Even Stranger Magic

The Hideout was gone in Eddie's mind, poof, disappeared.

When Corroded Coffin stepped out on the stage to the lone applause of Uncle Wayne, Eddie took himself away from it.

They weren't in the dive bar with five old drunks sitting on busted down barstools, four of them more interested in their drinks than Eddie's band. They were at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, walking out to applause so thunderous that it could nearly cause the walls to crumble and the rock to crush them all.

When the applause didn't start an avalanche, Eddie knew that the music could.

"We're Corroded Coffin and it's great to be here," Eddie said, looking out at thousands of people who screamed their name, came to hear their music. They were there for Corroded Coffinx and Eddie would give it to them.

They put their souls into their four song set list and they nailed it. Every line, every fucking note was filled with their energy and their very essence. They put on a show for the masses, they wore their hearts on their instruments.

When they finished and the spell was broken, Eddie looked out in the bar and managed to grin at Uncle Wayne for his loyal clapping. Mark wasn't there, Eddie packed his heart away and pretended that his absence didn't bother him. They'd celebrate together later, they usually did.

Tuesdays were for rock n roll, good weed, and Mark.

Eddie helped load their equipment up in his van when they finished up. Jeff tried to talk Eddie into going back inside for a drink, Eddie shot him down. They all knew where he was going, it wasn't exactly a secret amongst his most trusted of men.

Eddie started pre-gaming on his drive to Mark's place. The music was good, the air was sparking with possibility, and Eddie had no intentions on losing the buzz inside of his skin. He was young, relatively - certainly a child in Hobbit terms - happy, content.

Some of that was thanks to Mark - Mark, Mark, Mark.

A couple of years older than Eddie, they never clicked in school much. Mark was a silent loner, poetic in his silence. Eddie had Hellfire and Corroded Coffin and their paths didn't entwine again until a few months ago.

Mark had asked around about who could find him a good deal on E, Eddie had been the hero to whom he was directed. It was kind of a pain to get, Eddie had to make a trip to Indianapolis for it, but Mark made it very much worth it. They left the earthly plane together and traveled the atmosphere.

When they touched grass together the next morning, Eddie had been thrilled when Mark wanted him. Him. Mark Trueblood - tall, blonde, sexy-smart - wanted Eddie Munson. It was revolutionary and Eddie went to him a few nights a week so they could smoke, talk, be with each other.

Mark wasn't out of the closet so they always met at his place. Not that it was a great time to step out of a closet, but Eddie might not have minded if Mark wanted to be public. Apparently Eddie knew plenty of queers - Robin, from the school band. Harry, from the land of fucking Oz. Even Steve Harrington seemed to have jumped on the homo train, if Eddie's basic level of common sense hadn't begun failing him.

It was cool if Mark wanted to be a secret, Eddie didn't mind. It sucked that he must have changed his mind about seeing Corroded Coffin though, Eddie just would have been psyched to see one extra person in the Hideout.

Mark's place was just outside of Hawkins, an old hunting cabin that his grandpa gave him for graduating and Mark had made some repairs on when he had the extra income. Eddie spotted a new pile of plywood in the yard when he parked, it was probably for the kitchen wall that had caved in after the tornado that ripped through town.

Eddie had gotten lucky, in a way. The trailer he shared with Wayne had been smashed, fucking destroyed, then his new shiny friends who shimmered with secrets and magic went and fixed it. Billy tried to tell Eddie, right to his face, that he and Steve had fixed it up. Because Billy thought Eddie was blind, maybe. Or it was a secret that they were in cahoots with actual fucking wizards and to speak the secret would be the break it.

Whichever it was, Eddie's trailer had been fixed up, nicer than before the tornado. Uncle Wayne wasn't suspicious, Eddie got confirmation from the world that magic was real, and then Eddie was accepted into the secret society of wizards and jocks.

A strange mixture, something that only ancient and mystic charms could make happen.

Eddie whistled quietly when he hopped out of his van and closed the door. There was a new truck in the driveway, a beaten down old red Chevy, Eddie assumed that Mark borrowed it to move the plywood or something. Mark had the soul of a poet, the hands of a creator.

The backdoor was locked and Eddie snagged the key, grinning and bouncing while he unlocked it, excited to tell Mark about the show he missed. Mark said once that it sounded like Corroded Coffin played the same songs and Eddie wanted to prove him wrong, show him a new song. Metallica's Fight Fire with Fire had only been out for three weeks and Corroded Coffin already performed it - how was that for a new song?

The record player was on when Eddie made his way inside and he tried to not make a face at the twangy country tunes filling the cabin. There was some decent country, some bluegrass music that took Eddie back to his childhood, but Barbara Mandrell? Hellll no. They were going to have to have a talk about good music again.

"Markie?" Eddie walked through the cabin, grinned when he saw the bedroom door was cracked open. They usually smoked together when Eddie got there, Eddie wasn't going to complain about a change in schedule.

Eddie bumped the bedroom door with his hip and then stopped - froze.

Standing at the side of the bed, railing some chick like a paid pornstar, was Mark. Tall, blonde, sexy-smart Mark with his hair stuck to his forehead in sweaty clumps. Eddie felt like he'd been actually punched, punched right in the stomach, with every groan and grunt that Mark made and every moan and whimper from the chick.

Maybe it wasn't real - maybe Eddie slipped away during his show and hadn't returned to reality yet. Maybe his weed had been laced. Maybe —

Mark turned his head, finally noticed Eddie standing frozen in the doorway. It was his eyes that were real, the storm of blues that hypnotized Eddie when they were the ones creating a symphony of cries together. Mark didn't say anything, Eddie didn't either.

Eddie walked out of the room, out of the cabin.

It was embarrassing though, because he only made it back out of the door before he planted himself on the railing of the porch Mark built. All he wanted was to talk, for Mark to say something that would explain what was happening.

An accident? He slipped, fell inside of someone else? A love spell cast by a siren? A sudden bout of intense gay panic that led Mark to try and correct what wasn't broken by sleeping with some chick?

All Eddie wanted was an explanation - the right set of words to stitch together the ripped pieces of his chest. Mark was good at that, saying the right things. So Eddie waited.

It was probably ten minutes later that the backdoor creaked open and Eddie lifted his head to see Mark shuffling out with just a pair of sweatpants thrown on. Mark closed the door behind him, not before Eddie heard water running inside the cabin.

"Showering after, smart," Eddie said, forcing himself to speak. "Is she washing away evidence before her boyfriend shows up too? You know, this could be a really good time if we let it."

"Eddie… it's not like that." Mark sighed and patted his pockets, probably looking for a smoke. Eddie had cigarettes, cigarettes and a blunt he planned on sharing.

Eddie shared every time he and Mark got together… maybe that was the problem.

"Not like what?" Eddie asked, hopping up so his jiggling leg didn't give him away. "You weren't railing Miss Tan and Bendy in your bed?"

"I mean… we aren't like that," Mark said, grimacing when Eddie pointed out exactly what he'd done. "You and I, we're not like - together, Eddie. You know that."

No, Eddie didn't know that. Eddie thought… he thought that they were ‘like together'.

"You said," Eddie swallowed, fluttered his hand as if he were searching his memory instead of fighting back an army of disappointment, "you said you cared about me."

"I do," Mark said, lowering his voice when Eddie raised his. "We've got our own thing going on, okay? But that doesn't mean we're together, we're just - we have a good time."

Yeah, they did. They had a good time when they smoked together, talked, laughed. They had a good time when they had sex, when they stayed up all night talking about their lives and their dreams. How could Eddie possibly have misconstrued that into believing they were together?

"You couldn't just pretend?" Eddie asked, deflating like his chest had been punctured and all the air inside of him escaped with his idea that he meant something to Mark. "It's Tuesday, Mark. You couldn't just fucking pretend that I meant at least enough to not double book yourself?"

"I guess I could have pretended, but…" Mark ran his hand through his hair that was still wet with sweat, when he dropped his hand and looked Eddie square in the eyes, Eddie knew he should have just left.

"You weren't worth it."

It played in Eddie's mind like the theme song to his life —

"You weren't worth it." "You weren't worth it." "You weren't worth it."

All through Hawkins when the road blurred and Eddie hit himself in the eye to try and fight away tears, the words were crystal clear. Eddie Munson, the freak of Hawkins, was not worth it.

Eddie had been fine to get free weed from, he'd been fine to fuck, that was it. Eddie wasn't worth it.

When would Eddie be worth the elusive it? When would Eddie be worth the smallest bit of effort? When would Eddie be worth someone sticking around just for him? Eddie shouldn't have gotten so wrapped up in Mark, he should have known better than to get attached to someone who didn't even like Metallica.

Eddie should have known better than to think he'd been worth anything to Mark, to anyone.

"Stupid, stupid, fucking STUPID!" Eddie smacked himself, smacked the steering wheel. God, he was an idiot. He was a complete fool. Just a fool of took, falling for a pretty boy with storms in his eyes.

Eddie drove past the trailer park, Uncle Wayne would ask questions if Eddie showed up then and Eddie didn't want to look that man in the eyes and lie to him. There was another option for a place to crash, a place with food and magic and was detached from the real world just enough that Eddie could imagine the entire day had been a bad trip.

Steve Harrington, the prior Golden Boy of Hawkins High, had apparently decided to turn his home into a hostel for freaks. There was Steve himself, painfully average to the outer observer and a closet queer with his eyes set on a certain wizard. There were the witch twins - Harry and Sirianna Hopper (Hammond? Potter? They were magical beings of many names), who Eddie sensed were as full of secrets as they were magic.

Then there was Billy Hargrove, Eddie's… friend, somehow. Billy wasn't a dedicated smoker, but that was how their friendship began. Billy had seemed to be a muscled tool of violence when he first arrived in Hawkins. Eddie, with his long history of being such good friends with the lovers of sports, had steered clear until Billy changed.

Eddie heard rumors, rumors that included Billy spending a week in a hospital and then never returning to his home. Even in the freak-crowd, rumors flew. There was a rumor that Billy had gone on a bender, flipped his car and nearly died. That rumor was a proven falsehood when Billy returned in his beautiful Camaro that was in much better condition than he. There was a rumor that Billy and Steve had gotten in a death match, mano a mano. It was a likely story until all of Hawkins High watched Billy and Steve show up together, the best of friends.

The only rumor that didn't seem to be erased with evidence was that Billy found a fight at home.

Eddie didn't ask about it, it wasn't his business. Billy changed though, mellowed out. Eddie didn't mind the Billy who emerged from a dark fight with a demon, he was a freak in his own right.

Billy listened to the same Satan-loving music that Eddie did. He spent more time on his hair every day than Eddie, possibly less than Steve Harrington, and he was in love with a witch. Total freak. Eddie liked him.

And somehow, Billy liked him. They got along well, hung out together. Eddie even had a standing invitation to crash on the couch in Billy's mini-home in Steve's backyard. It was where he drove to, figuring that Billy wouldn't ask much about Eddie's day.

The entire freakshow was gathered outside when Eddie pulled up, placed around the pool like a bad cliché. Eddie hesitated, unsure if he was really meant to walk over and join a group of teenagers while they ‘hung out'.

"Eddie, man, pull up a seat." Billy snagged a beer from a case by his chair and tossed it to Eddie. "Where ya been?"

"Here and there, saving the world, you know," Eddie said vaguely. He caught the beer and walked over, nodded at the usual residents of the hostel and the new ones. Jonathan Byers and Nancy Wheeler were there, along with Harry, Sirianna, their magical friend Theo, and Steve. It seemed almost like a party. A very chill party that mostly involved half of the crew swimming and the other half lounging and drinking.

It was sickeningly normal, Eddie probably didn't belong there.

"Saving the world?" Miss Nancy Wheeler was one of the swimmers, propped on the edge and grinning at Eddie. "Did you slay them with a sword?"

"My Morgul-blade, fair Nancy," Eddie said, sitting awkwardly on the edge of one of the empty seats between Sirianna and Theo. Sirianna was lovely, Theo was strange, Eddie was in mixed company.

"A Morgul-blade?" Theo turned to Eddie and Eddie skirted his eyes, made himself very interested in his refreshing beverage. "Are you the witch-king?"

Eddie perked up at a fellow freak, a well-read lover of enthralling fiction as was he.

"No…" Billy leaned past his girlfriend, narrowed his eyes at Eddie. "I'm guessing witch-kings don't get punched in the face. The fuck, Munson?"

Eddie lifted his hand and touched his face where he had slammed his own fist into flesh. Why would Billy possibly choose in the middle of a crowd to point that out…? Eddie was not worth it.

"Stage accident," Eddie said brightly. "The microphone and I became intimately acquainted. Anyway, Theo, you read Tolkien?"

"Harry and I read Fellowship of the Ring in first year," Theo said, his eyes moving to find his beloved in the pool while Sirianna quietly called him a ‘swot'. Harry swam with Steve, looked to Theo.

Eddie had yet to conclude which suitor the young Harry had given his heart to, he wasn't sure that Harry himself knew yet. But if Theo read Tolkien, Eddie was cheering for him to win his battle.

Although, Steve did create his hostel of freaks, so perhaps Eddie should cheer for him. It was conflicting, Eddie should take Harry aside and explain polyamory to him in great, specific, detail. It seemed that if Harry was not told things in detail, massive misunderstandings were likely to happen.

Eddie wasn't going to forget his quest for cocaine when Harry had wanted the cola variety anytime soon.

"I've got the rest of the books at home," Theo told Harry, forgetting entirely that Eddie - who was not worth it - had been the one to ask about his literary habits. "I'll bring them next week when we start moving things."

"It's so weird, you living with Sirius," Sirianna cut in. "I feel a bit like you've stolen my godfather."

Eddie faded to the comfortable background while Sirianna and Theo began a friendly debate over the man-dog, Sirius, yet another wizard. It seemed truly unfair that Eddie would be surrounded by true earthly magic and unable to so much as heal the ache in his chest.

Some people, certainly not Eddie, were blessed. Some people, Eddie, were not worth it.

When the party - get-together, shindig, hangout - began to come to an end, Eddie slipped away to collect his guitar from the back of his van. He didn't realize he was being followed until he closed the door and saw Billy standing just behind him.

"Fuck!" Eddie yelped, clutching his guitar tighter to his chest. "Warn a man, will you?"

"What's all that shit?" Billy asked, snaking an arm around and opening the door back up. He looked inside at the various equipment, Jeff's guitar, Freak's bass. "Are you starting a band?"

Did Eddie not…? No, he didn't, did he?

"I have a band," Eddie said. It was usually an entire sales pitch, a shameless series of self-promotion to bring glory to Corroded Coffin. He wasn't feeling it though, not that night.

"We play at the Hideout sometimes, nothing crazy," Eddie said with a small shrug. They were there every Tuesday - every Tuesday they played to the same small group of bar flies who ignored them easily by then. If it weren't for Uncle Wayne's connection with the owner, Eddie was sure that they wouldn't have made it back after their first performance.

"Shut the fuck up," Billy said, raising an eyebrow in apparent disbelief. "You've got a whole fucking band?"

"Yes, a whole band," Eddie agreed. "It's a glamorous life, filled with autographs, world tours, crazed fans throwing themselves at me."

"That's the dream, man." Billy closed the door of the van then slapped Eddie's shoulder. "Max brought the new Metallica record over today, I was going to see if you wanted to listen to it, but apparently - fuckin' secret rockstar - you're too good to have a beer and see if the album is shit or not."

"Luckily for you, I have some free time tonight!" Eddie declared. "You're going to fucking love Fight Fire with Fire, the solo is killer. It's probably the hardest song to play."

"The album just came out," Billy argued, leading the way down the pathed sidewalk to the guest house. "There's no way you fucking learned it already."

"Where there's a will, there's a way," Eddie said. And when there was a pretty face - hiding a frozen heart - to impress, Eddie had nothing but will. "I could - I mean I can prove it, if needed."

"By all means…" Billy tossed open the door to his place, had Ziggy barking at them from Sirianna's lap on the sofa. "Let's see if you're all talk, Munson."

Eddie was not all talk, not when it came to music.

Billy got comfortable and Eddie was kind of on the spot on his own small stage with a crowd nearly as big as the one that filled the Hideout. Not that it mattered, his fingers found the strings of his first true love and Eddie let the music take him away.

Sirianna, darling girl she was, cheered louder than Eddie had ever been cheered for when the song ended and demanded a second song. Eddie obliged, pulled Master of Puppets out of his back pocket. Billy called out One when that song ended, and Eddie switched to the slower melody.

"Jesus, man." Billy was impressed when Eddie finished, a true feat, and held his fist out in the age old concept of manly signs of affection.

"Fuckin' awesome," Billy said. "When do you have another show?"

"I want to go!" Sirianna said, beaming at Eddie with a thousand watt smile.

"Uh… Tuesdays," Eddie told them, carefully propping his guitar against the wall, away from the door that was often thrown open by any of the many citizens of Hostel Freak. "Corroded Coffin, that's my band, we play at the Hideout on Tuesday nights."

"Cool, we'll be there," Billy said.

Eddie forced a nod, pretended that it was the first time someone promised that to him. They wouldn't be there, and that was fine. Eddie wasn't worth it.

The week dragged slowly for Eddie. He went home, listened to Uncle Wayne talk about how Eddie would pass his senior year when it started in a few weeks - third time being the charm and all. Eddie got together with the guys, practiced some new songs they wrote. Friday was for Hellfire and Eddie was thrilled to have new recruits asking to join the next campaign.

They were young, bright-eyed and innocent. It was good to see that the Youth of America were finding suitable interests in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Eddie had played with the two girls in the group, Billy's sister Max and Sirianna and Harry's sister El, the boys were a pleasant surprise. They were upcoming eighth graders, seeking out the best of adventures.

"Our next campaign starts in a fortnight," Eddie told them. "If you endeavor to join us, do not be late."

"Or we'll kill you," Garth hissed, making the pale squeamish looking one go green. Eddie supported the hiss until the kids left and then he swatted his hand at Garth.

"Why would you say that?" Eddie complained. "We're not killing a bunch of kids!"

"I thought it sounded cool! Like ominous and threatening!"

"It sounded like we were going to murder children!"

"Only if they're late!"

It was no wonder Hellfire wasn't exactly taking off, it was hard to do if kids thought they'd be killed for being late.

Eddie was hanging out at the quarry on Saturday evening, doing nothing more than enjoying the brief solace to think about life, the world, what his upcoming senior year would hold for him. Billy and Steve would be seniors as well, perhaps a small solace in the pain of being a repeater.

It was going to be humiliating, joining a new class of students who knew where their lives were going. College, career, picket fences and families - they were more put together than Eddie could claim to be. What did Eddie have going for him?

A band that had no fans, a club that could continue without him, a small business that kept gas in his van and smokes in his pocket. There were no colleges, careers, declaration of love or adoration in his future.

There were no Marks, no Siriannas, not even a messy love interest like the one between Steve and Harry. It was only Eddie, striking out as a solo man in a world that rejected him every fucking time.

As much as Eddie swore to never be like his dad, he couldn't help but to sit back and wonder if a single cell in the state penitentiary was where he would one day call home. It would break Uncle Wayne's heart, to find out that he wasted his life raising his nephew only for him to end up just like Alan Munson.

Eddie hated the thought of Uncle Wayne alone, blaming himself for Eddie's own failures.

It was beginning to get late, Eddie was deciding between going home or crashing with Billy again, when the crunch of tires on the pathway caught his attention. The quarry wasn't a private location, but Eddie had tried to take a less well-traveled route for privacy.

The car wasn't one that Eddie recognized off the bat, a shiny silver Buick. Eddie started to move away from the busted down picnic table he'd been chilling at, only to have the driver wave at him. Eddie waved back once he realized who it was, Hawkins High very own royalty, Chrissy Cunningham.

Chrissy, in addition to being beautiful and much kinder than beautiful people had to be, was one of Eddie's occasional lunch-associates. Eddie didn't exactly know how he ended up at the popular table during lunch at school, but it was certainly an interesting time every time.

"Eddie! Hi!" Chrissy was driving and Eddie judged by the paper plates on the back that it was a new car, probably a gift. Chrissy's boyfriend, the equally beautiful Jason Carver, stepped out of the passenger seat and nodded at Eddie.

"Chrissy, Jason." Eddie waved to them both and stepped away from the picnic table. "Great night for a date," he said politely.

It was a good night for a romantic rendezvous, with the sun nearly setting behind the quarry and the air so calm and warm. It was the perfect setting for lovebirds and a depressing backdrop to those who weren't worth it.

"Oh, you don't have to leave!" Chrissy said. "Why don't you sit with us? We haven't seen you in a while!"

"I don't want to impose," Eddie said slowly. He scratched the back of his neck when he looked from Chrissy's warm smile and Jason's more polite one. It wasn't like they were strangers, Eddie crashed in on Billy and Sirianna's dates a few times, they were never shy about telling him to get lost when they wanted to though.

"It's not an imposition," Jason answered for Chrissy, pushing himself off the car and hefting a paper bag from the backseat. "Chrissy's missed you," he said, adding a wink that should have been weird. If Jason weren't Jason Carver, All-American Catholic Boy Next Door, Eddie might have misread it. Jason was just oddly friendly, oddly friendly to Eddie, who people like him tended to not like.

"I have missed you," Chrissy said with a sweet laugh. She grabbed Eddie's arm, pulled him right back to the table he had abandoned. "Sirianna said you practically live at Steve's now too, but I never see you when I come by."

"Too much socialization makes my hair go flat," Eddie joked, sitting down beside Chrissy, across from where Jason began unloading their bag. Eddie was clearly third-wheeling on a date, he was pretty sure it was a sunset picnic between two perfect people with a perfect future ahead of them.

They would graduate together, go to college together. Chrissy would cheer for Jason while he excelled in every sport he tried out on. They would end up married, both of them with careers working for the Man, and then they'd have three kids that would repeat their history right there in little old Hawkins, Indiana.

Eddie shouldn't have felt any sort of pang of envy, Eddie didn't want to have some small town dream. It was just nice that they had each other, that they seemed so sure. It was nice that they found each other worth it.

"Does your hair even go flat?" Chrissy reached over and touched a lock of Eddie's long black hair, twirled it around her finger playfully. Eddie ignored the way Chrissy's eyes lingered, shot Jason a look that he hoped didn't seem guilty.

Chrissy was friendly, Eddie was Eddie. Jason didn't look bothered, he was grinning some while he watched his girlfriend begin a full assault on Eddie's hair.

"It doesn't go flat and it also doesn't go in braids," Eddie said when he could feel Chrissy beginning to part sections out.

"Great, now you challenged her," Jason chuckled. He ran a hand through his ‘respectable length' blonde hair and grinned. "I keep mine short so she can't send me to work in braids."

"Don't listen to him," Chrissy said in a mock-whisper to Eddie. "I totally put his hair in little tiny ponytails and he loves them."

Eddie was caught off-guard by being brought in on what seemed like an inside joke, by having Chrissy slide closer to him on the bench so she could play with his hair, by Jason just grinning like it didn't bother him at all to see his girlfriend with her hands on someone else. So Eddie laughed, tried to relax. If he tried really hard, he could pretend he was just with Billy and Sirianna again…

Except Sirianna never played with Eddie's hair and Billy didn't let his eyes linger when they looked at Eddie.

"Here, help yourself." Jason had what seemed like a third of a bakery beneath tinfoil covers and inside old plastic dishes. "What have you been up to?"

"Uh, a little of this, little of that," Eddie said. The sun had dipped down more and the red hues were adding streaks to Jason's hair, casting shadows on his face and highlighting his eyes.

Blue, fuck they were a perfect swirl of blue.

"Band practice, mostly," Eddie said quickly, bouncing his knee and forcing himself away from thoughts about Mark and what had never been truly his to have. "Hellfire Club is still alive and kicking though."

"I forgot you're in a band!" Chrissy paused her place in the braid she was adding to Eddie's hair to talk. "Jason, Eddie's a great singer. You were in the middle school talent show, right, Eddie? With your band?"

"Yeah, I remember!" Jason said, surprising Eddie. "Aw, man, what was it called? My mom called it Satanic when I told her about it…"

Eddie didn't know which shocked him more - Chrissy and Jason remembered Eddie's middle school talent show or that Jason told his mom about it.

"Corroded Coffin," Eddie said, very nonchalantly and cool. If Eddie didn't make it seem important to him, then nobody got any bright ideas about mocking it.

"That's it!" Jason picked up a tiny frosted cupcake and placed it in front of Chrissy, then placed another one in front of Eddie. "You guys still play?"

"Yeah, yup." Eddie picked up the little cupcake and popped it in his mouth for an excuse to not talk.

"I'd love to see you play sometime," Chrissy said. Her fingers were moving quickly and Eddie swore she pulled a tiny rubber-band from thin air to finish off the end of his new braid. Eddie reached up to touch it and it was small, subtle, maybe totally kick ass.

"You could have front row seats at the swankiest stadium in town," Eddie said, getting more comfortable the longer that nobody told him to scram. "Ever heard of a little place called the Hideout? I hate to brag, but Corroded Coffin has a contract to enthrall an audience there every Tuesday night."

"Every Tuesday?" Chrissy asked. She licked a spot of icing from her finger and Eddie looked up at the sky, ignoring the way that Chrissy made an innocent action look very much… not innocent.

"Yup, every Tuesday," Eddie said. He bounced his foot, trying to shake off the weirdness clinging to him. "No cover charge, but the drinks are crap."

"I don't drink anyway," Jason said. "And Chrissy's a lightweight, if she has one drink she'll be trying to jump on stage with you."

Eddie did let a laugh out at that, Jason was funny when he was talking. He didn't talk a lot at school, he seemed to let Chrissy do it for him.

"Whatever, Jason's acting like he doesn't sing his heart and soul out in the car every time Culture Club comes on," Chrissy said, shooting Jason a playful smirk. "‘Karma, karma, karma chameleon…'"

Jason started to sigh and drop his head, then he grabbed a bottle of water from the table top and pulled it toward him like a microphone:

"You come and go, you come and go," Jason wailed, off-tune but adorable with his hair just barely falling over his tanned face and all of his lung capacity going into Boy George's chorus. "Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams…"

"Red, gold, and green. Red, gold, and green," Eddie jumped in. Jason did seem to have a Culture Club kick, he moved right over to the verse without missing a beat. Eddie laughed again when Chrissy took a microphone water bottle for them to share and somehow, some-fucking-how, Eddie sat at a picnic table at the quarry, washed in the setting sun, singing the entire song with Chrissy Cunningham and Jason Carver.

Eddie wanted to say that crazier things had happened to him before, but he wasn't sure that they did. Was it a crazy night that Eddie spent as a third wheel, talking about music and history with Jason, laughing as he tried to mimic Chrissy's cheer moves or was it some sort of fever dream sent to Eddie to remind him that he could nearly fit in so many places, but never in a place with an opening.

It might have seemed like a cruel reminder that Eddie didn't need, until Chrissy and Jason kept popping up. Eddie hadn't seen them hardly all summer and then - bam - there they were.

Sunday morning, Eddie opened the door of his trailer and found Chrissy standing there, asking if he wanted to get breakfast with her. Eddie was pretty sure he had just seen Chrissy a few hours before, who the hell was up at nine am on a Sunday? But he grabbed a shirt and agreed anyway.

Breakfast wound up including Jason, who was apparently in a fight with his God. Eddie perked up in interest, he could discuss religion all day long, and tried to get a straight answer out of Jason. The most he got was that Jason felt like God would hate him and he looked honestly pretty torn up over it.

"Isn't the big guy upstairs supposed to be all love and acceptance?" Eddie asked, waving a forkful of pancake around from his place in the booth the three of them were sharing. It was a Waffle House, so the food was okay, the coffee lukewarm. But Chrissy and Jason were more than interesting enough to make up for it.

"Acceptance for those who walk in His path," Jason said, drawing a straight line on the table. "Anyone who deviates," he turned his finger to the side, "is kept from the Kingdom."

"In some translations," Eddie argued. "Think about this, God is the ultimate father, right? He loves his kids, wants the best for them. He set up rules, consequences for breaking them. Like a parent would, right?"

Jason nodded slowly with a vulnerable hint in his eyes that bore into Eddie's.

"So kids do shit their parents don't like all the time," Eddie said, bringing the point home. "If you went for a joyride and crashed your dad's car, would he lock the door in your face for an eternity when you faced him next?"

"See?" Chrissy was beside Eddie again and she reached across the table to take Jason's hand and gave him one of her sweetest looks, a look that was probably meant just for Jason. "I told you, you're too hard on yourself. I think that God would want you to accept yourself and serve him."

Eddie wasn't sure how he ended up on a religious-debate-breakfast-date, but he had a good time anyway. By the end of it, Jason even seemed to sit a little straighter, more like the confident guy that Eddie pictured him as.

"Breakfast is on me," Jason said firmly, grabbing Eddie's wrist when Eddie reached for the check they were given. Eddie didn't have a problem not paying, he wasn't really rolling in extra cash recently. It didn't explain why he swore that Jason's thumb swiped over the underside of his wrist twice before letting go of him.

Eddie was invited to go ‘hang out' at the pool with Chrissy and Sirianna while Jason worked his shift as a guard that afternoon but he had a campaign to work on and awkwardly turned down the invite.

"Is that for your game? Dungeons and Dragons?" Chrissy asked. Jason drove separately and it was just Eddie and Chrissy in Eddie's driveway. Chrissy seemed to be stalling, even if Eddie couldn't quite understand why.

"Yeah." Eddie grinned, teasing her, "A new campaign starts soon, you could join, you know."

Eddie wasn't expecting Chrissy freaking Cunningham, Queen of Cheerleading, Goddess of Beauty, Fairy Princess of kindness, to beam at him with an overly earnest, "I'd love to!"

She was bored, or something. Eddie gave her the details on when and where the new campaign would begin and offered to give her a couple of books soon to look over so she could understand the game and how to design a character.

"Sirianna could help you," Eddie said. "Just don't let her insist you're a witch, there's more lives to live than one of witchcraft."

"Sirianna plays?" Chrissy asked with her picture-perfect round eyes blinking away. "She never told me that."

"Well… maybe it's a secret," Eddie said quickly, backtracking. The group of freaks at Steve's home didn't seem like they hid their secret magic all that well - Eddie watched Sirius change from man to mutt - but maybe Chrissy hadn't been brought in on the secret? Or did she miss the signs? That seemed more likely, Chrissy and Sirianna were inseparable at school.

"Maybe she's hiding you all to herself," Chrissy winked. Eddie was still processing the quite flirtatious wink when Chrissy leaned across the console and pecked his cheek with her lips. "I'll design the best character ever and learn all the rules so I don't embarrass you," she said, all casual like her LIPS DIDN'T JUST TOUCH EDDIE'S CHEEK.

Eddie didn't even know what he said, all he knew was that his fingers were touching his face where Chrissy's lips had been long after she left. It didn't mean anything, it was affectionate, absent, friendly. They were friends, Eddie had friends. Eddie wasn't worth the effort for a romance, Eddie was apparently worth a band of friends who continued to pop up.

On Monday, Eddie was hanging out at Billy's, playing their favorite game - watching Steve and Theo compete for Harry's attention. The man-dog was back and he gave Eddie a gold coin with a dragon engraved on it - ‘unum galleon' - in exchange for splitting a joint with him. Eddie didn't know what he was meant to do with a gold coin, but it was probably the most badass form of payment he ever received before.

Poor Harry though, the longer Eddie watched him being pulled back and forth between Theo and Steve, the worse he felt for him. Harry was a nice guy, Eddie really wished someone would tell him that he was perfectly able to date two guys at the same time.

"Have they heard of polyamory?" Eddie mused, passing the joint to Sirius. "I think that would solve most of their problems."

"What's that?" Billy murmured lazily. He was stretched out in the sunshine, his sunglasses over his eyes, soaking in as much of tan as he could get.

"It's a triad, where they all date and shag each other," Sirius quipped, incorrectly. "I've hinted at it, I can't make them have common sense."

"Except Steve and Theo don't seem to have any interest in each other, so Harry could declare himself polyamorous - or not, who needs the label? - and date them both." Eddie shrugged at the seemingly simple solution, "It's a win-win-win."

"So baby bird gets two boyfriends, they each get half of one?" Billy scoffed. "Yeah, that sounds fair to Steve."

Eddie didn't see the issue with it. Steve wanted Harry, there were twenty-four hours in a day. Why did it matter if Harry spent some of those hours with Theo? He was doing it anyway, Eddie thought the only thing that would change would be the end of the bigger dick contests.

"Steve's got no chance," Sirius said breezily, pausing only to hit the joint. "Theo's going to love Harry or die trying," he said on the exhale.

Eddie was going to ask them both to place a wager on it, then rig the contest by telling Harry about polyamory himself. He was interrupted though by a shiny silver Buick pulling in the driveway. Eddie leaned back in his seat, ignored the sweat building on the back of his neck when his cheek burned — did Chrissy tell Jason? Did he decide that Eddie somehow fucked up and needed his ass kicked?

Chrissy was out of the car first, a vision in her pink skirt and white tank top. Jason was next, the perfect pair in khaki shorts and a pink polo. If there were ever a prettier pair of people, Eddie didn't know them.

"Hey." Billy nodded shortly at them, catching their attention from where they'd been watching the game happening in the pool. "What's happening?"

"Nothing." Chrissy bounced over to where they were all sitting and she sat down right next to Eddie, even though there were plenty of other open seats. "Eddie's uncle said he wasn't home, we thought maybe he was here."

"What'd you want Eddie for?" Billy asked, flipping his sunglasses up and tracking Jason while he loped across the yard with his long and muscled legs.

"Chrissy missed him," Jason said, smiling an even white smile.

"Whatever." Chrissy rolled her eyes and scooted around until she was hip-to-hip with Eddie and covering him in her flowery smell. "Jason was the one who said we should check here."

For what fucking reason?!

Even the half of a joint he had didn't calm Eddie much when Jason pulled a chair up, putting himself between Eddie and Sirius, to ‘hang out'. Chrissy asked Eddie if she could braid his hair, Eddie said sure, and then they were both just there - invading his space and confusing him.

Eddie let Chrissy's fingers in his hair calm him while Billy quietly gave Jason a rundown on the game they were watching unfold. Steve had escalated it by offering to teach Harry dives - a method of instruction that involved a lot of hands on shoulders and hips.

"So they're both like in love with Harry?" Jason asked, stretching out in his chair and watching with more ease than Eddie expected. Jason had never been much of a gay-basher, he sat with almost every queer in Hawkins High every lunch, but he was religious enough that it wouldn't have been a huge shock if there was disgust on his face.

"Yeah, man, it's sickening," Billy said, almost merry about it. "I've got fifty on Steve pulling through."

"Sixty on Theo," Sirius said with admirable loyalty.

"Why don't they all date each other?" Chrissy asked, the most obvious of solutions from the least likely mouth. Eddie tried to look at her, but she tugged on his hair and all he saw were pink cheeks on Miss Sweet and Not-So-Traditional.

"That's what Munson said too," Billy told them. "I don't think they'd go for it."

"Sucks," Jason said mildly. "Like what's so bad about more of a good thing?"

Eddie's stomach actually flipped when Billy grunted in a non-answer and Jason looked Eddie right in the eyes.

Jason. Looked. Right. At. Eddie.

After suggesting a triad.

"I think," Chrissy's nails scratched Eddie's scalp for a moment, gentle and just enough to send goosebumps down his back, "that it's like the perfect solution."

Eddie was still stuck in some intense eye-contact with Jason, still feeling Chrissy scratch his head in what had to be purposefully slow motions, and swallowed loudly.

"Yeah, maybe," he said, a high-pitched agreement to… something.

Fuck, Eddie had no idea what was happening to him. Was it all a crazy coincidence? Or was it Chrissy Cunningham flirting with Eddie while Jason Carver looked at him like Eddie was holding the answers to all his questions?

Eddie let Chrissy braid his hair for a few minutes before he found an excuse to jump up and find a place with air. Eddie mumbled some shit about a bathroom, then jogged around the side of the house to lean against it out of view.

What was that? What the fuck was that?! Was Eddie fucking delusional? Did he actually burn away all his braincells like those drug ads warned him of?!

Yeah, yeah, that explanation had some merit. It had a lot more merit than thinking that Hawkins own Ken and Barbie - a more interesting Ken and Barbie, Ken and Barbie with flaws and opinions and personalities - were trying to invite Eddie into their perfect little relationship.

There was no way that six days ago Mark with the poets soul was saying Eddie wasn't worth effort and that suddenly —

"Eddie?"

Oh, God.

Eddie jumped up from where he'd been slouched against the house and his eyes flickered guiltily from Chrissy's sweet and soft face to Jason's handsome and chiseled one.

"We're totally freaking you out," Chrissy said, walking right up to Eddie and taking his hand. She was shorter than Eddie, it was a bad time to think about how adorable that was. "I'm so sorry, we weren't trying to make you feel weird."

"It's my fault," Jason blurted. He rubbed his neck, rubbing away a blush that was creeping up to his face. "I - uh - I'm new to this. So… so I was a creep. My bad."

New to…?

"If you're not interested, that's okay," Chrissy said softly, squeezing Eddie's hand that was as confused as his brain. "We still want to be friends if we didn't like creep you out too much."

"I - what?" Eddie couldn't hear a thing over the blood that raced inside of him, too fast for as much as he smoked. Eddie was buzzing, flying, nothing was making sense.

"We like you, Eddie," Chrissy said, looking up at Eddie through her lashes like a siren of temptation. "A lot. But it's weird, it's probably really weird."

Yeah, yeah it was weird for them —

"Not the being into you part," Jason said quickly, like he could see the direction Eddie's thoughts went. "You're funny, fun to be around, interesting. And, uh… you know, you're - you look like that," Jason waved his hand up and down, encompassing Eddie in the most flustered move Eddie had ever seen.

Maybe they were high. Jason didn't drink, so Eddie had a hard time picturing him hitting a bong or a blunt, but what the fuck was happening?

Eddie tried to open his mouth to say something, anything, but words were failing him. What was he meant to say? Ask if it was a joke? Some long con of a crappy prank? Ask if they started smoking meth recently?

"Don't answer us now, not if you don't know." Chrissy watched him with her eyes clear and steady, not the look of an avid meth user. "Just…" She leaned up on her tiptoes and Eddie couldn't pretend he didn't know what she was doing, what he bent his head to make easier.

The burn from when she kissed his cheek was nothing compared to the inferno that lit inside his chest when Chrissy's lips, sticky and sweet, pressed against his in a moment that seemed to last forever.

"Think about it," Chrissy whispered when she pulled away, her eyes sparkling while Eddie's were surely dazed.

Jason watched them - he watched his girlfriend kiss Eddie - and then he stepped up and Eddie told himself it wasn't happening, wasn't real, Eddie's imagination took him too far —

Jason was more hesitant at first, his kiss awkward and - oh, God, was Eddie the first guy he kissed?! When Eddie didn't bolt, Jason reached a hand up to wrap around the back of Eddie's neck and he became more confident, moving his lips to make the moment last longer.

"No pressure," Jason said, winking when he pulled away and Eddie's knees wanted to buckle. "Just something to think about."

Eddie didn't breathe, didn't blink, didn't move a muscle when Chrissy and Jason walked away with a promise to ‘see him soon'.

"What the ever loving fuck was that?" he breathed to himself. Eddie touched his lips, felt Chrissy's lipgloss sticking to him as proof that he didn't imagine the entire thing.

No, but seriously - what the fuck? Did - were they serious? The two most attractive people to grace the earth just saw Eddie Munson, loser, freak extraordinaire, hanging around and said ‘yeah, him'? Eddie was - he wasn't even a second choice, Eddie was no choice at all.

If Eddie weren't Eddie, he wouldn't choose himself. If Eddie weren't Eddie and Eddie was the last man on earth, Eddie wouldn't choose himself.

So why were they?

Eddie went home that night, go the fuck out of the land of magic and make believe for a place that was always open to him and always accepting. Uncle Wayne gave him a lot of looks while they had dinner together, but he didn't pry much.

Eddie wound up telling him everything anyway, he always did share too much with that man. They didn't have a lot of secrets, only the ones that weren't Eddie's to share.

"So you've got a pretty gal and a good-lookin fella both after ya and it's a problem?" Uncle Wayne's grey eyebrows were twitched together, more confinement than judgement. Uncle Wayne was the first to learn of Eddie's open sexuality, it had never been ‘an issue' in their house.

"I think it's a joke," Eddie mumbled, stabbing his dinner with his fork aggressively. "Haha, make me think it's real, you know?"

"That don't sound real funny to me," Uncle Wayne said. "It sounds like they're seein' a good-lookin' boy with talent and charm and wantin' him for themselves."

Uncle Wayne would think that, he was genetically predispositioned to believe Eddie was worth something more than was reality.

"Don't turn a good thing down when it happens, ‘s all I'm sayin'," Uncle Wayne said. "You see somethin' good, you get some for yourself, Eddie. You deserve it, son."

"Sappy old man," Eddie accused him, grinning away the the stinging in his eyes.

Uncle Wayne's eyes were sparkling with humor when he returned the grin and insult, "God damned heathen of a nephew."

Yeah, Eddie laughed louder than he had in some time, heathen wasn't far off the mark, was it? Especially if Eddie actually - dated? slept with? - agreed to whatever Chrissy and Jason were proposing.

Which he would, he knew he would. It would end in heartbreak and misery and Eddie would have no one but himself to blame for getting attached, but he thought the journey might be worth the epilogue.

Corroded Coffin met up in the back room of the Hideout on Tuesday evening as usual. They went over their set list and Eddie let the talk of music and rock wash out everything else. It was a new day, a new chance to play music. Who cared if it was the same group of old timers as usual? It was a new chance for Eddie to lose himself in the moment.

When they stepped out on the stage at their usual time, Eddie expected to hear one good man clapping for them. Eddie didn't expect to hear a real live room full of people start cheering and whistling.

"Holy shit," Jeff whispered. "What's going on?"

Eddie was as stunned as Jeff when there were a dozen people surrounding the front of the stage, chanting their band name.

"CORRODED COFFIN! CORRODED COFFIN!"

Eddie's eyes swept the crowd and recognized every face - Billy and Sirianna, both dressed in black for a rock show. Jonathan Byers and Nancy Wheeler, holding hands and chanting cheerfully. Nancy's brother was there with the rest of the recruits for the Hellfire Club, just six kids acting like they belonged in a dive bar. Steve and Theo were in the mix too, chanting with the others along. The dog-man sat in one of the stools at the bar, beside Harry who waved at Eddie politely.

Harry had headphones on, which might have been insulting if Eddie wasn't fairly sure that they were the noise-canceling headphones that hunters wore. Which meant… Harry wasn't there for the music.

And in the front of the actual fucking crowd were Jason and Chrissy. Chrissy had on an oversized leather jacket (had to be Jason's) and dress beneath it, Jason had a white t-shirt with neat handwriting done in thick black marker - CORRODED COFFIN.

"They're here for us?" Jeff asked, a quiet murmur while they all took their places.

"Yeah." Eddie laughed as he adjusted the microphone, laughed at how suddenly there were over a dozen people who thought Eddie was worth showing up for.

"Not the two up front," Eddie told the guys over his shoulder. "They're just here for me."

They were there for Eddie and Eddie… he would give them a show they'd never forget.