"and i'm assuming you're eddie, right?"

he shrugged his shoulders. "yeah, guess so." he smiled. "you know, henderson didn't tell me that you knew about the campaign, you should've joined."

normally, something like this would remind her of the situation with billy. long hair boy, kind of weird, flirting with her, or whatever was happening here. but meadow strangely had a feeling that the two boys weren't anything alike. despite what she'd thought of eddie prior, something about his smile seemed genuine, as well as his offer.

she nodded her head. "yeah, i would've, i was busy tonight, though. looks like you guys didn't need me though, right? you got the cult?" meadow asked, tuning to look at her brother.

mike nodded for him. "yeah, and vecna came back!"

meadow's brows furrowed. "i thought he'd died weeks ago?"

"yeah, we thought so, too!" dustin replied, putting his hands on his hat. "but it was okay, we fought him to the death."

his sister's brows raised. "oh, to the death, huh?"

eddie watched this conversation with amusement. meadow had heard all about eddie; how he'd been there for her brother and his friends when the rest of the school saw them as losers. for that, she was forever grateful for him. she also knew that, no matter how much steve hated it, dustin looked up to eddie.

"so, older.. henderson," the other teen spoke, "i've heard a lot about you from younger henderson."

meadow's brown raised again. "is that so?" she looked over to her brother. "good things, i hope."

eddie smiled. "he says you're a d&d master yourself."

she scoffed. "i wouldn't say master, but i have learned a thing or two playing with these distinguished gentlemen."

"you should join us next time, henderson."

"you can call her meadow." dustin said, wanting to have his nickname back.

eddie smiled again. "meadow." he maintained eye contact with her. "you know, you really should've joined the campaign tonight." he said, and she cleared her throat awkwardly.

"yeah, well i was on a date, so i had to miss out on this one. i'm just here to take dustin home."

"a date?" eddie's brow raised and his smile widened, and meadow internally cursed. what was her life?

"with steve harrington." dustin piqued, moving to stand by his sister. "they've been dating for like.. two years or something now."

she couldn't read the expression on eddie's face as he took in this information, but she put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "yep. good ol steve. okay, now let's go, please, mom wanted us home asap, remember?"

dustin lead the way outside, and they both found steve waiting in his car for them just outside the door. "how'd it go? did you win?" steve asked, sticking his head out of the window to get updates on the campaign.

steve didn't normally care about d&d, and he definitely didn't want to get caught dead playing it. but he did care about dustin, and therefore wanted to know about what was important to him.

"yeah, we won big time!" the boy replied with a smile, hopping into the backseat as his sister got in the front. "meadow got there right after erica rolled the winning twenty! it was incredible, the best match ever. i wish you guys would've seen the whole thing. eddie likes you already, you should come to the next-"

steve then raised a brow, looking at dustin through the rear view mirror. "eddie was there?" he turned to look at meadow.

"no, you are not doing this again."

"doing what again?"

"this whole macho man jealousy thing, no." she explained, shaking her head. "i grabbed dustin and eddie said that dustin had talked about me, that's all that happened."

his brows furrowed. "okay, but how was he looking at you?"

"what do you mean 'how was he looking at me'? what am i supposed to say, 'with his eyes'?"

dustin leaned forward. "he looked at her with great interest. severe interest, even."

"he was all like 'meadow, come marry me. meadow let's buy a house and get a mortgage and have a dog'." she continued sarcastically. "no, obviously not, he just said he knew who i was! and you," she pointed at her brother, "are not helping, none of that happened."

steve looked between them both before refocusing on the road. "so do i need to beat him up, or.."

"no!" both siblings said in unison.

"you've only won one fight, lover boy, calm down." meadow said, looking at him. "seriously, nothing happened, we both made it clear that you and i are together, and he didn't say anything else after that. he was just.. being nice."

when steve glanced over at her, he saw that she was genuine and relaxed his shoulders. "okay, yeah. yeah. right. yeah. i'm sorry i went.. macho man jealousy.. thing." he laughed.

his girlfriend shook her head through her laugh. "you are so dramatic, you know that? both of you."

"we've been hanging around you too much."

"wow, okay."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

when meadow woke up, her mother was already glued to the news broadcast. a student of hawkins high had allegedly been murdered, and it seemed like problems were, as she'd expected, once again underway. "my heart can't take it anymore. it just can't take it." claudia spoke through tears, clutching their new cat to her chest.

the doorbell ringing sent both henderson siblings to their feet immediately, but neither of them had expected to see max mayfield behind the door. "max?" meadow asked.

she looked up to her. "i didn't know where.. else to go." she whispered.

the older girl didn't ask a single question before stepping back to let her inside. she then looked over to her mom. "history assignment for dustin and max. they.. they needed my book on world war one, the one that you got me at the library." meadow came up with the first lie she could, quickly ushering both kids into her room.

max then explained to them that she'd seen eddie, who lived across from her, walk into his trailer with chrissy, a popular cheerleader, and that she believed chrissy was the girl that had been found dead.

"chrissy?" dustin asked. "you're sure it was chrissy?"

she nodded. "yes, she was in her cheerleader outfit, the same thing she was in when i saw her with eddie."

"did you tell all this to the cops?" meadow asked, sitting down on her bed.

the other girl shrugged her shoulders. "no. no, but i.. i can't be the only one who saw them together, i mean they stood out."

"eddie the freak with chrissy the cheerleader?" dustin was pacing, trying to process all of this.

"exactly." max replied. "you know, his name's not in the news yet or anything, but i guarantee you eddie is suspect number one right now."

the boy then became defensive and stopped his pacing. "that's crazy. eddie didn't do this. no way."

"well, we can't rule it out." max argued.

"yes, we can." he replied, sure of his friend. "what, you think he got rejected once and then immediately goes and murders somebody, nuh-uh!"

"what, rejected?"

meadow rolled her eyes. "i did not reject him."

"you told him you had a boyfriend."

"because that's the truth!" she replied, exasperated. "i didn't reject him because there was nothing to reject, not everyone with something dangling between his legs has a crush on me-"

dustin turned to look at her. "okay, that was a disgusting visual."

"he's not interested in me, can we please move on from this?"

max, meanwhile, was trying to follow along. "wait, eddie asked you out?"

"no! no, dustin's.. bad at social cues-"

"oh he was definitely hinting at something-"

"-no! that is not what happened!"

"so, he didn't ask you out?" max asked.

"no!" meadow sighed, running her hand over her face. "no, okay, this.. this isn't important right now, okay? this guy potentially murdered someone-"

dustin shook his head. "you don't know him like i do, neither of you, okay! he wouldn't do this. when we got to high school, lucas made all his sports friends. mike and me?" he trailed off. "i mean, no one was nice to us, you both know that. no one except eddie."

"okay. well, i mean, they said the same shit about ted bundy." max suggested.

meadow pointed to her in agreement. "yeah. they were all like 'oh he's a super nice guy', and then next thing you know, he's murdering women on the weekend-"

"so you guys are saying eddie is like ted bundy?" dustin asked.

his sister shrugged. "i mean kind of."

max, on the other hand, shook her head. "no, i'm not saying-- i'm saying that we can't presume anything, okay? but it doesn't look good for eddie."

dustin plopped onto the bed, tired of the fight. meadow thought for a moment before looking to max. "wait, why haven't you told the cops about any of this?"

she crossed her arms over her chest. "i.. i don't know."

"you don't know?" dustin asked, sitting back up.

max then moved to sit next to them. "after i saw eddie and chrissy go in the trailer.. something else happened." she began to explain how her tv had begun to buzz out, and how her trailer's lights had flickered. she then told them about how she'd watched eddie drive away like a madman. "nothing that weird or anything, "she reasoned, "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.. this morning, i started to think back, and.. i don't know." she shook her head. "the look on his face. he was scared. really scared. maybe he was scared because, you know, he just killed someone, or.. um... maybe because.. i don't know. i don't know, maybe.."

"something.. else.. killed her."