Alexithymia | STRANGER THINGS [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

five | the flea and the acrobat

After the three of them turned their attention over towards El, Mike asked her, "Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?"

When she only shook her head at him, Lucas said with a sigh, "Oh, my God!"

It was only when they heard a groan that the three boys turned to Matthew, who said to himself, "You know what? Fuck it. I'm going to see if I can buy some drugs off of him right now."

With a shake of his head, Mike said, "What? No. You can't just go out and buy drugs. We're trying to find Will and bring him home." When Matthew only turned his back on them and started to walk towards the staircase to the basement, Mike told him, "Mom will kill you, if she finds out you're using drugs."

After turning around to look over at Mike, Matthew replied, "No, she fucking won't, if you keep your fucking mouth shut, Michael." When Mike only stared over at him with furrowed eyebrows, Matthew said to him, "Look, Mike, I need to wrap my mind around this shit, and I can't fucking do that while sober. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go find him and get him to give me something to calm myself down for the time being."

* * *

After walking out of the school and making his way over towards his van, Eddie Munson went to unlock it with the key to his van, only for his eyebrows to furrow when he found that the door to the van was already unlocked.

He silently looked between the key in his hand and the lock to his van before he shrugged to himself and went to get into the van.

He only stopped when he heard some thudding coming from the back of his van.

With furrowed eyebrows, Eddie slowly stepped away from the front door to the van and walked towards the back of it before he opened it up and saw Matthew Wheeler of all people sitting in the back of his van.

After silently staring at Matthew Wheeler for several seconds, Eddie asked him, "Wheeler, what the hell are you doing in my van?"

After taking a twenty-dollar bill out of his front pants pocket, Matthew replied, "To buy some drugs from you. Why else would I be in here?"

After a moment of silence, Eddie asked him, "And you couldn't have, I don't know, gone into the school and found me so that we could talk about it pretty much anywhere but inside of my van?"

With a scoff, he said, "No, Munson, I couldn't have done that. I'm still suspended for kicking Hagan's ass, remember?"

With a nod of his head, Eddie said with a chuckle, "Oh, yeah, I heard about that. From what I hear, you did a pretty good job with that one."

After a couple seconds of silence, Matthew asked him, "Look, can I buy some drugs from you or not? 'Cause I don't fucking have all day, Munson."

With a tilt of his head, Eddie asked him, "How long have you been in my van for?"

With a sigh, Matthew said to him, "Jesus fucking Christ, Munson. Is that really what you're worried about right now? How long I've been inside your fucking van?" When Eddie only sighed to himself and went to take Matthew out of his van, Matthew quickly backed away from him and said, "Fine. I've been in here since about ten this morning."

With his head tilted yet again, he asked Matthew, "You've been hiding out in my van since, like, ten this morning?" When Matthew only nodded his head, Eddie said with a chuckle, "Man, you must be real desperate, if you broke into my van and waited for me this long."

With a sigh, Matthew asked him, "Look, are you gonna sell something to me or not?"

After chuckling to himself, Eddie replied, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it, Wheeler. You'll get what you want. Just gotta make a pitstop first."