Alexithymia | STRANGER THINGS [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

nineteen | the case of the missing lifeguard

Instead of letting the Wheeler boy turn his back on him one more time, Wayne took a step out of his trailer and asked him, "What did you say your name was?"

After silently gulping to himself, Matthew said, "Um, Matthew Wheeler?"

In turn, Wayne said, "Uh-huh." Just when Matthew went to walk back to his car once more, he suddenly stopped when Wayne asked him, "Why don't you come inside for the time being until Eddie comes back, huh?"

While Matthew's mouth repeatedly opened and closed, Wayne told him, "After all, this'll give me the chance to see if you are a good friend of my nephew's."

After letting out yet another sigh, Matthew said, "I– Uh–" After seeing Wayne raise his eyebrows at him, Matthew quickly nodded his head as he said, "Y-Yeah, okay."

Then he quickly walked back into the direction of the trailer and silently gulped to himself when Wayne stepped aside and held the door open for him.

It wasn't until the door to the trailer was closed behind Wayne and Matthew had found himself face-to-face with Wayne that Matthew had– for once in his life– actually felt quite intimidated and thought that he would actually pass out on the spot, just from meeting Eddie's uncle and not wanting to leave a bad impression on the man, despite the fact that he wasn't even dating Eddie and he was only sixteen, while Eddie was at least nineteen already.

Matthew just hoped he didn't give in to his deepest urge to just pass out on the spot, or maybe even throw up from the nerves that were increasing with each passing second that he stared at Eddie's uncle with his eyes wide as ever and his heart feeling like it was about to burst out of his chest at any given moment.

* * *

After spending a majority of his day practicing with his band and hanging out at the house of his friend, Gareth, Eddie Munson had returned to his trailer and couldn't help but let his eyebrows furrowed and frown a bit when he saw that Matthew Wheeler's car was parked outside of his trailer.

With a six-pack of beer in hand, Eddie got out of his van and slowly walked over towards Matthew's car to see if the soon-to-be junior was hiding out in there, like he seemed to do whenever Eddie himself was involved, but to no such luck.

The temperamental member of the Wheeler family wasn't in his car, which made Eddie realize that Matthew was in fact inside of the trailer that he lived in with his uncle.

And sure enough– after opening the door to his trailer and stepping foot inside of the trailer– he was right.

What he didn't count on seeing, though, was a rather pale-looking Matthew Wheeler sitting on one of the chairs in the trailer and looking anywhere but Wayne as he twiddled his thumbs together, while Wayne was mindlessly talking to the Wheeler boy and seemed to be unaware of just how much he was intimidating the sixteen-year-old boy.

Despite the fact of just how confused he was that Matthew Wheeler was intimidated by Wayne of all people, Eddie couldn't help but feel rather amused that the most temperamental member of the Wheeler family– that didn't seem to be scared of much from what Eddie had seen– was quite scared of his Uncle Wayne.

It was only when Eddie had closed the door to the trailer and kicked off his shoes that Matthew quickly turned his head to look over at Eddie with wide eyes before quietly sighing to himself when he saw the one person he intended to buy some drugs from prior to being forced to being inside of the trailer with Wayne Munson and listening to him ask him all kinds of questions and then eventually attempting to make small talk with the Wheeler boy.

While Matthew squeezed his eyes shut and tightly grabbed at one of his wrists in an attempt to calm himself down from his nerves that had been eating at him for hours now, Wayne turned to look over at his nephew when Eddie asked him, "What's going on here?"