Chapter Text
“Is that who I think it is?”
Eddie Munson’s body tensed slightly at hearing the unexpected voice calling out to him.
While going outside always came with the chance of being spotted and recognized, that didn’t make it any more pleasant when it happened in the middle of the supermarket.
But right as he was bracing himself to be all smiles and cheer as he was swarmed by a fan on the bread aisle at Bradley’s Big Buy, it dawned on him that there had been something familiar about that voice.
Eddie slowly turned around. Instead of looking into the face of an overexcited fan he didn’t recognize, he found himself looking at you, a face he did very much recognize.
Despite all the years that had passed, seeing you made his heart skip several beats and stir butterflies up in his stomach.
“It is who I think it is!” you said, the curious expression on your face morphed into an excited smile.
Eddie’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to speak, but before any words of greeting could come out, he found himself on the receiving end of a tackling bear hug.
His arms wrapped tightly around you as he staggered backwards at the force of your body hitting his. Since this inadvertently pulled you with him, it caused both of you to be thrown off balance. There was a brief moment where you teetered and spun while still in each other’s arms, but then you both got your footing back and didn’t fall over.
Once you both were steady, you pulled back a little to grin sheepishly at him.
“Sorry,” you said, eyes sparkling as you met his gaze. “I guess I got a little over excited.”
“No, it’s totally okay,” Eddie said quickly, grinning back at you. “I can’t fucking believe it, it’s really you!”
Your grin widened and you hugged him again, without the tackle this time. Eddie welcomed your tight embrace and squeezed you firmly to his chest.
Even though Eddie was back in Hawkins for the holidays, he never expected to see you on the trip. While the two of you had been best friends throughout most of high school, he hadn’t seen or talked to you in years. There hadn’t been a falling out, nor were the two of you upset at one another. It was just one of those things that could happen with friendships, even close friends like yourselves. Life had a way of making people grow apart sometimes and, unfortunately, this was one of those times.
Back in 1984 after you graduated and he didn’t, the separation of your daily lives naturally put some distance between you two. The distance then grew as you saw each other less and less thanks to the demands of school and work. Once everyone in the band was finally out of high school, Eddie and the other members of Corroded Coffin moved out to California to focus on a career in music. By that point, the two of you had been living your own lives and hadn’t spoken in quite a while.
It took a few years, but eventually the guys were discovered playing at a dingy bar in Los Angeles. They signed a record deal, put out an album and began opening at concerts for the more famous bands with the same label. This naturally progressed to more popularity, which led to bigger shows and more money.
While they still weren’t as big as they wanted to be yet, they were doing very well for themselves, and were making steady progress in the music industry.
But, every year, the guys always kept their schedules clear from mid-December to mid-January in order to come back home for the holidays.
“So, what’s a big rock star like you doing in a place like this?” you asked, gesturing around the bread and cereal aisle you both were standing on.
If there was one thing Eddie did not feel like right now, it was a rock star.
Instead, he felt like he was in high school, meeting you for the first time all over again. He felt every bit as nervous and giddy as he did when you parked yourself in the empty chair next to him at the Hellfire table without even asking.
He could still remember your reply when, while trying to save face in front of the other guys, he asked you what exactly you thought you were doing there.
“Sitting down, what does it look like?”
That ended up being your spot for the duration of your time in high school.
Despite everything wonderful that had happened to him since then, that afternoon was still one of the greatest days of his life, as far as Eddie was concerned.
“Just doing a little shopping for my uncle, restocking his fridge up after my visit,” me said, chuckling as he gestured to his shopping basket, then he took a step back to get a better look at you. “Forget about that though, how the fuck are you? It’s been, like, fucking forever!”
“It really has!” you said, laughing. “I’ve been good. How about you? How have things been?”
“I’ve been great!” Eddie said, grinning at you. “I’m living out in California now. The guys and I finally made it big!”
“I heard!” you smiled brightly, then it was your turn to look him over. “You look incredible, by the way. The magazine photos don’t do you any justice.”
Not expecting the sudden praise, Eddie felt his neck and cheeks heat up at your words. He looked down quickly and cleared his throat, taking a second to compose himself before meeting your gaze again.
“Yeah?” he said, then decided to play it cocky for now as he grinned at you. “Been keeping tabs on me, have you?”
While he expected you to play coy and deny it like most people would, instead you looked at him like he suddenly turned bright purple right before your very eyes.
“Are you kidding? Of course I have!” you said in dismay, then started laughing. “Why wouldn’t I? It’s not every day a person can say their best friend is a rock star, you know.”
Eddie’s heart went wild at your words. A soft smile spread across his face, and he felt heat once again creep into his cheeks.
“I always figured you forgot about me at some point.” he said, a half grin on his face.
You looked at him with a baffled expression, then rapidly shook your head.
“Of course not,” you said, then smiled warmly. “I could never forget about you.”
Instead of blushing, Eddie found himself staring at you, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. You returned his gaze, smiling.
After a few seconds, the moment seemed to get a bit too intense for you both and you looked away from each other at the same time.
You cleared your throat before speaking again.
“Hey, listen, I gotta get this shopping done and get home, but I’d love to see you again while you’re in town,” you said, smiling at him. “Are you doing anything tomorrow evening? I can cook us dinner and we’ll hang out, just like old times.”
While the butterflies went wild in Eddie’s stomach at your invitation, he decided to cover his excitement by playing cocky again.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” he asked with a playful grin. “I wouldn’t want your husband getting all jealous that his wife is hanging out with a famous rock star.”
You laughed heartily at that, and he was reminded of how much he loved the sound of your laughter.
“Oh no, I’m not married,” you said, waving away his question with one hand. “It’s just me and my little man.”
At first, Eddie’s heart soared at your admission of being unmarried, but then he got confused.
“Little man?” he asked, tilting his head at you.
You visibly brightened at the question.
“Oh, you hadn’t heard?” you asked.
Eddie shook his head to indicate he hadn’t.
A big smile came to your face, but instead of answering his question, you reached into your bag and pulled out your wallet. You stepped closer and Eddie watched with curiosity as you opened it and flipped it open to the plastic photo holder all wallets had. Now that the shock of seeing you had passed, Eddie finally noticed how nice you smelled with you standing so close to him again. He couldn’t tell if it was your shampoo, soap or cologne, but it made his knees feel weak. Eddie forced himself to focus his attention on the wallet you were holding open for him to look at.
“This is Jesse,” you said, your voice filled with love as Eddie stared down at a photo.
It took a moment for his brain to reengage and process what he was seeing, but once he did, he couldn’t help but smile. It was a photo of you sitting in front of a Christmas tree holding a little boy on your lap. You both were wearing matching pajamas and had matching Santa hats, but while you were wearing your hat, the little boy was holding his with both hands and chewing on the fuzzy ball.
“Oh wow,” Eddie said, voice tinged with awe. “How old is he?”
“He’ll be two in June,” you said proudly. “So, a little over a year and a half now.”
Eddie studied the picture for a bit longer before looking back up at you with a smile. “He looks just like a mini version of your dad.”
You laughed and nodded at Eddie’s words, making him feel weak kneed all over again, so he lowered his gaze back to the photo.
“He’s definitely a character just like his grandpa,” you said, as you shook your head. “I guess that’s what I get for naming him after my dad, but I sure as fuck wasn’t about to name him after the sperm donor.”
Eddie looked up from the photo to you and tilted his head to the side. While he was curious, he also didn’t want to pry into a sore subject
“It sounds like there may be a story behind that one,” he said, leaving you an opening if you wanted to talk about it.
The topic didn’t seem to faze you though. You shrugged and looked up at him with an unbothered expression.
“It’s a tale as old as time, nothing too exciting,” you said. “My ex, Scott, split town when I was four months along. Last I heard, he was in Nebraska, shacked up with some older chick he found to be his sugar mama.”
Eddie blinked several times, his jaw dropped.
“You’re kidding?”
“Sadly, no,” you said, shaking your head. “And just a few days after our third anniversary too. Can you believe it?”
Eddie could not, in fact, believe it, and it took him a moment to think of a reply.
“Damn, that really fucking sucks,” he said. “Guess it’s true what they say. Sometimes you don’t ever really know a person.”
You nodded wisely, then smiled at him again.
“But enough about that dipshit,” you said. “What do you say? Dinner at my house tomorrow night?”
Once again, the butterflies flapped around in Eddie’s stomach at your invitation. But right as he was about to say yes, he remembered what was on the itinerary for tomorrow.
“Shit,” he said, then sighed. “I can’t. We’re leaving first thing in the morning to go back to LA.”
“Now that really fucking sucks,” you said, a twinge of sadness in your voice that made Eddie’s heart ache. “When will you be back in town?”
“Probably not until next Christmas unless something important comes up,” he said, sad about this fact for the first time ever, but then had a thought and he looked at you hopefully. “Maybe I could call you sometime though?”
You started beaming at him.
“I would love that!”
While you dug around in your bag looking for a pen, Eddie pulled a crumpled receipt from one of his pockets and smoothed it out as best he could.
“Call me at any time,” you said as you wrote your number down. “And I mean that. Between Jesse having weird hours and me battling insomnia, I’m usually up way late.”
“I can do that,” Eddie said, grinning. “My hours are usually weird and late, too.”
Rather than just write down your phone number, you also wrote down your address.
“Just in case something important comes up and you want to stop by,” you said, watching as he folded up the bit of paper and put it into his wallet with a soft smile on your face. “You’re always welcome over.”
Eddie blushed deeply, replaced his wallet back into his jeans, then pulled you in for one last hug.
The two of you stood there for a while, just quietly holding onto one another and enjoying the moment.
“I’m so glad I got to see you today,” you said softly, your head resting on his shoulder.
“Me too, sweetheart,” Eddie replied, turning his face towards you to kiss the side of your head. “Me too.”
When he felt a small shiver run through your body, Eddie feared he’d gone too far with the kiss. But when you pulled away a moment later, the smile on your face soothed his worries and made his heart skip a beat.
It was hard for him to watch as you pushed your basket down the aisle and away from him. But, despite that, he found himself unable to take his eyes off you. You looked back at him just in time to smile and wave right before you turned the corner.
Once you walked away from the aisle, you fully intended to finish your grocery shopping, but running into Eddie Munson had left you so giddy that you completely forgot a full third of what was on your list.
While it normally annoyed you to have to make another trip to the store, this time you didn’t mind.
Out of all the friends you had lost contact with over the years, Eddie the one you thought of the most. While you’d had a thing for the man since day one of sophomore year when you saw him acting like a jackass in the lunchroom, you never acted on those feelings, but the two of you had gotten very close during those three years of high school, easily becoming best friends.
But when you graduated and he didn’t, the two of you went from seeing each other every day to only seeing each other on the weekends. Then a new job cut that out when you had to start working on those nights. After that, the rest, as they say, is history. Life carried you both away from each other on separate paths until it decided to bring you back together again in the present.
In all honesty, despite the fact Eddie seemed just as excited by the reunion as you were, you really didn’t expect to hear from him again. You knew meeting him at the grocery store was pure chance during the one time of year he got some downtime to come back home. Once he left Hawkins, you knew it was time for Eddie to be a rock star again, living a fast paced, jet setting life.
And that was why when your phone rang a little after 2am just four days later, you nearly had a heart attack.
Since you kept the handset of your cordless phone on low in case of late-night phone calls, you weren’t too worried about it waking Jesse up in the next room.
However, despite the fact you frequently told people it was perfectly alright to call you at all hours, they very rarely did unless it was an emergency. Late night calls were not something you were used to.
In your panic to answer the phone, you accidentally knocked it off your nightstand and onto the floor. By the time you managed to get a hold of it and sit back up, it was on the fifth ring.
“Hello?” you said, feeling nervous at the response you were about to get.
“Hey sweetheart!” came a familiar voice from the other end of the line. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“Eddie!” you said, breathing a sigh of relief. “No, not at all! I just wasn’t expecting the phone to ring and my first thought was someone must be dead or dying.”
Eddie cackled with laughter, and you couldn’t help but join him.
“Nah, no Grim Reaper, just your favorite metalhead,” he said, and you could hear the grin in his voice.
That was what you called him back in high school after you bonded over your similar tastes in music. There weren’t too many metalhead’s back at Hawkins High in those days, but you once claimed he would always your favorite one no matter how many there were.
“I like that one much better anyways,” you said, grinning at the sudden trip down memory lane. “How’s life treating you out in California?”
“Good,” Eddie said, and you could hear him moving things around on his end of the phone call. “Busy, but good. We had to fly back out that way to New York right after we got home. Our manager sprang it on us last minute and we got stuck doing some appearances over the weekend. I just got home from the airport a bit ago.”
“Seriously?” you blinked a few times. “Wow. You know, that’s so freaky and weird when you get to thinking about it.”
“Why’s that, sweetheart?”
“Because of the distance,” you said, settling back into the pile of pillows on your bed. “Just a few days ago, we were standing right in front of each other. I could reach out and touch you, but now we’re almost on opposite sides of the country from each other. Hell, you’ve even been back and forth one more time across the nation since I last saw you.”
“Huh,” Eddie said, considering this for a moment before you heard him chuckle. “When you put it that way, it is pretty freaky and weird.”
He fell quiet for a moment, and you heard a few banging noises and grunting coming from his side of the phone.
“Sounds like you’re pretty busy over there,” you said.
“Just getting my luggage upstairs,” he said, sounding a bit out of breath now. “I literally just got home from the airport right before I called you.”
“And the first thing you did was call me?” you said, blinking in surprise. “Shouldn’t your girlfriend be the first person you call when you get home?”
“If I had one, sure,” Eddie said, and you heard him grunt as if he just lifted something heavy. “But since I don’t, the honor of first phone call goes to you. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” you said, grinning. “I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t about to have a crazed supermodel busting down my door thinking little ol’ hometown friend me is trying to steal her man.”
At that, Eddie cackled with laughter.
“Nah, don’t worry,” he said. “I tend to stay away from models these days. It would more likely be a porn star or stripper instead.”
“Now that’s even worse,” you said, playfully sighing with resignation. “That means I’m going to be drooling all over the place while getting my ass kicked. That’s just not fair at all.”
Now Eddie was really laughing hard, and you couldn’t help but smile at the sound. When he genuinely found something funny, he had that sort of laugh that sounded like it came from deep in his soul. It was amazing to listen to.
“Hey now, don’t sell yourself short,” he said, a playfully chiding tone in his voice, and you could hear him grinning. “You still look pretty fucking good to me.”
“Want me to let you in on a little secret?”
“Sure, sweetheart. What’s up?”
“There’s a huge difference between looking good and being in shape,” you said. “Trust me, those girls could kick my ass and I wouldn’t even care, cause they’d look so damn good doing it.”
Eddie’s laughter rang through the phone once again, which was broken off by a loud curse, followed by several loud, rapid bangs that gradually sounded like they were getting further away before stopping suddenly.
“Fuck,” he said, then started laughing again. “I just dropped my damn suitcases down fucking the stairs.”
“Were you trying to carry everything all at once?”
“Course I was.”
His laughter was soon joined by yours as he started picking his clothes up off the stairs.
The conversation flowed easily between you two, almost as if no time at all had passed. He asked about Jesse, and you talked at length about him. You asked about his trip to New York, and Eddie talked at length about that. The time really flew by once you started catching each other up on the last ten plus years that the two of you missed.
The sun was rising in Hawkins by the time you two finally got off the phone.
As nice as it was talking to him, you didn’t expect to hear from him again for a while, if ever.
Imagine your surprise when Eddie called you again the next night.
And the next night.
And the next three nights after that.
Then on the sixth night after that when Eddie called, he had big news to share.
“The opening band for White Zombie dropped out of their tour just three days before it starts, and our management scored us the gig!”
“Holy shit, Eddie, that awesome!” you exclaimed loudly, then clamped your hand over your mouth in horror, your gaze sweeping over to the baby monitor on your nightstand.
Eddie had been through this before when you’d gotten a little too excited and loud about something, so he stayed quiet while you listened for any noise coming from your sons’ room. When it became apparent you hadn’t woken Jesse up, you resumed the conversation in a much quieter tone of voice.
“Seriously, that’s fucking cool as hell, baby! I’m so proud of you!”
The slip up made you bite down on your lip and your cheeks burn a bright red. You didn’t mean to call him a pet name, but it happened sometimes when you were really tired or really excited about something and your true feelings were dangerously close to the surface.
Fortunately, if there was ever a time that Eddie caught exactly what it was you called him, he never commented on it. This time was no exception.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” he replied, and you could hear him grinning. “I wanted to let you know just in case I don’t get to talk to you for a while. We start preparations for the tour tomorrow and then head out the day after. I figure it’s going to be pretty busy and hectic.”
“Jesus, that’s really short notice,” you said, wincing at the thought of just exactly how busy and hectic that was going to be. “Why’d the other band drop out anyway?”
“They broke up.”
You blinked a few times in surprise.
“They broke up?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Three days before a big tour like this starts and they broke up?”
“Yup.”
“Why in the fuck did they do that?”
“No idea,” Eddie said, chuckling. “Can’t say I really care either. They just handed us our biggest gig yet on a silver platter.”
Despite being warned by their management team about how much bigger this tour was going to be in comparison to the ones they’d been on so far, nothing could have prepared the members of Corroded Coffin for exactly how big. It had to be experienced to be believed.
And what an experience it was.
The next three months were a chaotic whirlwind consisting of being on the road in the tour bus, concerts, after parties, clubs, VIPs, hotel rooms and hangovers. Eddie would have lost track of which city they were in from one gig to the next had their manager not told him right before he went on stage each night.
By the time he finally walked back into his Los Angeles condo at the end of April, Eddie was elated by the whole experience, but exhausted and very glad to be home.
Despite the months that had passed, all of the debauchery that went on and the many women who passed through his bed, Eddie still remained single and unattached. And yet, despite that, there was only one person at the forefront of his mind when his plane finally landed at LAX.
Once he was back home and his bags had been brought inside by the driver, Eddie snatched up the handset of the cordless phone from its base and dialed the number he already knew by heart.
It was just a little after 5pm Los Angeles time, which made it just a little after 8pm Hawkins time. This was much earlier than Eddie had ever called you before and it took longer than normal for you to answer the phone.
“Hello?” you said after the seventh ring.
“Hey sweetheart!” Eddie said, then his brow furrowed a bit with worry as he continued on with what had become his customary greeting. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
That would probably seem like a ridiculous question to anybody else given what time it was, but given the hours you kept, there was no telling when you might have some free time to try and get a nap in.
“Nope, just forgot the phone in the other room,” you said with a chuckle, and now he could hear you sounded a little out of breath. “Hang on a second, let me get back to the living room real quick.”
“Alright, sweetheart,” he said.
Eddie started carrying his luggage upstairs, listening to the background noise change on your side of the call as you moved from one room to another. Sesame Street was playing in the background, but the volume soon lowered, then he heard you make a soft “oof” sound that indicated you had sat down.
“I’m going to try to put you on speakerphone,” you said then. “I’ve never done this before, so if I hang up on you, call me right back, okay?”
“Will do, sweetheart,” he said, chuckling.
There was a rustling sound, then you pressed one of the number buttons on the phone, resulting in its accompanying touch tone blasting into Eddie’s ear and making him wince. After a couple of beeps, the overall sound of the phone call changed.
“Eddie are you still there?” you said, your voice sounding further away but still clear.
“I’m right here, sweetheart.”
“Awesome, I did it!” you exclaimed, then your voice changed to a tone that was softer and just very slightly higher pitched. “See, Jesse? I said mama would figure it out eventually!”
A burst of giggles from a tiny voice rang out from your side of the phone, accompanied shortly afterwards by a few exaggerated kissing sounds.
Eddie stopped in mid stride halfway down the hall to his bedroom and burst into a grin.
That was the most adorable thing he had ever heard on his life.
“I take it this is the little man?” he asked, resuming his stride.
“Yup! This is Jesse,” you said, then your voice changed to the higher pitched one from earlier. “Jesse, can you say hi to Eddie? Say, ‘Hi Eddie!’”
At this point, there was some soft babbling from your end of the line, but no discernible words. Eddie felt his grin soften as you listen to you repeat yourself a couple of times.
“Is he talking very much yet?” he asked.
Now in his bedroom, Eddie dropped his suitcases and duffel bags by the dresser, then flopped down onto his bed, stretching out on his back.
“Quite a bit, yeah,” you said, and then he heard the sound of what sounded like a tiny plastic hammer banging on a wooden block from your end of the call. “Still mostly babbles, especially when he’s happy.”
As if right on cue, a burst of excited babbling came from your end of the phone.
“Yay! You did it!” you exclaimed, and he heard you start clapping.
Eddie smiled up at his ceiling, trying to picture in his head what was going on in your living room right now.
“So, what have you two been up to today?” he asked, tucking one arm behind his head to prop it up a little.
“Not a whole lot, mainly just trying to hammer square pegs into round holes,” you said, your voice filled with humor.
“Oh?” Eddie asked, confused for a moment then realized you were talking about actual shapes. “Oh! And how’s that been going?”
“Not well, I’m afraid,” you admitted. “We actually had a small breakdown earlier when we just couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work.”
“Aw, that’s never any fun” he said, and couldn’t help but pout at the idea of an unhappy Jesse. “Did everything work out okay?”
“Oh yes!” you said happily. “Once we decided to try the square pegs with the square holes, things started going much smoother.”
“That’s good,” Eddie said, smiling. “I’m glad to hear that, sweetheart.”
There was a pause in the conversation at that point, a small but comfortable silence, then you cleared your throat.
“Anyway!” you said, sounding slightly higher pitched, which made you clear your throat a second time. “How was the tour? Tell me all about it, Eddie!”
The smile on Eddie’s face turned into an excited grin.
“It was so amazing!” he said. “I swear, sweetheart, I never would’ve dream-“
“Eggy!”
The call went quiet on both ends of the call save for the soft singing of Big Bird in the background on your side.
“Eddie,” you said. “Ed-E. Eddie!”
“Eggy! Egg-E! Eggy!” Jesse replied.
Eddie couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“It’s okay, I’ve been called a hell of a lot worse than Eggy before,” he said, chuckling, then he stopped and his face went blank when he realized what he said. “Sorry, sweetheart. I meant heck of a lot worse.”
“It’s okay,” you said, chuckling. “I really just watch the F bombs, but stuff like shit, hell and damn are okay.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Eddie said. “Put me in check though if I slip and start getting ru-“
“Shit hell damn!”
There was a moment of silence before both of you burst into laughter.
“Oh, he can say that but not Eddie, eh?” he said, a teasing and playful tone in his voice.
“Right?” you agreed through your laughter.
Closing his eyes, a smile came across Eddie’s face as he listened to you laugh. He didn’t realize how much he had missed it these past three months until now.
That three month stretch ended up being the longest he would go without talking to you.
With his schedule being what it was, Eddie never could guarantee when he would be able to call. Sometimes things would be relaxed enough that he could call several nights in a row, other times he would be so busy it might be a week or two before he had the chance to pick up the phone
Either way, it didn’t take him long to realize that you were the first person he thought of whenever he got some downtime.
And, after a while, it started to feel like Hawkins was further and further away every time he hung up the phone.