Freaks to Lovers

1. The Hellfire Club

Hawkins High.
March 21, 1986.

"This is my year, I can feel it. Eighty-six, baby!"

Your best friend, Eddie Munson, wraps up his grandiose speech with his famous wide, toothy grin, creating small dimples in his features while scanning his eyes over across the lunchroom, hands firmly on his hips. You watch his chest rise and fall rapidly as he falls into contemplation. When he gets wound up like this, you like to count his breaths to see how long it takes him to calm down.

His deep brown eyes are lit with excitement, hopeful that he'll actually graduate this year. You notice a small hint of sadness behind them as well, a sadness knowing he is going to leave this life of too many sweaty bodies crammed inside the halls and horrible teachers -of 'comfort'- if you can even call it that, but nonetheless, the comfort of seeing the same faces every day, clinging to the last remnants of childhood before being thrust into real-life adulthood.

You counted 13 breaths.

Though, Eddie's basically been an adult for a while now. You found fairly quickly that he lived with his uncle, Wayne, but you knew not to dare ask about his parents. It was a bit of a sensitive subject. You never questioned his history unless he willingly let personal information slip. However, you could sympathize, with your parents practically being nonexistent in your own life, too. His uncle works the night shift, so Eddie has had to do so much on his own, pretty much fending for himself over the years. Which, is one of the reasons he failed his senior year the first time.

Being friends for so long, you've learned a lot about his life, his quirks, his mannerisms, his habits and his rituals. You and Eddie have been friends since..... what, 8th grade? 9th? The past blends in one big blur of Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, late-night movie marathons, getting high by Lover's Lake, or any other mischief you could get your hands snaked into.

How you and Eddie became friends isn't a wild or dramatic story, considering who started the friendship. Eddie spotted you on one of your first days of school, sometime after you had moved to Hawkins, in your faded ripped jeans and Judas Priest tee with a plaid button-up atop, he knew right then that you'd fit just right into their little circle. He whistled at you that day while you were looking for an empty seat in the crowded lunchroom. The cliques had been formed years ago, leaving you hanging as the New Kid. You frowned, letting your feet carry you up to him, not letting your mind connect to your mouth before a swift fuck-you-don't-you-ever-whistle-at-me-again came tumbling out. Eddie smiled the same smile he had now and patted the empty seat next to him with his fingertips. Still fuming, you sat anyway as he apologized, saying he didn't-mean-no-harm-just-don't-know-your-name-yet-Sweetheart. The nickname should've irked you further, but to your own surprise, you found it endearing.

After proper introductions were made, you quickly became the newest 'victim' to his D&D campaigns. You had dabbled at your old school, so you agreed to play a couple of nights with him and the rest of the guys, not really giving it much thought. You figured this would be a once-in-a-while type of hang considering some other members were also in a band, one's mom was way overprotective, and one was a basketball star. Yet, somehow, this mop of hair with a gangly body convinced you to stay, and you haven't looked back since.

"So," you ask, in between bites of what the school has deemed appropriate to call a hot dog, "what's your spring break plans?"

Eddie turns away from the lunchroom crowd that wasn't paying attention to yet another one of his monologues back towards his table of friends, his smile fading into a smirk as he places his palms on the lunch table. "Only starting one of the best campaigns I have ever done."

He was the Dungeon Master of a group proclaimed as The Hellfire Club. You couldn't believe how obsessed everyone in the group could be over a board game. You've been around nerds, sure. But this level of nerd? Inconceivable. Especially since personalized shirts were made for every single member. Which everyone, including yourself, so happens to be wearing today in preparation for tonight. Though everyone had the exact same shirt, each person added their own flair to it. You had bunched up the hem and tucked it into a headband letting it cinch around your waist. Eddie cut the sleeves of his making the ends curl from the lack of hem. Dustin, another Hellfire member, paired his with an incredibly tacky Hawaiian shirt that somehow works for him.