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( March 1986 )
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"CLEO. CLEO, WAKE UP," a voice brought the girl out of her subconscious. Robin had been shaking the girl awake from her placement on one of the sofas in the Wheelers' basement. Her eyes were droopy when she eventually sat up, barely even knowing what was going on, and her hair a mess. "Come on, get up, we're going investigating," Robin said while pulling the half-asleep girl up by her wrists.
"Where are we?" Cleo sleepily said.
"The Wheelers' basement," Robin answered. Yawning, Cleodora blinked the sleep from her eyes to see the others that had been sleeping in the basement away at getting themselves ready to leave the Wheeler residence. Robin, Nancy, and Cleo had all changed into their own clothes after escaping the clutches of Pennhurst Asylum so Cleo had just been in her freshly cleaned pink zip-up and a pair of nylon shorts like she always wore. "We're also going on a food run."
Rubbing her eyes standing up with one side of her jacket on her shoulder, Cleo asked, "for Eddie?"
Robin gave her a look, "yeah, for Eddie."
"Do you think I could meet you guys there?" Cleo asked, "I'll drive there to debrief what's going on and then you guys can show up with the goods."
Before Robin could respond to the girl, Nancy butted in, "that's actually perfect. With you going with us there's an uneven amount of people so it's better if you go to Eddie, then we can evenly split up."
Robin and Cleo shared a sideways look with twisted smiles while Nancy stared at the both of them clueless. "I'm going to agree with you and ignore the slight hurt I'm feeling in my heart," Cleo said with her hands on her hips turning away to gather her shoes and keys.
CLEODORA TURNED THE KEYS OF HER BELOVED SCARLET AUDI AND TURNED THE IGNITION OFF ONCE SHE WAS PARKED IN FRONT OF EDDIE'S SAFE HOUSE. Skipping outside of her car, she placed a nearby tarp over her car, using her sleeves as gloves to do so.
Gathering a bag that held card games and various tapes to play on her radio, her other hand with said radio, Cleo skipped over to the door of the boat shed.
"Honey, I'm home," she singsonged while barging into the door. Eddie had flinched in the spot that the two had fallen asleep in when Cleo last visited, his hair slowly becoming wilder than he usually styled it.
Sighing in relief at the sight of her metal-filled grin that created creases in the corners of her eyes, Eddie smiled at her. "Hey, I was starting to miss you," he said with a dazed smile.
Cleo paused in her spot for a moment processing his words and smile, a tingling warmth rose up her neck when it finally sunk in. "Just a moment," she put up her index finger setting down the things in her hand and quickly stepped out of the shed closing it behind her.
Widening her eyes and covering her mouth with her hand to contain the giggle that bubbled up her throat, Cleo tried to contain the feeling of moths floating around in her rib cage. She hadn't felt this exact way since she was in her freshman year of high school and had one of the biggest admirations for the boy who was just on the other side of the door. It was strange; feeling it again for the same person. But it was sort of nice to feel it again.
Taking a deep breath, Cleo spoke to herself, "you're cool. You're the coolest cucumber in the cabin." She winced at the sentence, "God, I'm so weird."
Creaking the door back open, Cleodora shone her signature awkward grin towards Eddie who gave her a frowned smile. "Were you, uh, talking to yourself?" he questioned, teasing evident in his tone.
Her cheeks pinkened while she picked up the things she had set down, "would you believe me if I said I wasn't?"
He chuckled, "not a chance."
She took off her pink jacket and set it on the wood floor like she had done the last time and sat on it crisscrossed beside Eddie. "That's too bad, you're going to have to believe me just this once," she shrugged turning her bag upside down to spill out its contents.
"What'd you bring me?" he questioned going through the pile of games and tapes.
"Entertainment and music," Cleo beamed. "And you aren't allowed to complain about my music, be grateful that you even have any."
As she loaded her radio to lowly play the first tape, Eddie couldn't take his eyes off of her.
Take My Breath Away by Berlin had begun to play, a wide and toothy grin growing on Cleo's face as it did so. Her taste in music was so convoluted that she went from music that would make mothers keep their children close to suddenly seeing an elderly couple humming away at the soothing sound waves.
For Eddie, seeing Cleo, and spending time with her so much, actually made him relate in a way to the song he would normally rush to turn off if it ever played on his stereo. I keep waiting, still anticipating love was as accurate as the song could ever get to how his coming of age was like with Cleodora right by his side.
It was unmistakable that Eddie had been smitten with the girl in front of him who was making a mess out of attempting to shuffle a deck of cards in their youth. The stolen glances, the quickened heartbeat when she would shine her smile that carried up to her eyes at him, the way he would hold on to every awkward sentence that fell from her lips, and even how he would always be present beside her in case gravity ever decided to defy her.
If he were to explain that to anyone, they would most likely claim that he still had some form of feelings for her. After all, he still continued to do each of those things to that day. In the halls, he would look for her in a crowd, in the shed he would always want to be the reason for her grin that caused creases in her eyes, as she spoke nonsense to him he would process every word to capture in safekeeping, and he was fully prepared for her to stand up and any time and trip so he could catch her.
Call him cheesy, cliché, or even head over heels for Cleodora Kim when he was younger, but if he had to listen to that godforsaken song on repeat just for her to be on his mind, he would do it in a heartbeat. And the feeling never left.
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NOTE. you guys have no idea how much i wanted to use "just like heaven" by the smiths for this but it didnt come out yet for them 😭 and wtf this chapter literally took so long for me to actually finish
but i genuinely have no idea what other songs eddie would associate with cleo, anyone have any ideas?
