[The thing of it is, he knows Jason embellishes stories of events that Chris was there for and could correct, he just hasn't because it's never been important, so he's not going to believe anything else without proof, especially about her, since his experience has been something else entirely]
Oh yeah, that's me, flattery up the wazoo. [He's smiling as he says it, and he should have been ready for the retaliation, and he knows it, but the truth is he wasn't and so he goes toppling with little resistance and an indignant goose noise.]
[ She's about to make fun of him some more before he flops to her bed and lets out a noise that has her barking out a laugh loud enough to cover the cassette running out of tape and clicking off. She was expecting him to fall, but not the honking that he let out as he did it, and se winds up half-collapsing forward to brace herself on one palm by his side, her hair swinging forward to fall in her face (and a little in his, too) as she laughs. ]
[He's laughing, already shaking his head before she finishes the question] I don't know! It just kind of happened.
[His arm is across her back again, just because it's easy to drape it there again] Just kind of popped out? I don't think I could do it again on purpose if I tried.
[ Eddie's aware enough of her own proclivities to know when she's being irrational about something; anyone laughing from up close is not particularly attractive, what with the up-close look at their teeth and the way their eyes scrunch shut, but she's also aware enough of how deep she's gotten that she really doesn't care.
Chris's laugh is cute. And the fact that she made him laugh makes it even cuter. It takes effort not to reach out and touch the freckles on his nose when he does it, and she winds up shoving a hand through her own hair to push it out of her face to give her free hand something to do as he slips his arm around her as easy as breathing.
They're practically cuddling. ]
We should totally try. [ Grinning, she pokes him in the stomach, half a jab, half a tickle. ] Do it again, Chrissy.
[He's aware of their proximity, especially given the way he's still got an arm around her as if she actually needs the help balancing in the half-lounge she's landed herself in.
The jab of a tickle gets a wheezy little noise instead, shaking his head again.] Don't even know where it came from, Dee, wouldn't know where to start trying to recreate it.
[ It would be so easy to sling a leg over his hips and straddle him, to use her body weight to pin him down to the bed — she's taller than him, and he's so skinny, she's pretty sure they weigh more or less the same — but she exercises herculean restraint and keeps her legs where they are, though she does walk her fingers up his side in another attempt at tickling him to distract them both. ]
[The tactic doesn't get the desired result, in fact it just gets another wheezy laugh, shaking his head and batting feebly at her hand, though it's clear that he's still amused, especially as he intones very solemnly:] Honk.
Or, in French, ''onque'. Oh, also Swedish, 'hjonk'
[He's barely holding back a laugh at that point, shaking his head] That's all I've got though.
[ She cackles again, seemingly not put out at all that he's not cooperating. ] You're such a fucking nerd. [ Which is pretty rich coming from her, considering the books she has stacked haphazardly on her bedside table and the magazines strewn across her desk.
She does give up on her attempts to tickle him, though, because it's not getting her very far and she knows tickling is a short-term activity for most people. She doesn't want to actually piss Chris off by being annoying, she just wants to make him laugh again.
[He shakes his head, his free hand lifting to trace an idle figure-eight against the back of her hand on his chest] No, I mean not really. We had a visiting pastor from Uppsala a few years back, kind of like an exchange student? So we were the host family for a couple weeks, and I know he taught us the Lord's Prayer in Swedish, but I can't remember any of it now.
[ Slowly, Eddie lowers herself to her elbow instead, propping her cheek up on her hand, settling more of her weight over Chris's arm where he has it curled around her.
She tries not to look at his hand touching hers. ]
He taught you the Lord's Prayer and how to honk like a goose.
Oh he didn't actually teach us that one, that was more, uh, extrapolated. [He knows that he shouldn't be this comfortable where he is and who he's with, but he is, and he's mostly trying not to think about it too hard because he knows himself well enough to know that's when he'll panic.]
I remember he liked it when we asked questions, like he wanted to talk about home but didn't want to be rude and just do it.
[ If Chris were anyone else, Eddie would feel confident enough in what they're doing to either call them out on it or take the reins in her hands and get this show on the road. Chris doesn't flirt as overtly as some of the jocks she's known in her lifetime, but she's pretty sure this is flirting.
Eddie's a touchy girl, it's true, but even with Gareth she draws the line at cuddling. And this can't be anything but cuddling, what with him having his arm slung around her waist all casual and shit, and her hand pressing to his chest, and him playing his fingertips over the back of her hand.
Eddie is cuddling. With Chris Cunningham. ]
Maybe he came from a shithole like Hawkins, [ she muses. ] That's why he avoided talking about it unless asked.
[He smiles, he can't help it] Uppsala's one of the biggest cities in Sweden, but maybe it's as crummy as Hawkins is, that's a possibility.
[Chris knows that Eddie is touchy with her friends, and while it does occur to him that he might be taking advantage of that fact because he hasn't really been hugged since before he was in the double digits, it's not something that he's actually fully put together in those terms.
Mostly because he knows that if she didn't want to, she wouldn't be, she's never been shy about voicing her opinions on that kind of thing before.]
I'm gonna be honest with you, sunshine, I know fuck-all about the geography of Sweden. So. Upsie-whatsit means nothing to me.
[ Eddie can draw a map of Middle Earth from memory, but she can't even name all fifty states. She's never bothered learning all that much about Sweden.
She lets herself fiddle with a crease in the front of Chris' shirt, and one of her knees shifts to sort of overlap his. ]
[Unfortunately Chris can name all fifty states, and their Capitals, both alphabetically and chronologically, because he needed to memorize it for a geography bee one year and just never forgot. Which probably says more about his mother's teaching methods -and the consequences for not learning something- than it does about his actual ability to retain knowledge.]
Uppsala, but yeah, of course you can, you don't have to ask me if you can ask me things, you can just ask me things.
[ See, she knows that in theory, because they've been asking each other stupid questions all night, but the kind of questions she's feeling compelled to ask right now aren't exactly in the same vein as the other dumb shit she's been talking about over the past few hours. ]
When we're at school, do you... do your friends talk about me? [ Do they make fun of her behind her back — of course they do, she's not stupid — and does he sit there, silent? Does he join in with them, awkward and uncomfortable but not willing to rock the boat? Does he defend her, stand up for her in front of people he likes, people who don't like her?
She can't decide which answer would be worse. ]
I'm just... We're not like this, at school. [ She taps her thumb against his sternum pointedly. This is definitely far closer than she usually gets to people but it's not tipped into anything tawdry yet. It is kind of hard to explain, though. To an outside observer it would be obvious what's going on. ] And, like, I get it. Why we're not. I'm not trying to guilt you or anything. I'm just... wondering.
Oh, so when you said 'ask a question' you meant 'drop a bomb', got it. [Surprisingly it's not upset, if anything it's a sort of wry amusement, fingers trailing another loop against the back of her hand as he considers how to answer.] We're not like this at school because it would get back to my mom and then no one would ever see me again, and she'd ruin your life on top of it.
[It might be hyperbole, but it sounds serious enough, there's a tired edge to it that dims any sarcasm or exaggeration that might be there.] And yeah, they talk about you, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that. I try and tell them to leave off if it's just, you know, rumors and everything. [Something that usually gets written off as Chris being a bleeding heart who can see the good in anybody, but it's usually enough to change the subject, at least, and he counts that as a win.]
I'm sorry. [ Look, it's not her fault! It was easier to keep things light and stupid when they were sitting in her living room, a few feet between them, everything nice and neat and sanitized.
The way they're lying now, across her rucked-up sheets, his arm curled around her, his fingers stroking her skin slowly, is very nice but not very neat and the pretty damn far from sanitized. If any of Chris's friends could see them now... Her friends would probably get it, a little bit, if only because Chris is a nice guy and the track kids aren't notorious bullies like some of the other sports teams can be, but his friends absolutely would not get it.
Unless they think they're just fucking, which would be out of character for Chris, but perfectly in character for who people think Eddie is. ]
It is just rumors, [ she insists quickly, feeling her stomach twist at the thought of just what he's overheard. She's heard most of them, too, but she's pretty sure there's new ones dreamt up every day and she doesn't know them all. She doesn't think she wants to know them all. ] I don't... I'm not... Like the ones about me giving out sexual favors and drugs at the same time, it's so stupid. [ She would never do that for many reasons, chief of which being she would rather gargle glass than get on her knees for most of the guys at school. ] That's a terrible way to do business. [ Also that. ]
I did bring that up once. What the benefit to you would be, doing business that way. [Because even he knows that's a terrible way to do business, he debates for a moment, actually telling her how that went, but sometimes he is his mother's child, and he knows it.]
Anyway, Marcus Keyes thinks you're a nympho, Ben Bratt said that's how you get the drugs in the first place, so why would it matter, which I said was stupid. [And more surprisingly, he'd gotten some agreement on that.] Ben Davis admitted that it was a stupid way to do business, but then said you weren't that smart anyway. [Something else that had gotten agreement and had just made him roll his eyes.]
And then Justin Cooper changed the subject, kind of, by saying that Hellfire is just an excuse for some kind of orgy anyway, but even the rest of them knew that was bullshit.
[It's not throwing them under the bus if it's true, and it's not anything that they can get in actual trouble for, but he feels like she deserves to know. Besides, whatever she does with the information will be far more interesting than having it just brushed off by anyone in authority he might bring it to, including Ms. Kelley.]
[ It's nice to hear that Chris stood up for her, a little, though the nice feeling is tempered somewhat by the knowledge that he stood up for her brains and not her principles. Actually, him standing up for her brains is really nice, she takes it all back.
She wrinkles her nose at him, though he's not telling her anything she hasn't obliquely heard before. ] That's disgusting. Rick is like forty, he's old enough to be my dad. [ Granted, her dad had her when he was barely out of high school, so it's not exactly a huge age gap, but it's the principle of the thing. Rick is a weird old hippie, she would never fuck him for drugs. ] Anyway, the Bens are just mad because I said no to them at Macy Turnblatt's party last year. [ Which is the only thing she's going to say about that, thank you.
The Hellfire rumor is also one she's heard, but she thought it was so fucking stupid that she refused to believe anyone else believed it too. But if they're still bringing it up... ]
I have freshmen in my club! [ To Eddie, just about to turn twenty years old, a fourteen-year-old is practically an infant. She'd never. ] They're babies.
Which is what I said, and Jason pointed out that you wouldn't be hosting orgies on school grounds anyway, but that doesn't rule out teaching them 'arcane rituals' [One-handed air quotes there] because apparently everybody knows that your game uses real spells, and that's definitely stupid, it's literally just a game.
[He shakes his head] I found a copy of the rules at the Waldenbooks before Starcourt burned down, it's complicated, but it's still just a game.
[ She's about to work herself up into a lather about whether or not she'd host orgies on school grounds — it's weirdly nice that Carver said she wouldn't? But she totally could if she wanted to! Which she doesn't, so that's neither here nor there — or whatever stories people bandy about regarding her promiscuity, but then Chris drops a bomb of his own, which is that he knows the rules to D&D.
She pushes herself up a little to see his face more clearly, her eyes wide and shocked. ]
Wait, wait, wait. Hang on. You read the rulebook? You know how to play?
Know how to play? No. No no no, I found the rulebook and I skimmed it because I was curious and the way people talk makes it seem like there's diagrams for different kinds of sacrifices in there, and there's just not.
[He shakes his head] It's all numbers and fairy tale descriptions, honestly it looked like algebra worksheets.
You know more about how to play than the average Joe Schmoe, [ she accuses, a grin starting to form on her face as she settles back against him, their bodies basically touching from shoulder to knee. ]
I'm gonna make you play one day, Chrissy. [ She sounds very sure about that, smirking down at him and drumming her fingertips against his chest.
Her smile dims a little, though, shifting into something softer and more honest, and she sinks a little bit closer to him as some of the tension in her body leeches away. ] Thanks. For not believing them. About all of it, Hellfire, me. It means a lot.
Oh so you're really going to be mean and make me do math outside of class? I see how it is. I do something nice and this is what I get.
[It's obvious that it's not an actual complaint, given as how he's smiling, though he shakes his head a moment later, the arm around her pressing closer for a moment] But seriously, no thanks needed. I just... none of that ever sat right with me, and if I can't trust my gut, what can I trust, you know?
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Oh yeah, that's me, flattery up the wazoo. [He's smiling as he says it, and he should have been ready for the retaliation, and he knows it, but the truth is he wasn't and so he goes toppling with little resistance and an indignant goose noise.]
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What the fuck even was that?
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[His arm is across her back again, just because it's easy to drape it there again] Just kind of popped out? I don't think I could do it again on purpose if I tried.
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Chris's laugh is cute. And the fact that she made him laugh makes it even cuter. It takes effort not to reach out and touch the freckles on his nose when he does it, and she winds up shoving a hand through her own hair to push it out of her face to give her free hand something to do as he slips his arm around her as easy as breathing.
They're practically cuddling. ]
We should totally try. [ Grinning, she pokes him in the stomach, half a jab, half a tickle. ] Do it again, Chrissy.
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The jab of a tickle gets a wheezy little noise instead, shaking his head again.] Don't even know where it came from, Dee, wouldn't know where to start trying to recreate it.
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Honk for me, baby. You know you wanna.
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Or, in French, ''onque'. Oh, also Swedish, 'hjonk'
[He's barely holding back a laugh at that point, shaking his head] That's all I've got though.
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She does give up on her attempts to tickle him, though, because it's not getting her very far and she knows tickling is a short-term activity for most people. She doesn't want to actually piss Chris off by being annoying, she just wants to make him laugh again.
Her hand lingers draped over his chest. ]
Do you really speak Swedish?
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She tries not to look at his hand touching hers. ]
He taught you the Lord's Prayer and how to honk like a goose.
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I remember he liked it when we asked questions, like he wanted to talk about home but didn't want to be rude and just do it.
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Eddie's a touchy girl, it's true, but even with Gareth she draws the line at cuddling. And this can't be anything but cuddling, what with him having his arm slung around her waist all casual and shit, and her hand pressing to his chest, and him playing his fingertips over the back of her hand.
Eddie is cuddling. With Chris Cunningham. ]
Maybe he came from a shithole like Hawkins, [ she muses. ] That's why he avoided talking about it unless asked.
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[Chris knows that Eddie is touchy with her friends, and while it does occur to him that he might be taking advantage of that fact because he hasn't really been hugged since before he was in the double digits, it's not something that he's actually fully put together in those terms.
Mostly because he knows that if she didn't want to, she wouldn't be, she's never been shy about voicing her opinions on that kind of thing before.]
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[ Eddie can draw a map of Middle Earth from memory, but she can't even name all fifty states. She's never bothered learning all that much about Sweden.
She lets herself fiddle with a crease in the front of Chris' shirt, and one of her knees shifts to sort of overlap his. ]
Can I ask you a question?
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Uppsala, but yeah, of course you can, you don't have to ask me if you can ask me things, you can just ask me things.
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When we're at school, do you... do your friends talk about me? [ Do they make fun of her behind her back — of course they do, she's not stupid — and does he sit there, silent? Does he join in with them, awkward and uncomfortable but not willing to rock the boat? Does he defend her, stand up for her in front of people he likes, people who don't like her?
She can't decide which answer would be worse. ]
I'm just... We're not like this, at school. [ She taps her thumb against his sternum pointedly. This is definitely far closer than she usually gets to people but it's not tipped into anything tawdry yet. It is kind of hard to explain, though. To an outside observer it would be obvious what's going on. ] And, like, I get it. Why we're not. I'm not trying to guilt you or anything. I'm just... wondering.
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[It might be hyperbole, but it sounds serious enough, there's a tired edge to it that dims any sarcasm or exaggeration that might be there.] And yeah, they talk about you, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that. I try and tell them to leave off if it's just, you know, rumors and everything. [Something that usually gets written off as Chris being a bleeding heart who can see the good in anybody, but it's usually enough to change the subject, at least, and he counts that as a win.]
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The way they're lying now, across her rucked-up sheets, his arm curled around her, his fingers stroking her skin slowly, is very nice but not very neat and the pretty damn far from sanitized. If any of Chris's friends could see them now... Her friends would probably get it, a little bit, if only because Chris is a nice guy and the track kids aren't notorious bullies like some of the other sports teams can be, but his friends absolutely would not get it.
Unless they think they're just fucking, which would be out of character for Chris, but perfectly in character for who people think Eddie is. ]
It is just rumors, [ she insists quickly, feeling her stomach twist at the thought of just what he's overheard. She's heard most of them, too, but she's pretty sure there's new ones dreamt up every day and she doesn't know them all. She doesn't think she wants to know them all. ] I don't... I'm not... Like the ones about me giving out sexual favors and drugs at the same time, it's so stupid. [ She would never do that for many reasons, chief of which being she would rather gargle glass than get on her knees for most of the guys at school. ] That's a terrible way to do business. [ Also that. ]
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Anyway, Marcus Keyes thinks you're a nympho, Ben Bratt said that's how you get the drugs in the first place, so why would it matter, which I said was stupid. [And more surprisingly, he'd gotten some agreement on that.] Ben Davis admitted that it was a stupid way to do business, but then said you weren't that smart anyway. [Something else that had gotten agreement and had just made him roll his eyes.]
And then Justin Cooper changed the subject, kind of, by saying that Hellfire is just an excuse for some kind of orgy anyway, but even the rest of them knew that was bullshit.
[It's not throwing them under the bus if it's true, and it's not anything that they can get in actual trouble for, but he feels like she deserves to know. Besides, whatever she does with the information will be far more interesting than having it just brushed off by anyone in authority he might bring it to, including Ms. Kelley.]
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She wrinkles her nose at him, though he's not telling her anything she hasn't obliquely heard before. ] That's disgusting. Rick is like forty, he's old enough to be my dad. [ Granted, her dad had her when he was barely out of high school, so it's not exactly a huge age gap, but it's the principle of the thing. Rick is a weird old hippie, she would never fuck him for drugs. ] Anyway, the Bens are just mad because I said no to them at Macy Turnblatt's party last year. [ Which is the only thing she's going to say about that, thank you.
The Hellfire rumor is also one she's heard, but she thought it was so fucking stupid that she refused to believe anyone else believed it too. But if they're still bringing it up... ]
I have freshmen in my club! [ To Eddie, just about to turn twenty years old, a fourteen-year-old is practically an infant. She'd never. ] They're babies.
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[He shakes his head] I found a copy of the rules at the Waldenbooks before Starcourt burned down, it's complicated, but it's still just a game.
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She pushes herself up a little to see his face more clearly, her eyes wide and shocked. ]
Wait, wait, wait. Hang on. You read the rulebook? You know how to play?
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[He shakes his head] It's all numbers and fairy tale descriptions, honestly it looked like algebra worksheets.
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I'm gonna make you play one day, Chrissy. [ She sounds very sure about that, smirking down at him and drumming her fingertips against his chest.
Her smile dims a little, though, shifting into something softer and more honest, and she sinks a little bit closer to him as some of the tension in her body leeches away. ] Thanks. For not believing them. About all of it, Hellfire, me. It means a lot.
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[It's obvious that it's not an actual complaint, given as how he's smiling, though he shakes his head a moment later, the arm around her pressing closer for a moment] But seriously, no thanks needed. I just... none of that ever sat right with me, and if I can't trust my gut, what can I trust, you know?
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