"steve, here are my keys and my wallet. 3 days worth of groceries and drinks. got it?" i said, handing him the keys to my impala.
"and so help you god if she has so much as a scratch when i see her next." i warned, handing him my wallet from my back pocket.
"got it, no scratches, no dents, 3 days of groceries." he nodded.
"be back here early tomorrow morning please. and tell my mom i'm staying with you or some bullshit, call her." i said, fixing his hair.
"i will, don't worry. see you tomorrow winnie" he said, kissing the top of my head gently and getting in the car to take them home.
i sighed and walked inside the boatshed, seeing eddie still on the ground waiting for me.
"hey, it's just us now." i said softly, crouching and sitting down beside him.
"you didn't have to stay, you can go if you want." he said, looking over at me with fear in his eyes.
"no way, no way am i leaving you here alone. you're scared, and i can't bring myself to let you be alone when you're scared." i spoke softly, in my mom tone i often used with holly.
he had a moment of silence before he wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up, quickly setting me down on his lap facing him.
he snaked his arms around my back, putting his head down on my shoulder.
"i'm sorry." he whimpered.
"why are you sorry, love?"
"you must hate me, or think i'm crazy."
"eddie, i don't think you're crazy. this town...this town has something supernatural going on."
"yeah dustin explained it, the upside down?"
"yeah, exactly. this supernatural shit follows us everywhere we go. my brothers friend, will byers? got taken by the upside down. then he got posessed and killed a bunch of people, then there was murder russians under starcourt mall and now, it's this."
"murder russians?"
i reached around the back of my head and parted my hair, turning my head to show him.
"that scar? i nearly died. pushed off a balcony by the murder russians and left to die. steve found me, he saved me."
"robin was talking about starcourt earlier, about someone named jamie?"
"...yeah?"
"who was he? she said he was important to you."
i took a moment.
"jamie was my best friend."
"we did everything together."
"we met in elementary school, he was in my class every year. the stereotypical little white boy with brown hair and blue eyes."
"one day, i fell and skinned my knee, when everyone laughed, he helped me up."
"we were alone, so we stuck together." i looked up at eddie.
"what happened to him?"
"last year when the whole starcourt mall thing happened, he insisted on coming with us. so he did."
eddie tilted his head slightly, his expression mangled with confusion and knowingness that something had happened.
"the russians found us. while we were all running, he tripped."
"i went back to help him but it was already too late. they had a gun to his head by the time i turned around."
"oh god." he said softly, biting the inside of his cheek.
"i tried screaming for them to stop, tried to plead for his life. but when i reached out to push them away, they pulled the trigger."
i paused, staring blankly into eddie's shirt.
"the image of my best friend, head split in two, his blood spraying out onto me, his body on the ground is forever engraved into my brain. it's not something i'll ever forget."
he pulled me into his chest, i wrapped my arms around his back as tears rolled from my eyes.
"that's why i was alone all the time before hellfire. i was afraid that, if i made new friends, tried to move on, that the same thing would happen to them."
"oh winnie." he said, tangling his fingers in my hair.
"i'm sorry." i struggled to speak.
"no, no it isn't your fault. please god don't think it's your fault."
i couldn't think of words to say.
i just hugged him and cried.
and we stayed there, in that position.
i must have cried myself to sleep because next thing i know, i'm woken up by eddie jumping out of the boat we were suddenly in and running to the window.
"what-"
"shh!" he cut me off, pointing to the window.
"i heard a car."
the unmistakeable sound of my impala pulling up outside followed.
"it's just steve, it's fine. what happened last night?" i asked softly, getting up and walking over to him.
"you fell asleep while you were crying, so i picked you up and laid you down in the boat. you said you were cold so i got in with you to try and warm you up." he said, tucking my hair behind my ear.
i nodded, taking a hair tie off my wrist and pulling my hair into a lazy bun at the back of my head.
i opened the door and took the bags from dustin, walking them over to the counter.
"hey eddie!" he smiled, fist bumping him.
"hey dustin. you guys scared the crap out of me."
"sorry." robin apologized, handing him a bag of groceries.
"we didn't know what you liked so we just got normal pantry stuff." max spoke up.
he pulled a box of cereal from the bag and opened it up, sighing in relief and tearing the bag open and grabbing a handful of dry cereal.
"so, good news and bad news." dustin said.
"bad first, always." eddie said as i handed him a bottle of chocolate milk.
"bad news, we tapped into hawkins pd dispatch, they're definitely looking for you."
eddie looked up, worry washing over his face.
"it's ok." i said softly, sitting down beside him in the boat.
"they're also pretty convinced you killed chrissy." he added.
"like...100% convinced." max joined.
"how the hell?" i asked.
"we don't know. good news is, your name isn't public yet. but if we found out, it's only a matter of time before others do too, and once that gets out, everyone and their shallow minded mother will be gunning for you." robin explained.
"hunt the freak, right?" eddie asked.
they nodded softly.
"they're looking for you too winnie." steve added.
"what?" i asked, looking up at him.
"they're saying eddie might have run off with you, it's only a matter of time before they go to your house." he explained, tossing me my walkie-talkie.
"i'll be back." i said, getting up and stepping outside.
i heard dustin explaining their plan behind me.
"holly, you there sweetheart?" i called.
"hollicopter, it's me. you there?"
"hi winnie! when are you coming home?" she asked.
"i don't know sweetheart. can you give the walkie talkie to mom?" i asked.
"ok!"
"winnie? are you there what's going on?" mom asked.
"mom, i'm fine. i'm safe. listen, the police are coming to the house-"
"the police?" she cut me off.
"they're gonna ask about me. i'm safe but i need you to tell them i'm staying at a friend's house. ok?"
"why are the police coming?" she asked.
"because they think one of my friends did some messed up stuff. he didn't, i'm safe, i'm ok, just keep the walkie talkie and switch it on when they get there, ok?"
"winnie come home right now, we need to talk about this."
"i'm sorry mom but i can't. just please, turn it on when they're there."
she went silent.
"fine, but you have some explaining to do!"
"love you mom, bye." i switched the walkie talkie off and went inside.