15. support system

Dustin and his mom sat on the couch as they watched the morning news about a Hawkins High student's body being discovered by the Forest Hills trailer park, as Dustin watched, his legs shaking, and worried, when their doorbell suddenly rang, and Dustin quickly went to the door, and furrowed his eyebrows as he sees Max in front of his door, panting.

As the two went inside Dustin's room, Max told him what she saw, in which she could not believe for the life of him. "Chrissy and Clemency? Are you sure you saw those two with Eddie?"

"Yes, Chrissy's in her cheerleader outfit. Same thing she was in when I saw her with Eddie. And Clemency was with us this morning, and she is wearing the same thing she was wearing at school." Max informed, as Dustin paced around.

"Did you tell all this to the cops?" Dustin says, as he looks back at the girl. "No.. No, but I... I can't be the only one who saw them together. I mean, they stood out." Max reasoned out, as Dustin kept pacing.

"And, Clemency? How can she be with them, she never wants to get in trouble... well, unless Nancy and Mike's involved, at least. But with Eddie?" Dustin thought, still very confused. "Exactly. You know, Nobody's ruled out as a suspect yet or anything... but I guarantee you, Eddie is suspect number one now, and Clemency might get involved if someone else saw them... well, if she is still alive right now..." Max says, making Dustin quickly look over to her, looking very upset.

"That's crazy." Dustin sternly says. "Eddie didn't do this. No way." He added, as Max looked at him, still in doubt. "No way!" He exclaims.

"We can't rule it out." Max explained, as Dustin argues back, "Yes, we can."

The two proceeded to argue, as Dustin kept defending Eddie, knowing him more than anyone, and his kindness towards him and Mike, while no one else did, as Dustin sat in his bed in frustration. "...But, it doesn't look good for Eddie." Max says, as Dustin sighed, but then realized something, and looked up to Max.

"Why haven't you told the cops this?" Dustin asked, as Max hesitated, but eventually sat beside him, and sighed, and proceeded to tell him what she had witnessed that night.

"Nothing that weird or anything. I mean... 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." Max says, stammering.

"Clemency, looks a bit shaken, but seems more calm and collected, but the look on Eddie's face... He was scared, Dustin. Really scared...but... Maybe Eddie's scared because he just killed someone or... maybe, uhm... I don't know." Max added, as she stammered, Dustin started furrowing his eyebrows as he slowly looked at her. "Something else killed her..." Dustin quietly says, as Max looks back at him, and nods.

"But that's impossible. Right?" She nervously chuckled out, as Dustin stared off, blankly, and looked back at her. "I don't know... It should be. There's only two people who know what really happened." Dustin says, as the two hurriedly went out, to find a way to look for Eddie and Clemency.

‧₊˚

Max and Dustin hurried to the Family Video. "Hey, Steve." Dustin says, as soon as they opened the door. "Did you guys see this?" Steve asks the two as they approach, pointing at the news.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked, but Steve ignored his question. "Someone was murdered." Steve says.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin repeated in desperation, as Robin and Steve looked at each other, confused. "Two? Why?"

"Technically three, if you count Keith's." Robin added. "Yeah, three works." Max says, as Dustin takes off his bag and slides it on the table, onto the inside of the counter, and climbs up himself, as the older teens complain. Dustin hurried to the computer.

"Stop! Get off of that." Steve exclaimed, as Dustin continued on with typing. "I need it."

"Need it for what?" Steve asked, agitated. "Looking up Eddie's phone numbers." He explained, as Steve's face changed into a grimace look. "Oh, Eddie. Your new best friend Eddie, who you think is cooler because he plays your nerdy game?"

"Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around, but it's Saturday. It's our busiest day." Robin complained, as she put back up the fallen items from the floor.

"Robin, I empathize, but this cannot wait." Dustin informed, as Steve looked in frustration. "What? Because calling all of Eddie's friends is an emergency?" Robin sarcastically says, and proceeds to complain, alongside Steve.

"Can you fill them in While I do this?" Dustin told Max, as she looked over to the two. "Fill us in on what?" Robin asked.

Max told them what she saw, who she saw, and her suspicions on what really happened as Steve and Robin listened intently. "Clemency? Are you sure?" Robin asked, as Steve frustratingly put his hand on his head. "Okay, but if it really is her... Why didn't she contact any of us? You? You live just across that Eddie's trailer." Steve says, as she pointed at Max.

"We all know how Clemency is. She was probably thinking of a logical reason, well, besides the upside down... we will only really get answers once we find Eddie." Dustin reasoned out, making Steve sigh.

‧₊˚

"Hey guys, I might have a lead." Max says, as the three gathered around her. "Seriously?" Dustin asks in relief. "Yeah. Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there." Max informed the group.

"That sounds promising. Where does Reefer Rick live?" Robin asked, as Max looked at her, disappointingly. "See, that's the thing. No one knows. He's more of a... a legend than someone that people actually know."

"But what about a last name?" Dustin hopefully wondered. "I don't know that either."

"Bet the cops know the last name. I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point. Means he's in the system." Steve says, which earned a stern look from the group. "The cops? Really, Steve? That's your suggestion?" Dustin asked in disbelief.

"I think they should be filled in on what we know, what's going on." Steve explained. "You think Eddie's guilty, don't you?" Dustin speculated, as Steve looked at him, in denial. "And you do realize... if we tell the cops about this, Clemency might also get blamed. Think about Clemency too. We need to get to them first before anyone else. They knew something we needed to know." Max says, making Steve sigh, as Robin and Dustin agreed to Max.

The group eventually found a way of finding Reefer Rick's address, on the computer, and hurried their way there.

‧₊˚

As soon as Clemency and Eddie reached Reefer Rick's house, Clemency hesitated to stay there. "Is it really okay that we stay here?" She softly asked, Eddie softly looking back at her, and sighed.

"This is the only place I could think of, and Rick's in jail, so..." He informed Clemency nodded, and the two went inside.

"I'm really, really sorry you had to celebrate your birthday like this..." Eddie says, as the two both sighed. "It's fine... Well, it's not, but, you know what I mean?" She awkwardly says, as he nodded in response, and took a sip of the beer they have with them.

"Well... I don't know if I could really say this, but I have... witnessed worse things in the past... Well, what we saw was devastating... but.... Yeah." She says, hesitating, as Eddie looked at her, confused. She wanted to tell him everything now, but she thought, his first experience on an unnatural occurrence is witnessing a face they both know brutally dying in front of him, so adding more information, just less than an hour after that, just felt wrong, so she just sighed, and emptied out her can of beer, in frustration.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Eddie asks as the girl looked over to her, and sighed. "Well, there's an explanation on what really happened to her back there... but I need a few people to explain it to you with me, to have accurate details, you know?" She says.

"I'm still confused, but I trust you." He says, as he reaches out and grabs her hands, and gently caresses it. "Is it like some ghost, possession shit?" Eddie added, making Clemency sigh. "Well, not really? Maybe it is? I don't know... but it could be worse." She says, as Eddie pursed his lips and nodded in response.

"I'm really sorry, Clem. If I didn't suggest for you to celebrate your birthday with me... you wouldn't have to witness that..." He says, making Clemency give him a sad look. "But the thing is, I wanted to celebrate my birthday with you though." She started,making Eddie softly chuckled, and held the girl close to him.

‧₊˚

Clemency and Eddie just sat together at the boathouse for hours, a few cuddles as they are drinking and smoking. Clemency kept refusing to tell Eddie what she thought actually happened to Chrissy, because she knew her friends will eventually come looking for her, she thought not because they are worried, but more on because it is given how they would always jump into these dangerous occurrences these few years of their lives, like it was nothing, when some people in Hawkins seems to be very oblivious about it, somehow.

The giant monstrosity they fought in Starcourt was one hell of a mystery to Clemency, on how people never even realized the fleshy monster in town, she thought, is their fourth of July that fun that they never noticed the monster, or what?

The two suddenly went quiet when they heard a faint sound of a doorbell, and froze in fear and worry, as they stared into each other's eyes. Eddie quickly stood up, and looked around him. He looked over the tarps, he thought he could hide there, but then he looked on where to hide Clemency, given how she can easily get overwhelmed by tight spots. He looked around, and finally realized the corner of the room, a dark spot even with light, when he could just cover her with another tarp. Eddie quickly grabs Clemency's wrist, and crouches her down, as she looks at him, in confusion.

"You can stay there, you're tiny." He says, as he covers her with the tarp. "You can breathe, right?" Eddie whispered, as she hummed in response, and he quickly hid himself right after.

As the flashlights beamed inside the boathouse, Robin, Dustin, Steve and Max finally reached the door, and slowly went in. "Hello?" Robin called out, as they pointed their flashlights, looking for the two. "Is anyone home?" Robin added, as all four went inside, to look on each side.

"What a dump." Steve says, as soon as he sees the inside of the boathouse, he then sees an oar and grabs it, and suddenly, he starts hitting the tarps with his oar, startling the others. "What are you doing?" He asked the older guy. "He might be in here..." Steve responded, as he continued jabbing the oar.

"So take the tarp off!" Dustin whisper-shouted. "If you're so brave, you take the tarp off." Steve suggested, as he proceeded on hitting the tarps, when Max suddenly called them, and Robin approached, as they saw their leftover trash. "Someone was here." Max says.

"Maybe they heard us. Got spooked and ran away." Robin thought, as Max looked over to her, while Steve continued with poking the tarps. "Don't worry. Steve will get him with his oar." Dustin sarcastically says. "I know you think you're being funny, Henderson, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, I don't think it funny in the slight-" Steve explained, when he got interrupted by Eddie coming out from his hiding spot, and launch towards Steve, pointing a sharp broken bottle in front of his neck, as the rest of the group got startled and screamed.

‧₊˚