#chapter 2 everybody | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

turtleedovee · 2 years

Text

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Chapter Four: The Wheel Turns

Masterlist

Word Count: 2.9k

Taglist: (wanna be added? send a message or ask)

Warnings: Smoking, cursing, talks of abuse, cheating (if anything else let me know)

A/N: Hello lovely people here is chapter 4. I gotta be honest this chapter is hella on the nose ha ha, it’ll make sense soon plus this was really fun to write so I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it :). But this is only the beginning and I can’t wait to get more into the story.

Snippet:

The next day they planned on getting some more work done during lunch.

But that plan quickly failed when a 5 minute break turned into a twenty minute smoke session instead.

“So where are you in the play?”

Eddie sucked in a breath through his teeth, enough of an answer for (F/N)

“You serious Munson?”

“What?” He groaned, “C’mon you must have another one I can read? I bet you haven’t finished the one I lent you.”

Pulling her backpack she went through her stuff, and pulled out the book, shoving it into his chest, a grunt coming out of Eddie.

“I did actually.” He playfully glared at her, scrunching his nose, she just shrugged.

“Guess I’ll just have to give you another one to read then.” Taking a long drag through his joint.

“Probably already read it.” She leaned back in the van, supporting herself on her elbows.

Eddie turned around and gasped, “Are you saying that you had already read Antony and Cleopatra?”

She gritted her teeth, “Sorry?”

He fell backwards as if he was stabbed in the heart, landing next to her. Both of them in a high laughing fit.

(F/N) and Eddie had started hanging out a lot more in and out of school; whether it was in his van smoking, or in Eddie’s trailer, whether it was for actual studying or to discuss the plays they had lent each other.

“You’re seriously telling me you can’t get through this play?”

He groaned, “Sorry, but reading this could be certified as torture, this is worse then when you force me to focus on O’Donnells worksheets.”

“Well excuse me for trying to expand your taste in literature.” She joked.

She went back to reading Antony and Cleopatra, when all of a sudden Eddie’s hand tipped her book back, revealing a smirk.

“What is it now?”

“I’m bored.” He stated like a child.

She couldn’t help but chuckle, she looked around the room for a second and noticed something hanging on the wall.

“You play?” His red guitar hung proudly in his room.

“Yeah, actually, I’m in a band.” He went over to it and grabbed it, lightly playing it, the soft sound coming through.

“We sometimes play at this place called The Hideout, you should come sometime. Our crowd gets pretty crazy.” He glanced up at her.

“Does it now?” She asked sarcastically.

“Oh yeah.” He spun around with his guitar, pretending to rock out, “The 5 drunk guys who show up love us.”

She couldn’t help but smile, when she finally looked up at him she noticed he was staring at her, it made her cheeks flush a bit and subconsciously bit the inside of her cheek,

“Play me something.”

He turned his head curiously, “Oh? Well, any special requests?” He began plugging in his guitar to his amp.

She thought about it, wondering whether or not she should just let him play something he knew or give him a challenge.

As if reading her mind he clicked his tongue, “C’mon now, don’t go easy on me, give me something. I’m a fast learner if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She scoffed, “Fine, what about… Everybody Wants to Rule the World. “Tears for Fears. Bold choice (L/N),” He sighed, “how on earth am I gonna–”

Before he could finish what he was saying he began playing.

As the music began playing, she leaned closer, watching him intently, switching between watching his facial expressions, the change almost microscopic as he was deeply focused.

Welcome to your life There's no turning back Even while we sleep We will find you

Her eyes began to drift to his hands and saw how methodical his movements were. She really didn’t know much about playing guitar, when she was younger her parents tried getting her to take lessons but that didn’t last long, and while this song didn’t look to be the most difficult thing to play she couldn’t help but be entranced by his playing

Acting on your best behaviour Turn your back on Mother Nature Everybody wants to rule the world

He began riffing on his guitar.

Glancing back at him he never diverted his eyes from his guitar, his eyes were slightly shut as he felt the music. She felt some weird warm sensation in her sternum, and was slightly out of breath.

I can't stand this indecision Married with a lack of vision Everybody wants to rule the—

As he hummed to the song she couldn’t help but close her eyes and quietly sing along as well.

Say that you'll never, never, never, never need it One headline, why believe it? Everybody wants to rule the world

At this point Eddie finally looked at her, and he couldn’t help but crack a smile.

Beautiful.

He traded in the humming and joined along with her.

All for freedom and for pleasure Nothing ever lasts forever Everybody wants to rule the world

He played once more, letting the music take the lead, and ended the song.

(F/N) opened her eyes and smiled, neither one of them saying anything. After a beat of silence, Eddie licked his lips nervously, “What’d ya think?” Suppressing a smile she quietly responded, “Not bad Munson. Not bad at all.” He chuckled, “If you think that was good you should hear me rock some Black Sabbath.”

Ditching the book she grabbed one of his pillows, “Well we’ve got some time. Show me what you got.”

Eddie smiled.

He was a lot of things, she knew on more than one occasion he would try to weasel his way out of work and she was quick to catch him.

But some days… she let him get away with it.

And it was worth it every time.

Things were really clicking with her and Eddie .———————————— The next day they planned on getting some more work done during lunch.

But that plan quickly failed when a 5 minute break turned into a twenty minute smoke session instead.

“So where are you in the play?”

Eddie sucked in a breath through his teeth, enough of an answer for (F/N)

“You serious Munson?”

“What?” He groaned, “C’mon you must have another one I can read? I bet you haven’t finished the one I lent you.”

Pulling her backpack she went through her stuff, and pulled out the book, shoving it into his chest, a grunt coming out of Eddie.

“I did actually.” He playfully glared at her, scrunching his nose, she just shrugged.

“Guess I’ll just have to give you another one to read then.” Taking a long drag through his joint.

“Probably already read it.” She leaned back in the van, supporting herself on her elbows.

Eddie turned around and gasped, “Are you saying that you had already read Antony and Cleopatra?”

She gritted her teeth, “Sorry?”

He fell backwards as if he was stabbed in the heart, landing next to her. Both of them in a high laughing fit.

After a few minutes they both laid there in the van, looking at each other, letting their feet dangle out the van door.

Her heart beat loud in her ears, as he stared at her with his big doe eyes, searching them for something.

“You know you’re not who I thought you’d be.” She said, despite how hard she tried, her voice came out breathless.

“And what was that?”

“People talk. Said you were… a freak and demonic. But I never believed that.” Maybe it was all the weed but she spoke before her brain could lose the nerve.

“While I wasn’t totally set on the idea of tutoring you, I never believed all the demon bullshit those squares said about you.”

“Thanks.” His eyes went slightly wide at her confession, “You’re not who I thought you’d be either.”

“And who did you think I’d be?”

“Stuck up, mean, entitled—” He began listing.

She snorted, “You really had those locked and loaded didn’t you?” He laughed as well, “You know there’s a lot I could say about you too.”

“Well I’d love to hear it someday.”

They laughed again.

But as soon as the laughing died down, she stared at him with a serious expression on his face

“Serious question: you’re not stupid—”

“Doesn’t sound like a question to me, m'lady.” Eddie joked, his shoulders going slightly tense.

She rolled her eyes, “Lemme finish. You’re not dumb, so if you don’t mind me asking, why has it taken you so long to graduate?”

He stayed quiet for a minute, he sat up, to which she followed suit, hoping she didn’t hit a sensitive spot and upset him.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want—”

She reached out for his hand, it was warm.

He looked up at her, “No it’s fine, better to talk about it, right?” She slowly nodded.

He sighed thinking about what he wanted to say, and how he wanted to say it. “I did pretty fine in school at first. Well— fine enough to be on track to graduate anyways. But around my… sophomore year, my folks started getting into fights, rough ones. It got so bad that my uncle had to kick my old man out,” He sighed, avoiding eye contact with her, “so he thought that was it. But then my mom… she couldn’t deal with it.”

“She went running back to my dad, and for the next year and 3 months, they went through this ugly cycle of fighting, making up, throwing each other out, and you know; and I was in the middle of all of it. My old man thought I was the root of all his and mom's problems. Thought they would’ve been better off without me; my mom on the other hand was hysterical about my relationship with my dad. Saying I needed to have a normal and good relationship with him, and that I was the one who needed to reach out to him. But things still sucked and once again, my uncle came one day to check up on us and well—” Gesturing aimlessly throughout the air he chuckled humorlessly, “he came to my rescue once again! Took me outta there and well the rest is history.”

He finally decided to look at her, she was staring intently at him, there was no… judgment, no pity, no disgust. It really knocked the wind out of him.

He didn’t know what to do, so he looked away and kept going, “Yeah so, things weren’t exactly ‘stable’ at home, and I felt like I needed something to look forward to, so” He gestured to his shirt, “I created the Hellfire club. I finally had a place where I felt like I belonged.” He smiled, looking at the joint which was now a little nub, squishing it on the floor of the van he threw it away and swiped his hands on his jeans anxiously. “But that didn’t last long… the basketball team thought DnD was for nerds and ‘satanic’ so they picked on us. I guess the only thing they’re good for is tossing balls into laundry baskets and… being dicks.” She snorted, he glanced over at her, she shook her head.

“Was that good?” He joked.

“Yeah yeah, that was good,” She finally turned back to him, resting her chin on her hand, closely following him.

“Anyways, I eventually got dubbed, ‘Eddie the freak Munson’ and after all that I figured… Why even bother trying if the world sees you as something worthless and unfit for society. So I gave up. Hawkins was never gonna accept me for not fitting into their box so I decided… to hell with the box.” He stated simply.

She couldn’t believe what he was saying.

Every sentence he spoke, caused her heart to crack further and further.

She felt like a terrible person, regret ate away at her, a wave of every single belittling comment she had ever said or thought about him crashing into her and nearly drowning her.

And when he finally turned around to look at her, she could tell that it took a lot out of him to say all that, to let her in, to open up the part of him that had been hurt several times before.

“When I was about 13… my dad left.” She started, “My mom tried covering for him, she didn’t want me or my siblings to think anything bad of him. But about 4 months later, he flew us out to visit him… and his very pregnant girlfriend.” Eddie exhaled, understanding what she meant.

“I mean… yeah I was 13 but I wasn’t an idiot. Eventually we saw less and less of him, until he just… disappeared. I started noticing my mom was having trouble keeping up with the bills. Dad cheated on my mom and the least he could do was pay child support but I guess that was too big of an ask.” She scoffed, she began picking at her nails anxiously.

“So I started helping out… here and there. Got a few odd jobs; mowing lawns, babysitting, walking dogs, you name it. If they paid, I did it.” She reminisced about the past, “But now that I'm getting closer to leaving, I can tell my mom is worried, she hasn’t said it but… I know she doesn’t want me to leave. I mean, hell, trying to raise 4 kids on a single parent income is not exactly ‘feasible’ if you ask me. And sometimes… I resent my dad for cheating, sure, but I also hate him for making me grow up a lot faster than I needed to.”

She exhaled, her shoulders feeling less tense, she looked over at Eddie, who like her a second ago, stared at him with the same look of understanding. There was no pity or disgust, just sole understanding of one another, in an unspoken way where their eyes locked and told each other a thousand more words than any of them could have ever spoken.

He reached over behind him, grabbed two beer bottles and raised it up, “To shitty dads.”

She let out a soft laugh, “To shitty dads.”

They clinked their drink and sat there in comfortable silence for another few minutes. Before the lunch bell broke the spell on their unspoken understanding of one another.

“I’ll see you after school?” She asked.

“Wouldn’t miss it.” He smiled, and watched as she headed to her class.

God, he was something else. ———————————— The following day (F/N) began making her way to her first class, eyes droopy from the extra shift she had picked up at the video store and the house sitting job she had scheduled that night as well.

And to top off the night, she could hardly sleep, she had been plagued with a string of migraines no Advil or Tylenol could fix.

She felt like she was going on autopilot, she was so tired that she poured the apple juice she planned on giving her little sister for school into her cereal.

She decided to skip breakfast after that.

“Good morning Lady (F/N),” Eddie appeared next to her and swiftly grabbed her notebooks out of her hands.

“Eddie, what’re you doing?” She weakly reached over trying to grab her books back but Eddie would not relent.

“I need to ask you a favor.”

“Tutoring you to graduation isn’t enough as it is?” She joked, rubbing her eyes.

“First of all, ouch, second of all: did you sleep at all last night.”

She waved him off dismissively, “Yeah yeah, the whole 8 hours blah blah whatever— what is it?”

He still looked unconvinced but carried on, “I was wondering if we could reschedule our tutoring sesh for tonight instead?” His voice grew in pitch.

“Eddie c’mon—” She pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Please! My deals keep getting poached by the same asshole and I have to meet with one today please. I promise I won’t get distracted and I’ll do whatever it is, please.” He practically begged, gently gripping her arms, the warmness of his hands contrasting with the cool metal of his rings left a trail of goosebumps along her arms, his face getting close to her, his big brown doe eyes pleading with her.

She mulled it over; sure it would mean having to get home later but it also meant that she could use that free period to catch up on some sleep.

But he was damn lucky he caught her during a time her brain was drunk on fatigue.

“Fine, we’ll meet later tonight, but you better not flake out on me.”

He pumped his fist, “Yes! Thank you, you won’t regret this.” The warning bell rang and they said their goodbyes, until later that night.

But that never came. ———————————— She sighed contentedly in her living room, for the first time in a long time she was home: alone.

Her mom was out on a business trip, her two younger sisters were spending their spring break over at a friend's house, and her brother was off camping.

She even managed to have the day off of work; cherishing the quiet she slowly sipped her coffee, watching the warm sunlight flit inside her house, the trees were hyperpigmented and the birds sang a soft melody.

The only thing that was ruining this once in a lifetime opportunity was the migraine that didn’t want to leave her skull. But she wouldn’t let it ruin her bliss.

That is, until the phone rang.

It was as if a pin needle landed on a glass plane with such speed that the second it grazed it, everything shattered.

“(F/N)! Have you seen or heard from Eddie?!” A distressed Robin broke through the line.

“Robin? What’s going on?” Suddenly everything around her went eerily quiet.

“Give me that— (F/N) you were the last one to see Eddie. Do you know where he is?!” There was a struggle going on on the other line, when Dustin Henderson’s panicked voice came through.

She scoffed, “He had rescheduled our tutoring session for last night but he never showed.” She sat in the public library waiting for him for half an hour before she decided to go home.

“Do you know why he rescheduled?” Dustin’s panic only growing.

“What is going on what happened to—”

“Come to Family Video, now.” Robin once again came through the line before it went dead.

“Hello? Robin? Dustin? Anyone!” She slammed the phone down, “Shit.”

She quickly grabbed her car keys, abandoning her coffee on the counter and raced over to the store.

The pit in her stomach only grew.

What happened to Eddie?

#stranger things #stranger things season 4 #stranger things vol 2 spoilers #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #everybody wants to rule the world #everybody wants to rule the world//chapter four #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x you #enemies to lovers #shakespeare

114 notes · View notes