𝚂𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚎'𝚛𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜, 𝚠𝚎'𝚛𝚎 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚜,

𝚆𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚍𝚊𝚖𝚗 𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛,

𝚃𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚘𝚞𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍, 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚍, 𝚝𝚘 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚕.

𝚆𝚎'𝚛𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜, 𝚠𝚎'𝚛𝚎 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚜.

"What's this about herpes?" the man with long curly hair smiled mischievously as he had his arm pressed to the wall of the corner hall.

The first thing she noticed about the man standing before her was his reflective eyes. They were insistent and dark and yet welcoming all the same. Lennon felt as if his eyes could consume her like a black hole and she would simply continue to fall.

They were like pools of freshly brewed coffee staring back at her. They reminded her of the smell of leather and the enriched soil from walking back home in the early mornings in the forest.

"I don't have it if that's what you were wondering," she simply replied, trying to keep her composure and not show her overwhelmed stature when faced with yet another new person.

She was about to walk past him to see if anyone was willing to give her a ride but the man who accompanied her kept watching her.

"But you plan on getting it," he smirked, narrowing his eyes and lifting an accusing finger at her as he followed her confused stare.

"It wouldn't be ideal, no," she corrected him. Moving away from the phone and swinging her bag over her shoulder, giving herself something to hold onto for support.

"That's not what I heard," his tone went playful but not like Billy's. It was odd. There was a charm in both men and yet when Billy seemed cocksure, this man, whom she didn't have a name for, seemed pleasantly playful. He didn't insinuate malice or cocky arrogance, he seemed genuinely interested in conversation and nothing more.

"Please excuse my abrupt transgression but who are you?" she wondered, taking another step away from the phone but not getting any nearer to the man with the strung-out smile. Instead, she moved closer to the street.

"Ooh," he cringed, curling his fingers in a disgruntled way and shot her a sarcastically disgusted expression. "You're sweaty and staying after school which means you're a jock and you don't know who I am... You must be new," his expression changed entirely to one of hospitality.

He forced a smile and extended a hand to greet her. "Before those freaks spin bad lines about me, my name's Eddie."

The next thing Lennon noticed was the chunky silver rings decorating his knuckles. They were accompanied by some black ink between his thumb and index finger but she couldn't tell if it was made with a pen or a tattoo gun.

She leered suspiciously, mimicking him slightly and taking his hand despite her uneasiness. "Lennon."

Eddie squinted and his smile became real. "Quite the Beatles fan, aren't we?" he teased, shaking her hand with a strong grasp.

His hand was just as warm as his eyes and Lennon's mouth curled upward slightly. "My Dad is," she nodded her head assuringly. She then pulled her hand away from his but he wasn't ready to let go and their hands separated awkwardly.

She wanted to say something sarcastic about his name or make fun of the fact he acts like he's high school royalty because she doesn't know his name, but he was unnerving and kind of strange.

Lennon wasn't quick to judge but she didn't know why or how she got herself into a conversation with a complete stranger. So, she refrained from making jokes.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a long journey to make thanks to my selfish bastard of a brother. It was nice meeting you though," she tried to be friendly despite this man's alarmingly dark and grungy attire.

He was very straightforward and innocent acting, which both contradicted his physicality and Lennon's intuition.

Lennon knew that people who were immediately nice to a stranger without any inclination of getting something in return, definitely wanted something from you and they were just good at hiding it.

It wasn't as self-serving as it seemed, but even helping a stranger jumpstart their car could give someone the satisfaction of carrying out a good deed. It wasn't always a selfish thing that people looked for in people. Sometimes it was just a feeling that they wanted.

When she turned her back on Eddie, her head shot out to the boys riding away on bikes down the road. She would have to take the same one to get onto the main road, then she'd have to take another back road, and then a short stroll through some backyards for the quickest route on foot.

She knew about the route because during the summers, she, Brontë, and their other brother Hyperion, would all cause mayhem running through the gardens of very angry old women.

Lennon was grateful Brontë took his mother's house when she got remarried so she wouldn't have to learn the layout of an entirely new place. She knew the area and learning the premise of the school was enough.

"Hang on a minute, Clever One," Eddie called out.

Lennon sighed and turned to look over her shoulder, clutching her bag a little tighter when Eddie strode up beside her.

"You need a ride or something?" he asked, shoving his fingers into the front pockets of his jeans.

Lennon looked up at him nervously and immediately looked away. "Uhm..." she contemplated. She joked about getting a ride in exchange for sexual favors but she didn't mean it.

"Well," Eddie noticed her nervous demeanor and found it appropriate to explain himself. "Seeing as your 'bastard of a brother' isn't here, I just assumed..."

His words were sympathetic and alluring but his tone was so casual and playful which it made it difficult for Lennon to trust him.

"I was joking about the herpes thing," she offered a smile when in reality she was getting more anxious by the minute. "I'm not that kind of person... not that I'm judging."

"Oh, well, lucky for you, and on the contrary to what everyone thinks, I'm off the books here," he put his hands up in defense. "No sexually transmitted diseases required," he smirked, earning a mellow smile in return from the girl wearing a hoodie that smelled faintly of weed and burned wood.

If she thought Eddie was an interesting character, Eddie was surely conflicted about her.

She was a jock, she would've corrected him otherwise, and yet she didn't look like one. Her hair was only slightly feathered and clipped back with a straight black clip which didn't match the usual look of the other girls on the team. Her legs were covered by school sweats instead of their usual skirts or shorts, and her hoodie smelled like she had been out late at night, smoking and drinking with a group of friends in the woods.

She was quite the contradiction.

"I'd say you're chances are better with me than on the street," he kept trying to convince her as they walked down the front of the school. He knew she was nervous and rightfully he supposed. He wasn't exactly the most friendly of people in town. "I'm in need of some good karma anyhow. Would you be willing to help an old sinner out?"

Why was she still talking to him? He was very blunt and outspoken and yet she wanted to trust him. She wasn't sure if she disliked him, but she wasn't in a hurry to get rid of him either. Maybe it was the fact she had been pretending to be someone she wasn't for the past week and it finally became second nature, or maybe this Eddie guy wasn't as scary as she first perceived.

"I don't know," she drew out playfully. She knew now that he wasn't planning on sleeping with her but she still felt like there was something else he wanted from her. "Ted Bundy started out like this... Trusting charismatic men these days gets people killed," she smiled, turning towards him and almost looking away when she realized he was already looking back at her.

"Oooh," he cooed happily. "So you are the clever one. That's a good adjective," he poked fun at her name again and now she couldn't help herself from poking back.

John Lennon was nicknamed the 'Clever One' in the band and she guessed she had taken up the name too.

It was strange that he ignored the fact she accused him of being a homicidal maniac and yet all she could do was smile as she poked fun at him like she'd known him forever.

"It's better than being named Edward," she giggled, loosening her grip on her bag and stopping in her tracks when Eddie stepped out into the parking lot pavement.

"Oof," he took his fists and pressed them into his chest with enough force to provoke a sudden and abrupt release of air. "It's true though," he said matter-of-factly, recovering from his offense almost too quickly for Lennon's comfort. "John Lennon was a legend. It would be pretty gnarly to be named after him. I'm just named after an old, drunk, fisherman who bounced before I hit puberty."

Lennon hummed warmly, following Eddie as he led her to his car. "You say that until you have to live with the nicknames," she rolled her eyes, stopping in front of a dirty, green and white van that looked suspicious amongst the few scattered cars still in the parking lot.

"Alright," she giggled. "I take it back. Maybe you're not Ted Bundy."

"Uh... not this week," he joked, moving to open the passenger side door for his new acquaintance.

"This wouldn't be many people's first pick for a car. What would a high school student need a van for anyhow?" she leered sarcastically, stepping in and getting a strong whiff of weed, leather, and stale food as she took her seat.

"Oh, God," Eddie complained. "Don't remind me," he threw his head back like a toddler would when told they couldn't have candy for dinner. Then the door was slammed shut and Lennon jumped out of her skin again.

She shut her eyes and held her breath, trying not to freak out over every single loud noise she surrounded herself with. Her heart was beating like crazy now and her fingers and toes had gone cold with fear. She forced herself to breathe again before Eddie came up on the other side and plopped himself down in the driver's seat.

"I'll get out of this Hellhole eventually. But if you must know, I'm in a band," he said confidently. "Gotta lug the equipment around somehow," he explained as he shoved the key into the ignition, and once again, Lennon flinched when the sound of Mötley Crüe blared out the speakers.

"Fuck! Sorry!" Eddie immediately apologized after seeing how startled she was by the sudden serenade of Vince Neil. He quickly turned the volume all the way down but because Lennon was in desperate need of something familiar, she pushed past the initial shock.

"No, please," she moved her hand towards the system and placed her hand over his. Her eyes traveled up to meet his and she immediately reeled back. "Keep it on."

Eddie smirked and turned the volume up slightly, making it just loud enough to chat over if they wanted, and pulled the van forward.

"If you don't mind me asking; Why don't you have a car?" he wondered, and since she was new, he found it polite to ask. "Surely you're old enough," he hoped.

Just because he swore off intimate relationships with his classmates didn't mean he wanted this wildly attractive stranger to be younger than license age. It was a rule he followed. He didn't date people at Hawkins High. He didn't need jail time and he didn't find the idea of dating minors appealing anyhow.

Lennon took a second to consider her answer and turned to look into the back. As her anxiety arose again, she realized she had just gotten into a suspicious van with a suspicious man that she didn't know. And again, just because she joked about him being a murderer, she wasn't expecting him to be one. She had to make sure.

"I was supposed to take the test last summer but..." she stopped and stared at the open guitar case sitting on the floor behind Eddie as he drove and remembered the guitar her brother had before he died.

They were both ESPs and she had fallen into a trance by it. She could still hear the erratic reverberations coming from her brother's strings as he plucked and strummed, trying to show off but failing to sound anything like AC/DC.

"But what?" Eddie's voice broke her out of her trance after he looked over and saw her staring numbly at something in the back.

"Hey, Lennon," he waved his hand in front of her face and caused her to turn back towards the windshield.

"I... got distracted," she shook her head and sighed as she lied. She couldn't tell a complete stranger that she didn't take the test because her mother and brother were murdered. She just couldn't.

Eddie slowed the car down, causing Lennon's heart to speed up in fear since they were on a back road where no one would find her if he decided to kill her.

"Which way?" he asked, pointing out the front of the window.

Lennon felt idiotic to have worried. All he was trying to do was get directions, and she secretly accused him of kidnapping.

She giggled nervously and pushed past the worry. "Left, go on the main road, then turn down Magnolia," she instructed.

Eddie followed her directions and glanced over suspiciously. "For someone who's new, you know your way awfully well," Eddie smirked, impressed with how well she had the route mapped out in her head.

"I'm living with my brother. I've been coming to visit every summer for... what? Almost nine years now?" she explained. "Now I'm just a resident for a bit."

"Interesting. I haven't seen you around; like, at all," he said skeptically.

Lennon grew uncomfortable and fiddled with her cuticles for comfort even though it inflicted pain on her body.

"We mainly stayed at the house during summers," she explained thoughtfully, trying not to get swept up in what she had lost just ten months prior.

"You uh..." she chewed nervously at her lip. "What do you play?" she tried to divert the attention from her to him. "Let me take a guess..." she tried to change the subject. She examined his hands around the steering wheel and looked past all the metal to see the natural curl of his last joints before speaking enthusiastically. "Bass or guitar..."

Why was she engaging in conversation? Nobody was around and this guy didn't seem like the kind of person to talk about her once they parted ways. Pretending to be a social butterfly who had her life together wasn't important now. So, why was she still asking questions?

"What gave it away?" he smiled cheekily before turning and looking over at the girl who seemed to slowly come out of her shell.

"The lack of murder weapons and shovels in the back," she giggled.

Eddie breathed loudly out his nose and pulled the van onto the main road.

"Once on Magnolia, you're going to want to turn down Willis Road and you can drop me off there," she offered, not wanting Eddie to know where she lived and not wanting to waste any more of his miles.

"This would've been a long walk," he commented sympathetically. "That's some brother of yours," he ridiculed.

"Half-brother," she corrected him. "That's why you shouldn't eavesdrop," she wiggled her head and smiled in an attempt to take the edge off her alarmed state.

"Well when I heard the mention of 'herpes', I had to see if the new girl was sent by the government to start an outbreak," he joked, coming across some traffic as people were going out for Friday night.

"Definitely not," she assured.

She looked out at all the cars and was overwhelmed again. It wasn't just the surrounding of cars and people that flared up her anxiety, but she felt bad about delaying this seemingly generous man's leisure time too.

"I'm sorry about wasting your time," she apologized after a few minutes of comfortable silence. "This traffic is crazy."

"People come out the woodworks as soon as the weekend comes along, I swear," Eddie followed up. "And you're the one doing me a favor, remember?" He looked at her again and noticed her staring at the wheel in thought.

Her head turned towards him but her eyes lingered a while longer on his hands before flickering back to meet his eyes.

Her eyes made him self-conscious of his hands as he drove but he didn't want her to see that when he readjusted his drip on the wheel.

She had furrowed her brows and silently asked what he meant. She didn't see how she was helping him in any way. He was the one being generous enough to drive her home. She didn't know him and he didn't know her. She couldn't comprehend why he felt it was her who was doing the good deed.

"I think I require some cleansing," Eddie took a long inhale and pouted his bottom lip as he waved his hands in a manner that looked like he was feathering a fire. "People be fucking with my chi at Hawkins Hell," he wafted the bad essence around him out towards the steering wheel.

"What?" Lennon giggled.

"You smell that?" he cringed.

"Just weed," she informed him, not quite noticing that he was making a joke.

"Oh, shit, sorry about that," he apologized. "But no," he added. "I swear I walk through those doors smelling of good intentions and I just leave, reeking of bad vibes for simply defending myself from those undeserving and entitled twats, every time. I swear, it's fucking obnoxious," he shook his head in disbelief and waved his hand as a dramatic addition.

Lennon chuckled and watched as he turned onto Magnolia Street.

"Well," she offered her support. "You would've hated the snobs at my other school then," she informed him. "I wasn't quite as accepted there as I am here. Partly because they're much nicer."

She was a loner before now. She only had her brother and people she thought were her friends. But when Rion disappeared... everything changed... including herself.

And for some reason, she tried to conform now. She needed the next two years to go by swimmingly so she could forget about the past for good.

"Thats why you don't come off to me as one of the gym-germs. You're not a nepotism baby," he smirked knowingly, turning down Willis and pulling the van into park.

"Germs?" Lennon shot back incredulously. That might have been Eddie's first incorrect assumption about her. Her mother was popular in high school, her father wasn't very popular but he was the sweet, nerdy but hot kid everyone secretly wanted to date, and Brontë was the script for Steve. Lennon and Rion were the only ones not to follow in their footsteps. They weren't entirely invisible, but they didn't fit into the crowd either.

"You wouldn't know about it since you don't have a sexually transmitted disease," Eddie caused Lennon to stifle a laugh. "But they'll leave you itching and groaning in all the wrong places if you hang around the wrong people for too long," he assured her. "You gotta wash 'em off before they get too comfortable."

"And you have experience with these kinds of..." she scoffed. "Germs," she giggled, earning herself a look of realization from Eddie who didn't mean to insinuate that he had an STD.

"That's not what I meant," he quickly assured her, widening his eyes and shooting her a nervous smile to cover up the fact he had said the wrong thing.

"That's nice to hear," she nodded her head with a charming smile hanging off her face. "I'll keep that advice of yours in mind," she sighed, moving to exit the car. "And thanks for the ride. I really do appreciate it," she offered a kind smile as she slung her bag over her shoulder.

"Oh, please," he waved her off. "My dealer lives nearby. It isn't far... Unless you work for the cops, then no he doesn't," he leered suspiciously.