Chapter Text
It was a smaller house.
Not extremely small, in fact it was bigger than the Maine House.
There was the option for El and Dustin to have separate rooms, but they chose to share a room still.
They had gotten used to it.
That’s how it had always been.
Dad and Eddie had dragged the bed from one of the other rooms into the one her and Dustin were sharing.
It was their first night.
El couldn’t sleep.
Her mind was going, as Dad always put it (He was typically referring to how fast Dustin was speaking) a mile a minute.
Going through everything.
“El? Are you asleep?” Dustin asked
“No.”
“You…wanna talk?”
El turned over onto her side and clicked on a lamp that was sitting on the nightstand.
Dustin did the same on his side.
“Dad killed six people.” El said.
“Yeah…how do you feel about that? I mean…there are very few circumstances where murder is justified.”
“I think that because they pointed a gun at Eddie, that it could be considered self-defense.”
Dustin made a face. “But Eddie didn’t kill them, Dad did.”
“Still. They were obviously there for Dad and I.”
Dustin shrugged in understanding. “But still. Very few circumstances.”
“I think this could be justified…” El trailed off “I mean, say someone pointed a gun at…Will, from back home, what would you do?”
Dustin scoffed. “Like I’d get a chance to, Mike would go ballistic before I’d even get the chance.”
El laughed. “Yeah…you’re right.”
There was a silence between them, and El couldn’t pinpoint if it was awkward or not.
Then, Dustin said, “What’s up with Dad and Eddie?”
“I do not know.”
“I mean…” Dustin stared off for a second, “They’re like…like at the beginning of those weird romance movies that Grandma used to watch all the time. Where they hated each other, something happened and then they started to like…tolerate each other.”
“Are you saying you think that Dad and Eddie are in a romance movie?”
That was a weird thought.
If they were all just in a movie.
Maybe Dad and Eddie were aware that they were being filmed by some invisible camera, but she and Dustin weren’t.
“No—I mean that’d be cool, but no—they’re acting…chummy.”
“Even if they were in a romance movie…would that be allowed?”
Dustin looked at her funny. “What do you mean?”
“Like…two boys, in a romance movie, is that allowed?”
“I…I don’t think so, I mean…you never see it in romance movies, unless they’re fighting over the girl.”
Dustin seemed to think about something for a long time. He thought hard.
“I…once when you were out shopping for dresses with grandma, Dad and I were home with grandpa.”
El grimaced at the mention.
Grandpa was not a nice man.
He hit Dad.
“He and Dad were arguing, and I heard Grandpa call him a…” Dustin hesitated “a fag.”
El had heard that word before.
“What does it mean?” She asked.
“I asked dad, and he told me that it’s a mean word to call a queer person.”
“Why’d Grandpa call him that?”
Dustin shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“What would you think about if Dad was…a queer person?” El asked.
Dustin shrugged again. “He’d still be Dad, it might be a little weird at first, but he’s still Dad.”
“Yes. I think that too.”
“Tomorrow.” Dustin said.
“What is tomorrow?” El asked.
“Tomorrow we will figure out if Dad and Eddie are queer. I’ll talk to Eddie. You’ll talk to Dad.”
El let the idea roll over in her head.
“Alright.”
“Okay, but you have to promise not to tell Dad—or Eddie for that matter, that this is a plan.”
“Promise.”
Dustin reached his pinky across, El reached hers, and they interlocked.
They retracted, turned off the lamps, and El fell asleep with Edward the Giraffe clutched tightly to her chest.
Dustin always woke up before El.
He walked down the hall as silently as possible.
He stopped right before the living room, staying out of sight.
“Okay, what the hell are you babbling about?” He heard dad ask.
“Oh…um, my boot laces.” Eddie replied.
“Do they have a meaning?”
There was a silence, that Dustin could only presume was meant to be tense.
“Uh…yeah, actually.”
“Care to share with the class?”
Silence again.
“Gay. It means I’m gay, Steve.”
That answers that.
“Oh….” Dad said, “Does uh, do any other clothes you have…have meaning?”
“Oh. Uh yeah, but there’s a lot to unpack there.”
Light laughs were shared, and Dustin ran as quietly as he could back to the room.
Once inside, he closed the door, locked it, and shook El by the shoulders.
“El!” He whispered.
She woke up and grabbed at his arms as she sat up.
“What? Is everything alright?”
“Eddie’s gay!” Dustin said. (Probably a little too loud.)
El stared at him for a moment.
“Dustin. Read me the time.”
He looked at his watch.
“Seven thirty-three.”
“Discuss this with me in two hours.” She flopped back down on the bed again, curling up and facing the wall away from him.
Dustin’s arm fell to his sides.
“El! This is important information. Do you even remember what we talked about last night?”
“Too tired. Too early to recall.”
“El!”
She groaned and sat up. “Fine. How did you come to this conclusion?”
Dustin sat down on the bed next to her.
“I went out to go to the kitchen, and I heard Dad and Eddie talking, so I stopped to eavesdrop. They were talking about his boot laces, and Dad asked if they had meaning, and Eddie said that they did and that they meant that he’s gay.”
El stared at the ground. “Really? What did the laces look like?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see.”
El nodded. “Okay. Wake me up in two hours so we can talk.”
Well, three and a half hours later, Dustin and Eddie were back at the new new house setting things up, (Getting rid of cobwebs, unpacking some basic stuff, etc.) because El and Dad were going out to this shed to get…Eddie said supplies, which was incredibly vague.
“Dad.”
“Yeah, kid?”
“Are you queer?”
Dad seemed to do that thing where he choked on his own spit and air simultaneously.
After he stopped, and caught his breath, he said. “Eleven, honey, where the hell did that come from?”
El shrugged. “Secret.”
“What? What’s a secret?”
“Where it came from.”
Dad sighed and shook his head.
“Okay, you know what, don’t know, don’t want to know.”
He never answered the question.
They got to the shed; it had a big lock on it.
Dad started fumbling in his pockets for the key.
Then, El heard something click.
“Well, I’ll be damned, my eyes aren’t deceiving me.”
El and Dad turned to the clicking sound.
A man.
Holding a gun.
Dad stepped in front of El.
“What do you want?” He asked.
“What do I want? I want the fifty-thousand-dollar award that’s on your head.”
What.
“Excuse me?” Dad said.
“Yeah…you, and the girl.” He waved the gun towards El, causing her to cower a little bit behind Dad.
Dad stared at him.
“You’re not getting us, I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re gonna do with that gun, but it’s not gonna get us anywhere.”
“Well, in that cause, you’re on private property, which gives me the right to shoot.”
“We’re on our friend's property.”
“Uh huh, you see, I let them, the past owners, God rest their souls, build this shed on my property.”
“If you shoot us, you won’t get the award.”
“Dead or alive.”
Dad was running out of ammo.
El knew that.
She also knew he didn’t want to kill any more people.
Then, it all happened so quickly.
Dad’s hand started launching forward, there was a loud noise that made her scream, and then, Dad screamed.
El turned to him, he was holding onto his side, and when he pulled back, there was blood on his hand.
He shot Dad.
Without thinking, El’s own hand moved forward, and the guy with the gun was halfway across the field, colliding with a tree.
Dad was panting, and gasping, and El was sure he was going to die.
She ran and grabbed the arm that wasn’t pressed against the gunshot and pulled.
She eventually threw the arm over her shoulder, even though it didn’t seem as though it was helping.
As they half ran and half walked, El screamed out, “Eddie!” because he would know what to do.
She yelled out his name maybe three times before she saw the door to the house fling open across the field and Eddie bolt out towards them.
They met halfway.
Eddie took over helping Dad walk.
“El, what happened?”
“There was a man an—and he had a gun and Dad argued and he said there—there was bounty over us and then there was private property and then he shot Dad!”
“Harrington—we gotta get you to a hospital.” Eddie said.
“No!” Dad said. “No…no hospitals.”
They got to the porch, and Dad was starting to get…droopy.
“Hey…hey Harrington, you gotta stay awake.”
They got through the door and into the living room. Dustin was there.
“What happened?” He asked.
Eddie set Dad on the couch.
Dad made some vague motion signaling between the two of them and the hallway.
“I think he wants you to go to your room. I’ll come talk to you as soon as I’m done here, okay?”
El was about to protest heavily when her wrist was grabbed, and she was pulled down the hall.
Eddie ran down the hall to the bathroom and grabbed a first aid kit.
Then, he went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of whiskey, and a small, non-serrated knife.
Then, he sprinted back into the living room.
He set down the stuff, and then cut Steve’s shirt.
Eddie reached into his pocket and pulled out his bandana, he folded it and handed it to Steve.
“Steve. I’m gonna dig this thing outta you, and it’s gonna hurt like a bitch. Here's my bandana, you can bite on it. You can grab my arm and shoulder and squeeze, dig your nails in, whatever you need, got it.”
Steve nodded.
“Okay.”
Eddie sterilized the knife and tried not to feel guilty when Steve screamed as he dug the bullet out of him.
However, that ultimately failed, because he was hurting Steve even if he was helping him, and he wanted to do nothing more than to stop.
But he couldn't.
So, he whispered things, apologies, promises to never let this happen again.
El was sobbing and Dustin didn’t know what to do.
He had never seen her cry like this.
Not when they lived with grandma and grandpa and they would hear grandpa and Dad yelling at each other, and then they’d hear grandpa hitting Dad.
Not when afterwards, Dad would come back, and his face would be all messed up.
Not when she’d broken her arm.
The door closed and El slid down the back of it, her hands on Dustin’s shoulders in a similar way to where his hands were on her shoulders.
They got down on the floor.
“El! El, tell me what happened?”
“There was a man and he said there was a bounty and he shot dad!” She sobbed.
Dustin didn’t know what to say, so he hugged her.
Eventually, they ended up on El’s bed, crying, and then they fell asleep. And when they woke up, Eddie was sitting on the end of the bed. It was dark outside, and he looked just about as rough as El and Dustin felt.
“He’s…gonna be in a lot of pain for a while, but he’s gonna be okay. He was…he was shot, right below his ribs. Right side, and it missed organs, so he's alive. I made him stay awake for a while and once I was sure he was alright, I let him sleep after a while, though."
They nodded.
“When is he going to wake up?” El asked.
“Tomorrow. Hopefully, but he needs to rest for a while. El, remind me again why this happened.”
“A man pointed a gun at us. He said there was a bounty, and when Dad argued, he changed it to private property, which gave him the right to shoot. I threw him into a tree after he shot Dad.”
Eddie nodded.
“Okay.” He said.
Eddie acted like he was going to leave, but then, El grabbed his arm, and pulled him back down.
“I’m…staying here?” He asked.
"Yes." El said.
“If you don’t mind.” Dustin added.
“No…I don’t mind. Where do you want me to sleep?”
“You can sleep in my bed.” Dustin said.
Eddie nodded, and he moved across the room.
El and Dustin stayed on their side.
“What do your laces mean?” El asked.
Eddie snorted. “I knew I heard something run down the hall this morning.”
Dustin snickered.
Then El did too.
Then, they were all laughing.