▸ Manic Monday - The Bangels

V E C N A ' S C U R S E  P T . I

In a short few minutes, Max had filled us in on what she knew about the dead Hawkins student since she lived across the street from the crime scene.  I leaned against the door with my arms crossed against my chest. Something was telling me we were going to be scooby doing this case.

"Chrissy Cunningham?" Dustin asked in shock.  He was pacing the length of his room. "You're sure it was Chrissy?"

"Yes, in her cheerleader outfit. Same thing she was in when I saw her with Eddie." Max stated with a nod.

"Weren't they both at the high school last night? I mean Chrissy cheering and Eddie playing D&D." They both  gave a nod in my direction.

"Did you tell all this to the cops?" Dustin questioned Max.

"No." Max quickly responded.

"No?" I blinked in shock.

"No, but I...I can't be the only one who saw them together. They stood out." Max replied.

"Eddie the freak with Chrissy the cheerleader?" Dustin questioned.

"Exactly." Max turned to face Dustin when he finally stopped pacing. "You know, his name's not in the news yet or anything, but I guarantee you Eddie is suspect number one now."

"Look, I know Eddie, weirdly enough, through band stuff and him trying out for our band and everything before he made his own-"

"Get to the point, Dawn." Dustin motioned for me to continue.

"But he's a nice guy, a little weird and a drug addict, but he wouldn't commit murder." I finished.

"Thank you! Max, what you're saying is crazy. That's crazy. Eddie didn't do this. Now way." Dustin defended Eddie. Max avoided his gaze. "No way."

"We can't rule it out." Max said.

"Yes, we can."

"Dustin!" Max exasperated.

"You didn't know him like I do, Max. Okay?" Dustin told her. Max rolled her eyes. "When we got to high school, Lucas made all his sports friends. Mike and me? I mean, no one was nice to us. No one except Eddie."

I frowned. Dustin had informed me that he struggled to make new friends, but I didn't know it was this bad. I bit the inside of my cheek knowing Danny would have known had to handle the situation. He was the one who gave friend advice to Dustin and how to try and fit in.

"Okay. Well, they said the same shit about Ted Bundy." Max countered. Dustin and I gave her looks of disbelief. Was she really comparing Eddie to a serial killer? "Yeah, he's a super nice guy, but then he's murdering women on the weekend."

"So you're saying Eddie is like Ted Bundy?" Dustin asked.

"No, I'm not saying-I'm saying that we can't presume anything, okay?" Max tried to explain, stumbling over her words. Dustin flung his hands and tried to walk away, only to be trapped by his bed. "But it doesn't look good for Eddie."

"She's right, Dustin." I slowly nodded. Dustin looked at me with wide eyes. "It's not looking good for Eddie, even if he's innocent, which we don't know."

Dustin sighed and jumped on his bed. Max sighed, looking at me for help. I shrugged, not knowing what to really do in this situation.

"Why haven't you told the cops this?" Dustin asked Max.

"I...I don't know." Max crossed her arms with a shrug.

"You don't know?" Dustin slowly repeated.

She looked hesitant to reply. Max went to go sit next to Dustin.

"After I saw Eddie and Chrissy go in the trailer...something else happened." Max looked at Dustin and I.

"Like...you saw someone else or you..." I swallowed the thickness growing in my throat. "Or you saw something else?"

"I was watching tv last night and, the tv started to act weird. Like it wasn't getting a signal and it was turning staticky. When I tried to fix it, the lights started to flicker for a few seconds before it went back to normal." Max explained. "Then I looked out the window to see Eddie running to his van and driving away."

"Anything look weird?" I questioned.

"Nothing that weird or anything, I mean...Eddie always drives like a maniac and the power goes off at my place all the time. It's a piece of shit. But..."Max exhaled with a shake of her head. "This morning, I started to think back, and...I don't know. The look on his face. He was scared, Dustin, Dawn.  Really scared. Maybe he was scared because, you know, he...he just killed someone, or..."

"Maybe there's someone else involved and Eddie is just a witness?" I finished for her, hoping it was anything but what I was really thinking.

"Or something else killed her." Dustin gave me a look, knowing I was trying to be optimistic.

Max gave him a curt nod.

"But that's impossible. Right?" Max asked us.

I bit my lower lip at the thought. The last couple of years we always thought we killed it...only for it to come back with a stronger persona.

"I don't know." Dustin breathed out. "It should be. There's only one person who knows what actually happened."

"Eddie." Max confirmed.

"Well...let's go find Eddie." I clapped my hands together. "But how?"

"I have an idea." Dustin shot up and started to look for something in his room. "Dawn get your stuff."

"Like...my keys?" I perked a brow.

"No, your stuff." Dustin looked at me as if I were stupid. "A-ha! Found it."

"Oh...but my baby is retired." I sighed, pushing back stray pieces of hair from my face.

"Well, now is a good time to bring it out of retirement and put it into action. Get the backpack in your closet, too." Dustin commanded, shrugging on a backpack himself.

"Shit." I jogged to my room and opened my closest.

There stood a backpack Dustin and I had put together in case something happened again. I wished i didn't  need to grab it now. My machete, my pride and joy,  was concealed inside the bag in case we had to be in public. I grabbed the bag and slung it over my shoulder.

"Have you talked to anyone else?" Dustin asked Max in the hallway.

"No."  Max replied. The three of us started to walk towards the front door. "I can't find Lucas or Nancy, and Mike's in-"

"California. Shit, shit, shit." Dustin realized.

"Dusty? Dawny? Where are you going?" Mom asked from the couch.

"To see a friend." Dustin swung open the door as I grabbed my car keys.

"You heard the news. It's not safe." Mom argued. "Dawn-"

"I'll take care of them, Mom. Promise!" I swung the keys around my  finger.

"We'll be careful. Thanks, love you. Bye!" Dustin closed the door behind us.

"God, you're driving." Max muttered under her breath.

"Hey, the last time you were with me was a life or death situation. I had all rights to drive like a crazy person." I unlocked the car. Opening the driver's door, I took my backpack off and threw it in the back seat. "Besides, you all give shit directions."

"You drive like a crazy person on a regular day." Dustin mumbled under his breath.

"Shut up, Dustin." I rolled my eyes and turned the car on. Dustin sat in the passenger seat. "Where are we going again?"

"We're going to visit your boyfriend at his work." Dustin gave me a sly grin. "I'm going to need his work computer."

"Oh, he's so going to hate this."

▷

I parked the car in front of the movie rental building, Dustin and Max exiting before I could turn it off. They quickly went through the doors leaving me behind. I grumbled under my breath and followed after them. The door let out a ding when I entered in. Steve gave me a worried look.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked, leaning against the counter.

"Someone was murdered." Steve informed us.

"We know." I gravely stated, standing next to my brother. "This is more important."

"What's more important than a death?" Steve raised his brow.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin repeated.

"Two. Why?" Steve momentarily glanced at Robin before looking at me.

"Technically three, if you count Keith's." Robin added.

"Yeah, three works." Max turned towards Dustin.

"Dawn, what's going on?" Steve looked at me for answers.

Before I could answer, Dustin shrugged off his backpack. The doofus brought it inside with him while I left mine in my car.

"What are you doing?" Steve tiredly asked my little brother. Dustin slammed his backpack onto the counter. In the process, he knocked the VHS tapes off that were neatly stacked. "What are- woah!"

"My pile!" Robin exclaimed.

"Dustin!"

Dustin jumped over the counter, his legs swinging over. Again, my brother knocked off even more VHS tapes. I cringed at the sight.

"No, no, no!" Steve yelled, flinging his arms around. "My tapes! Dude."

Dustin ignored Robin and Steve, going straight to the computer. I sighed, pinching my nose. Max exchanged a nervous glance with me. The both of us walked around the counter, like normal people, to join them.

"What are you doing, man?" Steve looked back and forth between me and Dustin, before going towards my little brother.

"Setting up base of operations here." Dustin simply responded and he typed away on the keyboard.

"Base of operations?" Robin snapped her attention to the computer screen.

"Get off of that." Steve ordered Dustin.

"No, I need it." Dustin shot back.

"Need it for what?" Steve looked at me as I stopped behind him. "Dawn, what the hell is going on?"

"We need the computer." I started only to get cut off.

"For?" Steve shot me a incredulous look.

"Eddie's friends' phone numbers."

"Oh Eddie. Your new best friend that you think is cooler than me," Steve placed a hand on the counter and looked at Dustin, "because he plays your nerdy game?"

"Yes." Dustin paused and turned to look at my boyfriend. He shot Steve a look of disbelief. "I never said that."

"Wait, you're jealous of Eddie?" I snickered.

"No." Steve shot a look at me. I bit my lip to try to stop myself from laughing. "Stop. Dawn, I'm not jealous of Eddie. Stop laughing."

"I'm not laughing." I coughed, trying to cover the laugh that slipped out mid sentence.

"You are so laughing." Steve waved a finger in my direction.

"Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around in here like toddlers, but it's Saturday." Robin started to stack the VHS tapes.

"She called you a toddler." Dustin looked at me with a shit eating grin.

"No, she called you, a toddler." I rolled my eyes.

"Alright, look Robin, I totally empathize," Dustin quickly switched topics as he faced the computer screen, "but this cannot wait."

"Oh my God." Steve placed his hands on his face. I heaved a sigh and placed a hand in his shoulder. He glanced at me tiredly. With a tired exhale, he turned toward me and placed his head on my shoulder. "Make them stop."

"Would you be mad if I said I'm actually supporting them?" Judging by the exasperated look Steve gave me, I knew his answer. "Right..."

"Calling Eddie's friends is an emergency?" Robin continued to clean up the mess Dustin made.

"Correct!" Dustin yelled.

"Want me to strangle him or you want to?" Steve turned his face to look at Robin.

"We can take turns." Robin said with a cheery voice.

"Look, we know some stuff about the murder." I informed them.

"Like what?" Steve stood up and looked at me with furrowed brows.

"Max, you know it better. Explain." Dustin waved a hand at the red headed teen.

With a deep breath, Max explained the story of what she witnessed from seeing Chrissy going into Eddie's house to Eddie running away. When Max brought up that it may relate to the Upside Down, Steve and Robin kept exchanging glances my way to confirm if it was true. Fear grew on their faces.

"Now, we have to find out where Eddie is. He saw something, he must have." I crossed my arms and leaned next to Steve against the counter.

"Okay, I just wrote down all of their numbers." Dustin turned in his seat holding up a white board with a list of names. "Let's start calling."

Dustin, Robin, and Max were on the phones calling people. I was in charge of crossing out the names they've called who had no idea where Eddie was. Steve had to continue working the video store as customers kept coming in. I tapped the Expo marker against the counter to the beat of an old song FRE used to sing together.

"Richard Smith is a no." Dustin whispered to me.

I nodded and crossed out the name. Max walked passed me, seeming to be interested in the information she was getting. I tried to listen into what she was saying but Steve called my name.

"Dawn, hey, babe!" He called from the other side of the store. He was holding a VHS tape in one and a customer was next to him. "This lovely customer here is asking if Doctor Zhivago is a good movie."

"I like it, yeah." I nodded, sending her a smile.

"Is it good enough for a movie date night?" She asked.

Steve stood behind her and quickly nodded his head yes.

"Um, well Steve and I never watched it together as a date..." I started. Steve gave me a look to help sell the movie. "But I'm sure it's a great movie for date night."

"Okay, I'll rent it then." The girl smiled.

"Cool, come to the register and I'll check you out." Steve walked towards me. He walked past me and slapped my hand where the customer couldn't see. Steve quickly checked the movie out and handed it to the girl. "Have a good day and enjoy date night."

"Thank you, you guys have a nice day!" She waved over her shoulder and exited the store.

"You're the best, you know that?" Steve pecked my lips with a smile.

"Well, I don't hear it enough-" I started only to be cut off with Steve pinching my side playfully. I laughed and intertwined my hand with his. "Okay, okay, I get it."

"Ugh, I forgot how sometimes you two make me physically sick." Dustin made a scene as if he was throwing up.

"Shut up." Steve rolled his eyes and smacked Dustin behind the head.

"Rude." Dustin narrowed his eyes at my boyfriend.

"Hey, guys," Max hung up the phone and turned toward us. "I might have a lead."

I sat up straight, looking at her expectantly.  Robin hung up the phone, ending the conversation she was having abruptly. Dustin swiveled in his chair and looked at Max with a grin.

"Seriously?" Dustin asked hopefully.

"Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy names Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there." Max informed.

"Sounds promising." Robin stated. "Where does Reefer Rick live?"

"See, that's the thing. No one knows." Max admitted. I muttered a curse under my breath. Of course. "He's more of a...a legend than someone that people actually know."

"Last name?" Dustin questioned.

"I don't know either."

"I bet the cops know the last name." Steve leaned against the counter right beside me.

"What?"

"Cops." Steve shrugged as if it was the most simple answer in the world. "I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point."

"So that means he's most likely in the system." I caught on to what he was saying.

"Exactly. He's in the system." Steve gave a nod in my direction.

"The cops?" Dustin asked, with his hands clasped together. He took a step toward my boyfriend. "Really, Steve? That's your suggestion?"

"We technically don't have to ask the cops about him." I defended Steve's idea.

"Oh, so we break and enter into a police station and hack their system there, where we will be surrounded by cops!" Dustin shook his head. "That's ridiculous!"

"I think the cops should be filled in on what's going on." Steve mentioned.

"You think Eddie's guilty, don't you?" Dustin said as a statement more than as a question.

"Whoa. I believe in innocent until proven guilty, all that constitutional shit." Steve argued his point. I forced myself not to physically face palm at the argument my boyfriend and my brother were causing. Steve clapped his hands and rubbed them together as he felt all of us staring at him. "I just, you know, don't think we can rule it out."

"That's precisely what's we're trying to do here, Steve." Dustin let out in frustration. "And maybe we'd have a little more luck if you spend less time flirting and being all couple-y and shit with my sister -"

"Woah! Don't drag me into this!" I complained.

"You're also helping every single customer!" Dustin continued. Steve threw his hands up in frustration. He looked at me and Robin for help. "And more time trying to find Eddie.".

"Somebody has to attend to the customers!" Steve argued, motioning a hand to the customers browsing the movie selections. "We've got a big selection in here and it can be overwhelming to the customers."

"Are we seriously wasting time arguing about this?" I muttered under my breath as I rubbed my temples.

"Yeah, it can be." Robin smiled and went to the computer.

"What are you doing?" Max asked.

"Maybe we don't need a last name." Robin started to typing on the computer.

"Talk is through the process, because I have no idea what you're trying to say." I leaned closer to the computer to try to catch on.

Everyone gathered around Robin. She hit the enter key and a list of names that start with Rick pulled up.

"Twelve Ricks have accounts here." Robin noted.

"Lot of Ricks." Max pointed out.

"But not all the Rick like the same movies." I quickly caught on to wha she was saying. "Robin, you genius you!"

"I know." Robin smiled and started to hit another keyboard key. "Let's narrow it down."

On the screen Rick Alderman's movie history popped up. I quickly read the list and thought what a drug dealer would be into.

"Rick Alderman's latest rentals are Annie and Dumbo." Robin read.

"What are our chances our drug dealer has a family?" Robin questioned.

"Not likely." Max stated, Dustin shaking his head in agreement.

"Alright," Robin hit more keys and a new name popped up, "Rick Conroy. Sixteen Candles, Teen Wolf, Romancing the Stone."

"No." We all agreed.

"Either he has a teenage daughter or the guy is in high school dating and trying to impress a girl." I assumed, leaning against the counter.

"Does Steve rent those movie to impress you?" Dustin shot us a sly grin, wiggling his eyebrows.

"First if all, I don't need to impress her." Steve wrapped an arm around my shoulder. Robin rolled her eyes and typed away on the keyboard. "Second, your sister actually has a good taste in movies."

"By taste you mean musicals. You watch musicals with Dawn?" Dustin laughed, pointing at Steve. "The Steve Harrington watches musicals."

"Dude. Shut up." Steve  shook his head.

"Okay! Rick Joiner." Robin thankfully switched the topic. "Mask, Footloose, and Grease."

"Nah."

"Rick Kimbrough. The Blue Lagoon and Splash." Robin chuckled and shook her head. "No."

"No way." Steve agreed.

"Okay. Rick Lipton. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cheech and Chong's Next Movie. Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams. Cheech and Ching's Up in Smoke."

"We got him." I high fived Max.

"Bingo." Dustin chuckled out.

"Lipton?" Max read Rick's last name off the screen.

"Spelled like the tea. 2121 Holland Road." Robin informed us.

"That's out by Lovers Lake." Dustin noted.

"Middle of nowhere." Max added with a smile.

"It's a perfect place to hide."

"Let's go find him." I pushed my self away from the counter.

Dustin grabbed his bag, Robin turned off the computer.  Steve had double checked there was no more customers. We all dashed out of the store. I grabbed my keys, ready to unlock the car.

"Dawn, forget the car. We're all going in mine." Steve yelled.

"You just don't want me to drive anyone." I pouted, opening the back door to grab my bag.

"Yes!" They all said in unison.

"Rude." I scoffed, entered Steve's car.

"Just get in, we gotta go talk with Eddie." Dustin leaned forward from the backseat, waving his hand.

"Don't rush me!" I quickly sat down and closed the door. Steve backed out of the parking lot and slammed his foot on the gas. I clutched the console to steady myself. "And you guys were scared to let me drive, yeah right."