautiously behind him to his friends who were clearly making fun of you two. Or just you.

He looked hesitantly to them too, and they began making dramatic kiss-y noises and similar strange sounds. Your brows furrowed and Eddie's cheeks had a pink tint when he turned to face you again. "Yeah?"

"Um," you swallowed, nervous that his friends could hear you. "I'm-- I'm going away."

"Okay?"

His indifference was a punch to the chest. You clarified, "To live in Maine."

Eddie quickly masked his surprise, maybe even a hint of disappointment. He seemed very aware you guys were being listened to, very concerned with what his two new, cooler friends would think. He looked to the side, "Oh."

"In less than thirty days."

He seemed uncertain on what to say, but decided finally on "That sucks."

Though he was expressing some sort of regret, it didn't feel authentic. It just made you feel stupid for coming over and interrupting his game. You never wanted to turn invisible and disappear so bad. The feeling was made worse when his friends started snickering and pointing over at you.

"Yeah," you blinked down at your feet. "So, goodbye I guess."

You hoped he would say something more after, "Bye, Y/N." But he didn't. You only nodded to each other, and he returned to his game, and you to your house.

You walked back inside to the sounds of their game continuing, a roar of laughter rising from the trio. Tears burned your eyes once again, and you wouldn't dare sneak one last peak at Eddie before you left. That was the last time you saw your best friend; there was never anyone else you got quite as close with after him.