With a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a pencil in one of his hands, Matthew let out a sigh as he stared at yet another one of his attempts of drawing his former drug dealer, Eddie Munson.
It seemed that no matter how many times he tried to draw Eddie— whether it be in different angles or in a lighter or darker shade with his pencil— he just couldn't be satisfied with the end result.
It was as if there was something that he felt was missing from his drawings of his former drug dealer, but no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't find the one thing that was missing from the drawing.
With a groan, he ripped the piece of paper out of his notebook and crunched it into a ball and then tossed it behind himself.
Then he started to make another attempt to draw Eddie, only to stop when he heard a voice ask from behind him, "What's this?"
It was then that Matthew's eyes had widened, and he quickly turned around to see Eddie holding the balled-up piece of paper in his hand.
Without even thinking twice about it, he threw the cigarette onto the ground and put it out and then he quickly jumped up from the ground and ran over towards Eddie in an attempt to take the balled up drawing away from his former dealer.
But unfortunately for Matthew, Eddie had quickly hidden his hand behind his own back and was doing what he could to prevent Matthew from taking the balled-up piece of paper from him.
After several seconds of him trying to take the paper from Eddie, Matthew stared at Eddie with a scowl on his face as he said, "Munson, I swear to God, you better give that fucking piece of paper back to me, or I swear to God that I will—"
With an eyebrow raised, Eddie asked him, "Or you'll what?" When he glanced down at Matthew's hands and saw them start to clench into fists, he went to toss the piece of paper back over to Matthew as he said, "No need to get so serious about it, Wheeler. I was only messing around."
After shoving the paper into his back pocket, Matthew said, "Yeah, of course you were."
After watching Matthew turn his head to look at anything except for Eddie himself, Eddie asked him, "Hey, are you doing okay, Wheeler?" After watching Matthew quickly look over at him with narrowed eyes, Eddie told him, "You've just seemed on edge recently and a lot angrier than you were before I started to sell to you last year, so I don't know if it's from some, uh, withdrawal thing or what's happening, but, uh, you're not acting like your usual self."
As he turned to look away from Eddie, Matthew said to him, "I'm fine." When Eddie opened his mouth to say something to him, Matthew said to him, "I told you that I'm fine, Munson."
When Eddie only raised his hands on either side of his head with his eyebrows raised, Matthew scoffed to himself before he pulled out another cigarette and then started to light it with his lighter.
The most Eddie did was watch Matthew shove the lighter back into his pocket before eventually taking the cigarette out of his mouth and letting out a sigh with his eyes closed.
With his eyebrows furrowed, Eddie asked him, "You sure you're doing okay, Wheeler?"
With a sigh, Matthew said to him, "Yeah, fine. Um, sorry about before. Things are just real crazy nowadays and I can't fucking think straight without this or some drug in my system. That's all."
Eddie replied, "No worries, Little Wheeler. I mean, we all get those days where we're freaking out like that, right?"
When Matthew only nodded his head, there was only silence between them for a couple of seconds before Eddie asked him, "You're still good on the weed I sold you, right? I mean, you haven't already gone through it, right?" When Matthew only looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, Eddie said to him, "I mean, from how things were when you bought stuff from me last year, I kind of figured that maybe you already went through all of it, so I just figured that I ask while I'm still here."
With a shake of his head, Matthew said to him, "No, I'm fine. Still got enough to last me for a little while."
Eddie only nodded his head before he pointed over towards his van and said to Matthew, "Well, I'm just gonna go. Um, best of luck to you, Wheeler. I'll see you around, huh?"
With a nod of his head, Matthew replied, "Yep. See you around, Munson."
Then Eddie turned around and quickly walked towards his van and left Matthew to lie down on the ground and close his eyes with a sigh as he went to put the cigarette back into his mouth.
* * *
While talking into the phone with a drink in hand, Karen said, "I don't know, Cath. Maybe if it was Margaret Thatcher, that'd be another story."
Not long after she said that, the sound of the doorbell ringing was heard.
With a roll of her eyes, she said into the phone, "Just a second, Cath." While the doorbell started to ring again, Karen put a hand over the speaker to the phone and asked, "Ted, can you get that please?"
While Ted only turned his head with a sigh, Karen said into the phone, "Sorry."
As he put his glass on the table closest to him, Ted said, "I got it."
Then he eventually made his way over to the front door and saw Dustin Henderson standing on the other side of the door and staring up at him.
It wasn't long after he had opened the door that Dustin told him, "Your line has been busy for over two hours, Mr. Wheeler. Do you realize this?"
With a raise of his eyebrows and a nod of his head, Ted said, "Oh, I do realize."
Dustin asked him, "Is Mike home?"
Ted replied, "No."
In turn, Dustin said, "No? Well, where the hell is he?"
It was then that Ted turned his head and asked, "Karen, where is Michael?"
With her hand over the speaker, she yelled, "Will's!"
Then he looked back over at Dustin and told him, "Will's."
With a sigh, Dustin said, "No one's picking up there. Nancy. What about Nancy?"
Then Ted turned his head yet again and asked, "Karen, where's Nancy?"
With a sigh, Karen yelled, "Ally's!"
Then Ted turned to look back at Dustin and said, "Ally's."
It was then that Dustin asked him, "What about Matt? Is Matt here? Is he physically inside of this house?"
With a sigh, Ted turned his head yet again and asked, "Karen, where's our other son?"
After letting out yet another sigh of her own, Karen yelled, "Upstairs!"
Then Ted turned to look back at Dustin and told him, "Upstairs."
With a wave of his hand, Dustin asked him, "Well, can I see him? It's kind of important."
After letting out yet another sigh, Ted yelled, "Matthew!" When he didn't hear a response, he sighed before he asked, "Karen, can you get our son's attention, please?"
It was then that Karen rolled her eyes and yelled, "Matthew!" When she also didn't hear a response, she said into the phone, "I'll be right back, Cath. Just stay on the line."
After hearing Cath say something in return to her words, Karen put the phone down onto the closest table and started to go up the stairs as she yelled, "Matthew!"
When she still didn't get a response from him, she let out a sigh before she eventually walked into his room to see him lying in bed with his headphones on and a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth and his eyes closed.
After letting out yet another sigh, she quickly made her way over towards and pressed a single button on his walkman, which got him to let out a sigh as he said, "Oh, come on. What the hell, man?" Then he looked over at Karen and said to her, "What?"
Karen told him, "Mike's friend, Dustin, wants to see you."
With a sigh, Matthew sat up and slid himself off of the bed before he grabbed his backpack and eventually made his way down the stairs.
And while he went down the stairs, he heard Ted say to Dustin, "Other than Matthew, our children don't live here anymore. You didn't know that?"
In turn, Dustin said to him, "Seriously?"
Then Ted asked him, "Am I done here?"
With a sigh, Dustin said to him, "Son of a bitch. You know, you're really no help at all, you know that?"
While Matthew pushed himself past his father and went to catch up to Dustin, Ted yelled after Dustin, "Hey! Language."
It wasn't until they'd already walked far enough from the front of the house that Matthew asked Dustin, "So, why exactly did you need to see me, Henderson?"
Dustin told him, "Code red."
With his eyebrows furrowed, Matthew asked him, "Am I supposed to know what the hell a code red even is?"
With a sigh, Dustin turned to Matthew and asked him, "Do you have a weapon or something?" When Matthew pulled out his switchblade, Dustin asked him, "You have anything bigger than that?"
It was then that Matthew zipped open his backpack and pulled out a crowbar, which got Dustin to ask him, "Where the hell did you get yourself a crowbar?"
With a shrug, Matthew told him, "I found it lying on the side of the road a couple days ago."
With his eyebrows furrowed, Dustin asked him, "And you just took it with you?"
When Matthew only shrugged to himself and went to put the crowbar into his backpack, Dustin only turned away from Matthew with a sigh and a shake of his head.
It was only when Dustin had started to pick up his bike that he stopped when he saw a maroon-colored car stop in front of the home of the Wheeler family and then watching Steve Harrington step out of the car with a bouquet of flowers in hand.
With Matthew close behind him, Dustin started to quickly walk over towards Steve as he said, "Steve. Are those for Mr. or Mrs. Wheeler?"
After glancing down at the bouquet of flowers he was holding, Steve said, "No."
In turn, Dustin took the bouquet of flowers out of Steve's hand and said, "Good."
As he went to go after Dustin and Matthew, Steve said, "Hey. What the hell? Hey!"
Dustin told him, "Nancy isn't home."
Steve asked him, "Where is she?"
Dustin replied, "Doesn't matter. We have bigger problems than your love life." After opening the front passenger door, Dustin turned to Steve and asked him, "Do you still have that bat?"
With his eyebrows furrowed, Steve asked him, "Bat? What bat?"
Dustin said to him, "The one with the nails?"
Steve asked him, "Why?"
Dustin told him, "I'll explain it on the way."
Then Steve looked over at Matthew, who only raised his eyebrows at the current senior, before he said to Dustin, "Now?"
In turn, Dustin yelled, "Now!"