Eddie was sure that now he could die a happy, fulfilled man. Sure, there were still plenty of things to do in this vast world, especially outside of Hawkins, Indiana. However, Eddie Munson, the freak of Hawkins High as they affectionately deemed him, had lost his virginity to none other than Delilah Henderson. Needless to say, he had been infatuated with her for years, but only for the past one had he found himself falling for her. She was so different then anyone he had ever met. Everyone perceived her as the burnout, dropout who could have been the Queen of Hawkins itself. As the kids had been saying, she was too cool for school. Not to mention, she was staying at his trailer for months now. Though she had been talking about going back home fairly soon, he had been savoring every moment he got to spend with her. She had even been helping him study. Though since the burnt spaghetti night as they affectionately referred to, studying had been very difficult to focus on.
Halloween was on the horizon and he wasn't sure how he was going to top their last Halloween together. Dressed to the nines in their Star Wars get up. There was also the difficulty of Delilah not having her house to party in. Especially since her dad was still sleeping on the couch as far as he had heard from Henderson. Dustin, that was. That particular day, Eddie was at home playing the princess. Just kind of strumming away mindlessly playing songs he knew and loved. He had also been working on an original song for his girlfriend. With a name like Delilah, how could you not write a song about her? Though he hadn't told anyone in his band about it, afraid what they might think of him. At the end of the day, he was the shepard to look after the sheep and if they knew what a sap he had been when it came to his girlfriend, he knew they would judge him. Hell, they already were for how sappy he was when it came to her.
He just assumed that no one had ever seen him fall for a girl. Nor anyone for that matter. That night he was treating her to a showing of Return of the Living Dead at the local theater. Delilah was obsessed with that movie and he couldn't wait to see her face light up when she saw Tar Man. She once rambled about how in love with special effects she was, or practical effects was what she referred to them as. It was always so cute when she got stoned enough to start going on a tangent about her favorite movies and why they were such. He had dressed up in his jeans without the holes in them for once, a tank top he had cut the sleeves off of himself which held the Slayer logo on the front of it. He would be accompanied by a red and black flannel and his leather jacket in case the brisk October Hawkins air got to him.
As he pulled around to the back of the record shop, where Delilah had asked him to pick her up from, he saw the man he knew as Fuzzy who apparently hated his haircut choice. Or lack there of rather. He had brushed it for the first time in forever so it was a little more unruly than usual. The two were smoking and Eddie wondered if he could get out and join them. Just like he had hoped, Delilah waved him over. He turned off his lights and hopped out of the van, his feet hitting the gravel with a thud. His lips pulled into a half smile as he waved over to the two of them, but mostly to Fuzzy. He knew Delilah held him in high respects and he always wanted to impress him. It was like he was meeting her dad for real. He didn't care if Charles hated him, but Fuzzy was another story.
"Ah, Eddie the love bird Munson, is it?" Fuzzy said with a small snort at his nickname for him amused himself.
"I will definitely take that over what people normally call me," Eddie returned a small laugh his way, but was being pretty honest. Sure it wasn't the manliest name he had ever been called, but he'd rather be known as a hopeless romantic than a freak.
"You do know you've met him before right?" Delilah said with a chuckle as she handed the joint Eddie's way.
"Oh sorry man, I was probably too high to remember if I introduced myself or not," He extended a burly hand his way and Eddie took it rather nervously, "Fuzzy is what the people call me. Because everyone knows I only smoke the fuzzy stuff!"
Delilah rolled her eyes, "You told me it was because you were as soft as a Georgia peach?" She asked with a laugh.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever," Fuzzy waved her off, "So what trouble are you kids causing this evening? Oh and finish that off Eddie, you're going to need it to put up with this one all night. She's done nothing but gab about going on a hot date with ya," He wiggled his brows at him and bumped him with his elbow.
"Oh really?" He smirked at her, his dimples peaking through on his cheeks, "You've been /gabbing/ about me?" He asked, flaring his own brows playfully.
"I don't gab, Fuzzy's just baked out of his mind," She half joked. He could tell she was blushing even in the darkness behind the dumpster.
"Shut up, punk ass!" He growled jokingly at Delilah, causing her to stifle a laugh, "Well you kids get going and don't do anything I wouldn't do. I'm off to change my diaper since I'm /so baked/," He was one of those old guys that liked to joke about everything it seemed, "Have a good night!"
With that, the group headed to their respective vehicles, Eddie speeding ahead of Delilah to open the door for her. As he helped her into his van's passenger seat, he held her hand a little longer than he needed to, but he pulled her down into a soft kiss, having not done it in front of Fuzzy. He just hadn't been so sure he could go much longer without kissing her. Smitten was an understatement.
She offered him a kind smile, her eyes glazed over and a little red, but he didn't mind. He squeezed her hand lightly before letting go and closing her door behind him. He practically leapt into the driver's side and headed towards the movie theater. It was a smaller, more reclusive theater in Hawkins. It was also cheaper because they typically showed older or not as well known movies. He felt like Delilah was constantly wanting to go to it. It played all the best B horror movies and for half the price. Granted the two weren't necessarily hurting for money. During holidays, business on the drug dealing side always started to boom. The drive there was Delilah trying to guess what movie they were going to see and he hoped that she didn't get it right. Luckily they pulled up to the theater and when she saw the marquis listing Return of the Living Dead, she gasped in excitement.
"Tar Man!" She said, excitedly, "Thank you babe!" She leaned across the seat and placed a firm kiss on his lips.
He would never get used to Delilah Henderson calling him 'babe'. It sounded so natural coming from her, but it was the most unnatural thing to him in the world. Maybe he was being too down on himself, but he was consistently in awe that he had somehow grabbed her attention.
"Come on, let's go get some popcorn!" He said, wiggling his brows excitedly at her.
The two practically rushed to the ticket booth and then to claim their respective snacks and drinks. After everything the two had been through while they were together, nights like this felt safe and comfortable. It didn't help anything that Delilah's nightmares were getting way worse. Sometimes she would lay unresponsive, her eyes darting back and forth behind her closed eyes. It was scaring him more than he admitted to her, especially since she tried to not make a big deal about it. Sometimes she would assure him that one day she would go over everything with him, but that she wasn't ready yet. He could only assume it was about Billy dying in the mall fire, but he felt like there was something more sinister behind it. The way she cried when she tried to talk about her nightmares made him believe that there was something else ticking away at her that she needed to share.
"I should start dressing like Trash," Delilah whispered as Eddie was snapped back to reality, the two seated in the middle rows. They were two out of maybe eleven people in the theater, some of them not focused on the movie at all which made Eddie's mind wander again briefly.
That was until he realized Trash was the red headed punk who was already getting naked in the movie, "Doesn't seem like there'd be much to it," He joked, cramming a mouth full of popcorn. He glanced over to Delilah to notice she was doing the same, dropping a couple of pieces on her Jimmi Hendrix shirt.
"She's a total babe. And she's a queen for going through practically the whole movie naked! She's so rad," He supposed her idolizing of the character named Trash was different, but she had admitted that she had been with women when she was in college. Her belief in sexuality was one that intrigued him greatly. She said she didn't really care about the person's gender as long as she felt love towards them, it didn't matter. On the outside, she didn't really strike him as a romantic, but the more he got to know her, the sweeter side started to emerge. He was thankful that sweeter side was most commonly directed at him as well.
The more he watched her shovel popcorn into her mouth, the more he smiled. She was so enraptured in the movie that she didn't care that she was making a mess of herself. He loved when she didn't care. He loved when she let loose and just had her authentic, weird, hippie, beautiful, kind, caring, and best older sister to the coolest kid he had ever met, self. He loved her. He had seen it coming a mile away that this would be the first girl he fell for. From the moment she showed up at his trailer to do shrooms, he knew he wanted to be with her. Granted, he never saw it actually happening until it did. That instance had still shook him up when he thought about it too much. He had broken down everything to share with her and she had done nearly the same with him. It had been so hard to focus on the movie and so much so that the movie was flying by. Delilah grabbed his hand when she saw Tar Man for the first time in all his sticky, gooey, zombie mess glory.
She giggled at some of the corny dialogue and she made jokes about some of the sillier moments of the film. He wondered how long he could keep his feelings in. Here she was, just thinking about zombies and he was wracking his brain over whether or not to tell her that he loved her. It had taken her long enough to want to take the step into being boyfriend and girlfriend, yet here he was ready to drop the L-bomb on her. Before he knew it, the credits were rolling. He gulped a little, knowing that they had the car drive home and then the rest of the night. There was no way he could just keep it in.
Then the sound of thunder rumbled into the theater and Eddie's heart leapt lightly. Maybe the movie had gotten to him, or maybe he was just a ball of anxiety right now. Delilah leaned back in her seat before she smiled at him, "You ever been to Lover's Lake?"
"Uh . . . yeah, once or twice," He lied. Of course he had taken a girl there once, but they had only stayed for maybe five minutes when she admitted that she had only done it on a dare. That memory had always kind of stung him when people talked about the lake in question. "Why?" He asked, quirking a concerned brow.
"We should go together," Eddie couldn't help but not look into the idea, "Come on, no one will be there and we can ride out the storm there!" She urged him, pleadingly.
"Look, Delilah, if you want to do something that people usually do at Lover's Lake, we could always just do that at home," He said, kissing her in between some of his words.
"Come on, Eds!" She whined, "We can't party in a cemetery like Trash so let's party somewhere else! We can pick up a six pack and just . . . talk?" She asked, her finger swirling on the palm of his hand.
"Uh," He stumbled on his words when he looked down at her pouty hazel eyes, "Fine, let's do this," He smirked down at her before rising up from the theater seat.
After racing through the rain to get back to his van, he had given Delilah his leather jacket to wrap herself in since she hadn't had the hindsight to bring a jacket. He was fine in just his flannel and Slayer tank top though, he didn't mind the cold so much. The two stopped for a six pack of beer as planned, and before they knew it, they were pulled up to Lover's Lake. The two crawled into the large space in the back where Eddie had laid down a reasonably clean blanket and some pillows. He had fallen asleep in his van on numerous occasions. Sometimes when he came home drunk and didn't want his uncle to worry, he would just sleep it off in the back of his van. Speaking of drunk, Delilah made quick work of popping open the beer bottles and handing one to Eddie. The sound of the rain increased on the hood of the van as he looked over to Delilah in a nervous manner.
"You okay?" She asked, tilting her head lightly to look at him in the face. He loved when she did that, it made him want to lift his chin up and stand more confidently.
He needed some confidence now more than ever. If he was going to tell Delilah Henderson how he really felt, he was going to need all hte confidence in the entire world. He nodded in response to Delilah's question before scooting closer to her. "Did you enjoy the movie?" He asked, taking a nervous swig from his beer as she moved in closer to him as well.
"Of course! It was amazing! Did you see the way the zombies really went in on the brains?" She was starting to geek before she took a long swig of her beer as well.
The two continued to talk about their favorite parts of the movie and listen to the rain gently patter against the hood of the van. Delilah also saved the day with her fanny pack and brought out a couple of joints while they sipped on beer. He loved moments like this. Times when they were just talking and enjoying one another's company. He also loved when she laughed. Her nose would crinkle and her laugh sounded so genuine. They finished the third joint and were laying down on the blanket, staring up at the roof of the van. Their third half empty beers sat next to them before the silence started to get to Eddie.
"Hey Delilah," He broke out into the void, "Do you um . . . Do you still dream about Billy?" A question he had been stewing on for so long. Ever since he had first heard her call his name in her sleep.
Silence hovered over them for a minute before Delilah sat up and pulled her knees close to her chest. Had he asked the wrong question? She let her legs lax a little, still leaning an arm over one of her knees, a beer in the other hand. She didn't look at Eddie when she started to speak, "I was there you know?" Her voice was kind of soft and almost hard to hear against the rain, "I was there the night of the . . . mall fire," She scoffed at the last part.
"You were?" Eddie asked, his eyes in a serious shape as he listened to his girlfriend continue.
"Yeah but Eddie . . . you have to understand," She turned around slightly to face him, "That was no fire. There was . . . something else. I can't even explain it without sounding like a psychopath. It was like a . . . a creature," She spoke, looking confused as she tried to recall the nightmare, "And I think . . . I think it marked everyone who survived that night. And it's been . . . haunting me, ever since."
"A creature? Like a bear or a . . .coyote? What are we talking here, D?" He asked, concern filling his face as much as confusion.
"I . . . I can't . . . It wasn't a bear or anything I had ever since before. But it was huge. Like the size of Starcourt's well . . . Court," She nodded before shaking her head, "I know I sound crazy but . . . there's been a clock. And it never chimes but the last time I had a nightmare . . . it started chiming. Only once, but something feels off about it. And yes, Billy is there," She started to get a little more nervous so he reached his hands out towards hers, dripping them tightly, "But he's not Billy. There's something different about him . . . and his eyes . . . They're so . . . hollow," Eddie noticed her eyes starting to fill to their brims with tears as he held her hands even tighter. "You have to believe me, Eddie. I've never told anyone this much. The only other person that might know about it is . . . Dustin."
"Dustin Henderson, your younger brother, Dustin Henderson?" He asked, repeating his name just to ensure that was indeed who she was talking about.
"Yes, Eddie. He was there to . . . The night Billy died," She looked as if she had spoken too much already so she shook her head, "I'm sorry if I still . . . dream about him but . . . I really don't have a choice it feels."
"I had no idea . . . the news, everyone just said-"
"The news is wrong. Everyone who wasn't there that night, is very very fuckin' wrong," She sounded dead serious as a couple of the tears fell from the corners of her eyes. He had never seen her this serious. In all the things he had seen her go through, no wonder she numbed everything out with pot. He couldn't blame her a bit. Her first boyfriend, well, maybe not /boyfriend/ was killed in front of her eyes. By a . . . who knew what it was?
"Come here," He opened his arms and enveloped Delilah in a close hug. That's how the two fell asleep that night. Cuddled together in the back of his van, wrapped up in the blanket and snuggled face to face on the dusty pillows.