"Lyds!"
Lydia had only been home for a half hour when she heard her aunt yelling her name. All the poor girl wanted to do was stay in her bed and wallow in her own grief, the grief she held for herself, the grief she held for hiding things from Eddie, and the grief she held for little Georgie.
But no, her Aunt Kim couldn't even let her have that. Instead she called out to her, and Lydia knew that could only mean one of two things.
1) She'd done something wrong and her aunt wanted to beat her for it.
2) She wanted her to go get her more cigarettes, that she would later most likely burn her with.
"Lydia get the fuck in here!"
With a sigh, the Greystone girl trudged down the stairs and into the living room. The scene in front of Lyds wasn't one that was unfamiliar. As she usually did, her aunt lay drunkenly in the armchair with a cigarette burning in between her fingers. The curtains were drawn shut, and the TV was off, leaving her sorry excuse of a relative lay in complete darkness.
"What do you want?"
"Are you gonna quit with the attitude?"Her aunt quickly snapped
"Yes, Aunt Kim?" Lyds rephrased her sentence
"Good. I need you to go down to Mr Keene's pharmacy and grab me some more cigarettes."
"You mean steal you some more cigarettes."
"Do that thing you always do, batter your eyelashes and flirt with Keene." The older woman shrugged
"Doesn't it make you feel uncomfortable that you're making your own niece objectify herself to old men?"
"Are you judging my parenting skills?" She glared
"You do realise you're not my parent right?"
"Thank god, if I'd have birthed you, I would've drowned you the second I laid eyes on you."
"Well it's good to know that someone cares about me."
"Quit with the sarcastic tone!" Kim suddenly rose to her feet and in her drunken stupor she stumbled her way over to her niece.
"Dad wouldn't treat me like this."
Before she even realised it, Kim and punched her across the cheek. Immediately, the young girl's face began to throb with pain.
"Don't you talk about him." She shook her head, "Now go get me my cigarettes."
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As the Greystone girl entered Keene's pharmacy her grey eyes immediately fell on an all too familiar face, a face that had brown curly hair and the kindest smile she had ever seen.
Stood only metres away was Stanley Uris, with his collared shirt and cargo pants. Lydia immediately felt her mouth go dry, and her brain swam with dizziness.
There was no way that she was going to let Stan see her with a purple bump the size of an egg on her cheekbone, especially one that her Aunt had given her.
And so in a somewhat dazed state, she quickly stepped around the corner and attempted to conceal herself in the snack aisle until Stan left.
"Please don't see me, please don't see me..." she whispered to nobody but herself
"Lyds? That you?" A voice spoke from only feet away. Stan, of course it was Stan.
"Ah, fuck..." Lyds mumbled
"Uh, hey Uris?" She waved awkwardly. It was game over, he'd already seen her face.
"Lyds, your cheek!"
Of all people, why, why did Stan have to be the one to see her cheek? He'd ask the most questions out of everyone.
'He's going to find out. He'll take one look at it and he'll know.' She thought to herself.
"Oh, What are you doing here?"
"Forget about that. What happened to your face?" He asked
"I fell off my scooter on my way here." Lydia shrugged, as if it was all no big deal.
"What did you fall onto? A fist?" He joked
If only Stan knew...
"A rock actually... What are you doing here anyway?"
"Oh, I needed to get some stuff for my Dad."
"Is he still giving you shit about not being able to read the Torah?"
"You guessed it." He sighed, "He doesn't know how difficult it is."
"Don't worry, you're Stan the man!" She kissed the top of his head, "You'll do great!"
"At least you've got a little faith in me."
"I'll always have faith in you Stanley."
"I hate it when you call me that." He rolled his eyes, "Anyway I should probably pay for this stuff, my Dad's waiting on me."
"Of course." Lyds beamed, "I'll see you tomorrow at the Barrens, right?"
"I guess so... I still can't believe Billie is making us go there."
"You know how it is." Her mind instantly fell to thoughts of Georgie.
"We all do." He nodded silently "Alright... see you tomorrow Lyds."
"See you Stan."
With that Stan turned on his heel and headed towards the counter
Immediately Lyds let out a relieved sigh, but still she hung back for a second, knowing for a fact that if Stan saw her stealing cigarettes he'd only tell the others and ask her thousands of questions.
She waited a couple more minutes before heading over to the counter, and she did as she always did, flirted and batter her eyelids until she had the chance to grab a couple cartons of cigarettes. After that she fled the store.
Just as she'd learnt to do, just as she'd been made to do. Just as she always would. There was never going to be a way out.
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When Lydia returned home she hid up in her old treehouse and smoked a carton of cigarettes alone.
Alone.
Since her Dad had died that was all she'd ever felt. Nobody else really understood her pain, not even Billie, he at least had hope that Georgie would return home, Lyds had nothing left to hope for. Her father was dead, that was the beginning and end of everything.
Her mind fell back to that day sometimes, the day a ten year old version of herself waited for her father to return home from work, but he didn't.
The night a little girl stayed awake, thinking that her father would walk through the door at any moment, but he didn't.
The morning after when a sad child woke and realised her father hadn't returned home.
That very same morning when a dead fathers daughter cried as her aunt arrived to tell her the news of her father's passing and whisk her away to some place safe.
"What are you doing?" Richie suddenly spoke from behind her
"Jesus!" The grey eyed girl practically leapt out of her skin, "What the hell Richie? Don't you know that there's a curfew?"
"I do know that there's a curfew but it isn't for another twenty minutes, so here I am."
"What are you doing in my treehouse?"
"I thought I'd drop by, see how your face looked."
"My face? What are you- Oh. Stan told you. That little snitch."
"What did you expect?"
She only shrugged.
Richie let out a frustrated sigh before sitting down next to his friend. His eyes flickered back and forth between her face and the setting sun beyond the tree house window. It was now or never.
"I know." Richie spoke suddenly
"What?"
"I know what's going on with you."
"What are you talking-"
"Billie slipped up." He cut her off, "I know everything."
The second those words left Richie's mouth, Lydia's heart practically fell out of her chest. There was no way, he couldn't know. It wasn't possible.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
With an angry shake of her head, Lyds stood, turned her back in Richie and put out her cigarette. She was angry. She was angry at Billie for telling, she was mad at Richie for knowing, but mostly she was furious with herself, for not saying anything earlier.
"Your Aunt-"
"It's none of your god damn business Richie." The poor girl was already biting back tears
Before the tears could even meet her cheeks, Richie had forced Lyds into a somewhat awkward hug, and he prayed to god that she wouldn't cry. He hated it when she cried.
"It's okay..." he mumbled softly
"No." She shook her head, "It isn't. It never has been."
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It was two in the morning when Lyds woke up in a cold sweat. Something wasn't right.
Her bedsheets were strewn across the ground, as were her clothes from the night before. That wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
The window was open, letting in a cold breeze, she could hear the sound of the trees rustling outside her room. That was the thing that was strange, she'd never actually opened the window.
Blindly, the young girl stumbled through the darkness and over to her window where she hesitantly pulled it shut. Her eyes scanned the dark streets beneath her window, but nothing was there.
But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her.
"Oh, Lyds..." a voice sang tauntingly.
"Eddie?"
"Hey, I'm sorry for showing up so late."
"Eds, what are you even doing here? It's the middle of the night."
"I really am sorry. I'm just so frustrated with my mom, and with this damn project, and with Richie too. I lost track of time."
"Richie? What did he do now?"
"Promise you're not gonna make fun of me?"
"I won't."
"I accidentally told him that I've never kissed anyone before and now he won't let it go." Eddie explained, "God sometimes I just wish I could get it over with!"
"But you have kissed someone before..."
"Yeah?"
"What are you-" she was quickly cut off
"What? I mean, It wouldn't be weird right? If you and I... uh, you know..." he stumbled over his words, "kissed?"
That was the moment it hit her. All of the words that Eddie had said, he'd said in another time. A year earlier, to be exact. Right before He and Lyds agreed to have their first kiss together.
"Hey! I'm sorry for showing up so late!"
"I already got started on the project but it's cool. Come on, take a seat." She motioned to the place beside her in her bed
"I really am sorry, I'm just so frustrated with my mom, and this damn project, and Richie too. I lost track of time."
"What did Richie do?"
"Promise you won't make fun of me?"
"I swear."
"I accidentally told him that I've never kissed anyone before and now he won't let it go." Eddie explained, "God sometimes I just wish I could get it over with!"
With a frustrated yell, Eddie threw himself back onto Lydia's bed. The Greystone girl sat in silence for a moment as an all too dangerous thought swam in her head, before finally decided to speak her mind.
"Eds?"
"Yeah?"
"Why don't you kiss me?"
"What?" His eyes widened, "I mean, it wouldn't be weird, right? If you and I... uh, you know... kissed?"
"Why would it be weird? We're best friends Eddie. I've never kissed anyone, and neither have you. Just think of it as us helping each other."
With a soft smile, one so beautiful that it almost made Lydia re-evaluate her feelings for Eddie in that very moment, the younger boy leaned forwards and took a piece of hair between his fingers.
"I'm so lucky to have you."
"Eds?" She chuckled, "Are you messing with me?"
With that same ungodly beautiful smile, Eddie Kaspbrak leaned forwards and took a piece of Lyds hair between his fingers.
"I'm so lucky to have you."
And then he was leaning forwards, and without even realising it so was she, having fallen for his actions a second time around. But just before their lips met, Eddie coughed in her face and Lydia felt something wet splatter on her cheek.
"Eddie? Are you okay?"
He coughed again, and this time Lyds could see the red liquid falling from between his lips.
And then he was choking on black blood, his body convulsing with spasms as he fell to the bedroom floor.
Lydia let out a scream and wiped Eddie's blood from her cheek, faster than she'd ever moved, the brunette sprinted from her bedroom and into her Aunt's.
"Wake up! Aunt Kim please!" She shook her awake
"What the fuck do you think-"
"It's Eddie! Please! I think he's dying!"
The young girl pulled her aunt by the arm and dragged her into her bedroom.
Where they found no blood, and no Eddie.
"Are you fucking with me? You're serious right now?" Kim shook her head.
"He was here, I swear!"
"You dreamt it!" She yelled before hitting her niece for the second time that day, "Look around you, your friend isn't here! Crazy ass bitch..."
With that, her aunt smacked her across the face one final time before leaving the room.
That night Lydia lay awake, knowing that what she'd seen was real but still she told herself that it was all a dream.
"Eddie wasn't here." She whispered
"Eddie didn't try to kiss you." She told herself
"Eddie isn't dead." She breathed
"It was only a dream."
Lyds Greystone could never have been more wrong, it was all real. Eddie hadn't been in her room that night, she was right about that, but someone else had been, someone who wanted her name to add to his list. Just like he did her Father's.
It.