⇢ ˗ˏˋ ✰🎨 🎸 ࿐ྂ

"𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭."
➶-͙˚ ༘✶ ˗ˏˋ ✰꒰ 📎 🍒 ꒱✰ ˎˊ- ➶ °*ೃ
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EVER SINCE CERISE HAD THE ASTHMA ATTACK yesterday night, she has been on house arrest, courtesy of her loving brother, Steve. His worry for her persisted and he bought nearly twenty more inhalers so he can give them to the Party just in case anything were to occur without him there.

Cerise was sleeping soundly under her lavender duvet, the sparkling glimmer of the thin streaming light ray, seeping through her curtains. The sunlight gleamed onto her eyelids, her eyes fluttering open groggily. Rubbing out the sleep in her eyes, Cerise screamed in surprise when she saw Steve sleeping in her swiveling chair, drool slowly trailing down his lips.

When Steve heard the horrifying shrieking noise, he instantly stood up, completely dismissing the fact that he was still half asleep. He ran to her side, kneeling, unzipping the bag that held all the necessities for Cerise.

"What is it? Do you need something? Your inhaler? Compress? Food? God?"

"The hell, Steve, were you in my room the entire night?" Steve sheepishly smiled, rubbing the back of his messy chestnut locks.

"Well yeah. I didn't know if anything else was going to happen. What if you had another attack while I was in my room?" A soft sigh escaped Cerise's lips and she smiled at her brother. She didn't know how she got so lucky to win the sibling lottery.

Flinging her legs over her mattress, Cerise stood up, her Captain America pajamas snuggling against her warm skin. She grabbed her rainbow scrunchie, a gift Robin gave her when Steve 'told' her Cerise was bisexual.

"Woah, Woah, Woah, where you going?" Steve stood in front of Cerise, the girl becoming frustrated, her messy bedhead seeming to become more frizzed by the second.

"What, I can't leave my room?"

"No, you can, it-it's just..."

"I wasn't going to listen to you anyway." Cerise exited out of her room, walking down the stairs of the Harrington household. Steve was hot behind her heels, his eyes furrowing, wondering as to why she was making a beeline to the phone.

"Who are you calling—"

"Shhh!" Cerise dialed the number that was familiarized in her head, hearing two rings on the other end of the line before hearing someone pick up.

"Hello?"

"Well, well, well. If I remember correctly, it is Will the Wise's birthday, isn't it?" Cerise asked mockingly, feigning confusion. She heard the light-hearted chuckle on the other side of the line and Cerise couldn't help but smile, hearing how happy Will sounded.

"Why, thank you, Queen Cherry Blossom. You're the first person to wish me a happy birthday. I don't even think Jonathan remembered." Cerise could practically feel the sadness radiating from the phone and her heart ruptured.

She remembered how much Will loved his birthdays, but ever since The Upside Down, everyone seemed to disregard his feelings and she always felt bitter about that. She did her best to juggle her personal life while attempting to protect her kids from anything that seemed to be a potential threat.

"Wait? Not even Mike, Lucas, anyone else?"

"No, it feels like everyone forgot about me." Cerise's fists were clenching in tormenting irritation, the sudden wave of anger and protectiveness overwhelming her. She noticed a staticky cracking sound and when she turned her head, Cerise noticed she was gripping the phone so tightly, that a small crack formed in the glossy plastic.

"You still there?" Will's voice rang from the other end of the line, taking Cerise out of her temperamental trance.

"Yeah, hey I gotta go. Make sure you open the package I sent over to you a few weeks ago. You better not have sneaked a peak beforehand." Cerise smiled, reminiscing on the day she went shopping with Robin and stumbled upon a pack of Prismacolor pencils. She had to buy it for him and she was glad she did.

"I opened it earlier this morning and I love it. Thanks, Cerise."

"Of course, William, but seriously, I have to go now. Steve's giving me the 'mom' look again and it's kinda intimidating." Will chuckled dryly and muttered a small 'I love you,' leading to Cerise hanging up the phone. She pressed the dial tone once again, rotating the transparent circle of the rotary phone angrily against the spring tension that was held in her finger.

As she waited for an answer on the other end of the line, she noticed that Steve was now on his phone as well. By the tone of his voice, Cerise assumed he was talking to Robin. After the second ring, a voice blared into the phone, and the girl instantly recognized it.

"Dustin Henderson, you little shit, how could you forget Will's—"

"Cerise, we have bigger problems right now. Come over to my house, Max and I have something important to tell you. It's a code red." With that, Dustin hung up, leaving a flabbergasted Cerise with her mouth gaped open.

Despite Dustin's rudeness towards her, which was nothing knew for anyone that knew him, Cerise sensed the urgency imbedded in his voice and it was no doubt that something important occurred. Grabbing the pen that was beside her, Cerise expeditiously wrote down a note for Steve, seeing how he was still distracted on the phone. She swiftly grabbed her car keys and made a beeline to her car.

✰*ੈ✩➶༄✰

Unbelievable.

That was the first word that appeared in Cerise's mind. When she arrived at Dustin's house, he and Max explained to the older teenager how Chrissy was dead.

That was only one of the things she had to process in her mind. One of her best friends was dead and Cerise felt like she was falling back into the debarring darkness. To top it all off, Max explained to Cerise how Chrissy was at Eddie's trailer and he was a plausible suspect for the murder of the cheerleader.

"Impossible. There is no way Eddie did this. It's completely absurd to even think of him doing this," Cerise retaliated once she saw the apprehensive look on Max's face.

"Well, we can't rule it out," Max countered. Cerise incredulously shook her head, knowing in absolute certainty that Eddie didn't do this. She had very few interactions with the boy, but from the judgment of those moments she spent with him, Cerise knew Eddie was innocent.

But she also felt the mysterious urge to defend Eddie at all costs.

Cerise stayed silent as Max and Dustin continued to banter about whether Eddie was like Ted Bundy or not. In some moments of their conversation, Cerise scrunched her eyebrows from the absurdity of their theories. However, when a question that Dustin asked became coherent for Cerise, she was taken out of her trance, the inquiry seeming to be relevant to the situation.

"Wait, why haven't you told the cops?"

"I-I don't know," Max sputtered, clearly lying.

"That's bull, Max. C'mon, what did you see?" Cerise asked, her motherly tone transitioning smoothly out of her mouth. When it came to the kids, it seemed so natural for Cerise to act as a mother to them.

"After I saw Chrissy and Eddie go into the trailer...something else happened. Eddie always drives like a maniac, and the power goes off at my place all the time. It's a piece of shit. But... this morning, I started to think back, and... I don't know. The look on his face. He was scared, really scared."

A thought suddenly occurred to Cerise. What if this was something worse than they expected?

"Do you guys think...something killed Chrissy?" Cerise's voice was shaky, her tone faltering once she felt the same emotions from the two teens in front of her.

"I don't know," Dustin started, his face becoming serious and it looked unusual to Cerise. "There's only one person who knows what happened."

"Eddie."

✰*ੈ✩➶༄✰

"You two go in first, I'm pretty sure Steve is going to kill me for breaking out of house arrest this morning," Cerise mumbled, Dustin, giving her an odd look.

"Why would Steve put you on house arrest?"

"Because I almost died, again, and Steve has been pretty protective lately. It's kind of annoying."

"Wait, you almost died!?" Dustin kept pestering Cerise with questions, his intrigue and worry suddenly replenishing him. She brushed him off and opened the door to Family Video, Cerise walking in last to hopefully prepare herself for the lecture that was coming her way.

When the trio walked into the store, Steve and Robin turned their heads, Steve having to do a double-take when he saw his sister. His eyes bulged out of his head, his expression mixed with worry and anger.

"You. Young lady, why the hell did you leave the house this morning without informing me?" Steve's arms were crossed over his chest, his weight shifting onto one side of his foot. He ignored the calls from Dustin, his focus solely on his sister.

"First of all I'm a year and a half younger than you, and two, we have more important things to worry about. How many phones do you have?"

Steve looked at his sister with a baffled expression, his face controlling with confusion. "What?"

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin now asked with such impatience, it made Cerise chuckle. Steve continued to say they had three phones and before they knew it, Dustin threw his duffle bag over the counter, knocking down the stack of VHS tapes that were neatly organized.

Dustin soon hopped over the counter, while Max and Cerise acted like normal people and walked around it. Steve continued to pester Dustin with questions as to why they needed their computer and when Dustin said it was to look up Eddie's friends' phone numbers, Steve groaned in annoyance.

"Oh, Eddie. Your new best friend you think is cooler because he plays your nerdy game?"

"Steve, shut up, DnD can be badass when it wants to," Cerise retaliated, earning a thankful smile from Dustin. Steve's eyebrows raised in protectiveness and intrigue when he saw the way Cerise instantly stood up at the mention of Eddie.

"What? You like Eddie now?" Steve's eyes were burrowing into her head, wondering what Cerise's answer would be.

"He isn't what everyone perceives him to be, Steven. Don't judge a damn book by it's cover," Cerise argued, her temper rising over the edge of her limit today.

"So you do like him?" Steve was pushing the boundaries and he knew that. But even thinking of the implausible absurd thought of his sister with the school's drug dealer greatly angered him. He did not know Eddie personally, but knowing well that he had affiliations with drugs. Steve was scared that if Cerise got close to him, she would relapse.

Cerise ignored him, her focus mainly on the computer screen in front of her, seeing that Robin, Dustin, and Max were getting closer to finding a potential friend Eddie is staying with, while the Harrington siblings were arguing. Max told Robin and Steve everything and they had the same perplexed expressions as Cerise. Considering what happened to them last year, and the years before that, nothing was impossible.

After looking for multiple people who had possible connections with Eddie, the group had a finalized possibility with the name of Reefer Rick.

Cerise knew that name all too well. Hell, she was familiarized with the address perspicaciously as she went there all the time last year. Rick was her drug supplier back when times were low and if this is where Eddie was possibly hiding, Cerise knew she had to at least check if he was there.

"Um, guys, I just remembered, I told some of the cheer girls that I would do this thing with them. I need to go," Cerise lied, backing up towards the door slowly, while the rest of the group stared at her with question.

"What? You never mentioned anything," Steve acknowledged, knowing that Cerise usually tells him where she is going, so he found it suspicious.

"Yeah, Well I forgot. Bye guys." Before anyone could protest, Cerise fumbled in her back pocket for her keys, got inside her car instantly, and turned the ignition to get away from the store. She drove away instantly, mentally preparing herself for the fact that Eddie was likely to be at Rick's home, a tinge of nervousness and happiness filling her head.

Luckily, the drive to Rick's house was not long, considering it was only fifteen minutes away from where she was previously at. Discreetly pulling up to a space near the house, Cerise turned off the ignition of her car and walked towards the back entrance of the house.

She carefully stepped into the house, seeing that beer cans were laying in the kitchen. Eddie was here. Even though this was Rick's house, the familiar pine and mint scent she smelled during school, was within Cerise's presence.

Before Cerise could even speak his name, Eddie ran towards Cerise, charging at her with a broken beer bottle, and pressing her body against the wall, his hands nearly compressed onto her neck. Everything was happening so fast, that Eddie didn't even recognize the girl in front of him.

Cerise gasped at the sharp pain that etched onto her throat, her hands pressed against Eddie's chest to hopefully release the pressure.

"Woah, kinky are we, Munson?" Cerise joked, hoping to lighten up the mood. At the familiar voice, Eddie all too loved, his eyes widened, his mind finally registering that it was Cerise Harrington in front of him.

If it weren't for the intense situation, Eddie would have made a snarky remark towards Cerise's comment, but he was too engulfed in fear to retaliate. He instantly dropped the broken beer bottle, backing up gradually from the painful possibility that he could have hurt her.

"I-I'm so sorry Cerise."

"Hey, hey, it's okay, Eddie. I promise." Eddie's brown eyes met Cerise's, her soft and loving smile appearing. God, he loved that smile, it always brightened his day, and even in a situation like this, it illuminated Eddie's mood slightly.

Without warning, Eddie's arms were suddenly wrapped around Cerise's waist, his head burrowed into her shoulder and his soft sobs were muffled into her bare skin. Cerise didn't waste a second as she rested her arms around Eddie's neck, forming small comforting circles on his back in an attempt to ease him.

"I didn't kill her," Eddie sobbed. "Please don't believe that I killed her, I just wanted to help her."

"I know, honey. I know." Cerise pulled away from the hug, looking into Eddie's bloodshot eyes. She raked her hand through his curly locks, a soothing wave of comfort suddenly taking over Eddie's body.

Eddie pressed his forehead against hers, Cerise's hands now on his chest and his were trailing lower towards her hips.

"Eddie, you need to know that I'm here for you, okay? Nobody can change the way I see you and I mean that." Eddie nodded his head, tears still streaming down his cheeks. Cerise felt the tears trickle down onto her blouse and she lifted her thumbs and brushed away the stray tears.

"How are you so perfect?" Eddie mumbled, his adoring expression not faltering one bit.

"Trust me, I'm not perfect."

"But you are." Eddie looked serious, his brown doe eyes filled with devotion and veneration. The tension between the two was apparent, you could cut it effortlessly with a butterknife.

However, a sudden noise from outside struck a protective nerve in Eddie. He instantly pulled Cerise behind him, picking up the broken beer bottle as a weapon to defend the girl he valued.

"Eddie it's only me here."

"You shouldn't be here." Cerise sensed the urgency and she knew Eddie needed the reassurance that she will be okay if she left. So that's what she did.

"I usually don't let boys tell me what to do, however, you're a special one, Munson. I'll see you soon." With that, Cerise stepped onto her tip toes and pressed a heartfelt kiss on Eddie's cheek. He could've sworn he was dreaming, but when he saw Cerise grin at him and walked out the back door, he stood dumbfounded, internally questioning himself if this moment was really happening.

Cerise got back into her car, started the ignition, and instantly got out of the secluded neighborhood. The drive back to Family Video was calm, nearly peaceful even. However, when Cerise saw a lanky man standing in the middle of the road, her eyes widened, stomping on the brakes precariously.

She stumbled in her seat, looking up to see the man starting at her with such intent, that it made her feel uneasy. He stood tall, nearing six feet, his cerulean eyes piercing into hers. He was wearing what seemed to be a fancy cream-white suit. His blonde hair swooped over his head elegantly and his sunken cheekbones made him look intimidating.

Cerise only blinked once to see that when she opened her eyes, the man was gone. She could have sworn she heard someone call her name, but nobody was around. Not a thing was on the road and there was nothing near the vicinity of her. Cerise was spiraling with many emotions, the two main ones being confusion and fear. She was now seeing things that weren't there and it was starting to scare Cerise.

Who the hell was that man and what did Cerise just experience?

who do you guys think this man is?

also, you you guys like long chapters? i'm debating if i should make chapters shorter or keep them as they are.

but fr I'm a sucker for cerise and eddie's relationship

PLEASE COMMENT AND VOTE<3