veda henderson

      It didn't take long before Eddie was pulling his car into the trailer park on Holland road, quickly finding his own home on wheels as I'm sure he's done many times before. He pulls the car up in front of a typical-looking trailer, a makeshift wooden three-step staircase leading to the door. 

   Despite the darkness, I could see there were multiple trailers all around his own, occupying the vacant land. But, as I get out of the car, I realised there were no loud sounds or really any sounds at all besides the calls of animals or the howling of the wind. 

   "Welcome to my humble abode," He announces, stepping in front of his house, bowing to me with one hand across his stomach. I laugh lightly at his actions, watching as he whipped himself up to stand straight, making his long fluffy hair bounce around. He almost jogged up the short steps to his house to open the door and wait for me to walk inside. 

   Now, this may look sketchy, I know it does. Walking first into the trailer home of someone I only met a few hours ago isn't exactly the smartest thing I've ever done, but its' not exactly the dumbest. Considering Eddie is somewhat friends with Dustin, he isn't exactly a random stranger.

   He holds his arm out in welcome, watching as I walk through the threshold of his trailer. He follows me soon after, shutting the door behind him and walking in past me to a little nook-style thing next to his kitchen. 

   "What's your poison, little lady?" Eddie looks up at me with a hint of a smile on his lips, pausing his attack through the things covering the nook as he attempted to find something. What it was, I have no clue.

   "Got anything cheap?" I ask, holding my elbow in one hand as I lightly swayed, turning my head in each direction to get a look around Eddie's home.

   Does he live here alone?

   "Ah, on a budget," He responds, standing up straight and pressing one hand to his hip. He turns to me, holding one finger up in a gesture that told me to wait. "I got just the thing for you," 

   I nod, letting him know I understood before he turned around and walked down the short hallway, entering a room at the end of the hall that could possibly be his bedroom. Feeling bored, I turn to the side and make my way to a couch that was pressed against one of the walls, facing the door of the trailer as I tapped my nervous fingers on my covered knees. 

   I'm not sure why I was nervous, I've done this many times before. Maybe, it's because Eddie knows my brother and is friends with him, there's no guarantee that Eddie won't tell Dustin about this and about why I was here. If he did, I'd run him over many many times until he was as thin as paper. 

   Dustin doesn't know about my drug use, Dustin doesn't need to know. He wouldn't understand, he'd probably just get angry at me and worry. 

   "Sorry about the wait, sweetheart," Eddie's voice snaps me out of my daze, causing me to look up as he softly walks into the room, holding out a small bag of half-crushed white pills or maybe it was pills mixed with a white powder. Either way, I couldn't tell under the soft yellow lights of his trailer. 

   I eagerly take it from him, holding the small bag closer to my face to inspect it. It's like I could almost feel my body coming back down to a calm alternative the longer I looked at it and moved the powder around in the bag with the pads of my thumbs. 

   Grinning widely, I look up at Eddie. "How much?"

   "Don't worry about it, this one's on the house," He waves his hand in a dismissive manner, turning to take his jean vest and leather jacket off and throw it onto one of the single-seater couches beside me. He was left in his hellfire shirt, the black sleeves ending at his elbows which allowed me to see glimpses of tattoos aligning his arms. 

   He turned back to me, fumbling with the rings on his fingers as he took a seat beside me. "Are you sure?" I asked

   "How else am I gonna make sure you come back to me?" He asks lowly, leaning towards me and winking before straightening his spine and looking from me to the bag in my hands. I felt a little spur in my stomach from the tone of his voice, but it quickly went away when my sights landed back on the sweet ecstasy only inches away. "Nothing like a free sample to ensure customer loyalty,"

   I wasn't going to argue about payment, the only thing better than good drugs is free drugs. 

   "Wanna join me?" I ask with a smirk, opening the bag to get the contents ready for my enjoyment. He chuckles at my offer, shaking his head. At some point, his arms had stretched out so that they were resting on the top of the couch, his body leaned back as he watched me finish crushing the remainder of the pills.

   "The thing about being a good boss, Veda, is to never steal from your own supply," He gives me his own little nugget of wisdom as if selling drugs was an amazing business plan. "And, I have to drive you home after this,"

   "What a gentleman," I snicker in irony, leaning down to Eddie's small glass table. I press one finger against my right nostril after tucking my hair behind my shoulders, breathing in the crushed powder with one swipe of my head. As soon as the drug entered my system, I sit up with my elbows on my knees, eyes closed in bliss with my head thrown back. 

   It had been too long since I'd done this. I couldn't control the big smile that took over my face, opening my eyes and turning my head to the side to catch a glimpse of Eddie. I look him up and down briefly, scanning over his little club uniform shirt before meeting his dark brown eyes once again. "Thanks, muffin,"

   "It's Munson?" Eddie replies like it was a question.

   "Right," I whisper to myself, dropping my chin to my left shoulder and moving my eyes from him to the couch. I smile, feeling the drug slowly replacing every sad, depressing cell in my body with a happier version of myself. The warmth that overcomes my body after every hit was something that's hard to replace. 

   "So," He starts, pushing his hair back out of his face as he sat up, pressing his elbows to his knees also. I'm guessing this was his attempt at breaking the silence that had fallen over us. My eyes flicker up to meet his as he leans his neck down to make eye contact. Eye contact must be something he thinks is important in a conversation. "You're Henderson's big sister?"

   "Guilty," I smile into my shoulder, rubbing my nose on the material of my jumper before sniffing and lifting my head up, his head following so that it could maintain the same level as my own. "How did you meet him?"

   "Well that's a very complicated story actually," He starts, pressing his lips into a line and nodding towards me sarcastically before he quickly jumps to his feet. My eyes follow him as he moved to stand in front of me as if it were a stage, laughing quietly at his antics. He seems to be a very showy type of person, not a sign of insecurity or nerves in his body. "I was prowling the halls of the school, searching for fellow creative people to join hellfire when boom-!"

   He shouts loudly, cutting himself off as he jumped towards me with his hands held out, palms facing me in an attempt to scare me. I jump back only slightly, the drugs dulling my reflexes enough that I wasn't really scared. I laugh at him, my pill-affected brain loving his dramatisation and emphasis on big words. It was like watching a really shitty movie on the VR. 

   "Henderson bursts through the door telling his friends about how much different high school was going to be. I knew I had to protect their teeny tiny brains from bursting in shock over how dull everything is if you're not a normie," He fake pouts, loosely wrapping his arms around himself to give me the image of him wrapping Dustin and his friends up into his arms like a little mother bird.

   The image of Eddie's head on a mother bird, holding three little baby birds with Dustin, Will and Mikes's heads had me bursting out in laughter, falling back against the couch. I'm sure this wouldn't be as funny if I wasn't high, but being sober is so boring and this image is quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever thought of. 

   "You find that funny, huh?" He hums as my laughter dies down. I keep my neck against the back of the couch but angle my head so that I could look at him with a ghost of my massive smile still on my face. "I saw you too, y'know,"

   His confession has me sitting up slightly straight again, looking up at him with an open-mouthed smile as I wait for him to continue. One hand held his elbow, that arm reaching up to grip a handful of his own hair. His eyebrows raise as he nods, moving to sit on the armchair to the right side of me. 

   "I didn't know you were a Henderson," He tells me, watching as I scoot myself forward until I was sitting at the end of his couch. "I thought you were some scary goth chick,"

   "Me? Scary?" I laugh, feeling my cheeks hurt from all the smiling I've been doing.

   He's right, I am definitely falling in love with his stuff. 

   "If you didn't look like a walking zombie, I was going to demand you join hellfire," He proclaims, dropping his grip on his hair and moving down to twist one of his chunky metal rings on his finger. 

   "Good thing you didn't because I would have told you to get lost," I admit, watching as he faked being hurt and slammed his hand against his chest. His movements were always so jagged and quick, if I blinked I was sure to miss something he did. "You can't tell Dustin about... this. He doesn't know,"

   "Cross my heart," He announces, straightening his spin as he places one hand over his heart, the other in the air with his palm facing outward. I look at him for a moment before snorting and shaking my head. 

   Teddy Mountain wasn't too bad.