𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍, 𝚠𝚎'𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍.

𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚞𝚛𝚝, 𝚠𝚎'𝚕𝚕 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚜𝚝.

𝙽𝚘𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞.

𝙻𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜, 𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚗𝚍𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞, 𝚊𝚗𝚍

𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍, 𝚠𝚎'𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍.

"What?" she narrowed her eyes curiously at him, smiling at his side profile before he turned and met her eyes again.

"What?" he mimicked, lifting the sandwich up to his lips and taking another bite to satisfy his hunger.

"You..." she shook her head in search of the right words and giggled. "You're always staring..."

Eddie unbuckled his seatbelt and shifted in his seat.

Lennon took the opportunity to move for one of the hot chocolates and held it between her hands to keep them warm.

"So I've been told..." Eddie blushed.

"Oh?" Lennon giggled and raised her eyebrows in his direction. "So I'm not the only one who's noticed..." she chuckled.

"Some of the guys in Hellfire have brought it to my attention, yeah," he scratched at the back of his head nervously and giggled. "Is it a crime to stare at things I find beautiful?" he chuckled, setting the sandwich down in his lap and sucking the sauce that came from his food off his fingertips.

Lennon turned away from the sight and hated how something so little could gross her out. She knew that if she looked away, it wouldn't affect her as badly but the sound of Eddie's lips being pulled from his fingers made her eye twitch even when she was looking out at the falling snow.

She ignored her disrelish and diverted her attention to the cup of cocoa in her hands. "No," she informed Eddie with a smile. "But saying mawkish things like that is," she teased, plucking at the lid on the liquid and releasing the steam from the container.

"Mawkish?" he retorted sarcastically, moving to do the same only without ever taking the cup out of the cup holder. "I should think sappy shit like that to be right up your ally after reading Wuthering Heights..." he leered lovingly, waiting for her to turn to him in defense.

And just like that, she had.

"I know you are not about to make fun of my annotations after you just got done saying a line like that," she giggled, scrunching her nose with excitement and feeling more relaxed than before when the warmth from her drink drew her down to earth.

"Nooooo," he furrowed his brows and turned toward the steering wheel in thought. "I would never make fun of something like..." he giggled when he tried to recall the quote that surprised him most. "Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad!" Eddie chuckled when Lennon interrupted and rolled her eyes.

"Alright..." she winced offensively but Eddie continued.

"Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! - I can not live without my life! I can not live without my soul!"

"That is beautiful!" she stated protectively. "That is beautiful literature, as twisted and... dramatic as it is," she giggled. "That is beautiful and you cannot compare it to 'Is it a crime to stare at things I find beautiful?'" she deepened her voice and mocked Eddie for his earlier statement.

"Are you gonna tell me I'm wrong for expressing my truth?" Eddie gasped theatrically.

He knew what he was doing.

Lennon lowered her head and glared at him with a look of handsome disbelief. She hated how much she loved his games. She hated how much she wanted to be provoked and angry but he said such opposing things with such adoration and she couldn't fight him.

He knew what he was doing made Lennon fall in love with him even harder. He knew what he was doing and so did she.

"You are allowed to believe whatever you want, but if your aim is to flatter anybody but yourself, I don't know what to tell you..." she giggled and innocently shrugged as if she didn't know what else to tell him.

Eddie hummed amusingly and finished the first half of his sandwich before popping his fingers back into his mouth and licking them clean of any remaining food.

Lennon took a deep breath and turned away again to avoid having to witness the atrocity sitting beside her.

"What?" Eddie laughed, noticing her odd and sudden discomfort and finding it too strange not to smile at.

"You," she chuckled. "I have a thing about people licking food off their fingers. Its a weird thing I have. Ignore me," she laughed at her own discomfort and looked down into the cup of warm liquid before swirling the contents in thought.

"What? You have a problem with this?" he tried to hide his rising amusement but his voice gave him away when he stuck his finger back into his mouth and left a coating of spit on his ring finger.

Lennon was physically unable to hide her absolute horror and a chill ran up her back and down her arms in disgust. "Ugh," she moaned, closing her eyes and wincing. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in disagreement but Eddie continued to poke fun at her.

"What? You don't like this?" he leaned closer and stuck his other fingers into his mouth and popped them off with a loud, wet, squelching sound that made Lennon's skin crawl.

"You're disgusting," she whined, unconsciously rolling her shoulders and twitching her eyes before she could look back at Eddie. "That is actually disgusting," she cringed and scooted away from him.

"Oh my God. You literally have goosebumps..." he lifted his brows sympathetically and gawked at the innocent reaction to his annoyance. He didn't realize she had a physical reaction to the sight until he noticed how the little hairs on her knuckles and those peaking out from her coat rose with alarm. He had instinctually reached out and wrapped one of his hands around her forearm but that only caused her to scrunch her face up even more.

"Yeah," she sighed, looking over at him in a plea to remove his food-spit concoction from her sleeve. "And your spit-covered fingers are on my arm..."

"Fuck. I'm sorry," he giggled, quickly taking his hand off her and reaching back into the bag to wipe his fingers clean.

"You're fine," she chuckled, trying to ignore the fact there was a shiny spot on her coat and covered her drink before taking a sip in hopes that the idea would leave her head.

She wanted to take her mind off the discomfort of Eddie's slobbery fingers but what she didn't expect was for the hot chocolate to be as good as it was.

"Whoa..." she widened her eyes and smiled with surprise.

Eddie didn't expect her to reel back from his discrepancy so quickly but when he saw what she was referencing, he smiled. "It's good, right?" he beamed, taking another bite from his sandwich.

"I can see why you keep going back," she giggled, taking another small sip and relishing in the deep chocolate notes and the creamy consistency of the hot chocolate.

"Dorothy has the best recipes," he blew on his drink. "Try the wrap. I'm telling you."

Lennon looked down at the wrapped protein wrap and felt her stomach tighten nervously. "I'm really not hungry."

"What'd you eat today, Clever One?" Eddie leered suspiciously. "I know being promoted to flyer is a lot of work but it isn't gonna cause you to look like a fucking corpse. Try it," he pointed at the wrap, taking a sip of his drink but giving up when he almost burnt his tongue.

Lennon swallowed tensely and shook her head slowly.

She would have dwelled on the rising anxiety but the tape playing off of Eddie's radio stopped and caused the atmosphere to drop entirely.

Lennon didn't respond. She tried diverting Eddie's attention onto the music when she set her cup back into the cup holder and moved for the box at her feet.

"Motlëy Crüe?"

"Nuh-uh," Eddie shook his head. "You're not doing this," he leaned against the door of his car and propped his leg up against the back of the seat to faceLennon. "Listen," he shoved his hand into the paper bag and pulled out a napkin to wipe Lennon's sleeve with, realizing he left his mark on her arm. "Don't think I don't see what's going on. I can't force you to eat but just know, I will be very... very sad until you do," he sat up to clean her sleeve before crumpling the napkin and tossing it into the back of his van before returning to his sandwich.

She stared up at Eddie in both fear of being caught and in disappointment of him being such a prick.

"You're a dick," she narrowed her eyes at him in disbelief.

"I'm a dick because I'm pretty sure the last thing you ate was that goddamn snickers bar I heard so much about during Hellfire?" he widened his eyes and joked. Only, he didn't think his half-assed joke was the truth. "I didn't know caring about someone other than myself made me a dick."

Her face fell the instant he said it and she turned down to the box of tapes in her lap to avoid his stare. The truth was that the only thing she managed to eat in between Friday night and now was a protein bar but that hardly counted as anything.

Eddie noticed her go timid and as much as he was trying to suggest a serious sense of care in a joking manner, he didn't think he would ail her.

"It's not worth it," his tone turned melancholic. He had rested his arms at his sides and looked back at her with guilt.

Lennon turned toward him when she noticed the sympathy in his voice and like with Brontë, she didn't like the sound.

"Sorry?" she pondered quietly.

"Starving yourself," he clarified, obviously uncomfortable having to specify himself in fear of coming off insensitively. It was an impulse to meet fear with humor but not everyone understood that and many took offense to his coping mechanism. He just didn't want Lennon being one of those individuals.

"It's not worth it... and..." he scoffed, realizing what he was going to say was coming full circle. "I don't know if it was a douchebag or a shallow snob or if this is some adaptation of yours to conform because every stereotypical cheerleader has had an eating disorder before, but... whatever it is, you are beautiful. I'm not gonna ask why but what I do know is that it's not worth starving yourself over; whatever the reason may be."

He finished his sandwich and crumpled up the wrapper before tossing it into the bag and throwing his trash into the back like he did with his napkin.

"Or it could even be hereditary," Eddie continued to talk senselessly. "I don't know. Or maybe all the stress mixed with all that vodka last night gave you food poisoning... Can you even get food poisoning from a drink?"

"Alright!" she rebuked. "If I... try the damn food, will you shut up?" she groaned and shook her head in righteous disbelief.

There was no way she was eating that wrap but if taking a bite meant Eddie was going to drop the subject then she had to force herself out of her comfort zone.

"I'm not forcing you to do anything," he put his hands up in surrender before taking his cup of cocoa and sitting back in his seat the way he was always meant to.

Lennon sighed and unwrapped the wrap and took a bite without considering the consequences of her actions. She knew that if she thought about it, or if she contemplated her decision, then she might not have been able to do it.

She quickly chewed it and set it back down in its wrapper. She shifted her attention to the box of tapes before she started having an anxiety attack.

Eddie shifted the gears of his van into drive now that he was done eating and the snow had stopped falling in large clumps.

However worried Lennon was quickly changed when she came across a cassette that stood out against the rest. She picked it up and examined the messy scrawl across the sticker before smiling.

'Summer of 85''

And on the backside of the tape read:

'Wizard of Oz'

"What is this?" she held up the tape and watched as Eddie's face turned bright red in an instant. His eyes widened and his hand shot out toward her but Lennon was quick to reel back.

"I didn't know Grant put that in there. Don't worry about it. Give it here," Eddie reached for the tape again, leaning forward once his cup of cocoa was secured in the cup holder but Lennon giggled and hid it behind her back.

"What? Did you make it?"

"We were fucking around when that was recorded! C'mon," he laughed, pressing his hands to Lennon's arms to try and pry the tape from her back but he didn't use enough force to do him any good.

"Can I hear it?!" she laughed, trying to shove him away but finding that if she leaned forward and met him face to face, she would have a better chance at claiming victory.

Eddie met her eyes for a moment and everything seemed to fall around them. She was staring at him with a glint of pure elation and the image seemed so plainly innocent. It was only when he managed to find a sense of security in her gaze did he see the devil inside her. He was toying with him. That roguish devil inside her was teasing him and she knew exactly what she was letting him do to Eddie.

"No," Eddie's voice deepened and his grip on her arms tightened before his eyes strayed from her insistent ones staring back at him. "No," he said more sternly but the smile on his face never wavered.

It was an innocent guilt that he carried with him. He wasn't proud of it but nothing in that tape would cause him any trouble. It would just damage his ego.

"Please?" she pouted her lip and ogled in hopes of persuading him.

"You have lovely eyes, Clever One," he was quick to flatter her, recognizing the playful glint in her eyes and knowing better than to fall helpless at them. "You can shoot those puppies at me and beg all you want," he wagged his head and like a switch, his eyes grew dark and lustrous in an instant. "You... are..." he leaned forward and his voice got low and gravelly. "Not listening to that tape!" he quickly yanked her arm when she was distracted and pulled away from her.

"That's so not fair!" she whined, moving to snatch the tape out of his hand but failing.

"You're ridiculous. What's not fair?" Eddie laughed.

"You can't just..." she wrapped her fingers around Eddie's wrist but her grip slid down the length of his leather jacket when he moved the tape out of reach. "That's not fair..." she sat back in her seat and folded her arms over her chest.

"What?" he cackled, sliding the tape into the door and pulling out from the stop sign he was stopped at for several minutes.

"You can't just... smile at me like that and expect me not get distracted," she giggled, moving the box of tapes off her lap and back onto the floor.

"Oh. You want to talk about distractions?" Eddie commented charismatically. "Those eyes of yours will get you in and out of trouble if you're not careful, Clever One."

"Have you looked in the mirror recently?" she shot back, looking down at her wrap in contemplation. "Those big doe eyes of yours shouldn't even be allowed to exist. It's criminal to be so beautiful with eyes like those," she charmed him.

It was strange to openly compliment a boy like that. She would never have the guts to have said that to him if it were just an average crush. If he were just some guy she had her eye on from class, she would never have said anything so flattering in fear of rejection or leading him on in the wrong way.

But some part of Lennon wanted him to take it too far. She was just complimenting his eyes. She was just showing her admiration for his big brown eyes, but some part of her wouldn't have minded if he looked more into it. If he wanted something more from her, if he thought she was leading him on. She wouldn't have minded if he did.

"Look who's saying mawkish lines now," Eddie wagged his head and turned to look at Lennon as he drove down the empty street that consisted of a lot of forestry considering there was a playground a a kilometer away. "What century are you even from?" he asked adoringly.

"The century built upon historical literature and golden cinema," she shot back playfully, taking the wrap into her hands and taking a small bite from it while Eddie wasn't looking.

"You say words like 'mawkish' and 'amaranthine' and you expect me to believe you just picked that up from a book?" Eddie giggled, glancing over and quickly looking away when he noticed her chewing.

If she was going to eat like he wanted, he couldn't make a big deal out of it. He didn't even want to act like he acknowledged her in fear of her regretting it or stopping. So, he kept looking forward.

"Books and films can take you to any place you want. The 1800s, the beach, California, fucking space. It doesn't matter," she laughed when Eddie started to giggle. "Everything that exists comes from something that has existed. It just depends on whether you want to carry that enriched history with you into the future or leave it where you found it."

Perhaps that came with more than one meaning. She hadn't meant for it to, but she couldn't help but think about her past in the same manner. She would carry those ancient, endangered words with her into the future, but the death and pain she faced back home would stay in Vermont. She wouldn't keep that with her. She tried not to, at least.

After that, the first building since Clifford's Cafe tore Lennon from her thoughts. It was a rundown shop with several cars gathered around it. Eddie was driving very slowly through the snow so he didn't end up in an accident which let Lennon see what the sign said as they drove by.

'Benny's Burgers'.

If she looked closer, she could see that there were people gathered outside: boys.

The longer she looked, the more she recognized the people and the more she questioned the location.

The first person she saw was Jason and Andre from the basketball team. Then she saw Chance and Patrick with their letterman's jackets on. As if that wasn't enough to irk her, she saw Steve and Brontë's car sitting in front of the building.

Could this be the place all the jocks come to hang out at after their games? Is this the dump Brontë is always raving about? There's no way this is it? Why the hell is the basketball team here? What the hell is Steve doing here? What the hell is my brother doing here? He should be at work... What the hell is going on?

"Hey. Uhm..." Lennon watched as they drove past but once she could no longer see anyone, she turned to Eddie. "I know you've already done so much for me but can turn right here?" she sat upright and pointed quickly to the narrow, dirt path they were about to drive past.

Eddie quickly hit his brakes and slid slightly across the snowy expanse before the van halted. "Why?" he pondered.

"I... I need to see something. Please?" she asked politely. "Or you can let me out here and I'll come back, I promise. I just-"

"Hey. Whoa," he put his hand up to stop her rambling. "What just happened? Are you okay?" he furrowed his brows and widened his eyes concerningly when he noticed how frazzled she had suddenly become.

Lennon scoffed and blinked rapidly to clear her head from the anxious thoughts invading her consciousness faster than she could process. "I'm fine. I... I'm so sorry-" she opened her mouth and frowned at Eddie apologetically but no words came out. She couldn't find the right words.