Chapter Text
"Do you have anything a little stronger?"
Chrissy hadn't realized those words would be the words that ruined everything.
Eddie had been…sweet to her. Not scary, not even a little rude, just a funny guy who offered her a discount and then invited her over when she'd been…well, probably annoying. He'd talked her through the whole process, even offering to let her stay at his place. She knew she had to go home, no matter how tempting it was to take him up on the offer.
She felt like she was losing her mind. The horrible voice in her head never went away, alternating between that terrible man and her mother, screaming all the terrible things she usually said with a smile.
She'd taken the ketamine when she got home. She had planned to just go right to sleep and let the high spare her from the nightmares. She'd smoked pot before and all it had done was make her sleepy, so she didn't think this was any different. Just stronger.
She felt like everything that haunted her suddenly drifted away. Even the scary voice in her head was blocked out.
…Except her mom came home from her bridge night early and found her and immediately knew she was high. She knew she should be afraid of her mom's reaction, but she was so high she just couldn't care. Which just made her mom angrier.
She called Hawkins PD and they took Chrissy away in handcuffs.
She'd just wanted things to go away but now everything was so much work.
When Officer Callahan let her out the next morning, he sat her down at his desk. "Uhm, your mom…sure is something… Do you have…anywhere else to go? I know you're still kinda underage but…" The idea of going home was scary, but where would she go? Jason's? His parents definitely wouldn't let them spend the night together. "If you have a friend you could stay with for a bit while she cools off, maybe just over the break? That might be good." Then he grimaced like this conversation was just as painful for him as it was for her.
Chrissy was silently mortified, her head pounding, at the idea that her mother had made such a scene.
"Drugs are bad news, kid. We aren't going to charge you, but where'd you get them? Stuff like that…whoever is selling it…they're a bad guy, and we should get them off the streets."
Eddie .
Chrissy shook her head. "A friend of a friend. I didn't even get his name. I won't ever do it again, Officer, I promise."
"I can give you a ride."
"I'll just walk to Ally's," she lied. "Like you said, I'll give mom some time to cool off. She's not…she's not that bad, she was just upset, I promise. Thank you for being so understanding."
He didn't seem convinced, but let her go all the same, picking up the phone, she guessed to tell her mom she'd been released.
In yesterday's clothes, she walked the five miles back to the trailer park, hoping to see Eddie's van.
It wasn't there.
She remembered what he'd said - his uncle worked nights. At 11 in the morning, he'd probably be asleep and she didn't want to bother him. She could sit and wait for Eddie to come home. He'd know what to do, right? …Why did she think he'd know what to do?
She really was losing her mind.
She was too ashamed to ask her friends at school for help. They'd think she was awful, wouldn't they? Doing drugs given to her by a freak because she was going crazy?
A familiar-looking redhead skated by and then skidded to a stop. "Chrissy?"
"I…I'm sorry, hi. I don't know your name."
"Oh, I'm Max. Mayfield. I…" she paused. "Billy Hargrove's stepsister."
She hadn't really known Billy, but she remembered him from school and the basketball team with Jason. He'd been the lifeguard at the pool last summer, which her mother had loved. Then he died. She hadn't realized he had a sister. "And I saw you in the counselor's office, didn't I?"
Max nodded, sitting next to her on the table. "Are you waiting on Eddie?"
Chrissy felt her heart race. "How did you know that?"
"I…I saw you come over last night after the game. I wasn't trying to be nosy, I was just feeding the dog and I saw you." Her voice was kind of flat and distant. The way Chrissy felt inside. "And I saw you crying in the bathroom the other day."
Her face got hot. "I'm such a mess."
"Join the club," Max said. "Do you want to come in? My mom's at work."
"Oh…I…yeah." She tried to smile, and Max's smile back was almost sincere. "Can I tell you a secret, Max?"
"I guess," she said with a jerky shrug of her shoulders.
"I'm in some trouble."
That got Max's attention as she pulled some off-brand sodas out of the fridge. She shouldn't drink soda, her mother's voice said. She'd get fatter. But right now she was too tired to care, taking the cold can. "What kind of trouble?"
"I…" Why was she admitting this to a freshman? Was she that pathetic? She tried to silence the cruel voice that lived in her head. "I bought drugs from Eddie. And…well, my mom caught me and she called the police on me. They aren't going to charge me, but I…I didn't want to go home with my mom so angry and I was afraid of what my friends would think."
Max's tense shoulders relaxed a little. "You can stay with me if you want. I won't bother you. I'm sure your boyfriend would rather you be there but you're at Forest Hills instead so I'm guessing it's for a reason…"
Chrissy smiled. Staying with Max would be less weird than asking Eddie for help, at least. "Max, you're really nice."
"I know what it feels like to not have anyone to talk to," she admitted, the snarky mask slipping away. The skidding of gravel caught their attention. "Eddie's home," Max said with a laugh at how much the noise had startled her. "Do you want to go…?"
"Well, maybe I'll say hi. I should probably get home to get some clothes while my mom's at work," she said. She couldn't just walk around in her cheer uniform all week, people would definitely notice that. They'd think something was wrong and they'd ask her mom and…
When they walked out of Max's house, they saw Eddie jumping out of his van. He looked up from lighting a cigarette and saw them, his eyes bugging out of his head as he rushed over. "Cunningham!" he all but shouted. "Where the fuck have you been?!"
Max and Chrissy exchanged a look. "What?"
"Half the fucking town is talking about some Hawkins high kid that got carted out of their house high out of their mind by the cops!" Eddie said.
She felt mortified. Her ears were ringing and her head felt light.
"You rat me out?"
Chrissy recoiled. "No! Of course not!" Panic was swelling in her chest. "Everyone's going to find out and oh God, they'll be so angry…Jason and the cheer squad…I'm so stupid." She pressed her palms against her eyes, trying to fight tears.
"They won't figure it out,'' Eddie said, his tone immediately shifting from hostile to soothing. "This town is full of idiots. Just play it cool."
Chrissy wasn't so sure. She had bailed on the party last night. Jason would notice and he would connect the dots. Then it'd be over .
"Can you give us rides to Chrissy's so she can pack her stuff? She's staying with me till things blow over," Max said, stepping forward.
"You…you're staying here?" Eddie looked around the trailer park theatrically.
Chrissy was still mid-spiral. "The basketball team will realize it was me. I bailed on the party. None of my friends will want to be…" They'd all hate her, she was so sure of it.
"I'll give you a ride, spare me the dramatics," Eddie said. "Get in you two ginger pains in my asses." He flung the van door open for them to climb in. They rode in silence for a few minutes as she got ahold of herself, taking deep breaths.
Max leaned in between the front seats. "Where were you this morning?"
"Band practice," he said, gesturing to the guitar case sitting in the back of the van.
"When's Corroded Coffin playing?" Chrissy asked, trying to distract herself, trying to be her normal cheerful self. She had to keep it together, she told herself.
"Thursday," he said, looking surprised that she remembered.
Max was looking between them with concern. "You know about his dorky band?"
"I think it's neat," she said. Music was cool. She had never been able to play. Her mom tried to teach her piano but had always said she was too dumb to really master it. "I live off of Franklin."
"Of course," Eddie said with a sigh as they turned towards the nicer neighborhood in Hawkins.
Chrissy felt self-conscious. Max and Eddie had harder lives than her and she was putting them out because her mom was kind of mean to her. She was so pathetic. They pulled up to her house and she breathed a sigh of relief. No one home. The big house was dark and empty in the early afternoon light. "I'll only be a second," she told them, sliding out past Max and hurrying inside. She stuffed her book bag to the brim, changing out of her uniform into something comfortable.
Then someone knocked on the door.
She froze.
They knocked again.
Shouldering the bag, she walked downstairs on shaky legs. Was it a neighbor? A cop? Opening the door she just saw…a boy from school. "Fred? From the paper?"
He pushed up his glasses. He looked kind of sweaty and weird like he had been running. "Chrissy! I was looking for you!"
"Why?" She stepped past him, locking the door behind her, feeling strange.
"Well, the gossip on the street is that someone in this neighborhood got arrested last night. A student. I wanted to get the scoop for the school paper when we get back next week." He paused. "I'm realizing it must've been you."
"What makes you say that?"
"Uh, well, Eddie Munson's in your driveway." He pointed back to Eddie, who waved cheerfully. "So, you don't want to comment on the peer pressure epidemic in our school? How students are taking drugs --"
"Does Nancy know you're here?" Max barked at him from the window.
"What?"
She hadn't realized that Max even knew Nancy Wheeler. "If I called Nance right now, would she know you're pestering some cheerleader for a scoop?"
Fred scoffed. "I…no…" His notebook clutched in his hand, he looked between Max and Chrissy awkwardly. "I'm just trying to get a good --"
"Oh, good to know. Come on Chrissy, this dweeb doesn't know what he's talking about."
She started to walk towards the van, but something stopped her. Fred was looking at her…but not really. It seemed like his gaze was far away, his eyes whiting over. "...Fred…?" Freezing in place, she could hear the others, but her focus was locked on Fred. He rose into the air like a puppet on strings. Someone was grabbing her.
She heard the bones snap and finally tore her eyes away, hiding her face in Eddie's chest. She was screaming, she realized.
"We need to go!" Eddie said, panicked.
"What happened?! What was that?!"
Max was frozen next to her, staring down at Fred's body. Oh, God, his body . "Oh no…"