𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚍𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝚋𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚖𝚎.

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝙸 𝚠𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚎𝚎

𝙸𝚝 𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚋𝚘𝚗𝚎,

𝙸'𝚕𝚕 𝚍𝚒𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎,

𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞,

𝙼𝚢 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚞𝚐𝚕𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐,

𝙸 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚖𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚛.

𝙸𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚖𝚎, 𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔.

"Hello?"

"Hi," Eddie smiled as he held the phone to the side of his cheek.

Lennon recognized Eddie's voice immediately and smiled. "You survived," Lennon felt her cheeks grow rosy at the sound of his voice.

"I believe I did," Eddie hummed, falling back on his feet and pressing his back to the wall opposite his phone in the hall. "And I think I remember owing a report to a certain blood hunter if I did."

Lennon smirked, still not quite understanding the D&D lore but finding it endearing nonetheless.

"Mhm. That's funny. I heard the same thing," she agreed, chewing on her bottom lip with want.

She could picture his face when she closed her eyes. She wanted to be with him and she knew she couldn't be. She didn't want him to leave but she knew it was for the best. She just wished she didn't have to say goodbye.

"Well..." she drew out nervously, casting her gaze out to the room she recently deserted. "Seeing as you made it back safely, I will be sure to let your blood hunter know her knight is well."

Eddie hummed charmingly as she played along with his game. It was nice to know she engaged in the things he loved. Even though she would never know about the character he was inspired to make because of her, and even though she didn't fully understand his passions, she was supportive and thoughtful. He had never met someone so gracious with their time and efforts as her. He really appreciated her.

"I should get going. Brontë's going to wonder why I was running the bill up."

"A few minutes isn't going to make a difference," Eddie tried getting her to keep talking.

"It will because it's suspicious for me to be talking to a telemarketer for more. So, goodbye, Eddie," she sang out mischievously.

"Wait," he called out.

She stayed quiet for a moment and grinned tenderly.

"Yes?"

Eddie smiled softly knowing she didn't want to dismiss him so soon. She stayed on the line and waited for him to respond.

"Will I see you Monday?" he asked wondrously. He felt his cheeks get warm at the thought and he couldn't keep his amusement hidden in his voice.

Lennon pulled the phone away from her face and giggled. She stared down at it like it was a treasured possession but the only thing that made it special was the fact Eddie stuck to the other end of it.

"Only if you can find me," she teased.

"Wait!"

"Goodbye, Eddie," she called out warmly, smiling as she spoke before she hung up the phone.

***

The weekend felt strange to Lennon. Brontë took time off, using his excused days off from work before they expired at the end of the year, making it hard for Lennon to hide the fact she was seeing Eddie behind his back.

As much as she loved her brother, he was a pain in the ass.

He took her to the mall to do their Christmas shopping but all Lennon could think about was Eddie and if it would be appropriate for her to get him a gift. Then she wondered if he celebrated Christmas at all seeing as it was a Christian holiday and he was anything but.

She had access to her bank accounts for holidays so she wouldn't need to be considerate about using her brother's money because it wasn't his.

She passed a music shop on her way to the courtyard, meaning to meet her brother once she was done but the thought of Eddie made her stop and stare.

There were new and vintage guitars sitting in the front window with a cute setup of records lined up around them. She didn't know a thing about instruments and she knew very little about music but she still went inside.

The shop smelled like dust and paper. She didn't expect to sense the same kind of serotonin that she felt when inside an old bookstore but she was pleasantly surprised. She moved around the cases of vinyl records and plastic CD displays like a snake slithering through the tall grass. She was slow and calculated, trying to be as hidden as possible.

That lasted until she reached the back of the store where an entire wall was occupied by long-necked guitars ranging from old-expensive to new-expensive. She let her eyes revel in the variety of color and shape, staring in awe over the instruments which drew in the attention of one of the employees.

"Does one catch your eye, Bruchatcha?"

Lennon flinched at the sound of a man's voice coming up from behind her. She lifted her hand to her heart but smiled at her new companion after seeing the uniform they wore.

The man was very tall, definitely over six feet tall. He had a calm, soothing voice that might have been too loud in volume to have been effective in easing people's anxieties but she couldn't help but find a liking to him anyway.

"I-" she giggled nervously and looked down to the floor in thought. "I don't know anything about guitars to know which one I like," she admitted, looking up to meet the employee's gaze.

He had half-lidded brown eyes so dark she had to wonder if they matched the color of his long, shiny black hair. His face was charitably round and welcoming, always with a dazy smile spread across his lips.

"Are you just learning to play or are you looking for someone else?" he wondered warmly, shrugging his shoulders and crossing his arms over his chest to signify that he wasn't planning on going anywhere in a rush.

"I don't know," she sighed playfully.

"What do you mean?" the employee laughed. "How do you not know?"

She snickered and fiddled with the bags in her palms that were meant to be wrapped as soon as she got home.

"I don't know," she shook her head and cast her eyes out to the wall of guitars she knew nothing about. "I don't know what I'm looking for..." she said with double meaning. "But I do have someone who has three already and I don't know how I'd possibly know what to look for."

"Well, that's why I'm here..." he tilted his head and smiled. "Do we have a price range?" he asked first.

Lennon looked down at her shoes in contemplation and thought about the consequences of her actions. She could look, but that didn't mean she was buying, right? Where was the harm?

"No," she shook her head. "Not really."

"Okay," he replied nonchalantly. "What kind of music do they play? Or maybe we can work with whatever you or they listen to instead in case you're worried someone already has more than thye need... I always say you can never have too many instruments in your home... It's the one thing that has infinite capability..."

The man who accompanied her kept talking when he noticed how timid and nervous Lennon was. It was obvious that he wasn't boring her but she was shy and he couldn't help but empathize with her.

"There are over a billion combinations you can play, all of which can be played in different genres, over a billion different tempos, with a billion different tunes..."

Lennon smiled. She saw that this man was reaching and trying to fill the silence so she obliged to end his playful suffering.

"He likes the heavy stuff," she giggled, expecting some kind of sarcastic remark in return.

"Oh yeah... The heavy stuff..." he drew out lazily like he was stoned or only half awake. "Are we talkin' heavy metal or heavy opera because listen..." he rolled his eyes and earned himself a hardy laugh in return. "Operatic lovers sound all pure and peaceful but they are some of the angriest people, Bruchatcha. So what suits your fancy?"

"Metal," she giggled.

"Metal?" he recalled. "Got you. I got you," he moved from his position and rounded the counter that separated Lennon from the wall of guitars.

"Do we like antique metal or are we into the new stuff?" he wondered, stepping out in front of Lennon and placing his hands onto the edge of the countertop to face her.

"I don't know," she admitted. Eddie seemed close with the red and black guitar he used when performing at the Hideout but the other two looked used and plain. The acoustic one looked inherited or gifted from a family member who played and the other electric one didn't seem much like Eddie when she looked at it. He didn't seem like the type to gawk at antiques.

"Can I look at some of the newer ones?" she pondered.

The shop employee whose nametag read 'Argyle' smiled dopily and nodded his head slowly. "Alright, Bruchatcha... I got you..." he moved away from the counter and disappeared into the back room beyond the wall of instruments.

Lennon wondered why he didn't look at the wall she was surveying but there wasn't much more she could question. She didn't know much about the bands Eddie listened to. She didn't know anything about live music or instruments. She didn't even know what Eddie might like.

Very little could surprise her.

It took only a minute for the man to return with two black leather cases and a vacant smile on his face.

"We got a shipment last night, actually, so... if you wanna hustle me, this is my last week and these bad boys don't have a market price yet and I will happily-" Argyle paused when a smaller woman came walking past with a stack of records in her arms.

He casually slid the cases down beneath the countertop, hiding them from the view of the woman, and smiled. "Hi, Linda."

"Argyle," she replied with the same sing-songy tone before disappearing just as quickly as she appeared.

"Right," he pulled the cases back up to the countertop and managed to ignore Lennon's sly snickering as she tried to contain her amusement. "So, I have this here shiny gold PRS that was just released earlier this week. It's got a nice classic vibe to it; however..." he trailed off as he moved for the second case. "I also brought out this groovy girl if we wanted something a little darker and less flashy."

Lennon looked from the curved gold guitar to the deep purple one. The gold guitar had rounded curves and a shiny base but the second one had sharp, dark edges that turned into a purple ombre near the center. BC Rich guitar immediately caught her eye but that didn't necessarily mean it was fit for Eddie.

She didn't know much about his taste and she wasn't even sure if what she was doing was smart. Even if she could buy him a guitar, how she was supposed to smuggle it past the brother she was supposed to find in the food court?

"Wow..." she sighed, looking closely at the detail and finish on the instruments presented before her.

"She's purty, ain't she?" Argyle smiled playfully as he caught Lennon staring at the purple guitar.

"Very," she agreed. "But I don't know... He has one that looks kind of similar to this and the gold is a little too loud and bright for his taste..." she admitted.

"So you are shopping for someone else..." he rested his elbow on the countertop, directly in between the two open cases as he met her eye.

"I have someone in mind, yeah... But I don't know... I barely know him..."

"You just moved here, right?" he narrowed his eyes in her direction and smirked.

She furrowed her brows and backed away slightly. "Yeah. How did you-"

"Oh, I go to Hawkins. I know who you are," he chuckled, promising her he wasn't some kind of stalker. "Everyone knows who you are, actually... But I guess its kind of hard to know someone if you've got a thousand new faces crossing your path every day, huh?"

"Yeah..." she nodded her head and leered suspiciously. He was really friendly and easy to talk to which was odd. He seemed very nonchalant but he also acted like he was high on marijuana so Lennon didn't know if it came naturally to him or not. All she knew was that whoever this classmate of hers was made out to be an easy person to converse with.

"Well." Argyle stood back up and closed the guitar cases as he continued to talk. "Do you wanna tell me a little bit about your friend and see where we get with that?" he wondered, keeping his eyes focused on his handiwork which allowed Lennon some privacy to think to herself.

She had to evaluate this man's trustworthiness and had t wonder if she said the wrong thing would he make her out to be a villain when they went back to school? She had to wonder if he knew Eddie and if she described him, would he know exactly who she was trying to shop for?

She took a deep breath and sighed. "He has one of those," she pointed to the case he was closing. "But the other two are plain and acoustic. I... He needs a sturdy base for sure... Something that won't break if he swings it around too much... He likes dark colors... Isn't into rustic or antique aesthetics... Uhm... Gosh," she giggled melancholically. "I don't even know his favorite color," she admitted shamefully, realizing just how little she really knew about him.

"That's okay," the man responded gently. "Listen, it's not that deep, Bruchatcha. Trust me," he chuckled lowly and took both cases into his hands. "It sounds to me like you know the important stuff and that's way more important than learning someone's favorite color. Now hold on, I'll be right back."

He disappeared again and left Lennon with her thoughts for a moment longer.

This time, it took Argyle close to five minutes to come back and Lennon felt like she was running out of room to avoid her brother now.

"Now this," he presented her with a white case this time and smiled deviously. "This is pretty metal is you ask me," he glowered victoriously and unlocked the case, turning it, then presenting Lennon with a sharp-edged black BC Rich that looked as if it were carved out of burned metal.

The body was a smooth, cold, jet black that had a sophisticated but dangerous edge to the perimeter which was outlined in a bar of metallic silver, mimicking the look of metal. The edges were carved out like a weapon Lennon would see in one of the games Eddie once talked about and she immediately fell for it.

"This is... Wow..." she aspirated, trying to fight off the smile that came with finding the perfect one. That lasted only a few seconds before she remembered who she was.

"This is perfect but I don't have any way of getting this home," she admitted sorrowfully.

"That's okay," he repeated himself like he did earlier. "We can ship it to your house or if you want to leave your number, we can contact you whenever it officially hits the market," he explained to her softly.

"I don't know..." she sighed again, knowing there was no way she could control when it arrived or when they would call to make sure Brontë wasn't around when they did. "But this is literally perfect..." she sighed again, running her finger over the edge of the case in thought.

She stared at the guitar for a few more seconds and she knew there was no way she could leave without it.

"You go to Hawkins, right?"

She knew what she was doing was wrong but it was the only way to keep her feelings for Eddie under wraps.

Argyle nodded and Lennon smiled.

"Can you do me a huge favor?"