'86, Baby 〡Eddie Munson

t h r e e

"I'm good thank you." She smiled politely but glanced worriedly over his shoulder, noticing Chrissy was still nowhere in sight. The last thing she needed was to be stuck in a conversation.

"Good, good." He nodded, he himself seeming as if he had something else he wanted to say. "Your performance was great by the way. I forgot how talented you were! I can't even do a cartwheel and you're out there flipping around all over the place."

"Thank you." She laughed but then out of the corner of her eye saw the swish of Chrissy's cheerleading skirt as she ran towards the most rundown four door van that Juliet had ever seen. At the front of it, Eddie leant against the hood, staring intently at Steve and Juliet, an annoyed look in his eye.

"So I was, uh, thinking, maybe we could go grab a drink or some food together now the game is over?"

Juliet's focused was snapped back to Steve. "What?" She asked completely having missed everything he had said.

"Do you want to go and get a drink?" He repeated and Juliet frowned. "Aren't you with that girl over there?" She pointed towards a perky blonde staring daggers at them from the other side of the car park.

"Uh, yeah." He blushed and Juliet rolled her eyes. Boys were so typical.

"Nice try, Harrington. Maybe next time."

She strode off towards the van, where Eddie was still waiting. "Take your time." He grumbled sarcastically.

As she saw Chrissy open the door to the back, Juliet realised she was the one left to sit in the front seat and groaned under breath. She pulled open the door to see the seat littered with chocolate bar wrappers and empty beer cans. She shoved them to the floor before climbing in and slamming the door shut behind her.

"You know drink driving is a felony, right?" She said angrily as Eddie put the van into gear and began to pull away.

"It's only a couple cans." Eddie answered casually, but Juliet could feel herself still seething. "And? It's still incredibly dangerous. Not just to yourself but to others too. Your adrenaline is high and your reactions are lowered. It makes you a hazard. A selfish, irresponsible one at that."

Most things Eddie said got a reaction out of Juliet, but he had never seen an outburst of this intensity. Of actual passion and offence. He suddenly felt awkward and tense. "Uh, you're right." He stumbled over his words with the desire to put things right. "I'll stop. From now on I'll stop."

"I would expect so." Juliet retorted, ready to continue her lecture before Chrissy jumped in, poking her head between the gap in the seats. "So, Eddie. Do you have any music?"

He laughed. "Not that you'd like."

"I'd rather rip my ears off then listen to any of that metal rubbish you call music." Juliet snapped causing Eddie and Chrissy to send each other amused looks then chuckle under their breaths.

For the rest of the journey Juliet sat in silence as Eddie and Chrissy chatted back and forth. She instead watched Hawkins speed by. Occasionally, she would notice Eddie glancing at her as he drove. Eventually she was able to catch him in the act.

"What?" She snapped and Eddie flustered at being noticed, but he couldn't help it. The moonlight was reflected on Juliet's face, highlighting her already sharp but delicate features. To him, she looked like a work of art.

Eddie couldn't explain it. He supposed he never had been able to. Though he despised everything Juliet stood for and almost all the things she said or did, he was still drawn to her. Even in the moments he loathed her, he couldn't stay away. She was a magnet. It had always been this way, no matter how much he tried to ignore or change it. This unexplainable and invisible pull that he just couldn't resist. He wanted to speak to her, to be near her, even if it was just to irritate her.