Chapter Text
“I still don’t understand why you’re here.” Chrissy could feel her nerves kicking in as her mom, Mrs. Laura Cunningham, eyed her all while she tied a red ribbon around a bouquet of flowers. The blonde tried her best looking nonchalant as she gazed at all the new flowers in the shop. The older woman’s nails clacked against the cashier buttons as she rang out a customer. “And without Jason no less.”
Chrissy pulled at her sweater’s sleeve to hide her nervous fingers, something she always used to do in high school. Except now she wasn’t in high school anymore. That was five years ago. And she had overcome this habit before, when she left.
“I just wanted to see you,” she tried as she glanced over at her mother. It wasn’t necessarily true, but she wasn’t sure who else to run to. “ Alone . And I figured maybe you needed help here? Last time we talked, it-it sounded like you needed some help.”
The customer her mother had been helping left and the door shuddered closed. Chrissy jumped at the sound. The room suddenly felt a lot colder than before, and it didn’t help that her mother glared at her as if she had been slapped.
“Chrissy, you’re supposed to be with Jason,” her mother growled. Chrissy inhaled sharply as she expected the conversation to move to an unsettling topic. After a few moments of silence, though, the woman sighed. “But my assistant quit last week… so I guess you can work her hours until I hire someone.”
The blonde beamed. “Thank you, m-”
“When will Jason be joining us?” Laura cut her off sharply. “I sure do hope you’re not playing any games. Men like that don’t deserve to be messed with.”
Chrissy pulled her sweater tighter around her, shrinking into herself as her mother eyed her up and down with a disapproving grimace. “And will leave when they realize what they’ve gotten themselves into.”
Chrissy let her fingers dig into the palm of her hand under her sleeve. Her eyes threatened to water, but she wasn’t going to let her mother see her like that.
“He’s on a business trip,” she said, moving her body and eyes back towards the wall of flowers, blinking away her tears. “He-he’ll join us in a few weeks…”
She just wanted to move on from this conversation already. It felt like an eternity as the two stood quietly in the flower shop, the air thick with anticipation. But just as before, her mother didn’t seem in it today to pull information out of her.
“Good!” Her mom chimed. And just like that, the older woman moved on. For now.
The next hour, Chrissy’s mother gave her daughter a quick rundown on how to run the flower shop. It was a bit overwhelming to say the least, seeing as there were so many types of flowers with all sorts of different meanings that she knew nothing about. Her parents had owned this shop most of her life, and she used to come in as a little girl, but eventually, when Chrissy found this place to be more of a cage than a safe haven, she stopped coming altogether.
“Can you handle the rest of the shift on your own?” Laura asked.
Chrissy chewed on her lip before nodding. She might not be ready to sell flowers but she was ready to be left alone. She could figure out the rest as the day went. “Y-yeah, I think I’ve got it.”
Her mom eyeballed her for a moment before shrugging and pulling off her work apron. “If someone asks for something and you aren’t sure, just call and ask. I can help you find the right flowers.”
The blonde waved as her mother left, the door shuddering closed. Her legs started wobbling, giving away how terrified this whole situation had been for her. Finding a seat behind the counter, she dropped into the wooden stool and sighed shakily in relief now that she was alone. If things were differently, Chrissy could see herself working at the flower shop for a long time, if not, all her life. With her mother’s absence, the rows of flowers were warmer and chaotic in a way she didn’t quite mind. Colorful. And the room kept mostly quiet, safe for the blowing fan next to her and the sprinklers when they kicked on. She could see herself cozying up with a book and getting lost in the worlds of literature. There would be no worries running through her mind, just characters.
But she did have a lot to worry about, as much as she’d like to think she escaped everything. After she graduated high school, she packed her bags and left with Jason. With no money of her own and a need to get out of her house, she had no choice than to follow the only person agreeing to leave with her. To help her escape. He was sweet in that way, always wanting her by his side. However, time helped her realize maybe that wasn’t such a good thing. All she did was leave one monster in her life for another.
Chrissy’s brow furrowed as she thought about her situation. She needed to make money and fast. She had some money in the bank from her part time job in Indianapolis, but barista tips weren’t exactly going to help her move into her own place. Maybe she could convince her parents to spare her some money with the promise to pay them back. And then what? She didn’t have a real job, a place to go to, nothing. Chrissy placed her head on the front counter, her brow furrowed as she watched the clock. Tomorrow, maybe she could stop by the community center or the library and see if there were any job postings up.
When the clock hit seven, a small chime rang through the store. Time to close. Chrissy went over to the door and turned the key her mother had given her to lock up the shop. She just needed to count the register, write down what inventory went out, and then she could go on her merry way. Maybe she could find something to eat before heading to her parents’ house.
As she counted inventory, Chrissy stopped at some blue forget-me-nots, a small grin spreading across her face at her favorite flower. There was something about forget-me-nots that always felt so simple but so nice. She leaned forward to smell them before moving on with her tasks.
She wasn’t sure when she had started humming - or what for that matter, but once the blonde walked outside and closed the flower shop behind her, she realized their neighbor was playing some old metal music.
“You should come see us,” Eddie told her once, when they first met in the woods.
The blonde teen had thought about it, over and over and over again. Maybe things would’ve been different had she went to go see him.
Chrissy brushed the thought away. There was no point in thinking about that now, she thought as she looked over at the shop next door. A snort escaped her. A tattoo parlor ? Right next to a flower shop ? Oh, her mom must have blown a casket when they moved in next to her shop. She could imagine quite vividly how her mother would’ve gawked before going in and giving the owner an ear full.
Chrissy eyed the display windows, a smile still gracing her features. Many photos covered the glass like wallpaper, making it difficult to peer in. She stared open mouthed as she looked over the photographs and drawings, all very different yet still felt like they were created by the same hand. Some of the designs looked familiar, but she wasn’t sure why or where from. Her eye caught a specific drawing in particular and she couldn’t help the gasp that escaped her lips.
It’s an old drawing, one that had seen better days, but she remembered when it was made. She remembered watching the artist draw it in front of her. The pencil marks had smudged but she could still make up the human skull laying within a bed of forget-me-nots, next to a face of a watch. The numbers were written in Roman numerals, and the minute and hour hands meshed together, pointing north where a Roman numeral twelve would be if it weren’t covered in petals. Below the clock face, protruding from behind the flowers, thick vertical lines emphasized the pendulum had been still for quite some time.
She looked over at the door of the establishment, suddenly nervous for reasons different than the typical passerby. An OPEN red neon sign blinked back at her. She pulled her sweater sleeves down over fingers for the second time that day, going back to her nervous habit. No, she wasn’t going to be a coward. She wasn’t that scared teenager anymore. Before she could turn and run, she inhaled and pulled on the parlor’s door. HARD.
The door swung against the brick exterior causing a loud bang . She froze. Oops.
“Hey, you word grubber!”
Chrissy jumped, the sound of heavy boots making their way closer to her from behind a wall.
“The music isn’t even that-“
Bambi eyes. Eddie Munson still had those wide brown eyes that made everything that much more intense.
There wasn’t much of him that had changed in the years since she saw him last. His hair was still curly and long, but now it was held back with a hair tie, some of the strands framing his face. He no longer wore his torn jean jacket, though. And maybe that was due to the summer heat, Chrissy wasn’t sure. Instead, he sported a sleeveless black top and black shredded jeans, finished off with some black combat boots. His shirt hung off his shoulders, giving emphasis to his toned, inked arms.
If anything had changed, it was the muscle he gained in the last couple of years. Not that Chrissy really saw his arms in high school, now that she thought about it. They were almost always covered. She couldn’t help but gawk at the tattoos that snaked up his biceps and forearms. She recognized the swarm of bats near his elbow and the hand playing with an ogre-like puppet on his inner arm, but all the other tats seemed new.
Eddie coughed. She looked up and tried to shake the heat off her face.
“Sorry,” Chrissy squeaked. She looked behind her in hopes that there lied an answer there. “I didn’t know… the door…”
Eddie smirked, teeth and all. He looked so much softer than just a moment ago, and it made her want to cry.
“Chrissy Cunningham,” he inched closer. “As I live and breathe.”
She gulped. “H-hi.”
His smile faltered a little then. He didn’t seem to know what to do with himself, his hands reaching out but then retracting to fumble awkwardly around himself.
“Eddie!” A woman shrilled from behind the wall. A customer, Chrissy guessed. “Are you going to finish this or should I start going to a different parlor?”
He scoffed, momentarily breaking the eye contact between the two. Chrissy sighed as the tension loosened. “Steph, you would never leave little oh me, right?”
He messed with his fingers which the blonde just noticed were covered in latex gloves. He eyed her again, before pointing at something behind her. “Uh, I’m with a client currently but feel free to sit over on the couch. There’s a few magazines and a binder full of designs if you aren’t sure of one.”
Before she could come up with something to say - like, oh I’m not here for a tattoo; I just couldn’t help but try to see you - he strolled back behind the wall, leaving the blonde alone in the lobby, mouth agape.
She chewed on her lip. What did she think she was going to do, come into Eddie’s place of work and just start chatting with him like old times? How naive.
She couldn’t decide whether to leave or get a random tattoo that she surely came in for. The skull covered in forget-me-nots returned to her mind. She blushed at the thought. That tattoo wasn’t meant for her anymore. Surely, that was created in the moment and belonged to the past.
Chrissy fell onto the couch with a soft thud as the buzzing of the needle started up again. She couldn’t leave now. Maybe it was fate that she had come here and just happened to run into him. Even if she weren’t getting inked, she needed to speak with Eddie. She just couldn’t leave without saying anything. Not like she had before. A coffee table sat in front of the couch. It was covered in printed photos of tattoos, and a black binder labeled simply as “designs” laid on top of the surface.
She pulled the binder into her lap. The book was full of drawings she knew had been drawn by Eddie. She recognized his style. She remembered a time when she’d sneak away into the woods by the school and he’d have a sketchbook out when he didn’t know she was there.
“What are you drawing?” she asked once. She had snuck off to the table in the woods near the football stadium once again. It was becoming a habit to sneak away at lunch and find him here. It was like their secret spot.
“Oh, nothing important.” Eddie shrugged as she sat across from him. His eyes stayed on his paper, but Chrissy could see a glimpse of a smile behind all that hair. “Just doodles really.”
She’d push herself up on her knees to look around him from over the table, but he seemed to have sensed her, looking up and putting his hand out in front of her face to block her view.
She grabbed his hand with both of hers. She tried to peek again but he quickly dropped his sketchbook on the bench and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her up into the air.
She squealed in surprise as he twirled them around, arms tight around her waist. The leaves crunched under his feet every time he had to twist around so they could continue spinning. She giggled as he slowed his pace. By the time he dropped her to her feet, they were both panting, trying to catch their breath. She was dizzy but she couldn’t help but laugh.
…
Chrissy yanked her head up from her sleep. She wasn’t sure when she dozed off, but she knew she hadn’t done so with a blanket around her. It smelled faintly of a campfire, which was a nice change since the shop smelt mostly like bleach. She pulled the blanket up around her as she sat up and looked around.
The tattoo parlor was almost quiet. Music still played but a lot lower now, and she could no longer hear the buzzing of active tattoo needles. She found Eddie sitting at a desk in the lobby about 5 ft away, lost in another world as he drew in a sketchbook.
He looked over at her briefly, not really noticing her, and going back to his sketch. But then he jolted and glanced back at her again, realizing she was in fact awake. He scrambled in his seat awkwardly as his hands fell on top of his sketchbook.
“H-hey,” he spoke softly.
She waved, not trusting her mouth to form words right after dreaming about their time in high school. With the blanket still around her shoulders, she walked over to his desk, hesitant as she grew closer to him.
No , she thought. Eddie didn’t deserve hesitation.
She found herself right next to him, hip hitting the edge of his desk. His eyes bore into hers for a moment, soft and sincere like it was just yesterday when they would meet up in the woods.
Chrissy looked away, too embarrassed to look him straight in the eye. She felt his gaze shift away from her.
“So what happened to Indianapolis?” He asked as he stared at his hands still on top of the sketchbook. Chrissy tried to find any hint of resentment in his voice but there was none. His voice was too soft.
Here he was, providing her the opportunity she needed, but her tongue felt heavy and she couldn’t stop her eyes from watering. She blinked the tears away as quickly as she could.
“Not really for me,” was all she could get herself to say. She wanted to bang her head against the coffee table. That was not what she had planned on telling him.
He only looked over at her for a second, before nodding and messing around with his pencil. “Ah.”
“I uh-” she muttered, rushing to say something to escape the silence. “I’m helping out at my mom’s flower shop. Next door.”
She was starting to feel nervous again. Maybe it was a bad idea to come in here. What did she expect anyway? “A-and as I was closing, I saw this place.”
Eddie dropped his pencil on the desk and turned his attention to her. He grinned so wide it made her heart skip a beat. Get ahold of yourself, Chrissy!
“Yeah, it’s nothing much,” he shrugged but she could tell he was being bashful. His fingers started drumming against the desk. “But for my own shop, I think it’s not too shabby.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s really cool.” She argued as if he had just said dogs were ugly and gross. It was embarrassing how high her voice got. Chrissy pulled on her sleeves. “At least I think so.”
“Well don’t let your mom hear that,” he laughed, pulling his hair in front of his face. “She might think I put a spell on you or something. Give her something new to call the cops about.”
“Sorry,” she frowned. Of course her mother would do that. If that woman had it her way, this tattoo parlor along with every other tattoo parlor in Indiana wouldn’t exist. Nor metal music or the people who liked that sort of thing. Basically Eddie’s whole existance.
“Don’t be,” he hummed, his eyes dropping to her hands before darting back up to meet hers. “You’re nothing like her.”
She sucked in a lungful of air. Chrissy wondered if he in fact did have powers because it seemed he was always able to say something to counter all those thoughts she shoved deep into her consciousness for no one to hear them but her.
He glanced at her for a long moment, almost like he wanted to say something else, but he seemed to change his mind. “So… did you want to get a tattoo?”
He looked over at a guitar shaped clock on the wall, chewing nervously on the end of his pencil. “I probably can’t do one today seeing as I’m closing up soon, but maybe we can schedule something?”
“Uhhhh,” her eyes went wide, nervously racking her brain for a logical reason why she came in and stayed in the first place. “Yeah. Of course. I mean, I don’t have anything in mind yet, but maybe I can mull over it a bit?”
Good save, Cunningham!
Yeah, of course,” he chuckled. “I mean you’re next door right? So you could come by again if you think of anything? Or you can always just pick one from the designs already made, if anything stood out to you.”
Chrissy opened the binder to a random page, smiling. “I mean, this one of ‘tubular’ in bold letters, I think, would just look lovely on me.”
“Oh, man. I can see it now. I could tattoo it on your face, big and colorful.”
Eddie broke out into a laugh, and the blonde couldn’t help but giggle too. She felt so much better knowing she could still talk to him like this. Maybe she would come in one day and get another tattoo. Or two or ten. Ones that made her feel this warm and happy.
She shrugged off the blanket from her shoulders before holding it out to him. He stood up abruptly and reached for it, his fingers brushing hers as he did so. “It’s nice seeing you, Chrissy.”
“Y-yeah. I can’t believe I ran into you.” She smiled. “We should- I mean- if you ever need flowers, or something, we sell flowers. Next door.”
Smooth .
“You think I’d look pretty with some in my hair?” He tossed his hair with his hand, causing her to fall into a full fit of giggles again.
“Absolutely.” Maybe she’d bring him some flowers - not just to see him of course, but just to make him laugh some more. Plus, she wouldn’t doubt he would look stunning with a crown of flowers. She felt her face get hot. “Well, I’ll see you around then?”
He nodded. “Of course, neighbor.”
Chrissy bit her lip as she inched her way towards the door. She wasn’t ready to go yet, but it was getting late and she didn’t want to keep him from whatever tasks he needed to do to close up. “Goodnight, Eddie.”
He waved as she leaned against the door. “Goodnight, Chrissy Cunningham.”