Silence

                                    

                                          
 When confessing your feelings for your friend, you think the worst that can happen is that he says he doesn't feel the same; you don't even think about this outcome... — gn!reader
Warnings: angst and one bit of swearing
Words: 0.6k
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It's a scary thing to admit to yourself, much less to the person in question, so you were absolutely terrified to tell your friend Eddie that you had a crush on him. 
You chose to wait until the end of Hellfire night, when Eddie dropped off everyone that couldn't get a ride home. He's always been so sweet like that. He had just dropped off Dustin at his place, and now it was just the two of you in his van together. 
After a minute or two of silently hyping yourself up to confess, you turned down Eddie's heavy metal just enough so it could be like background music. 
"Hey, Eddie?" You asked nicely. 
He turned his gaze to you, but just for a second, not wanting to take his eyes off the dark road for too long. "Yeah? What's up?"
You twiddled your fingers, needing some sort of distraction while you do this. "I have something to tell you."
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I just— I wanted to say that I like you. Like, I like like you, and I've felt this way for I don't even know how long. I don't mean to ruin our friendship by doing this, but I don't know if I can keep it to myself anymore. Just, you're like, the best person I know, Eds, and I really like you."
Once you stopped talking, the van felt silent. Eddie's music was playing, but you were drowning it out. And neither of you were speaking, so all that was left was the sound of your heart about to beat out of your chest. 
"Eddie?" You asked, trying to prompt a response from him. 
He still stayed quiet. You tried to scan his features from the side, but he looked blank. His eyes were just glued to the road—which was usually good, just not in this situation. 
You were now getting desperate for him to say something back. "Eddie, will you just please respond?" 
He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. 
At this point, you knew whatever he had to say was just going to break your heart more than it already had been, and you didn't want to wait in this van until he said it. You wished you could just fall through the floor of the car and disappear, and the feeling just got worse when Eddie finally spoke. 
"I don't— I don't know how to respond to that."
So, once Eddie paused at the stop sign, you quickly unbuckled your seatbelt, grabbed your bag from by your feet, and got out of the car. 
"Shit, wait!" He shouted from his open window. 
You were already crying, plus walking as fast as you could away from him. "No, just go, Eddie! It's fine. Just pretend you dropped me off at home and everything was normal and I didn't say anything!"
"Just get in the car and we can talk."
"I don't want to talk anymore. Look, you know my house is close; I'll just walk home and everything will be fine."
He sighed loudly, knowing he wouldn't be able to convince you to come with him. He wanted to respect your boundaries, so he just gave up. 
"Okay, just— I'm sorry." He kept his eyes on you as he drove away, leaving you alone under the streetlights, the two of you knowing you both made a mistake. 
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