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[christmas eve]
On the morning of December twenty-fourth, Eddie panics.
He'd asked Chrissy if she'd want to hang out, do something for Christmas, and he'd tried to make it sound as casual as possible, because he knows there's no way she could ever like him. Not the way he likes her, which he knows for certain now after their kiss, even though it had been framed as friends rescuing each other. That should be enough, he knows, to just be her friend, and it is. It's enough.
It still makes hanging out with her difficult at times. He'll get over it, but for right now, every time he sees her, he thinks of the kiss up at Kagura and how warm her mouth had felt against his. The scent of her shampoo or perfume or maybe even just soap, he doesn't know what it had been, only that he'd felt like he could drown in it. He thinks of the light touch of her hand on his arm and he knows he can't think all this stuff if they're going to keep being friends.
So they're friends. They're just friends, but Eddie is still panicked, realizing he's invited her to come over to his place on Christmas Eve, only it looks like a twenty-year-old single guy lives here and he can't let her see his place like this. She hadn't judged the trailer, but honestly, she'd had a lot going on at the time and he could blame that on Wayne. This mess is his fault, though, and so Eddie throws himself into cleaning for perhaps the first time in his life.
When that's done, he goes to get groceries. Maybe it's a mistake on Christmas Eve, the stores are crazy busy, but he needs to have something at his place. He doesn't really know how to cook, so he gets the most expensive frozen pizzas, figuring they're probably the best quality, and he gets snacks, and he gets soft drinks and iced tea and on a whim, he grabs a string of white Christmas lights that are marked down to forty percent off, due to it being so late in the season.
Back home, the groceries get put away and Eddie doesn't have a tree, so he strings the lights up over the window behind the couch, then plugs them in to make sure they work. When he turns off the rest of the lights, they make the apartment glow and, for the first time, it actually feels like Christmas.
On the coffee table sits the one thing he's had ready all this time. A neatly wrapped box with a bow on top, Chrissy's name scrawled in his writing on the tag. Inside is her gold chain, the one she had given him, but the pendant has changed. Around his neck, he still wears the gold 86 alongside his pick. In the box is a similar pendant now, but this one is a 23.
This next year is her year. He can feel it.
He'd asked Chrissy if she'd want to hang out, do something for Christmas, and he'd tried to make it sound as casual as possible, because he knows there's no way she could ever like him. Not the way he likes her, which he knows for certain now after their kiss, even though it had been framed as friends rescuing each other. That should be enough, he knows, to just be her friend, and it is. It's enough.
It still makes hanging out with her difficult at times. He'll get over it, but for right now, every time he sees her, he thinks of the kiss up at Kagura and how warm her mouth had felt against his. The scent of her shampoo or perfume or maybe even just soap, he doesn't know what it had been, only that he'd felt like he could drown in it. He thinks of the light touch of her hand on his arm and he knows he can't think all this stuff if they're going to keep being friends.
So they're friends. They're just friends, but Eddie is still panicked, realizing he's invited her to come over to his place on Christmas Eve, only it looks like a twenty-year-old single guy lives here and he can't let her see his place like this. She hadn't judged the trailer, but honestly, she'd had a lot going on at the time and he could blame that on Wayne. This mess is his fault, though, and so Eddie throws himself into cleaning for perhaps the first time in his life.
When that's done, he goes to get groceries. Maybe it's a mistake on Christmas Eve, the stores are crazy busy, but he needs to have something at his place. He doesn't really know how to cook, so he gets the most expensive frozen pizzas, figuring they're probably the best quality, and he gets snacks, and he gets soft drinks and iced tea and on a whim, he grabs a string of white Christmas lights that are marked down to forty percent off, due to it being so late in the season.
Back home, the groceries get put away and Eddie doesn't have a tree, so he strings the lights up over the window behind the couch, then plugs them in to make sure they work. When he turns off the rest of the lights, they make the apartment glow and, for the first time, it actually feels like Christmas.
On the coffee table sits the one thing he's had ready all this time. A neatly wrapped box with a bow on top, Chrissy's name scrawled in his writing on the tag. Inside is her gold chain, the one she had given him, but the pendant has changed. Around his neck, he still wears the gold 86 alongside his pick. In the box is a similar pendant now, but this one is a 23.
This next year is her year. He can feel it.
no subject
It's nice to not be alone on Christmas.
"Do you wanna stay?" he asks, then realizes how that sounds. "I mean, I'll take the couch, you can take the bed. Just so we're not... y'know, on our own on Christmas morning. I know we already did presents, but we could... I dunno, go see a movie or something."
no subject
"No, that sounds really nice," she says, giving him a soft smile. "I'd like that. And you don't have to sleep on the couch, I mean, unless you want to." She's slept in his bed before, after all. It should be big enough for them both, she thinks, even if all they do is just sleep beside each other.
no subject
"I just don't want you to feel like... well, you know," he says. He doesn't have to explain. Chrissy is a girl, she's probably dealt with plenty of guys who want something from her and it's not that he doesn't, he just wants her to feel like they can do whatever they want when they want. No specific plans and definitely no pressure.
"It'll be cool. Really cool. Having you here in the morning. Just more Christmas, right?"
no subject
There's nothing not to want, except, perhaps, the disapproval of her parents and dissolution of her reputation and social standing. Even if they were in a place where any of that were even a factor, though, she'd choose him over all of it without hesitation. If they'd had the chance back in Hawkins, she thinks the same would have been true.
"I don't. Feel like that," she adds, because he should know that she doesn't feel pressured or like he's made certain assumptions that so many guys make. "It'll be nice." She huffs out a laugh then, gestures to the narrow skirt of the dress she's wearing. "I might have to borrow your clothes again, though."
no subject
More than anything, Eddie is really glad she understands he's not saying any of this because he's trying to get in her pants. The way Chrissy looks, her big eyes, her soft mouth, the fact that she was so popular, Eddie knows all that adds up to a lot of high school guys trying to get somewhere so they can brag about it.
He's never been like that. First, given the girls he's been with -- and the two guys who were mostly awkward about the fumbles -- they'd all have kicked his ass if he had behaved that way. And second, he's pretty sure Wayne would have given him that disappointed look, which was always worse than a real punishment.
"Shit," he says after a second, then breaks into a grin. "I just realized I'm gonna have to actually clean my apartment regularly now."
no subject
She supposes it is like that now. Even if all they do is sleep in the same bed, if she leaves here tomorrow, whenever, in a shirt of his, she'll be wearing her boyfriend's shirt, and won't have any reason to be defensive about it.
"You don't have to go out of your way for me," she tells him. "Really. Or if you're really worried about it, you can always come to my place if you don't feel like cleaning."
no subject
It'll be different here. He has a place of his own and he knows how rare that can be for some people. He's not going to mess it up.
"I did okay this time, didn't I?" he teases.
no subject
Or maybe it's just that she's pretty crazy about him, enough that she would feel like this regardless of the state of his apartment.
"Really, this... It's a pretty perfect Christmas Eve."