CHAPTER FOUR
Memories

CHRISSY CUNNINGHAM STOOD AWKWARDLY IN THE LIVING ROOM OF THE MESSY TRAILER. Her nerves were prickling at her fingers the longer she stood waiting for the older boy. Every little sound was making her jump, and her finger nails were drawing blood near her wrist.

"Hey, Eddie?" Her voice called out around the trailer, the boy quickly popped his head from the doorway on the otherside of the hallway, before going back to searching for the required drugs.

"Yeah?"

"What happened between you and my brother?" She had wanted to know, the two had been good friends when they were kids, but high-school had changed them. Or it had changed her brother. After a certain point he stopped being the happy carefree boy she looked up to, and the only thing she knew was that at around the same time, Eddie stopped being his friend. She had a sneaking suspicion that her mother had something to do with it, she always seemed to be involved in her children's misery.

He paused for a minute in his hunt, looking up at the paranoid girl as he thought over the question. Did the oldest Cunningham talk about him? Did he miss him? "What do you mean?"

"Well I know you two used to be friends, and then suddenly you weren't." She moved away from her surroundings, calming down a little as she focused on the older male infront of her. She watched as he seemed to freeze up, eyes clouding over a little. She got a little worried that he might cry, but instead he stood up straight, eyes hardened in a glare that wasn't aimed at her.

"He became an arsehole." He put simply, quickly going into his bedroom to continue the search, abruptly putting an end to the conversation.

Eddie burrowed through his many band shirts, looking for the small baggie he had expertly hidden from Wayne; and apparently himself.

"Hey E!"

A young boy with buzzed hair turned to look to his best friend. A boy with a long golden mane that reached his shoulders, his signature red cap worn backwards on his head, and that toothy smile which always showcased a new tooth missing. He was an angel to the boy who had only recently moved into the new town with his uncle Wayne, always there from the very first day he tried to scam free ice cream from the parlour Wayne had took him too as a welcome.

"Hey Chancey!"

Eddie shook his head of the memory, not wanting to fall back into those feelings and sorrowful nights. He wanted to stay angry at the boy. He was angry at him, he still is. Though part of him didn't want to be. Yeah he wanted to scream in the blonde's pretty face, punch him until he understood, but at the same time, he just wanted to be near him again, to talk like they used to. To be seen.

He thought back to earlier that night, when the ever popular teen burst into their campaign looking like hell. The look in his eyes made Eddie's stomach churn. He was probably kidding himself, though his mind liked the belief it was a look of longing, sorrow and desperation. The Munson huffed out an empty laugh at that thought, shaking his head as he packed everything back into the drawer. It was better just to be angry.

"So what? You're one of them now?" The Munson boy had tears in his eyes. His hair reached his shoulders, a style he had got to match his best friend and support him whenever his mom told him he looked like a girl. But now he stood infront of the boy, hair short around his ears, a football varsity jacket on his tall figure. Over the summer holidays his parents had sent him away to a summer camp, and he had come back buffed up and with some not so savoury opinions about their friendship. "What the hell, man!"

They were stood under the bleachers, away from prying eyes. Chance had a smoothie in his hands, and a look on his face that suggested he didn't care about the crying teen infront of him. But Eddie knew better, he was shifting on his feet and avoiding eye contact. "Is it your mom? I always knew she didn't like me, that bitch-"

"Just shut the fuck up, Munson!" Chance snapped, the comments about his mom had hit a nerve. Eddie couldn't help but cower, the shock of his happy-go-lucky companion lashing out like this having gotten to him. The blonde rarely raised his voice, and never around Eddie. The blonde had tears in his eyes too, or at least Eddie thought he did, it could've easily been a trick of the light. "I don't want to be friends with you anymore! Get that in your head, you freak!"

The tears were pouring now, heart aching and mind clouding with anger at the words. He was supposed to be his best friend, his number one, and now he's sick of him? Worst of all, he thinks him a freak like everyone else. "Fuck you, Cunningham." He stood, shaking infront of the blonde. He gripped his favourite necklace in his hand. A gift from Chance for the first of Eddie's birthdays they spent together. An item he treasured, but in this moment just felt like a weight pulling him under the waves of a raging sea. He pulled it from his neck, throwing it at the taller teen, it hitting his chest and falling to the ground. "Fuck you."

The brunette let out a rough sigh, hand feeling around his neck for where the shark tooth necklace had once been. He had loved that thing, and had loved how everytime he had asked the blonde boy how he got it, the insane story always changed to something even more absurd.

The Munson boy sat up a little straighter. He must of been in his head for a good couple of minutes, zoning out always seemed to be a problem of his. He looked to his bedroom door, Chrissy had been awfully quiet this entire time. She may have left, though he thought she would've asked for a lift if she did.

He got up off the floor, grabbing some higher grade weed he was planning to give her a discount on. Walking through the hallways as he looked down between the two different strains in his hands, deciding which one would probably be a better fit for her. "Hey so I couldn't find the Special K, but I've got- woah!"

The girl in question was frozen still, eyes rolled back and shivering like some kind of minute seizure.

Eddie quickly pocketed the weed, going over to shake his hands infront of her face as he called out to her. She remained unresponsive, even as he rather violently started shaking her shoulders.

And then, the unimaginable happened.

"Hey mom, is Chrissy not home yet?" Chandler Cunningham had just gotten finished with his shower, now free from the smell of chlorinated water, Maddy upstairs doing the same. He had come down in hopes to eat off whatever tipsy feeling he had, not expecting his mother to be in the kitchen looking so forlorn.

The Cunningham woman was glancing over her eldest, sporting some flannel pants and a Black Sabbath shirt, scrunching her nose in distaste. She had hoped that that phase of his life was behind him, but little things would pop us as painful reminders to her. She looked over her son once more, noticing the guilty look on his face at her reaction. "No, but I suppose she went to the after party, after all, her boyfriend does host them."

She swirled her glass of wine, seeming to not care that she had just said her only daughter was spending the night with a boy, most likely getting wasted. She didn't show much favour when it came to Chrissy, she never had. Chance, although he didn't say anything -- the guilt of the previous, unspoken, topic still heavy in his mind -- had his mouth hung open in disbelief.

"Shut your mouth darling, you'll catch flies." His mother patted his cheek as she strode past, going to join his father in the living room, as though she hadn't stirred the dirt in a graveyard of secrets. But Chance couldn't hear her, his mind was wondering a mile a minute.

That's why she was getting drugs? For a party? For her boyfriend. The hate Chance had for Jason Carver grew in this moment. Thinking about all the ways this could cause trouble for his sweet little sister. She could get arrested, or addicted. She may get so addicted that she quites school and uses every dollar she has on the stuff, forever remaining indebted to herself and her vices.

It made his head hurt, it had ever since he came back into town, the memories here and worrying about a girl who insisted she was fine when it was clear she wasn't. He had even had a few nose bleeds because of it, stress can do that to you.

For a minute he stopped, remembering who she was buying off. He hoped that Eddie would be reasonable, want her to begin safely and not give her anything too... strong.

He clenched his hands at his sides, an anger he rarely felt swarming through his veins. He wanted to beat the Carver boy's no-good face in. Wanted to scare him so bad that he wouldn't even dare to breath the same air as his baby sister.

He looked down, blue eyes catching the yellowish white of the shark tooth resting on his chest. The old medallion that once symbolised a lifelong friendship, now, the only way to calm his ever growing nerves.

He sighed out. Once. Twice.

If there was anything he knew about Eddie Munson, it was that he's a good guy, he wouldn't let a sweet girl like Chrissy fall from grace like that. It wasn't how he was wired.

And with that small thought of reassurance, Chance nodded his head, grabbing a banana and heading back upstairs.

Skulby- this is shorter than normal, but I didn't want to drone on with the angsty stuff. Tell me what you think of the lil backstory to our boys?