⇢ ˗ˏˋ ✰🎨 🎸 ࿐ྂ

"𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐢 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮."
➶-͙˚ ༘✶ ˗ˏˋ ✰꒰ 📎 🍒 ꒱✰ ˎˊ- ➶ °*ೃ
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CERISE'S LEFT LEG WAS CEASELESSELY bouncing up and down, her nerves quivering with anxiety. The teenagers that sat at the table of the trailer park, were theorizing about the potential possibilities of why Vecna was targeting students of Hawkins High.

Steve turned his attention away from the teens and onto his sister, seeing that her anxious behavior was settling over the edge today. He attempted to comfort her, squeezing her hand softly. But Cerise being the grudgeful and petty person she is, ripped his touch away from her.

"No. I'm still pissed at you," Cerise spat, her bittered feelings still being present from the number of times Steve angered her within the week. He mockingly threw up his hands in surrender, turning his attention back to Dustin.

"They were both at the game and the trailer park," Dustin speculated, receiving a concerned look from Steve.

"We're at the trailer park. Uh, should we maybe not be here?" Steve looked around the trailer park warily, but his attention was sliced in half when he heard Cerise dryly chuckle.

"What if I'm infected?" Cerise joked darkly, a light scoff escaping her lips. The teens were not amused at all, simply worried after hearing the girl's dark humor. Cerise felt all eyes on her and she received a scolding push on her shoulder from her brother.

"Hey! Don't say that," Steve hoarsely whispered in a pleading tone. Her eyes softened when she met his eyes which were filled with pained memories. With all the trauma Cerise went through, it rarely ever occurred to her how her events impacted Steve as well. Despite being mad at him, she felt a tinge of guilt in her chest.

"I'm sorry," Cerise muttered softly.

As the rest of the teenagers were conversing about the symptoms both Chrissy and Fred had before they gruesomely died, Cerise's mind felt as if it was being pulled out of reality. Her hearing was contorting into an aching muffled reverberation, the taste of salty polluted air compromising her tongue.

And there he was.

The same man Cerise has seen numerous times. The white suit accentuation every muscle on his slender figure, his draping dirty blonde hair emphasizing his infectious smile. His white collared top and jeans brightly beamed in the sunlight.

He trod close to Cerise, his piercing icy blue eyes scanning her mahogany ones. He lifted his hand and tilted her chin with his index finger, his gaze not leaving hers.

"Who are you?" Cerise's voice trembled slightly from the intimidating look of the man. His eyebrow rose with what seemed to be an intriguing expression.

"My name is Peter." His tone was soft, something Cerise never expected from the man. "I have been waiting for you."

Cerise's eyes widened, but she shook her head incredulously. "What? What do you want from me?" Her voice was softer now, matching the same soothing tone as Peter's. He chuckled lightly, his smile meeting halfway on his cheeks.

"Everything," Peter started, however, his eyes became darker when his mind swarmed with the real reason as to why he was currently reaching out to Cerise. "The man that you have found an infatuation with...Eddie was it?"

Cerise suddenly felt the overwhelming urge of protectiveness in her body. She felt cautious, wondering how Peter knew Eddie.

"What about him?" He didn't answer right away, the tense air was patently filled with anticipation. Peter walked closer to Cerise, his towering figure hovering over hers.

"That's for him to tell you. I'll be waiting, Cerise." With that, he was gone. The dreamy clouded haze dissipated, ripping Cerise back into reality as Steve frantically shook her shoulders. Her eyes were filled with a clouded blur, and Cerise's eyes rapidly blinked, attempting to relieve the strain. She finally regained her sight, seeing the concerned and worried looks of the teens in front of her.

"What happened?" Steve was still holding her shoulders in place, a precaution just in case she was to topple over onto the grainy dirt or the splintery wood of the picnic table.

"You zoned out for a bit, Cherry. It was pretty scary because you weren't blinking like at all," Robin answered, her eyes not leaving hers. Cerise frowned, muttering a small apology for scaring her friends.

Everything was overbearing for Cerise. Her throat felt dry, and the labored breathing started to rise in her chest. Before anyone knew it, Cerise clutched her chest, staring up at Steve with a frantic look.

Steve knew exactly what that look was. Robin knew it too, and the duo did not waste a single second as they hastily grabbed an inhaler out of their jacket pocket, Cerise being bombarded with multiple inhalers.

Cerise didn't know which one she grabbed, but she briskly pressed the opening of the inhaler on her lips, inhaling the medicated air that seeped straight to her airways. Steve continued to rub comforting circles on her back, glancing toward the rest of the teenagers who looked petrified as they witnessed firsthand one of Cerise's petrifying asthma attacks.

"I don't like it. I don't like it. Why the hell are you suddenly getting asthma attacks? You only had them when we were kids and with this Vecna creep on the loose? What the—"

"Steve, Steve...can you shut up for a second before I punch you?" Cerise spoke nonchalantly, closing her eyes as she focused on her breathing rather than her pesky brother.

"Did you see that, Dingus? Cerise grabbed my inhaler, not yours. Hah!" Robin cheered in victory, earning a light laugh from Cerise. Steve rolled his eyes but was still grateful for his friend that carried an extra inhaler for his sister for situations exactly like this.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Cerise knew her brother like the back of her hand and deep inside, she knew he was slightly offended.

The teens decided to split ways and after another head-slitting banter between the fact that Steve didn't want Max driving, not wanting Nancy to out alone, or not wanting to be the babysitter, everyone concluded a final agreement.

Cerise got in the passenger seat next to Steve and right as he was about to turn the key into the ignition, she spoke up.

"Drop me off at Eddie's. I need to talk to him," Cerise nonchalantly declared, buckling in the seatbelt. She looked up to Steve after not hearing him respond to see that he was staring at her with a 'are you crazy' look.

"Um, hell no." Steve glared at his sister, but Cerise had an emotionless expression plastered onto her face. She unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the car door, and walked onto the pebbled concrete. "Where the hell are you going?"

"Well, if you're not going to drive me, then I'm going to walk," Cerise yelled slightly, walking away from the receding voices of her friends. Speeding footsteps were advancing her way and Steve stood in front of her, his brown hair majestically flowing in the breezy wind.

"No you're not walking on your own, do you know what kind of people are out there?"

"You mean like wizards from a game and monsters with the head of a flower? I have a vague idea," Cerise snapped sarcastically, a sardonic grin reaching her ears. She knew it would piss off Steve and by the look on his face, she succeeded. Steve stammered on his words, attempting, but miserably failing to retaliate for this argument.

"I mean...y-yeah? But still no, you're not going to walk on your own. It's like a forty-minute walk."

"Then, I will be doing my body a favor by getting exercise."

Steve threw his hands up in the air in frustration, them flailing back on his hips. His 'mom' look was starting to show.

"You literally just had an asthma attack, dipshit," Steve retorted in a monotone. The two Harrington siblings stared at each other, both fuming with irritation. Max and Dustin looked at each other, awkwardly watching the argument unfold before them.

"Maybe that's more of a reason for you to drive me instead."

"You're insufferable." Steve sighs, begrudgingly giving, in, earning an enthusiastic 'I won' from Cerise. She trotted back to the car, re-buckling the seatbelt securely around her body.

"Love you too, Stevie wevie."With that, the teens were on their way back to Reefer Rick's house, an intense and much-needed conversation, waiting for both Cerise and Eddie.

✰*ੈ✩➶༄✰

Cerise cautiously sauntered into the house, gently calling out for Eddie's name. After what seemed to be a century, Eddie's head popped out under the tarp of the boat. He instantly made a line toward Cerise and hugged her, catching the girl off guard.

"Woah, I literally just saw you two hours ago, Munson," Cerise chuckled, as did Eddie. She felt the way his laugh vibrated onto her shoulder, a sense of relaxation consuming her body.

"That's too long." Eddie released his embrace on Cerise and sat on the wooden planks of the shed, her sitting across from him.

She fumbled with her fingers nervously, not daring to meet eyes with Eddie. The Munson boy instantly felt the way how the aura of the area changed. At first, it was filled with light-hearted joy, a sense of security in the room, but now, it was only filled with tension, that light pink aura being smashed with a tarnished anvil, nothing but anxiety flowing.

"What is it, sweetheart?"

'That's for him to tell you.' Peter's words rang through her cranium with an endless feeling of what Eddie was hiding, was something bad.

Cerise didn't speak right away, her lips feeling as if it was stitched with a bloodied needle, tasting a tinge of metallic crimson from biting her lip too hard. She gained the courage to look up to make eye contact with Eddie and when she did, she instantly regretted it, seeing the concern laced in his brown doe eyes.

She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, not sure how she was going to word her question properly. Before Cerise could back out, she blurted out the words she has been yearning to say. Her lips spoke, not her mind.

"What are you hiding, Eddie?" She hoped Peter was wrong. Cerise really hoped that Eddie wasn't hiding anything from her and that the blonde man was wrong. But when she saw the way Eddie looked like he saw a ghost, his face instantly draining of any form of color, that's when Cerise confirmed to herself that Eddie was indeed hiding something.

"W-What do you mean?" He was terribly failing at keeping up a confident facade. Cerise could partially see the way his heart was racing out of his chest, his Hellfire shirt palpitating up and down with his heartbeat.

"Earlier, I heard you say to Steve that 'you took her away from me.' What did that mean?"

Eddie didn't answer as his eyes were looking anywhere but at Cerise. He swiftly stood up from the planks, pacing towards the entrance of the door of the shed. He tightly shut his eyes, shaking his head repetitively, his curly locks slapping his face.

"I can't tell you," Eddie whispered so quietly, that it was nearly incoherent for Cerise. However, she was able to comprehend it as she walked up to the boy, rubbing comforting circles on his back. It eased his tense body by the second, but the nagging feeling in his chest didn't help.

"Why not?" Cerise asked in a light tone, sensing that Eddie was on the verge of exploding with his emotions.

"Because Steve won't allow it."

Steve. Cerise has heard her brother's name come out of Eddie's mouth many times, but this was the first time where he genuinely seemed to be terrified of him.

"When have you ever listened to Steve?" Eddie didn't answer, shaking his head as if it was forbidden to do so. She released an exasperated sigh, pivoting on her feet so she could look him in the eye. "Look, Eddie, if you don't tell me, I'm going to be turning into my own private detective and figure this out myself. So I suggest you tell me now before I find out later when I will be angry."

Eddie had a jutting look of uncertainly written on his face. He was having an internal war with himself, questioning if he was about to confirm his death sentence from Steve Harrington if he were to tell her his secret.

Knowing how stubborn Cerise was, and not wanting to hold the guilty feeling anymore, he spoke.

"We knew each other before we met," Eddie nervously said, his heart feeling like it was going to rip out of his chest at any given moment. Cerise gave him a questioning glance, her full attention on him.

"I mean yeah, during school I would see you in the halls—"

"No, no, no, that's not what I mean." Eddie was lightly tugging on his hair, pacing back and forth in the shed. Cerise eyes him curiously, waiting for him to finish. He stopped momentarily, exhaling a pained sigh before turning toward Cerise and interlocking his hands with hers.

Eddie scoffed at himself, questioning if he was really going to be saying this to her. After many months of feeling angry at keeping this all to himself, he was finally getting a release, even though there will be consequences.

"I was your boyfriend, Cerise."

I WANNA HEAR YOUR THEORIES.

I SWEAR, THIS WILL MAKE SENSE SOON.

also, i might make a peter ballard book, so if you're interested, lmk so i can feel more motivated to write it sfjsfjl