After waking up by himself and finding a note on a desk in his room telling him that Valerie had already left and was headed straight back to Starcourt Mall to talk to Robin, Matthew simply shrugged to himself before he got himself out of his bed and went towards the bathroom.

For all he knew, Valerie had done as he told her many times over and actually grew some balls to talk to Robin Buckley after spending months just watching her from a distance and staring up at her with incredibly wide eyes whenever she found herself face-to-face with Robin.

So, he didn't think much of it and got himself ready for the day he'd mentally and emotionally prepared himself for before he left the house, got into the car and eventually found himself sitting in his car inside of the Forest Hill trailer park and parked outside of Eddie Munson's own trailer.

After slowly breathing in and out in an attempt to keep his breathing under control and to make sure that his face didn't become a bright red like it did the last time he was at Eddie's trailer, Matthew stepped out of his car and walked up towards the door to the trailer and simply knocked on it.

When the door wasn't opened, Matthew knocked on the door once more and asked, "Hey, Munson, you in there?"

When he still didn't receive a response, he went to knock on the door once more, only to stop and take a step back from the door when it was opened and he suddenly found himself face-to-face with Eddie's uncle.

After several seconds of remaining silent as he stared at Eddie's uncle, Matthew silently gulped to himself.

From what he remembered Eddie mentioning when he first started to buy from him during his first attempt at his senior year, his uncle's name was Wayne.

But despite him knowing Wayne's name, he knew better than to just come out of the blue and call him by name when Wayne had more than likely never even seen him before.

So, instead of calling him by name, Matthew hesitantly waved a hand at him and said to him, "Uh, h-hey, Mr. Munson." When Wayne had only slightly raised his head and silently eyed him, Matthew hesitantly asked him, "I-Is Eddie home?"

When Wayne only shook his head, Matthew hesitantly asked him, "Do you, uh, have any idea when he'll be back?" When he only received yet another shaken head in response to his question, Matthew said, "Right. Well, I'll, uh, be going, then. I-I can come back some other time. Sorry for bothering you."

It was only when Matthew had quickly turned his back on Wayne and started to walk back to his car that he stopped when Wayne asked him, "You a friend of my nephew's?"

After quickly turning around to look back at Wayne, Matthew started to scratch the back of his head as he said, "I-I wouldn't know if Eddie would consider us friends, but I, uh, do talk to him now and again. A-And I'm actually a lot nicer to him than the rest of the people at school, i-if that helps." When Wayne had only snorted to himself in response to Matthew's words, Matthew sighed to himself before he said, "And none of what I just said probably helped my case, so I'll just, uh, I'll just go now. I'll come by and try to see Eddie some other time."

Instead of letting the Wheeler boy turn his back on him one more time, Wayne took a step out of his trailer and asked him, "What did you say your name was?"

After silently gulping to himself, Matthew said, "Um, Matthew Wheeler?"

In turn, Wayne said, "Uh-huh." Just when Matthew went to walk back to his car once more, he suddenly stopped when Wayne asked him, "Why don't you come inside for the time being until Eddie comes back, huh?"

While Matthew's mouth repeatedly opened and closed, Wayne told him, "After all, this'll give me the chance to see if you are a good friend of my nephew's."

After letting out yet another sigh, Matthew said, "I– Uh–" After seeing Wayne raise his eyebrows at him, Matthew quickly nodded his head as he said, "Y-Yeah, okay."

Then he quickly walked back into the direction of the trailer and silently gulped to himself when Wayne stepped aside and held the door open for him.

It wasn't until the door to the trailer was closed behind Wayne and Matthew had found himself face-to-face with Wayne that Matthew had– for once in his life– actually felt quite intimidated and thought that he would actually pass out on the spot, just from meeting Eddie's uncle and not wanting to leave a bad impression on the man, despite the fact that he wasn't even dating Eddie and he was only sixteen, while Eddie was at least nineteen already.

Matthew just hoped he didn't give in to his deepest urge to just pass out on the spot, or maybe even throw up from the nerves that were increasing with each passing second that he stared at Eddie's uncle with his eyes wide as ever and his heart feeling like it was about to burst out of his chest at any given moment.

After spending a majority of his day practicing with his band and hanging out at the house of his friend, Gareth, Eddie Munson had returned to his trailer and couldn't help but let his eyebrows furrowed and frown a bit when he saw that Matthew Wheeler's car was parked outside of his trailer.

With a six-pack of beer in hand, Eddie got out of his van and slowly walked over towards Matthew's car to see if the soon-to-be junior was hiding out in there, like he seemed to do whenever Eddie himself was involved, but to no such luck.

The temperamental member of the Wheeler family wasn't in his car, which made Eddie realize that Matthew was in fact inside of the trailer that he lived in with his uncle.

And sure enough– after opening the door to his trailer and stepping foot inside of the trailer– he was right.

What he didn't count on seeing, though, was a rather pale-looking Matthew Wheeler sitting on one of the chairs in the trailer and looking anywhere but Wayne as he twiddled his thumbs together, while Wayne was mindlessly talking to the Wheeler boy and seemed to be unaware of just how much he was intimidating the sixteen-year-old boy.

Despite the fact of just how confused he was that Matthew Wheeler was intimidated by Wayne of all people, Eddie couldn't help but feel rather amused that the most temperamental member of the Wheeler family– that didn't seem to be scared of much from what Eddie had seen– was quite scared of his Uncle Wayne.

It was only when Eddie had closed the door to the trailer and kicked off his shoes that Matthew quickly turned his head to look over at Eddie with wide eyes before quietly sighing to himself when he saw the one person he intended to buy some drugs from prior to being forced to being inside of the trailer with Wayne Munson and listening to him ask him all kinds of questions and then eventually attempting to make small talk with the Wheeler boy.

While Matthew squeezed his eyes shut and tightly grabbed at one of his wrists in an attempt to calm himself down from his nerves that had been eating at him for hours now, Wayne turned to look over at his nephew when Eddie asked him, "What's going on here?"

As he nodded his head over in Matthew's direction without taking his eyes off of his nephew, Wayne told him, "Just getting to know your friend here, that's all."

Then Eddie slowly moved only his eyes to look over at Matthew, who still looked rather pale and was keeping his eyes squeezed shut, before he asked the Wheeler boy, "Hey, you doing alright over there, Wheeler?"

It was then that Matthew quickly opened his eyes and released his wrist before he said with a nod of his head, "Yep. Never better."

In turn, Eddie said to him, "Right." Then, with a nod of his head in the direction of his room, he said, "Come on, Wheeler. Let's get you out of this room before you have a stroke or something."

With a quick nod of his head, Matthew got up out of the chair and did his best to not seem rude as he made his escape from Wayne, who was more amused than offended by how the Wheeler boy seemed to be quite nervous since his first meeting with Matthew only hours ago– compared to how Eddie had described him to be at Hawkins High School.

Then again, Matthew did tell him that he treated Eddie a hell of a lot nicer than he treated anyone else at the school.

And because of the fact that Eddie had mentioned that the two were more or less friends, despite the fact that Matthew seemed to have this thing for avoiding him– like the time that his face became a bright red color and he'd spent months avoiding his nephew– Wayne had no problems with inviting him into their trailer.

Although, he did wonder why the Wheeler boy seemed to be a hell of a lot more nervous in regard to Eddie than anyone else, like Eddie had mentioned to him a couple of times.

With a shake of his head, he went back to watching the television like he'd been doing prior to Matthew's arrival to the trailer, while Matthew let out a sigh once he was in Eddie's room and said, "Shit." When Eddie turned his head to look over at the Wheeler boy with a raised eyebrow, Matthew told him, "No offense to you or your uncle, Munson, but that man scares the fuck out of me."

When Eddie only chuckled to himself, Matthew yelled in a whisper, "I-I'm serious, man! I've never been so fucking scared in my life before! Like, holy shit! D-Do you have any idea just how long I've been stuck in that room with your uncle?" When Eddie only continued to chuckle to himself, Matthew told him, "I've been in your trailer since, like, eleven in the morning after waking up to come here and get some more weed from you. But you know what happened instead?"

As he pointed into the next room, he quietly told Eddie, "He opened that door and just stared at me, man. A-And when I was gonna leave, he asked if I was one of your friends and then asked for my name and invited me into your trailer. And he spent the longest time interrogating me about whatever shit popped up in his head and then tried to make fucking small talk with me! I'm not good at small talk!" When he saw the way that Eddie was now looking at him, Matthew pointed a single finger at him as he said, "Don't you fucking say it. Don't you fucking say shit about it, Munson. You hear me?"

In response to Matthew's words, Eddie only smiled at him before he said with a chuckle, "God, that's just like that time you broke into my van and hid in there until I was let out of school, like, two years ago now."

With a groan, Matthew said, "Oh, my God, Munson. When are you ever gonna let that shit go, man? It happened, like, two years ago, man! How much longer are you gonna hold that shit over my head?"

With a shrug of his shoulders, Eddie started to walk even further into his own room as he said, "Well, you can't exactly blame me for holding it over your head, Little Wheeler. I mean, before you did that shit, no one ever broke into my van before and, like, hid out in there just to get some drugs from me. And, if I'm gonna be honest, that was honestly the funniest thing to ever happen to me. I mean, just think about it, Little Wheeler. Matthew Wheeler– the little brother to Nancy 'The Priss' Wheeler– broke into Eddie 'The Freak' Munson's van just to get some drugs from him after getting suspended from school a couple of weeks from some fight he had with Stephen Hagan, Tommy Hagan's little cousin." As he pointed a finger in Matthew's direction, he said, "That there was just pure comedic gold, man."

With his eyebrows furrowed, Matthew asked him, "Priss? Really?"

As he raised his hands on either side of his head, Eddie said, "Hey, that's just how the rest of the school describes your sister. It's their word, not mine."

With a nod of his head, Matthew said, "Yeah, okay."

After sitting on his own bed and folding his hands together in front of himself, Eddie said to him, "So, tell me something, Little Wheeler. What exactly are you doing here, huh? I mean, what got you to decide to come to my trailer to get some drugs from me and not just go to our usual spot?"

With a sigh, Matthew told him, "Well, Val's at the mall trying to win over this, uh, person from school that she's been into for, like, months now, and I didn't really have anything better to do and I was out of the weed I bought from you a little while ago, so here I am."

In turn, Eddie said, "Huh. Okay, then."

Once Eddie grabbed his tin box that was sitting beside him on his bed and went to look through it for a decent amount of weed to sell to Matthew, Matthew said, "You know, Munson, this sort of thing is why I'm a lot nicer to you than most people at school. You know, if you don't count, Val, Nancy, Jonathan and maybe Steve– before Steve graduated, anyway."

As he continued to look through his tin box, Eddie replied, "Oh, yeah? Why's that?"

After silently gulping to himself, Matthew told him, "'Cause, you know, you don't really give anyone shit unless they do it to you first and you, uh, don't really get yourself involved in things that aren't really any of your business. You, uh, you don't ask personal questions– like, uh, who Val's trying to win over. You, uh, you wouldn't believe just how many times people have asked me just who Val's into and why she's been keeping it a secret and whatnot."

In response to Matthew's words, Eddie turned his head to look over at Matthew with his tilted to the side just a bit and saw that Matthew was– for the first time in the almost three years that they'd actually known one another– calm around Eddie.

For the life of him, Eddie couldn't understand just why Matthew seemed to be at ease at that moment, while standing in Eddie's room and eyeing the posters that Eddie had hung up on the walls in his room.

It was then that Eddie said to him, "Don't, uh, don't take this the wrong way, Wheeler, okay?" When Matthew had slowly nodded his head, Eddie asked him, "Are you on something right now? 'Cause you're, uh, very calm right now and that just isn't a norm for you, so... Are you on something?"

When Matthew had only shaken his head in response to Eddie's question, Eddie said, "Oh. Well, never mind then. My bad, Little Wheeler."

Just when Eddie was about to get back to looking through his tin box, he suddenly stopped when Matthew asked him, "Uh, why exactly do you call me 'Little Wheeler'?"

In turn, Eddie asked him, "What, you don't like the name I have for you?"

With a quick shake of his head, Matthew replied, "No, it's, uh, it's not that. It's just that most people call me Matt or Matthew or simply just Wheeler, but not you. You call me Little Wheeler. Kind of makes me wonder why you started to call me that in the first place."

With a tilt of his head, Eddie said, "I don't know, really. I just figured since we're sort of friends and all that it wouldn't be that big of a deal if I gave you a different nickname, compared to what everyone else calls you." When Matthew only silently stared at him, Eddie told him, "I could always quit calling you that, if you want."

With a shake of his head, Matthew told him, "No, no, it's, uh, it's fine. I just, uh, didn't think you actually thought of us as friends, that's all."

With a chuckle, Eddie said to him, "Man, you really are something else, Wheeler. I mean, even after spending the past couple years selling to you, there's just always something about you that I can't help but find funny. You know that?"

In turn, Matthew said, "What?"

It was then that Eddie asked him, "What, did you think I was being nice to you just for the hell of it and because it would create a good enough relationship of sorts since I'm the one that's selling the drugs and you're the one buying 'em? I mean, it certainly wouldn't hurt, but I'm mostly nice to you 'cause even with all that fighting you do, you're still a pretty cool dude, Little Wheeler."

As he pointed a finger at himself, Matthew asked him, "You... Eddie Munson... think that I'm a... cool dude?"

Eddie replied, "Yeah, why wouldn't I? I mean, sure, you get into all these fights and have gotten suspended a bunch of times, but you're still– from what I've seen and heard– super protective of the people you care about. You're crazy protective of your sister, that boyfriend of hers, sometimes even Harrington before he graduated and Valerie. Plus, from what I hear, you're also pretty protective of that brother of yours– you know, the same one that you keep making your parents think is stealing your dad's money. I mean, I've heard you put people in the hospital just for messing with your brother. I can only imagine how much more fights you'll get into once your brother starts going to school with us. I mean, I'm not one to at all be okay with putting someone in the hospital, but to each their own, Little Wheeler. To each their own."

With furrowed eyebrows, Matthew asked him, "You didn't graduate with Steve?"

In turn, Eddie said to him, "Nope."

With a sigh, Matthew said to him, "Right, uh, sorry about that, Munson. It's, uh, it's gotta be rough to, uh, fail your senior year two years in a row."

When Eddie only shrugged his shoulders, Matthew became silent, which allowed Eddie to bring his attention back over to the tin box.

After a couple more seconds of silence, Matthew asked him, "Are you, uh, busy right now, Munson?"

While he continued to look through his tin box, Eddie replied, "Nope. Why?"

Matthew told him, "Well, um, I don't have any plans tonight, so I was wondering if it'd be okay if I, uh, stayed here and smoked with you, instead of just heading back home. I mean, I'm sure that Val's already gotten an in with that person she's into, so, if you don't mind, I could always stay here and smoke with you." When Eddie slowly turned his head to look over at the Wheeler boy with furrowed eyebrows, Matthew quickly said to him, "But that-that's entirely up to you, Munson. I-I could always leave after buying from you and come back some other time, i-if you don't feel up to it, that is."

After silently eyeing him, Eddie tilted his head to the side a bit, which got Matthew to say to him, "O-Or I don't have to buy from you. I mean, I-I spent months just smoking regular cigarettes before Val ever showed up here in Hawkins. Just, uh, just say the word and I'll be out of here and leave you to unwind from whatever it is you were doing today."

When Eddie still didn't respond, Matthew started to open his mouth to stumble over his words once more, only to stop when Eddie said with a chuckle, "Relax, Little Wheeler. There's no need to get like that. I just, uh, never expected to hear you ask me that, that's all." After pulling a decently sized bag of weed after his tin box, he said with a shrug of his shoulders, "But, hey, it's not every day you get to smoke with the little brother of Nancy Wheeler. So, why not? I'll give it a go, if you're still up for it."

When Matthew slowly nodded his head with his eyes just a bit wider than he would have wanted them to be, Eddie patted on a random spot on his bed as he said, "Then, come on. It looks like you need it a hell of a lot more than I do, Little Wheeler."