Chapter Text
Strike One:
Eddie and I had been having sex extremely regularly for about three weeks the first time we were ‘caught.’
I was showering at Eddie’s house after ‘hanging out’ and had just heard some ruckus on the other side of the trailer so was finishing up. Almost immediately after I turn the water off, Eddie is slipping, literally, into the bathroom with a finger over his lips. I looked at him like he was crazy, “is someone here?”
“The kids. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Gareth. They just showed up and want to talk about the campaign.”
“They can’t know I’m here!”
“It’s too late for that, they know someone else is here.”
“Tell them it’s your uncle-“
“Home at 8 pm on a Tuesday? No way they’ll believe it”
“Well think of something!”
“You were tutoring me and I spilled beer all over you.”
“Are you fucking kidding me. Your uncle being here was out of the park but you think they’ll believe I’m tutoring you?”
“I’m the town freak and you are one of the smartest girls in school, makes sense.”
“Yeah to everyone except my brother and his lame friends”
“Why?”
“Because I swore off tutoring freshman year and made a very big announcement about it.”
“I remember that, ‘quiet nerd gone crazy,’” he said it fondly, and that was just irritating.
“So see, they won’t believe it.”
“They will if you say you like me”
“And why the hell would I do that”
“Because no one will believe my uncle is home and no one will believe you’re tutoring me. Unless! You’re tutoring me bc you have a crush on me.”
“Or for an assignment?” I just slept with the guy but I wasn’t about to admit to my little brother and his friends that I had a crush on him. Even though I do. A lot. It’s so bad.
“So you admit it”
“What? That I would tutor you or that I like you?”
“Both.” That grin was going to drive me mad and would have distracted me from the kids outside if they hadn’t spoken up then.
“Eddie! Can I eat some of these chips?” My own brother, which made the shake to reality all that more fucking annoying.
“Yeah! I’ll be out in a minute!” Eddie called back, voice just louder than normal so he wasn’t screaming in my face. How kind of him. That didn’t matter because his eyes weren’t on me anymore, well, not on my eyes. It was clear that no woman had lived in this house for awhile, the towel wasn’t exactly ‘wrappable’ like I was used to so it covered the necessities minus some. The cold air told me where my hip was exposed, the steam from my shower cooling.
The whispered voices of the teenagers in the next room floated through the vents, and I just hoped that they hadn’t heard us before. Well, it wasn’t as if we had said anything. Still, if Dustin had heard me, he would have already been knocking on the door.
“Who do you think is in there?”
“A girl?”
“No way, Eddie would have told us.”
“Why would he tell you guys if he had a girl showering at his house?”
“Well because if she’s showering at his house that means that they are…”
The whispers got quieter in that hushed way that kids talked about things like sex when they were around older kids. Specifically ‘cool’ older kids, which they considered Eddie one of.
“Eddie!” Saying his name broke the trance I seemed to have over him. This wasn’t exactly a ‘watch and wait’ sort of situation, even if the way his eyes got darker and his mouth was shaped made my cheeks hot if I paid too much attention.
“I just said I had to let you know that people were here.”
“Me? Like me me or like her?”
After a pause, Eddie thought, the weed was obviously still in his system which meant it was very likely still in mine. “Her? I think?”
“Her, okay. I could be anyone. Just any number of the girls at school who have a crush on you.” That did absolutely nothing to help the spiraling thoughts in my head. Sure, they all had a crush on him but that was fine right? We had been having sex for a couple weeks now and I hadn’t seen any evidence of other girls in his life, so that was alright, right?
“I can see that you are overthinking this. Hey. Hey,” he stepped closer, the trailer bathroom was nothing spacious, so his one step put him almost against me. Both my hands were holding the towel up and closed, so I felt the heat coming off his body when he got close.
In the silence, I heard Gareth ask after me. “Dustin, where’s your sister? She never misses a chance to talk campaign.”
“A chance to see Eddie you mean,” Lucas ‘ooh’ed at Mike’s suggestion and they all laughed for a moment. I saw the smirk on Eddie’s face as he looked to the vent that was at the top of the shower.
“I’ll have to remember to hide in here for everyone’s dirty little secrets,” Eddie whispered, then stayed silent, like he wanted to keep listening.
“Eddie-“ I was blushing, this was embarrassing.
“Shhh, m’lady, I’m listening.” He pressed a ringed finger to my lips, and all it did was remind me of where his fingers had last been on my person and that was a warming thought.
“She left without a word like two hours ago, left a note saying to tell me that she would be home for dinner and not to tell anyone.”
“So you tell all your friends, you little shit,” it was my turn to whisper comments about what they were all talking about.
“You haven’t told them about me?” Eddie’s tone was teasing, and I rolled my eyes at him. It wasn’t as if we hadn’t talked about me telling my brother, it just hadn’t happened yet.
“No I have not told my brother that I’m fucking the dungeon master, it hasn’t come up.”
Eddie faked a gasp, pressing a hand theatrically to his chest, and I didn’t miss that it grazed my hand holding the towel, like he was testing my grip, the perv.
“Is that all I am to you, princess? The dungeon master?”
“Depends on what you would describe a dungeon master’s duties as. I thought you were just being a very, very good DM.” I let go of where I was holding the towel closed, Eddie’s body would hide me if the door got opened and I was completely dry at this point. Well-
“Is that weird?”
“Not lately, but I have the house to myself when she does disappear so I don’t really care.”
“Why is she just disappearing for hours for no reason?”
“Probably a guy,” Erica ever the voice of reason.
“I would know if my sister had a boyfriend.” Right you are, brother of mine, but I don’t have a boyfriend.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Man, what is taking him so long? He isn’t… is he?”
“Naw… Eddie?” Calling for Eddie was in a louder voice, and we both looked at each other.
Giving me a look like I was supposed to fix the problem, I pushed him back towards the door. “Tell them I’m getting dressed.”
“You-you or like… ‘her’?” He copied my phrasing which made it easier for my frazzled brain to comprehend.
A panicked moment, “Me. Tell them I’ll be right out.”
Eddie just nodded, briefly glancing in the mirror, at his hair, I’d wager. Then at me, before turning and slipping back out the trailer door. “Hey guys, sorry about that.” There was a pause, like he wasn’t sure about what he was about to do. “She’ll be out in a second.” Chicken. I was hoping he would take the brunt of the surprise but that wasn’t about to happen.
“Who is it?”
“She who?”
“Were you in there while she was naked or something?”
The first two made sense, but the third question coming from a voice I couldn’t place over the rustling of me putting on the jeans that I’d come over to Eddie’s in followed by a shirt of his that I’d stolen.
Attempting to squeeze the excess water from my hair didn’t work and I hadn’t brought a scrunchie into the bathroom with me, the water was cold where it was soaking into the neckline of my shirt. Hanging up the towel I’d used for it to dry, I took a deep breath before I was opening the bathroom door and walking to the living room.
Everyone single one of them had a different look on their face, ranging from Gareth’s look of pure confusion to Dustin’s of almost betrayal that lasted only half a second before he was turning to Eddie.
“Hey guys, sorry. I had to take a shower-“
“Why?” My little brother, impatient as I was.
“If you let me talk, I’ll tell you. Ms. Higgs paired Eddie and I up for a senior spotting thing in hopes I could finally get rid of him for her. I came over to study with him and my pop exploded when I opened it.”
“So you… took a shower?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you just go home?” Mike.
“And why take a whole shower if just your shirt got wet?” Lucas.
Little shits were taking a pin to my story and I was falling.
“Why am I getting the second degree? I took a shower at a friend’s house, what the hell?”
“Yeah, at Eddie’s house,” Mike was the one to point it out again.
“Yes. Eddie. Leader of a club I’m in. Assignment partner. Friend. You guys are making it seem weird when it isn’t.”
They all looked between one another and seemed to unanimously let it go, in favor of turning on one another to narrow down which of their questions Eddie would be forced to answer about the campaign first.
“I’m gonna get a beer, you guys want some soda?” Eddie asked, already walking past them to the kitchen, all of them said yes, as expected. “Henderson, you’re up, can you help me grab them all?”
I know for a fact that he can carry enough pop for all of us to drink without me, but I follow along. “You are a lost cause, Munson.” But followed him into the kitchen and stood by as he grabbed the cans from the fridge, passing them one at a time to me.
“I can’t believe they let that go.” It was just barely a whisper, and I fought a smile back when he said it.
“Me either if I’m honest.”