Steve slammed on the brakes before staring at me with confused eyes.
"What the hell was that Steve?!" Dustin yelled out now on the floor from the rough brake.
Steve avoided Dustin's current outburst and continued to just stare at me. "Steve...?" I whispered under my breath.
Steve shook his head and looked down to the floor. "you're being serious...aren't you?"
"I mean yeah...what are the chances that me and you have the exact same experience?" I chuckled awkwardly before sniffling from my previous tears.
Steve sat in silence for a while in his chair only breathing. The silence in the RV was deafening. Everyone was simply just staring at Steve for answers which he wasn't giving.
After what felt like forever, Steve got up and started to walk through the RV. Robin tried to grab onto Steve's shoulder but he brushed her off.
Robin looked hurt that Steve didn't want her help but stayed where she was standing.
Steve quickly went for the RV door and started to walk out into the open field that we were currently parked near in the middle of the unpaved road.
I knew I probably wouldn't be much help, but I couldn't help but feel like I should at least try. I hurried and got up out of my seat to run through the open door.
Yes, the group was left behind in the RV clueless of what just happened, but I knew...and I couldn't risk the same thing happening once more.
I jogged up to Harrington to try and grab his hand before he pushed me away softly. "Please Munson I don't deserve to be comforted."
"I highly disagree...what's wrong? We know each other again after all these years. Isn't that good news?"
Steve stopped in his tracks before turning to me. "If you are that boy...that makes what I did even worse...don't you get that?"
"What do you mean?" I furrowed my eyebrows and tried to reach for him again before he stepped back from me.
"I tortured you for YEARS, Eddie. Why do I get to be friends with you now? That's just not right." Steve said before plopping down on the ground to sit. "I mean come on... I mess you up as a child and then in high school? Why do I get to be happy?"
I felt taken back by what he was saying. Has he felt this burden the entire time that we've talked again? Is that why he keeps distancing himself? I never realized that that night could've lingered on anyone's mind but my own.
All this time I thought Eve hated me but he was just a scared and confused kid. Just like I was.
"Steve..."
"No...Eddie. I don't deserve your sympathy." Steve leaned back before covering his face with his hands. "I knew what I was doing but did it anyways."
"But Steve..."
"Eddie. I don't deserve to feel the way I do with how I treated you. It hasn't even been that long since I-"
"STEVE." I yelled on accident. I didn't mean to. He just wasn't letting me speak my mind. "Sorry... just.. shouldn't I be the one who decides how to feel about you after what you did?"
Steve slowly sat up to turn his heads upwards towards my face. "Then knowing all of that...how do you feel?"
"Well..." I started before squatting down to his height. "You've definitely changed since then. It's not fair to judge your past actions on how you are in the present. All you can do is try to improve for the future....which you have been doing."
"So you don't hate me knowing what you do?" Steve's eyes soon turned from anger to sentiment.
"No...I'd never hate you, Eve." I smiled before sticking my hand out for him to take.
Steve smiled softly before taking my hand as I pulled him up. "Can we not tell the others about this? It's just easier than telling them a whole story."
I laughed slightly and nodded "we can just say you got carsick or something like that"
As I turned around the group was outside of the RV and walking towards us watching their step in the tall grass for any animals that would try and bite them.
"Ready to lie?" I joked while nudging him in the waist.
"You bet Eds." His hand brushed against mine as we watched the group slowly start to form a line in front of us with crossed arms.
"So what happened?!" Robin blurts out after the long pause of silence
"I got super car sick all of a sudden so I hadda take a break." Steve shrugged before placing his hands in his pockets.
The majority of the group actually believed him...minus Robin who was staring daggers into Steve. He would certainly get an interrogation later.
"Well...since we're stopped...we might as well prepare our artillery...right?" Dustin stepped forward with a smile.
"Yeah. Let's go Henderson." I lifted his hat before ruffling the curly haired kid's hair and walking ahead of the group to the RV.
"Was Steve really carsick?" Dustin asked skeptically. If he thought I would give him a different answer he was dead wrong. I'm not a snitch. That's up to Harrington to tell.
"Yep! He just needed a break... he felt like he was gonna hurl." I chuckled lightly before imitating the sound of a puke.
"Ew dude!" Henderson giggled. As much as he acts like an adult...He's still such a child.
"It's the truth he was all like blechhhhh!" I said before imitating throwing up on him.
"Okay, okay! I get it!" He laughed even harder. "What are we going to be making?"
"Some solid shields." I said while lifting up some garbage can lids and smiling at him.
"Sounds lame..." Henderson slouched before grabbing it from my hand.
"No no they're gonna have knives attached." I said before pulling out the bag of knives Nancy had bought at War Zone.
"Badass..."
-Steve's perspective-
"Yeah...I'm not buying it. What happened." Robin squinted at me once Nancy started to head back for the RV with Max.
"Nothing! Just car sick!" I smiled awkwardly at her before lifting up my shoulders into a half shrug.
"Nope. Let's start that over. What happened." Robin somehow squinted even further at me.
"You're so nosey...you know that?" I stated before running my hand through my hair.
"It's my job as your friend to be, dingus. Come on. You can trust me..." Robin smiled wide in hopes of me telling her.
"It's not just my story to tell." I shrugged again before starting to walk to the RV as well. It was Eds's story just as much as it was mine. Arguably more so his.
"What's that supposed to mean? Does that mean...Eddie's involved?" Robin dug for further answers as she leaned her face into my eyesight.
I sighed before turning to look at her "Maybe. I'd have to ask the other person if it's okay if you know."
Robin sighed before plopping her hands down on her thighs "alright. fine just... know I'm here for you...alright?"
"I always know that, Rob... thank you. I'm here for you too." I smiled before slowing down my pace to allow her to catch up with me.
We walked in silence for a while until Robin hit me in the ribs with her elbow and lowering and raising her eyebrows. "So...Eddie, huh?"
I felt my heart leap "what?!" There's no way she knew.
Robin laughed lightly. "Come on, Steve. It's so obvious."
Was it that obvious that I liked him? Was I being so obvious that everyone could see? Did Eddie see?
"Dude calm down your face is a tomato." Robin laughed "don't worry. I won't tell anyone."
"It's that obvious...? Do you think he knows?" My heart was racing through my chest. He can't know. He can't know... it would be so bad if he knew.
"I mean...probably. You're basically all over him." Robin smiled "but hey, he's basically all over you too."
"No he's not!" I yell back without thinking. Everyone stared at me and Robin with confused looks.
Robin awkwardly shrugged before leaning closer to me "Way to draw attention to yourself, dingus."
I felt my face get warmer. "He's not all over me, Robin. He's like that with everyone."
Robin tilted her head with a cocky smile. "Is that so? Then how come he hasn't been that touchy with me even once?"
"Because you scare the man." I stated with a smile. "You're terrifying sometimes."
"No that's not it. I mean yes...I can be intimidating sometimes...but no...he's different around you Steve...like clearly different."
I laughed slightly. "I wish what you said was true. Really. But until he says anything to me about how he feels...I'm gonna assume that he's just being friendly."
Robin sighed before sitting down on the steps of the RV. "Nice to see that someone is having a love life though."
"Well you and Vickie have been hitting it off...haven't you?"
Robin looked down. "It's confirmed that Vickie's straight"
"No way! She paused a fast time at 53 minutes 5 seconds! She totally likes boobies Robin."
Robin sighed before grabbing a bottle from the paper bag next to her. "No...she was kissing a guy at War Zone, Steve."
I couldn't help but feel guilt. I should've been there. I should've been there to comfort her. She's just been keeping this to herself? No one else knew how she felt about Vickie but me.
"I'm so sorry..." I sigh before sitting next to her. "What was she even doing there?"
Robin shrugged "I dunno but it confirmed I don't have any chance."
"Well...forget her. There's many fish in the sea, Robin." I softly smiled at her. "I mean you and Nancy have been talking like crazy."
Robin furrowed her eyebrows "dude that would be so weird if I got with her...I mean first off...she's straight...second you dated her...THIRD SHE'S TAKEN..."
I shrugged before looking at her "anything's possible...I mean me and Nancy were dating when she started feeling things for Jonathan."
Robin sat in silence for a while before shaking her head "no way, Harrington."
I smiled back at her as we filled the bottles with towels.
Everyone was preparing the weapons for war...but...I couldn't help but feel uneasy. Were we really prepared to face such a strong enemy?
"Robin...?"
"Yeah?" She looked up from her current bottle that she was working on.
"Do you think we're actually going to be able to do this?" I nervously looked at Eddie. "I mean I'm not going with you and Nance... you think you can do it?"
"I mean probably not..." Robin continued with the bottle. "But if it's our last battle, I'd prefer to go down trying."
I nodded slowly. She was right. Better to go down trying than go down for doing nothing. "Okay just...don't be too risky, alright?"
"We'll be careful." Nancy smiled before stepping closer to me with her sawed off shotgun. "We do need more reinforcements though...we'll need all the help we can get."
"But who? I mean we're all here..." Robin's eyebrows furrowed.
"The Sinclairs."
-Eddie's Perspective-
"And be with the town's most wanted? Do you know how RISKY that is? Especially from me...who's on the basketball team?!" The walkie talkie rang back loudly into our ears.
"Lucas I know it's crazy..." Max replied back into the walkie.
"Crazy? This is suicidal... that and you want my sister involved too? We already risked enough to get Dustin away from the cops at Mike's house."
"Well...I'm going Lucas. I'd really appreciate your help. Dustin would be there too. I don't expect you to care much about it, but we do. A lot. And Erica would just be the lookout."
The walkie talkie was silent for a long time until a different voice came over the walkie talkie. "Alright, where are we meeting?" Erica replied back into the walkie talkie.
"We have reasoning to believe that Vecna's home base is in the Creel house...so there. We'll split from there."
"We'll meet you there."
"Thank god we have more people to help us." Robin sighed out in relief before leaning onto the RV steps.
"Well Lucas is like in love with Max...so it's not shocking that he's on board." Dustin teased Max before smiling wide.
Max rolled her eyes at Henderson's statement and closed the long metal on top of the walkie.
"Let's review our game plan guys." Nancy waved to the inside of the trailer before sitting down onto the dining room table.
We all crowded around the table to hear Nancy go through the game plan. "Steve and Eddie. What're you two doing?"
We looked at each other with a loss of words. We knew the plan but we didn't expect to have to go first. Nancy sighed "okay... so that went off to a great start."
"I'll let Vecna in" I smiled awkwardly before pointing to my head.
"And Steve?" Nancy raised her eyebrow towards him.
"I'll make sure Eddie doesn't float" I replied before shaking a Walkman that we borrowed from Max and the tape we used at Reaper Rob's shed. "Erica will be the lookout for us."
"Great! Max and Dustin. What will you be doing with Lucas?" Nancy pointed to the two with her whole hand forward.
Dustin high fived her and smiled. "We'll be distracting the bats with the loudest speakers we could find."
Nancy pulled her hand away before smiling at Dustin with an awkward smile. You could tell that that's definitely not what she put her hand out for.
"What song did you end up picking Max?" Nancy turned her head to the red headed girl.
"Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush" Max smiled before holding her hand out for Dustin to actually high five her.
"I've never heard that song...like ever Max." Dustin awkwardly stared at Max's hand.
"Damn okay..." she withdrew her hand as her smile faded. "It's a good song I swear."
Nancy awkwardly smiled before cutting off the awkward conversation. "Okay so then me and Robin go to the Creel house in the upside down and burn the bitch."
Everyone's eyes widened and glared at Nancy. Yes, Vecna was a pain in the ass but it was definitely not a sentence we expected to come out of her mouth.
"No one does anything out of the outline. Don't be a hero. Stick to the plan and everything might just work." Nancy slammed her hands onto the table "am I clear?"
The group jumped at how strong Nancy was being. She was usually way calmer than this and well...not such a badass.
"Yeah... We got it" I mumble before looking away. Everyone mumbled shortly after me in agreement.
"Good. Now..Eddie please, Hotwire the car again."