"You think she'll like me?"

We were outside Gareth's place, I was about to meet the infamous Hope I'd heard all about. Eddie had already met her a few times, nearly got arrested with her and Gareth once due to a long night of drinking and spray painting a random alley near the library.

"Is that a serious question? Of course she'll like you, you're impossible not to like." Eddie tells me, squeezing my hand reassuringly.

When we knocked on Gareth's front door we were expecting only Gareth to be there. We knew his mom wouldn't be there because he'd already told us his mom was out of town.

"Hey stranger." a girl opens the door standing next to Gareth with a smile, and I recognise her instantly.

She had that same insanely cool style, those same pretty brown eyes, she's the girl I spoke to last night.

I pieced everything together in my head, the girl said she wasn't from Hawkins and she mentioned having a boyfriend, she implied we'd see each other again.

God, she knew.

The girl I had spoken to last night was Gareth's girlfriend, Hope.

"You've gotta be kidding me." I laugh in disbelief, "You're Hope?"

"The one and only." she raises her eyebrows at me with a knowing smile.

"I'm confused, do you two know each other?" Gareth and Eddie seem just as perplexed as each other.

"Uh- yeah, you could say that." I reply, still trying to wrap my head around the situation.

Hope flashes me a quick smile as she glances down at Eddie's hand in mine, she gestures for me to follow her.

"Us ladies need to talk for a moment, you guys do whatever, we'll be back in a few." Hope tells the guys, who seemed to be sharing an equally confused glare.

Hope pulled me past Gareth and through the living room, and as she was doing so it began to remind me of when Chrissy and I would run away from the guys in our old friend group to gossip. Is it wrong to say that I really miss Chrissy?

Either way, maybe Hope could be a new friend for me, she seems a little too cool to hang out with me but who knows.

We eventually reached the kitchen, Hope checked the door twice to make sure it was definitely shut behind us.

"I have a lot of questions." I begin, laughing a little, "Did you know who I was when we spoke last night?"

"I've seen all of Gareth's friends in that polaroid collection on his wall, wasn't hard to recognise you." she shrugs, "I'm guessing things went well with Munson."

"Well, he's my boyfriend now so... yeah, things definitely went well." I smile to myself, it's surreal saying it out loud.

"This is perfect, maybe Eddie will finally stop complaining about being the third wheel." she jokes, "You know what else this means?"

I let her continue.

"Double dates." she says excitedly, "Glad there's finally a girl in Gareth's friend group, means I have someone to gossip with."

I have a feeling she'd get along well with Chrissy despite seeming to be her polar opposite in regards to style.

"Right, it's kind of a relief I found you, it's been weird being surrounded by only guys." I laugh, leaning against the counter.

It has been weird being surrounded by guys, not weird in a bad way but I guess it sort of made me realise how important Chrissy was to me. There are things I could talk about with her that I could never talk about with any of my guy friends.

"I'm only here for a few more days so do you wanna come shopping with me some time soon? Like a girls day out or something, I don't know." she suggests, shrugging.

"Of course, that sounds fun."

Looks like I have a new friend.

...

"Not excited to go back to school tomorrow." I sigh while Eddie played with my hair, my head on his chest.

We'd decided to sleep over at Gareth's, he'd let us stay in the guest bedroom so that's where we were, laying in bed together.

"We could just skip again." Eddie suggests.

"We've been 'sick' like- 3 times this week, I think school's starting to catch on by now. I'm not trying to get suspended." I laugh, glancing up at him.

"I think this is the first time you've ever said no to skipping school, I'm shocked."

"Realised there's a lower chance of me graduating if I keep missing school. Hate going there but it'll pay off in the long run." I shrug.

"Lower chance of you graduating? That's impossible, I don't think you've ever had a grade below a B. Me, on the other hand? It'll be a miracle if I graduate."

"You're graduating with me, I'll tutor you if I have to." I offer.

"Val, I don't think I'd be able to focus if you were my tutor." he teases, I can tell he's being honest though.

I shook my head with a laugh as I rolled out of his arms, sitting up in bed instead, I knew I wasn't tired enough to go to sleep.

I began to fiddle with the back of my necklace, trying to undo it so I wouldn't have to take it off later if I did eventually get tired.

"Can't get this damn necklace off." I laugh, giving up in defeat.

"C'mere, I'm good at stuff like this." he says, sitting up too.

And then we're only inches apart, unbearably close. He could've turned my necklace round so the clasp would've been at the front, making it easier for him to get to it, or he could've just told me to turn around. But of course he didn't, instead, he reached round to the back of my neck. His cold hands accidentally brushed against my neck at one point, causing me to half flinch, half shudder.

"Your neck is like- ridiculously sensitive, I barely even touched you." he laughs a little, finally managing to unclasp my necklace, he left it on the nightstand.

He relaxed back down onto his pillow but his eyes remained on me, on my neck to be specific.

"Quit staring at me like that." I didn't actually want him to stop but I knew calling him out on it could lead to an interesting conversation.

"Like what?" he plays coy.

"Like you're a vampire about to bite my neck or something."

"Had something else in mind, maybe not biting you but..."

"Yeah? What would that be?" I ask, tilting my head.

"Really wanna kiss you right now." he admits, grin forming on his face.

Without any further thought, I pulled him into a kiss, both of us smiling like idiots while doing so. It was quite literally the best feeling in the world, something neither of us would get used to any time soon despite how many times we'd kissed already.

He pulled me onto his lap so that I was now straddling him, my hand ran down his chest causing his breath to hitch a little as he deepened the kiss.

God, that's hot.

This was different from the other times we'd kissed, this time it felt like this could progress into something more, I could practically feel my heart about to start pounding.

His lips slowly trailed off to my cheek and then my jaw, leaving kisses along his way. My hand wound up in his hair by the time he reached my neck, he took his time to kiss every sensitive spot on my neck, evidently enjoying the way my body reacted.

"Jesus, Eddie..." was all I could get out, eyes falling shut

"Yeah? You like that?" he asks quietly, I could feel him smirking against my skin.

"So fucking much." I nod, almost gasping a little as I felt Eddie about to leave a hickey on my neck.

He kissed down to my collarbone, lips lingering there once he reached the barrier of my shirt. He pulled away, gazing up at me with his doe eyes now clouded with lust.

"Can I go lower?"

Hell yes.

I nodded desperately as I reached for the bottom of my shirt, about to lift it off. My stomach was already in knots, I knew where this was going and I was loving every second of it.

"GUYS! GET IN HERE!" Gareth yelled frantically from his bedroom.

You've gotta be kidding me.

My shirt was nearly completely off when Gareth ruined the moment, Eddie and I both shared a look of disappointment.

Whatever it was sounded important, we couldn't just not go.

"Every damn time." Eddie shook his head, sighing as I put my shirt back on.

☆ ☆ ☆

gareth accidentally cockblocking once again

also yes i have watched volume 2 and no i am not okay 😭