⇢ ˗ˏˋ ✰🎨 🎸 ࿐ྂ

"𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠."
➶-͙˚ ༘✶ ˗ˏˋ ✰꒰ 📎 🍒 ꒱✰ ˎˊ- ➶ °*ೃ
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SEVEN MINUTES AND SEVENTEEN SECONDS.

That was how long it took for Eddie to sense the eerie feeling, the uncanny sensation tingling up his back. He rubbed his eyes, turning over his side of the bed to see that Cerise was still by his side, sleeping soundly to match the crickets from outside of the home.

However, when Eddie sharpened his senses, he noticed that Cerise's body was completely motionless, her chest not even rising or falling. His eyes widened in fear, ripping off the loose blankets that were grasping his body. In one swift motion, he was by her side.

His shoulders shrunk, eyes soaking in panic. He vigorously shook Cerise in an attempt to wake her, but nothing was happening. However, that was when Eddie remembered something; a factor that made his body loosen up, all signs of fear and stress, were now gone.

"Dammit, not again."

Again?

Eddie stood by Cerise's side, dragging a velvet recliner that was in the bedroom towards the bed, waiting for the young Harrington to be released from her 'sleeping' state. Eddie grabbed her right hand, clasping it with his two warm palms, and brought them up to his lips. His leg was incessantly bouncing up and down, his jittery nerves consuming his body.

"Wake up for me, sweetheart," Eddie coaxed in a comforting tone, hunching over to press feather-light kisses on her forehead.

It worked before.

It nearly reached ten minutes that Eddie has been by Cerise's side, his tense demeanor not faltering once. He continued to whisper comforting words, waiting for Cerise's waking state to arrive.

And it finally did.

A dramatic gasp escaped Cerise's mouth, her throat parched from the lack of muscle movement. She propped herself in a sitting position, her heavy breathing easing once she laid eyes on Eddie. She looked at him with confusion, seeing how uncomfortably calm he was in a situation like this. Her eyebrows furrowed with a frigid unsettling feeling.

"Woah, Eddie, how are you so calm right now?"

"W-What do you mean?" That's when Eddie's face fell into a mendacious expression. Cerise noticed the way he was excessively fidgeting with his rings, a lying habit that occurred when someone was not telling the truth.  Something she did as well.

"I mean, I fell into a 'dead state' and you are so calm right now? That doesn't make sense unless you've seen something like this before." Cerise's face contorted with an uneasy feeling as she noticed the way Eddie swallowed hard, his nervous aura igniting by the second.

"Well, how are you so calm right now?"

He continued to divert the conversation. Eddie tried his best to build his composure, but it seemed that Cerise saw right through it. It was extremely obvious that Eddie was hiding something and Cerise couldn't help but feel as if this dishonest mood had more of a backstory.

"With my cataplexy and narcolepsy, I think I'm used to it by now. My question is how are you calm right now, Munson?" Eddie pursed his lips in a thin line, ripping his eyes away from Cerise's. It was apparent that glistening sparkles of sweat were forming on his forehead.

Eddie couldn't tell her; he forbade it.

"Just drop it," Eddie shot back unintentionally with a dark tone. He saw the way Cerise staggered away from him and his eyes softened with sorrow. An apology was on the tip of his tongue until she submerged herself back into the fort of blankets. "Cerise, I—"

"'Night," Cerise shot back with an impertinent attitude. Eddie sighed, knowing this conversation was done with for the night. He reluctantly threw the covers over his body, the only thing on his mind was the pained expression in Cerise's face.

✰*ੈ✩➶༄✰

The loud sound of rustling bushes in the morning perked both the couple's ears, instantly putting them on alert for any possible intruders. Eddie instinctively interlocked his fingers with Cerise's, crouching below the windows to discreetly make their way inside the boathouse.

Once they were inside, Eddie urged Cerise to hide under the tarp, while he looked out the window, his broken beer bottle in hand. But with Cerise being Cerise, and with her still being mad at him from earlier in the morning, she didn't listen and gripped an iron pole from the side of the shed. Eddie shot her a scolding glare, while she sarcastically smiled, still annoyed from the conversation prior to this event.

Eddie rolled his eyes in annoyance but sharpened his senses to whatever was outside. He kept a steady arm in front of Cerise, just in case the person—or thing were to get close to them. Their hearts were pounding out of their chests in sync, their weapons high up in the air.

That's when the door of the shed opened obnoxiously, a small scream escaping Cerise's mouth, while Eddie pushed her back behind his body.

"Jesus!" "Son of a bitch!" Cerise and Eddie simultaneously said, their armed hands halting once they saw the quartet. Cerise had a hand on her heart, while the other was obliviously grasping onto Eddie's.

When Cerise noticed the cold-hard stare from her brother, her eyes trialed to where Steve's eyes were seeping to see that she was still holding Eddie's hand. She ripped her hand away from Eddie's, a small frown etching on his face when he was met with the cold air instead of her warmth.

"Delivery service," Dustin cheered in an enthusiastic tone. Cerise and Eddie exhaled a stressed sigh, their eyes filled with relaxation, but the girl was not having it. She was already irritable.

"It's too early for your energy, Henderson." Cerise huffed, grabbing the bag filled with snacks out of his hand, and instantly opened the box of cereal.

"Aw, I love you too, Cerise," Dustin taunted in a sarcastic tone, leading to Cerise flipping him the bird. She trudged toward the boat and sat in it, chugging down the icy cold liquid down her throat.

"So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?" Eddie munched on his cereal, staring at Dustin from the side of his eye.

"Bad news first. Always."

The teens went on about how every cop within Hawkins, was downright convinced that Eddie was the suspect for Chrissy's murder. The good news was that Eddie's name hasn't gone public yet.

Cerise drowned out most of the conversation by the them explaining to Eddie how they had El, but since her powers ceased to exist, they were more in a complicated predicament. She mainly focused on the way Eddie was subtly shooting daggers towards Steve, something she was used to, but there was a glint in his eye that had an unreadable expression laced into it.

Eddie soon sat up from the boat, making a beeline to Steve, while the other teens were caught up in their own conversation. Cerise furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, questioning why Eddie was willingly talking to Steve.

"Steve, can we talk?" Eddie asked in a hushed whisper, not wanting Cerise to hear, but he didn't think it through when she heard him coherently. Steve glanced in Cerise's direction who instantly whipped her head away to act as if she wasn't listening in on their conversation.

Begrudgingly, Steve nodded his head and walked towards a more secluded part of the shed. Even though Cerise wanted to eavesdrop on the conversation, she couldn't comprehend a single word when Robin was rushing by her side and pulled her away from the boys. She wrapped her forearm with Cerise's, walking near the two freshmen.

"So...," Robin's voice drawled, giving Cerise a knowing smirk. The Harrington girl rose her eyebrows, attempting to decode the intrigue behind Robin's tone.

"Yes?" Cerise drawled with the same tone as Robin. The blonde sat down with the two freshmen, leaving Cerise with three pairs of eyes on her. She shrunk in her palace slightly, the piercing stares starting to feel like an interrogation.

"You and Eddie?" Max asked with a subtle smirk. At the mention of his name, Cerise released a humorless laugh, rubbing her eyes from the burrowing stares.

"What about Eddie?" Cerise asked, feigning innocence. She knew exactly what her friends were doing and she wasn't going to give in this easily.

"Please, it's so obvious the two of you have something for each other," Robin spoke up, winking at Cerise with her cerulean eyes. Cerise's face flushed from all of the attention and she absentmindedly brushed pieces of hair behind her ear.

She felt something for Eddie, yes. It was evident to anyone in the world, but there was this nagging feeling in Cerise's heart that was persuading her that she needed to know something from him. Something that was missing and seemed to fill in the blanks.

"What if he's asking for Steve's permission to marry you right now?" Dustin teased, a boisterous laugh escaping his mouth. He nearly toppled over onto the floor, clutching his stomach from laughing so hard.

Cerise scoffed, knocking over Dustin's hat as she stood up to find Eddie and Steve, who were now partially outside of the shed. She discreetly paced her way to the boys, easing into their conversation without being noticed.

"I swear to God, if you tell her a single word about what we've talked about, you're dead, Munson."

"She has the right to know. You're the one that took her away from me, so if she finds out about this, she'll never forgive you." Cerise has never heard Eddie use this tone before. His voice was laced with such malice and bitterness, that chills were being sent down her spine.

Took her away from me? Cerise's mind was wandering with many questions, a sense of secrecy and betrayal forming in the back of her cranium. Her head was starting to hurt from all of the stress and curiosity, but when she heard the sudden blaring sounds of red and blue police sirens, she immediately walked away from the door.

Eddie hid under the tarp, while the rest of the teens shot their heads towards the fogged-up translucent glass window, seeing multiple sirens of ambulances and police.

"We gotta go, now," Steve muttered anxiously, grabbing Cerise's hand and making a beeline to the door, but she halted, Steve turning to her in question. "What is it?"

"I want to stay here," Cerise declared with no hesitance. Leaving Eddie all by himself created a sharp pain in her chest. It felt weird to be away from him. However, Steve shot an unreadable glance to Eddie, then looked back to his sister, shaking his head vigorously.

"No way." Before Cerise could protest, she was already out the door, Steve's strong grip not once letting go. He basically threw her into the backseat, Max, and Dustin sandwiching her in the middle.

Everyone in the car had their minds on the sirens and what the possible commotion was about. But for Cerise, one question was drilling in her head, and the unsettling feeling from before was now resurfacing.

What were Steve Harrington and Eddie Munson hiding from her?

this chapter is so short omfg.

what do you think eddie and steve are hiding?

I'm also going to my college campus for the first time on monday, and honestly, im petrified. i have to get up at 6 am and I'm not ready ugdsjfhsdd