Zccming​:

eddiemcnson​:

+++

pursed lips, eddie took another drag, buried one hand in the pocket of his jeans. he huffed. oh, he’d known about this stuff for a while, alright. the mere thought of it made his stomach drop, he squeezed his eyes shut for a second, softly, almost unnoticeably, shook his head. trying to shake the image of red skies and black lightning, swarming bats from his mind. 

eddie clicked his tongue, absent-mindedly kicked some gravel. “’easier’.”, he echoed, musing. wondering if he should shield cole from the truth. but he’d been roped into it, too, now. so what good it denial do him. and how cruel would it be of eddie, not letting him in on all the crazy. “remember….remember spring break ‘86? the.. ‘earthquake’ - it wasn’t an earthquake. anyway.”, another drag, eddie quickly exhaled. “anyway. anyway, shit …. went down, basically. like, supernatural shit. and i, well. i almost died.” eddie shrugged, resigned. it seemed so far away now, unreal. though it became frighteningly present again, every other night when eddie woke up in a cold sweat, heaving and panting and clutching at his chest to remind himself that he was alive and breathing. “it’s not …. it’s serious stuff, cole. but it - well, in a way, it sort of gets better. when you get outta here, it gets better.”

he glanced at cole, a small smile tugging at his lips, he nodded. “yeah. friends, i’d like that. that’d be cool. you’re not half bad yourself, montgomery.”truly, eddie hadn’t expected to make any new friends during his summer back in hawkins. and this was a pleasant surprise. 

quirked brows, eddie watched with an amused expression on his face as cole went on about adam, gushing about him, and he felt a warmth swelling in his chest. he was genuinely happy for cole, even more so since they were both so alike. which made eddie hopeful that maybe he could be just as happy as cole one day. “yeah, he seems pretty cool. great catch, cole. well done.”

eddie quickly looked away, flustered chuckle, the mention of steve brought a blush to his cheeks. “it’s… ah, it’s nothng, not really. it’s - “he was cut off by his own incredulous laugh, eddie ran a hand through his hair, then rested his palm on his forehead, he turned to look at cole. “i just can’t wrap my head around the fact that i, like….i made out with steve harrington. king steve. that’s - that’s not real, you know? like, guys like him don’t… they don’t go for guys like me. it’s mental.”

xx.

Cole searched Eddie’s face, noting how viscerally uncomfortable talking about this made him. Clearly, Eddie had seen some shit. If Cole couldn’t sleep because of a vision of Adam’s death, how much worse would he be feeling if he had really experienced any of that shit? 

With a frown, Cole watched the gravel scatter under Eddie’s foot. He nodded, trying to wrap his mind around another tragedy that was actually supernatural in origin. “What the fuck,” he said, incredulously. He almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity, because... why Hawkins? Lifting his eyes to Eddie’s face, Cole nodded at his hopeful conclusion. He patted the other’s shoulder in a slightly awkward display of affection. “I’m sorry... I know that was... fucked up,” he said, at a loss for something more substantial to say. He took a puff of the cigarette and turned it over in his mind. When you get outta here, it gets better. Cole hoped that much was true, and hoped that he and Adam could get out sooner rather than later.

With a teasing smile, Cole flicked his cigarette. “Not half bad,” he echoed, his eyes lingering on the water in front of them. It was nice, something glaringly normal in the midst of everything else. A reminder, almost, that things could be simple and easy. “Don’t let it go to your head,” he warned, with a chuckle.

“Thank you, really... it’s nice to get to talk about it,” Cole said, Eddie’s congratulations causing a swell in his chest. In another world, where they didn’t have to sneak around, Cole would parade Adam around, would wear his name ever on Cole’s lips, because he could never get tired of the feeling that Adam loved him. Despite everything, Adam chose him.

Clearly, Eddie could relate to the feeling. He nodded his understanding, smile still pushing on his lips. “But why shouldn’t he? You’re a catch too.” With a hint of mischief in his eyes, Cole shrugged, “I mean, we already established that I have good taste.”

sinclairss​:

lucas caught cole’s eye in the rearview mirror. he hadn’t really thought about it, but steve had been acting a little bit off, now that he did pause to look back on it. he shrugged it off. “maybe he was just freaked out too?” he didn’t think any of them had been acting particularly normally, but given the circumstances, who could blame them? 

hawkins had exactly one hospital and it was all the way on the opposite edge of town. luckily, everything in town closed by nine, so they were nearly there as cole answered his question. lucas’ good hand tightened on the steering wheel, just slightly. he wasn’t sure who cole’s best friend was, but he had a bad feeling about it. people didn’t just die in the fire…they were involved with the mind flayer. he pressed his tongue against his teeth and debated keeping it to himself but…well, falling into a grave together kind of made it easier to want to share. besides, he had to tell someone or he was going to explode. 

“yeah, uh, nothing like that.” he offered cole a wince, maneuvered the car into the parking lot closest to the emergency room and threw it into park before turning to look at him properly. “just somebody from my past who didn’t like me very much. he’s not even around anymore.” that was putting it mildly. “he was going to run me over with his car, i think. and i couldn’t move. it was….” fucked up. that’s what it was. 

xx.

Cole nodded slowly, careful of further exacerbating his head pain. Of course Steve was freaked out-- everyone was. He still wondered, though, if Steve was a little... cold. But, whatever, that was by far not the weirdest thing to happen, so it was easy to put out of his head.

So Lucas had a dream-- or vision, whatever they were calling it-- too. Cole wondered what it meant that whoever he was isn’t around anymore. With a frown, Cole shook his head, “That’s horrifying.” He paused, looking for similarities between their visions. “Did it feel... like, super real to you? I don’t know about hallucinations, but I don’t think they usually feel that real.” 

Cole couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t just a hallucination, though that’s likely what the ‘reasonable’ explanation should be. He touched Adam, he heard Adam, he even smelled Adam’s fucking cologne. How could that be explained? And if Lucas had one too, then... “Do you think everyone had one? A different vision?” 

Cole didn’t know why Joyce had called him and invited him over for dinner. Instantly, he was afraid he would be reproached for telling Jonathan and Will his news... though, Joyce had told him he could. Maybe she’d changed her mind, or maybe it had gotten back to her that he’d been in varying states of intoxication when he delivered the news. Still, he felt he owed it to her-- for her kindness-- to show up on time, in a clean shirt, with a small bouquet he’d picked up at Melvald’s. He’d had a drink or two earlier in the day, to soothe his nerves, but by the time he was walking up the all-too-familiar porch, its effects were wearing thin.

Pasting a smile on his face, Cole knocked twice. She opened the door in record speed, and held out her arms for him. Cole obliged, giving her a loose hug, and then held out the arrangement of baby’s breath and peonies he’d picked up, like a peace offering. “Hi, thanks for having me--” he hesitated, unsure what to call her. Mrs. Byers felt too formal, Joyce felt too casual. “I’m doing a lot better,” Cole said, shaking his now cast-free arm. “Jonathan’s out. How is he?” Cole had seen him-- spoken to him, at The Hideaway the other day-- but they hadn’t exactly broached the topic of Jonathan’s physical health. 

who:  joyce  &&  @loverboymontgomery​ what: momma  joyce  checking  up  on  those  she  loves  -  her  next  victim  being  cole. where: the  byers  house

  things  might  have  been  a  little  rough  for  joyce  lately      —    between  bob  returning,  all  of  the  stuff  that  happened  on  the  4th  of  july  and  the  chaos  that  was  work  and  the  simple  stress  that  came  along  with  having  a  job,  the  one  little  constant  in  her  life  was  her  kids.  biological  and  not.  of  course  she  had  made  it  a  point  to  invite  cole  over,  food  prepared  and  everything  -  he  was  just  as  much  her  kid  as  the  rest  of  jonathan,  will  and  eleven’s  friends  were.  and  his  existence  itself  hit  too  close  to  home  for  her  for  obvious  reasons.  she  meant  what  she  said  that  moment  she  found  out  about  cole  and  his  relation  to  her  children  -  he  always  had  her.  they  were  family.

      door  opens  with  a  smile  on  her  face,  arms  extending  out  for  the  boy  with  a  warm  smile.  “how  you  doing,  honey?”

This was exactly what Cole had wanted to do all day: sit by the lake holding a book, giving him the perfect excuse to disassociate without being judged. But instead, he's been all over town: helping Max break into a grocery store, getting roped into the Wheeler barbecue, and generally exhausting his already-low social battery. So he trudged through the vegetation to his favorite spot: an isolated bench just far enough away from the shoreline to be remote.

Or so he thought. A sudden burst of movement much too big to be a squirrel caused Cole to slow his steps, until he peered around the trees to see none other than Eddie Munson. Cole didn't know Eddie very well, but everyone knew about Eddie. Personally, Cole didn't believe the stories: Eddie was so not the kind of guy who could kill a cheerleader. Plus, Eddie was friendly with Max and Harrington, so he couldn't be that weird. Geeky, maybe, but not creepy.

Setting his novel aside, Cole bent down to help Eddie pick up the figurines. Fuck, why were they so small? "Yeah, I'm good," Cole said, handing over the three he'd collected. "Eddie, right? Were you leaving?" he asked, not wanting to kick Eddie out of his spot. "Hey... what are these, anyway?" Cole asked, standing up and brushing leaves off of his knees.

who : eddie munson + open !

where : the shore of lovers lake

Sometimes when he comes home he just likes to do …. this. Sit on a bench near a busy place- near, not, like, in the middle of it, ‘cause in Hawkins he’s still Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson - and people watch. Thinking about how he has miraculously made it out of this shithole, alive. Not made it all too far but he’s managed to get out of Hawkins, Indiana at all, and that amounts to something. To him it does.

So he sits there, closes his eyes for a moment and inhales deeply and - oh, yep, that’s definitely cow shit, isn’t it - just listens to the sounds that surround him. Families having picnics, teenagers sneaking away, people bathing in the sun, birds singing, twigs cracking - hold on. Eddie jolts upright. Oh, fuck this, he’s getting outta here, he’s not in the mood to get roughed up by some high school freshmen who still think he’s put some satanic DnD spell on those students that died two years ago. 

Eddie grabs his Van Halen lunchbox, jumps up, ready to make his escape as he bumps into someone - he grabs onto the backrest of the bench for balance, watches the contents of his metal box spill out onto the floor. Well, at least there’s no drugs this time. “Shit”, he curses under his breath, crouches down to collect all the little figurines he’s fucking hand-crafted for the next Hellfire campaing, “Shit, jesus, fuck.” Why did he have to make them this small? “Shit ,ah, sorry. Sorry, my bad. You - you good?”

zccming​:

.

“well, maybe you shouldn’t be so loud when you come around. whisper…or…knock on the window, like a normal person.” max suggested as if it were simple math. her shoulders seemed to unwind as cole turned the music down. as much as she protested about it, that smile did minorly aid in lifting her spirits. as a thank you to cole, she punched him in the arm as he called her an asshole and let that fire die out with a “yeah, yeah. sure i am.” still. she saw the look of concern in his eyes and felt a brief twinge of regret for spilling about the upside down to him. max mayfield was not a girl who liked to be treated as fragile. 

fortunately for their friendship, cole knew better and offered her a cigarette in lieu of questions. much better. she lit it and began puffing away. “irresistible?” max scoffed, “yeah, right. who said that? your mom?” she teased, taking another drag. this was peaceful. it was one thing in her life that felt normal right now. at least when the tides were changing in hawkins, max had the comfort that her and cole would stay the same. “adam?” she verified. yeah, she’d heard about that commune. she couldn’t fake a smile for cole granted those were the same circumstances that allegedly brought billy back to her doorstep. max knew he died, but billy, billy didn’t seem to think so. she didn’t know what to make of that. instead of digging into the mystery, she threw him the meager bone of, “i heard. that’s great.” he must be so happy, she thought. she didn’t want to spit on his moment. 

clearly, cole had some fears though. max shrugged, “i mean, i definitely don’t feel as excited about my shithead step-brother being back home.” her tone was flat, not indicating how much it really rocked her. diverting the focus back to cole, she told him more sincerely, “i’m glad you have adam back.” it was her turn to look up at the stars and smoke now. what’s up with you, mayfield? sighing, she looked back down at him, “i kissed el.” talk about a shitshow.

xx.

Cole leveled another dramatic sigh in Max’s direction. “Even if I learned sign language, you’d complain about the sound of my hands.” As much as they picked on each other, Cole usually knew how to decode Max. But tonight, there was something else going on-- something he couldn’t figure out. He faked a wince when she punched him, holding his arm. “Listen, I already broke my finger for you and got a fucking concussion from falling into a grave, what more do you want from me?” he protested, though the glimmer in his eye proved that he was joking.

Taking a puff of his cigarette, Cole leaned back on his arms. “Lots of people. I can name names,” he fired back, jutting his chin out to make his point. It was a nice night, which is part of why Cole had originally come to the skate park. It was rare to be outside without the heat making everything sticky, and he fully intended to take advantage of it, and he’d been wanting to update Max, anyways. But her response was weird. It was like she hadn’t heard what he said. Or her mind was elsewhere.

Before he could repeat himself-- hello? Adam is back?-- Max continued, and Cole’s face fell. Billy Hargrove. He was back, too? Thinking about it, Cole had heard that Billy had been off in some community in the woods... “That asshole’s back? Why?” Cole asked, shelving the Adam conversation for now. It was better this way; no questions about how Adam came back to life meant no sending him back to the grave. Hopefully. 

Then, another bomb from Max Mayfield. “Seriously?” he exclaimed, sitting up straight and turning to look at her. “What was it like? How do you feel?” 

mmuscles​:

thad refused to meet cole’s eyes as they got into boyfriend talk. sure, cool, they were a couple or whatever, but he didn’t want to hear about it. it had been so deeply conditioned within him that what cole was…boasting about was wrong. maybe it was right for other people, but not for thad, not in this lifetime. the whole conversation confused thad to the point he regretted even asking, so he put on his best sour expression and stared at the car. his hands were numb and he had to take another large gulp of beer before he got back to work on this piece of shit car.  “whatever man,” he shook his head, “i’m not gonna go tattle to the first person i see, don’t flatter yourself.” thad huffed, insisting cole and now adam didn’t take up nearly as much space in his mind as they did. 

“everyone keeps talking about being gone…” thad started, no acutely aware that he couldn’t stand to talk about cole or adam any longer, otherwise this job wasn’t getting done. “but where did they go, like, study abroad? vacation? i don’t get it.” he didn’t read the papers or keep up with the times. as far as thad was concerned, he kind of lived in his own little bubble amidst the chaos that descended upon hawkins. it was one of many things he remained blissfully unaware of. 

xx.

Thad clearly didn’t want to talk about it. And that was fine, it’s not like Cole wanted to get into details... but he felt a sense of relief that Thad knew, if only so that what had happened before wouldn’t happen again. It was easier, anyways, to fall into the bickering back-and-forth with Thad; avoid the real stuff. “Whatever,” he echoed Thad’s tone. “I know you’re obsessed with me,” he laughed, to make it obvious he was joking.

Cole felt his stomach sink at Thad’s question. Of course Thad Bradshaw didn’t know what was going on in Hawkins, if Cole barely knew himself. “They were... off in this... group. In the forest. Like, a commune?” Cole said, trying and failing to infuse certainty into his tone. “It’s weird, but a bunch of them did it. Guess they had enough of the bullshit. Anyway, you can read about it in the paper. Assuming you can read,” he tacked on the end, hoping to piss Thad off enough to distract him from the ‘commune’ nonsense. 

zccming​:

.

“a shrink.” max echoed with a laugh, “boys are so dramatic.” and it was true, not about his feelings, but for believing there was something wrong with them. big hypocrite thing of her to say, but the rules were different when placed on his shoulders. she didn’t think cole needed a shrink, not for what he had with adam, and not for missing it. sometimes, max felt like grief was her best friend in place of el, so she couldn’t judge how it’s cruelty made anyone feel. but she was high, and she was curious, and it was cole. stuck in her head, max remained laying on her back even when he flipped over, but she still eyed him closely when she spoke, “moving here really sucked for me…” she opened up, something must have been in the air. “and mike and lucas and dustin and will are all really awesome, but it hasn’t always been like that. you know i mean, they’re guys, it’s different. i had to weasel my way into their circle. but then el came along and everything clicked and just like that she was gone again and now she’s back and–” max started feeling like she had never said so many words at once, so she stopped her stoned ramblings, closed her eyes tightly, and forced herself to reset. 

max thought back to the conversation her and cole had at blue quarry mall, how he’d come clean on accident, and how relieved he looked when he had. max wondered what that felt like, to let it all go and free fall for a moment into the arms of someone she trusted. she opened her eyes, then slowly turned onto her side to face cole, “i’ve been really confused about my feelings lately.” she admitted, sure he was familiar with the feeling. “and you’re a shithead but not about this stuff.” max added, then revealed, “i think i’ve always known i’ve liked girls.” the air left her lungs as she waited for a response. thanks to the weed, this revelation didn’t feel so world ending, in fact, max felt calm, ready for cole’s reaction. she was so mellowed in fact, she added, “but with el it’s different…what you said about missing adam… when she was gone, that’s how i felt.” max couldn’t really explain to cole how she spent half the time speculating eleven was dead, but she hoped he could feel her sincerity. stupidly, she concluded, “but i don’t know what that means.” 

xx.

Cole laughed, allowing himself to flop onto his back and stare at the ceiling. Max had a point, but he found that it was easier to joke about the pain than to sit with it. He remembered right after Adam died, when he went to visit Adam’s sisters. He’d snuck into Adam’s room and stolen a few shirts, a photo, random artifacts that proved to him that what they had was real. He thought about that now, wondered if Max felt the same way when El was gone. Cole offered a sad smile, he knew completely how that felt... well, up to the him coming back part. “Honestly? I think some connections are like that. There’s a distinct before and after... people you’ll never be the same after meeting and loving them,” he mused, blowing smoke into the stale air. 

He couldn’t help the smile that took over his face; he was glad Max felt safe enough to tell him the truth. He reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing it to show that he understood. “What’s there to be confused about, then?” he asked, not in a prodding way, but gently. Cole took another drag and passed the joint back. “What do you want it to mean?” he asked, figuring she already knew the answer. Cole tucked a hand behind his head, lost in thought for a moment. “Did I tell you that Adam broke up with me before he died?” He’d been thinking about that a lot lately, about how Adam was completely different the days before the fire; how his eyes were even different, darker somehow. He knew he would never get answers, but he had never shared it with anyone and figured now was as good a time as any.

mmuscles​:

.

thad hadn’t come to cole for some bullshit heart to heart, he came to level with him. considering what a pain in the ass he had been for the duration of their prior interactions, he was kicked off guard when cole was so…cool about it. he didn’t understand. and most definitely thought it was a trick. “i’m not bribing you, man.” thad ran a contemplative hand through his hair. there was no way he was trusting a guy he just met with a secret this big. “let me fix the car.” it obviously wasn’t out of kindness, but he didn’t have the words to explain what he was trying to do here. the way his brain worked though, was if he actually did something for cole, he’d feel less inclined to spill. thad merely hoped if he pushed enough, rather than articulate, cole would surrender. other than through his parents, that was how thad got most things he wanted in life, through brute force. 

for the record, it’s okay to feel that way. 

thad’s tongue got stuck at the front of his mouth and he gulped down his initial thoughts. how dare he? he didn’t feel any way. not him, not towards cole. “what way?” he asked, aggressively jutting his chin out towards cole. he wasn’t going to hit him or anything, but scaring him wasn’t out of the question. the last thing he needed was some…pretty boy telling him how to feel. 

xx.

It was a good deal... a $3,000 worth of a repair for his silence. But Cole felt weird blatantly accepting it as a bribe, as if what had happened was gross or wrong. It was unexpected, sure, but... Cole had asked for it, hadn’t he? He assumed Thad was just very confused. Either that or Thad had a major lapse in judgement and now thinks Cole is wrong, sinful, a freak, even. With a tentative shrug, Cole gave in. “Okay, fine. Guess I won’t get a better deal than that.”

Cole was torn. He wanted to push the issue, to prove to Thad that there really is nothing wrong with liking guys... but that put him, and by association, Adam, in an extremely vulnerable position. At least with he kiss, the two were on equal footing. Leaning away from the discomfort, Cole decided to lighten the mood. “I guess I have to hope you’re good with your hands, guy,” he smirked. The usual back-and-forth of their interactions was a welcome reprieve from the temporary heaviness. 

spvrty​:

Ginny shrugged, “The ones near the football field work. Go figure.” She swung her legs, her nerves starting to put themselves on display. Talking with new people wasn’t her forte. She’d probably be a charming jokester if you got to know her. She assumed that was true, but had yet to prove it since know one had tried getting to know her yet. 

“Yeah, Ginny,” she confirmed, “We had second period biology together sophomore year.” That came out too fast. Already she sounded like a stalker. Her good memory and lack of filter betrayed her once again. “…I think.” 

xx.

Cole snorted, leaning himself against the bleachers. "Ah. The good old high school hierarchy at its finest." Yes, technically, he was on the football team... but as the alternate for the alternate for the kicker, he was really just the waterboy. Whatever, it looked good on his college application and that was really the extent of it. But for Ginny, who seemed a serious athlete, he's sure that was incredibly frustrating.

He considered it for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds right. I was never very good at biology. Nothing to argue about," Cole digressed. "Anyways," he turned his attention to Ginny once more, "are you back in Hawkins for good? Or on break?" He was glad that he got to split his time between Indiana State and Hawkins; Cole was sure being here full-time would drive him at least a little crazy. Crazier.