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Eddie has to wonder how many people get to Darrow and end up with a date within a month. He likes to think, even if it's not true, that he's just that smooth.

By the time he figured out how to make the call to Jules, a few days had gone by, but at least she seemed to think it was funny that he didn't know how to work the thing. He'd needed Harrington to help him with it in the end, which was humiliating, but also kind of funny in its way. Shit like that, it makes him wonder what the people of Hawkins would think and just how much they'd hate this place, guys like Eddie and Steve talking to each other, Eddie hanging around Chrissy, and Chrissy actually seeming to want him to.

They'd lose their minds.

Stuff like that buoys Eddie's mood and he looks at himself in the mirror of the bathroom, giving his hair a bit of a fluff before he leaves the apartment, locking the door behind him. He doesn't have a ride here, which sucks, but the Home isn't that far, so he walks, then heads right inside to pick up Jules. It doesn't occur to him to use the phone to let her know he's arrived, so someone working at the front desk has to go get her.

Eddie's plan isn't spectacular, but he's taken time. Jules isn't eighteen yet, which rules out one of the clubs, but he's found another place that has an all-ages night and that's where they're headed. Eddie leans against the front desk as he waits, then waves at a little kid staring at him from the doorway of what looks like a rec room.

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The thing is, Jules has never really gone on a lot of conventional dates. The vast majority of her experience has involved one-night stands with guys she found on queer hookup apps, good for a quick fuck and then no one she'd have to talk to again. Rue was different, of course, but they still didn't really do a whole lot of going out in that sense. Tyler was also different, because Tyler wasn't real.

Tonight, she doesn't want to think too much about either of them. With both, she got in way over her head way too quickly, and with both, she got her heart badly broken as a result. She would much rather just have fun tonight than go down that road. And Eddie seems fun, which is really a big part of the appeal. He's cute and easy to talk to, and he already knows she's got a ton of relationship baggage, and with any luck, he'll want to take her home with him at the end of the night. Assuming this all goes well, it's kind of perfect.

Well, except for the part where she lives in a stupid fucking home for children because she's just barely technically a minor, but at least Eddie doesn't seem too put off by that. Hopefully it won't get in the way of how she would like this evening to end. Wearing a neon blue skater dress over fishnets and combat boots, with her hair in a messy bun, she grins at him as she heads into the lobby. "Hey," she says. "Come on, I am dying to get out of here."

"Hi," he says when Jules enters the lobby, turning away from the little boy who keeps jumping behind the edge of the door to hide from him, laughing each time he does it.

"You look great," he tells her, ignoring the glance he gets from the person working the front desk. Her style is nothing like what is familiar to Eddie, which is part of what he likes so much about it. She stands out, too, she doesn't look like she cares about blending in, and he has a lot of respect for that.

"Okay, so, there's this club we can go to," he says, heading for the door and holding it open for her. "All-ages on Fridays, soooo..." He grins.

At that, Jules rolls her eyes, though it's good-natured, accompanied by a smile. If anything, despite how much she hates the fact that she's just this side of underaged, it's sort of nice, in a novel way, that he's actually taking that into consideration while not being deterred by it. She's never really been much of a drinker anyway, except when things are really fucking bad, which they currently aren't. There's plenty of shit she wants to take her mind off, but she has other ways of doing that tonight — good company in the form of a cute guy, a club to go to, and maybe, with any luck, more later. In that regard, she's trying not to get too far ahead of herself, knowing there's a conversation they'll need to have first, but it's at least a possibility.

"Sounds perfect," she says as she steps past him through the doorway, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she does. "God, I can't wait to turn eighteen and get the fuck out of this place." She doesn't know what she'll do, other than wanting it to involve art; she has no idea how she'll support herself. Being watched over like a child, though, when she hasn't felt like one in a long time, is deeply uncomfortable, reminds her too much of the Unit.

She shakes her head a little, breathing in the warm summer evening air, looking over at Eddie with a smile. "Thanks for not being weird about that, by the way."

"When's your birthday?" he asks, heading down the sidewalk in the direction of the Hideout, his hands shoved into the pockets of his denim jacket. There's no huge Dio patch on the back of this one, which kind of sucks, but it's still pretty cool.

"Weird about..." He frowns a little, then realizes what she means. "You being seventeen? That's not weird."

The last proper girlfriend he'd had had been sixteen to his eighteen and that hadn't seemed weird. She'd been in the same grade at he had, after all, just had a late birthday.

"It's in February," Jules says with a shrug. Not too soon, but not terribly far off, either. She'll be able to move out of the Home before she graduates, so that's something. Back home, she hadn't felt the same anticipation to turn eighteen, or really even to move away, despite the night she ran off and Rue was supposed to come with her. For the most part, things were fine, even good, living with her dad. Here, though, it's different. She feels confined in a way she didn't before, too much freedom stripped away, and she fucking hates it.

"And no, it's not weird, I agree," she adds, letting out a slight laugh. "But some guys would act like it is." Others would take her at her word when she claimed to be substantially older, clearly not wanting to give it too much thought and consider what that might say about them. "Or be really turned off by the whole living at the stupid fucking Children's Home thing."

"I probably won't suggest we head back there," he says, laughing as they walk. "But whatever, I lived with my uncle in a trailer back in Hawkins and people were plenty turned off by that most of the time."

It made Eddie and Wayne Munson a certain kind of person in the eyes of the people who live in their nice, cozy bungalows. He'd stopped caring about that a long time ago and he sure as hell doesn't care where Jules lives.

Probably not the best place to hook up, if that happens, but he's sure she knows that.

"Shit, as long as your uncle wasn't actually, like, right there, why should it matter?" Jules asks with a laugh. She's known for a long time that her family was well-off financially, especially as she got into her teenage years and began to transition. She knows, too, how lucky that makes her, giving her an advantage that a lot of other people don't have. Judging someone else for their lack of it just seems stupid to her. It's not like where a person lives really determines anything about them.

That subject brings her to another she's been mentally circling, though, and she figures that now is as good a time as any to get it out of the way. Better to do it early, after all, than risk winding up disappointed later. "So, cards on the table, I am definitely in favor of heading back not to the Children's Home later," she says, giving him a crooked smile. "But there is something you should probably know first."

"I mean, it wasn't a very big trailer," Eddie says, laughing. "But, nah, Uncle Wayne had a cot set up in the main room. When I got there, he insisted I take the bedroom."

Eddie had always felt sort of bad about it, especially as his uncle got older and his back got worse. No matter what he said, though, Wayne had just brushed him off. He had always been good to Eddie, better than his parents had ever managed to be.

"Something I should probably know first," Eddie echoes, grinning over at Jules. "Very mysterious."

"That's me, woman of mystery," Jules replies, her voice taking a slightly dramatic tone for those last few words, even as she shoots him a teasing grin. Truthfully, she doesn't know how mysterious she actually is. In a lot of ways, she feels like an open book, someone who wears her heart on her sleeve and doesn't really give a fuck about people's judgment. On the other hand, though, there's a lot of shit she just doesn't talk about, things she keeps buried beneath carefully curated surface layers.

She's trying to do less of that these days, or at least not to let those layers — to let her femininity itself — be shaped by what she thinks men will want or expect. She's no one's dream girl; she's just herself. And, hopefully, Eddie won't have an issue with all of what that entails.

"So, uh, anyway," she continues, only slightly awkward because she really doesn't know how this is going to go. "I'm trans. I was, uh, assigned male at birth. Which, clearly that didn't stick, I started transitioning years ago, I'm on hormones and shit. But the only actual surgery I've had is a boob job, so, you know." She shrugs. "Figured you should know before taking me home with you."

Casual as she might sound, it isn't really something she can take too lightly. She's heard far too many horror stories for that. Besides, she wouldn't want to go out with someone who'd be an asshole about her gender. At least if it's going to be an issue, she'll know now, before they go any further.

Edited 2022-08-18 07:37 (UTC)

It takes Eddie longer than he'd like to follow everything she's just said. Some of the words make some sense, he has a vague idea of what trans is, although when he's from, it's usually a prefix for something else, something he's heard tossed around as a slur, which isn't a situation Eddie takes very kindly to.

Assigned male at birth is pretty clear and within a few seconds, he thinks he's caught up with what Jules is saying. She was born one way and now she's another and while Eddie's experience with that is absolutely zero, while he knows he can't even begin to understand what that feels like, it doesn't change that she's cool.

Except, another beat later, he realizes what else she's saying.

"Oh," he says, sounding surprised, but not bothered. "So I guess the future really is less shitty about stuff like that, huh?"

"Still pretty shitty," Jules says with a rueful little smile, "but yeah, less so." It's a relief, and she can't pretend otherwise, that he doesn't seem to be shitty about stuff like that. She hasn't gotten that impression, or she wouldn't be going out with him at all, but she's still aware that he's from a small town in the midwest in the '80s, which is kind of the perfect breeding ground for prejudice that could be dangerous for her. Even coming from a liberal, coastal town nearly forty years later, that's at least part of the reason why the vast majority of her hookups have been arranged on queer dating apps.

She's fortunate, she knows, to pass; she also knows that any kind of passing privilege is a double-edged sword, and that there's a long history of men getting angry, getting violent, when they think they've been tricked or misled by someone who doesn't fit the narrow confines of what they allow themselves to consider a woman.

At least, whatever happens next, it seems like she can trust Eddie to be cool about it, which is all that really matters. "If you're not, you know, into that, it's totally fine. We can still have a good time tonight."

Jules is, he realizes, even cooler than he originally thought. Not because she’s trans, but because she’s just upfront about it and she puts it out there and she’s giving him a chance to figure out what he feels about it, too.

And Eddie thinks he needs to honour that by properly considering it.

“I’m not not into it,” he says, after thinking some. “I mean, you’re cool and you’re like, really hot, and I’ve had, y’know, a thing with a dude or two. Which I know isn’t what you’re telling me,” he adds in a rush. “It‘s just…”

He gestures at himself. “Not totally the small town American guy from the eighties. Promise.”

"No, I get you," Jules assures him, laughing warmly. It's not what she's telling him, but there is still an appropriate comparison there. The body she was born with has no bearing on what her gender is, but even without bringing identity into it, there are plenty of people for whom the physical mechanics do affect attraction and interest. She isn't generally one of them, but she wouldn't have held it against him if he were, since he still seems totally accepting of what she's told him about herself. That's the part that really counts.

If anything, it kind of helps knowing that he's hooked up with guys before. Had a thing isn't much to go on, but maybe he won't be totally clueless if they do take this back to his place later.

"And don't worry, I wouldn't have thought you were," she adds, swaying sideways to nudge his shoulder with her own. "Definitely would not have said yes to going out with you otherwise."

"Is it cool if I ask questions?" he asks, nudging her back. They're close to the club and Eddie wants to ask a bit more before they're inside and all they can really do is listen to the music and maybe dance and Eddie can sneak her a drink if she wants one.

"Not super personal and invasive questions, promise," he says. "Just like... has anyone been shitty about it?"

Has anyone been shitty here, he wonders? Eddie isn't much of a fighter, but he thinks he'd kick someone's ass if she says someone here has been a dick. Or he'll send Harrington to do it.

"You can ask whatever," Jules promises, her smile easy and a little amused. "If it's too personal, I'll tell you, but I really don't mind talking about it or anything." It's the sort of thing, too, where intent makes a big difference. Pointed questions for the sake of prying or being judgmental would probably put her off, but she's pretty sure Eddie is just curious. While he may not be just a typical midwestern small town guy from the eighties, that is still where and when he's from. Considering how shitty education about it is even in her own time, she wouldn't be surprised at all, or bothered, if there are things he needs to ask about.

This particular question is an easy one, too, something that's just been a part of her life for the last few years. "And yeah, some people have been shitty about it," she answers. "Especially early on. But I've been really lucky, too. Living in more liberal areas, having support at home. A lot of people don't get that."

The answer isn't a surprise to Eddie, but he still makes a face about it, a little bit of a sneer that wrinkles his nose. All that shit, he never could figure out why someone would care so much. If they weren't into it themselves, then they weren't, and that was fine. Even his uncle used to ask why the hell Eddie was so interested in a band called Queen, especially when the lead singer dressed himself like that.

"When did you know?" he asks. "How young were you?"

As far back as he can remember, there's always been a little part of him that's sort of been interested in guys. It doesn't come up often, but not because Eddie tries to hide it, it just seems like he's more interested in women, but the music wasn't the only reason he was into Queen from the time he was ten years old.

"Pretty young," Jules answers, expression thoughtful and earnest when she glances over at him. "At first, I didn't... know-know. I just knew I hated my body — like, everything about it — and that it never really felt like mine. I knew the things I liked, and the places I felt like I fit, weren't the expected ones. And I was... really, really unhappy."

If anything, she thinks that's an understatement, but she figures that's not a part of the story she needs to get into. He didn't ask about her mental health history, even if the two are pretty entwined.

"So I guess there wasn't, like, one lightbulb moment or anything. But I'd figured it out by the time I was in middle school, and then I actually started transitioning when I was thirteen." Just the fact of that, she knows, makes her really fortunate. "And now, ta-da."

That sounds rough as hell and Eddie can't relate, not even a little, because he's just never felt that way. The closest might be when his dad used to make him shave his head because it was more masculine, but he knows that's not even a fraction of what Jules is talking about. Eddie had just been a kid annoyed at his shitty dad, not someone who hated their body and felt like it didn't really belong to them.

"Must've been hard," he says. "But, hell, ta-da, like you said."

They don't know each other that well, but from what Eddie can tell, she seems happy. Happier than what she's describing anyway. And she's really cool, like she just knows a lot about herself most people don't.

"It was," Jules admits with a slight shrug, not about to pretend otherwise even if the difficulty of it isn't something she tends to dwell on. It wouldn't be worth it to do so. As far as the transition itself goes, that was the easiest part, and she knows that, in a lot of ways, she was lucky. She had a parent who accepted and supported her; she could be out without any particular danger to her well-being. Some people might always be assholes, but if the worst she ever had to deal with was benign ignorance, then that makes her phenomenally fortunate.

Everything else, really, was what became difficult. Her brain, her home life before it was just her and her dad. Those are the parts that she would rather not get into.

"And there's still stuff I'm figuring out. Gender is… a total headfuck, you know? Even when you know who you are and how you identify, there's still so much to wade through, and all these ideas people have about what that should mean. And, yeah, most of it's bullshit, but trying to work out what it means for you in the middle of all that…"

Trailing off, she gives him a crooked, almost teasing smile. "Hell of a conversation for the first time you take a girl out, huh?"

"Yeah," he says slowly, almost wondering. Jules says it like that, putting the whole thing in the context of gender, which isn't something Eddie has thought much about one way or the other, and suddenly the crap his dad made him do can fit into that context in ways he didn't realize.

"I never felt the way you did," he says, wanting to preface what he's about to say, because he doesn't want Jules to think he's comparing their lives at all. It's not about anything like that, he's just realized how right she is.

"I was always into metal," he tells her. "Always wanted my hair like this, always wanted to wear certain clothes. My dad used to force me to shave my head. Total buzzcut, you know? He said having long hair made me look like a-" He pauses, because even being from the eighties, Eddie knows it's a slur. "Well, you can figure out what he said."

"Yeah, I think I know the one," Jules says dryly, rolling her eyes, though it's not directed at him and her tone is still good-natured. It's not like he's the one going around saying shit like that, after all, and she's more than a little used to it — both the slur itself and the shitty mindset behind it. Maybe he didn't feel the way he did, but that doesn't mean there isn't still plenty there to deal with.

"And that's exactly what I mean, sort of. No matter how you feel, it's fucked. People have all these ideas about what a man is supposed to look like, or a woman, when... why should it matter? If a guy wants to have long hair —" She gestures toward him with one hand. "Or, I don't know, wear a skirt or nail polish or whatever, it doesn't make them any less who they are. Trying to fit into those tiny boxes is stifling."

Even for her, even since she transitioned, that's been the case. It's something she's still trying to work on, sorting through what femininity means for her rather than what she thinks it's supposed to mean, expressing it in her own way rather than trying to contort herself into some male-idealized version of womanhood.

"Nail polish, yeah," Eddie agrees, even though he's never worn it before, sometimes he sort of wants to. A dark colour, black on his short nails. It would look so cool while he played guitar.

Jules doesn't seem like she's trying to fit herself into any box. Yes, she's feminine, but she's doing it in her own way, with her makeup, her clothes. That's part of what had drawn Eddie in the first place, the way she stands out from everyone else around them.

"Well, I'm glad you told me," he says as they near the club. "And it's cool, like I said. I just want to hang out with you."

"I'd rather tell you ahead of time than, like, keep it secret or whatever," Jules says with a shrug, though she gives him a smile, appreciating his response. "Some people can get weird about it. Acting like... I don't know, they've been tricked or something." Her nose wrinkles, making clear how she feels about that particular line of thought. It's all bullshit, but it's not like that's ever stopped anyone before. "Not that I would assume you'd do that, but, you know. I'd rather just tell you up front and get that out of the way."

Besides, while she would be perfectly content just to hang out for a while tonight, she can't say she would object to taking this somewhere private later. Eddie is cute, and he's fun and easy to talk to, and despite the sort of hilarious coincidence of his knowing Rue's girlfriend, this seems like exactly what she needs to take her mind off her ex.

"I was gonna say I get it, but I don't really, but... I get wanting to be up front about something you feel is pretty big," he says. "Especially if people get weird about it."

He might even sort of get why people get weird about it, although he doesn't believe for a second Jules is out to trick anyone. A lot of people from Hawkins would be shitty, though, he's not about to pretend they wouldn't. They were shitty about him all the time and he's just a dude who likes to wear his hair long.

"We're here," he announces as they finally arrive at the club. "This place is cool."

"Yeah, I mean, it's kind of my one major dealbreaker," Jules says, teasingly self-deprecating. "Like, not even just for going out with someone, but being friends or whatever, too. It's too big, you know? Too important. If someone's not gonna be cool with that, I'm not gonna waste my time."

It may have taken her a long while to reach that place, to feel even a fraction that confident in her own skin. Now, though, it's perhaps the thing that comes easiest, that she's most sure about. Underneath her carefully chosen exterior, she may be a whole fucking mess of carefully hidden trauma and insecurity, but when it comes to this innate part of who she is, she's not going to fuck around with anyone's closed-mindedness or bigotry.

Eddie seems cool about it, though. Not that she assumed otherwise — she wouldn't be here if she had — but it's reassuring all the same. Looking at the club in question, she smiles approvingly. "Looks like a good choice."

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment," Eddie quotes with a dramatic flip of his hand and although he's quoting someone else, he still means it utterly.

He steps up to the door and pays for them both to get in. Jules gets a stamp on her hand, unfortunately, but that doesn't mean Eddie can't sneak her a drink if she wants one. The door opens, music blasting out, and Eddie takes Jules by the hand, partly so he doesn't lose her in the crowd, partly because he just wants to.

"You want a drink anyway?" he asks once they're deeper inside. There's a band on the stage, not metal, but heavier than just basic rock. He leans close so she can hear him. "No one has to know."

Stamp on her hand aside, Jules decides quickly that it's kind of perfect. The music is loud enough that she can feel it pulsing through her body, loud enough to get lost to, and she has a cute guy to spend the evening with, one who doesn't seem bothered either by her technically being a minor or by her being trans. She's not looking for anything serious, she doubts he is either, but Eddie is cool, way more so than she would have expected from a random guy she spotted in the quad.

He would be even if he weren't offering to buy her a drink, though right now, that definitely helps. "I won't tell if you don't," she agrees, grinning at him, the distance between them slight. "Whatever you're having is fine."

"Okay, stay right here," Eddie says, lifting his hands to her shoulders and positioning her near a table so he'll be able to easily spot her again after he has the drinks. He stands there for a beat too long, then on impulse, he leans down and kisses her.

It isn't long or lingering, but he doesn't jump away immediately either. He just flashes a grin, then heads off toward the bar.

It doesn't take Eddie long to grab two beers and then he snakes through the crowd back to where he'd left Jules, offering her one of the bottles with a bit of a bow.

The kiss is unexpected, but not at all unwelcome. Jules responds in kind, beaming to herself as Eddie heads toward the bar. Annoyingly careful as the employee by the door might have been, it's crowded enough in here that she doubts anyone will notice or care all that much about him bringing her a drink, and for a moment, waiting by the table where he left her, she lets herself think that this is sort of perfect. It's crowded and electric, the music is loud, Eddie is cute and he's understanding. All of it is just what she needs to keep herself distracted, to feel a little more like herself again.

"Thank you," she says, a hint of something mock-formal in her voice as she takes the bottle he's offered her, then sips from it. Ordinarily, she'd probably be a little more careful about drinking from something that she didn't see opened, but under the circumstances, she doesn't actually think she has anything to worry about. "Promise I won't rat you out for this."

"I kinda get the feeling as long as there are no cops here, they don't really care anyway," he admits, laughing and nodding toward the bored looking bouncer. The guy is way more interested in his phone than he is with stamping hands.

They probably could have even gotten away without the stamp.

"Okay, so I know the music isn't for everyone," he says, leaning closer to Jules and nodding at the stage. "But they're not bad, right?"

"No, it's great," Jules agrees, a laugh in her voice, pitched loud enough to be heard over the music in question. Maybe it isn't what she would usually listen to on her own, but it's still good, and the vibe is pretty perfect. The company, too, is as good as she could have hoped for. All things considered, this might just be the best she's felt since she first turned up here. Granted, the bar is set really fucking low in that regard, but the fact remains that she really needed this.

"At the risk of sounding really fucking stupid or whatever, I'm really glad you called me."

"Yeah?" Eddie asks, grinning. She'd said yes to coming out, she'd seemed into him so far, but he still doesn't like to assume. When it came to girls back home, there weren't many who were interested in a DnD playing metalhead freak like him and most of his hookups weren't much more than that. They tended to be with older women, too, some in their twenties, some in their thirties, and he's kind of figured out by now that's not really cool.

So that Jules is glad to be out with him makes him feel pretty damn good.

"Me too," he says. "I'm having fun."

"Same," Jules says, shooting him a grin, one tinged with a self-deprecating sort of amusement. She is aware that it probably sounds a little ridiculous, just like she's also aware that that's probably exactly what they're doing here — having fun. The last thing she needs is to sound overly attached and risk ruining a good thing. This is just maybe the first good thing that's really happened since she got here, a breath of fresh fucking air after the way the last few weeks have gone.

She lifts her bottle toward him in a sort of mock-toast. "And not just because of this, though I'm definitely not complaining, either."

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