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Robin doesn't find out until hours later.
Hours after the bats have lifted, after the ground has split open to reveal hell itself.
Dustin sits quietly in the corner of the Munsons' trailer when Nancy, Robin, and Steve climb out of the gate using a careful positioning of tables and chairs. One look at his face told the group everything they needed to know.
Eddie Munson was dead.
Robin kept her mouth shut, trying to contain herself as to not worsen Dustin's grief. It was hard for her to begin to express the way this hit her. It was a punch to the gut that never stopped, like a sickening disease of the flesh only curable by the one person you can't bring back.
It started in drama class.
Everyone knew Eddie ran Hellfire out of the drama room, but he had only managed this after cozying himself up to the drama teacher for three years. After that, he'd been in every theatre production and class he could take. It made sense, after all he did have a flamboyance and theatricality to his natural cadences. Plus, being a third-year super senior meant you could do as many shows as you wanted.
On that first day of fall semester drama class, Robin sat down in one of the blue plastic chairs and watched as Eddie leaned over Mrs. Schulman's desk, rambling about newly released photos from some new West End show. He kept gesticulating wildly about some French guys waving flags over a barricade and these two girls liking this one guy, which he referred to as "terribly cliché". Schulman chuckled and spoke back to him as Eddie's eyes began to light up in agreement. Robin couldn't hear much else they were saying but she hoped she'd get to hear about it one day.
His tastes in music and clothing made Robin assume that he would have hated drama class, but she quickly learned that it was where he shone the most. Schulman would pass out different Shakespeare and Miller plays and Eddie would always command whatever scene he was in.
One October afternoon in class, Mrs. Schulman made them read a passage out from Antigone. It was fairly simple, she would ask for raised hands and would pick people to read for each character until everyone had completed the passage. Robin never wanted to go first. The people who went first were fearless, unafraid of reading the lines wrong or making the inflection sound stupid or mispronouncing the Greek.
Eddie raised his hand first.
He walked to the front of the class and leaned against the chalkboard, folding his arms. Deep down, Robin wanted to be him. She wanted his courage, his fuck-all attitude, his incredible hair. Eddie's eyes suddenly caught hers and his face twisted into a smirk.
"Buckley, care to join me? Creon could always use a killer Antigone."
Robin's eyes widened at the mention of her name. Though she was unwilling to mention it to others, she had read Antigone over the summer and deeply related to the titular character. She was stubborn and had an uncontrollable sense of justice. She would love to read for her, just not in front of the class, let alone first .
She felt Mrs. Schulman staring at her, and about two dozen more pairs of eyes follow.
"Uh... I don't know if I'd be good at reading first. I'm not really a great tone-setter."
Eddie stepped forward from his position against the board. "Oh come on Robin, it'll be fun. It's drama class, no one cares if you suck. Plus, if anything goes wrong, just follow me."
Robin blinked in amazement. Eddie had never made such an effort to secure her participation before. Still, she was going to be a bit of a pain in the ass about it.
"Well god, I didn't realize our Creon was this cocky."
His smirk spread into a wicked grin. "Oh dearest Robin, you're already perfect for the role."
Robin rolled her eyes and stood up from her seat, grabbing her stapled packet off of the chair as she walked to the front of the room.
She stared down at the page at her first line, trying to calm her anxiety with her breathing. She felt a hand place itself on her shoulder.
"Hey," Eddie whispered, "you'll do great okay? None of this shit matters anyway."
She smiled up at him before looking back down and beginning to read out. She stumbled at first, feeling like a dog wearing booties for the first time as she tried to read the old text but surely, she got comfortable bouncing the lines against Eddie. She felt the passion that Antigone felt in that moment and let it rise out of her.
And then the passage was done.
The class gave a half-assed round of applause as Eddie and Robin smiled at each other. She watched him nod and mouth " Great job " to her. She nodded back in thanks before taking her seat again.
Thus began their drama class bond. He would always drag her up to the front to read scenes with him and she would snark with him from the back of the class. Slowly, she began to open herself up more, babbling to him about band and whatever project the drama class was working on. In turn, Eddie began to talk to her about the DnD storylines he was working on. She would rant about the frustrations of sectionals and he would describe his NPCs. Robin had never seen him in a DnD session but she imagined he had the same glint in his eye whenever he ran a campaign. Robin was so tempted to join Hellfire then, but she always had marching band practice, so she never showed.
She wished she had.
On Halloween, Eddie popped into Family Video bright and early at 11AM to rent The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Robin tried (and failed) to hold back a smile when he said that his evening plan was to "blaze up" and watch the film. She had never pegged him as a Rocky Horror guy, but she was glad to find someone else in Hawkins that enjoyed the cult classic.
Her and Steve had plans to drive out to a cider mill on the edge of town for the afternoon, but her evening was clear as the October sky.
"Do you care for another freak to join you?"
And there was that smile again, that Eddie Munson grin. "Only if you show up in costume."
Robin rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you expect me to have a sequined suit-coat lying around?"
Eddie chuckled. "You've been full of surprises so far, so I can't say I'd be shocked."
"I can bring cider donuts."
"The cinnamon sugar ones?"
"Oh yeah. Only the best for Rocky Horror night."
Eddie stuck out his hand to shake. "You've got yourself a deal, Buckley."
Robin gladly shook his hand.
She clocked out at two that day and handed the store over to Keith. She didn't tell Steve where she was going that night, but he had a hot Halloween party date that he refused to miss and he knew that wasn't her scene, so he didn't pester her about it.
By ten o'clock, Robin and Eddie were draped on the couch, halfway through the bag of donuts. They were high as kites and sticky with cinnamon and sugar. Robin giggled through the haze of smoke as Janet played dumb to another obvious innuendo.
Eddie casually repeated back Frank N' Furter's line to her in the most dead-on Tim Curry impression she'd ever heard.
"Holy shit dude, how do you know how to do that?"
Eddie scoffed cheerfully, "I don't even fucking know, I think I just picked up on it after watching this a thousand times."
"I mean, I've seen it a lot too but I can't do that. You're kind of incredible," she replied. Eddie chuckled.
"Thanks," he paused, " darling ," he said, using the impression again. Robin burst into laughter.
"God that is so fucking good," she said once her giggles subsided. "Do you swear you've never, like, practiced that?"
"I swear!" He put his arms up in defense. "I literally used to rent this tape out for weeks at a time. I think I almost broke the tape rewinding it on 'Sweet Transvestite' for the twelfth time."
Robin chuckled. "What, do the fishnets do it for you?"
Eddie paused, frozen in his seat. He took a breath in and then shook his head, smiling. "Well, they did back when I was fourteen but I've gotta say, not my type now."
Robin smiled, catching onto the implications. He was the first person that she knew that was like her.
The only other freak in Hawkins.
"Well," she spoke slowly, "I've always been a bit of a Susan Sarandon girl myself."
Eddie paused and smiled back. It was like magic. Living in Buttfuck, Indiana in the era of 'Just Say No!' and Anita Bryant ads, and there are two gay people in one town? It was like winning the lottery.
"Oh come on, Columbia doesn't rev your engine? In the top hat, no less."
She shook her head. "Nah, I've got some weird fantasies about good girls gone bad I think. Might go back to the parental issues."
"Hey, I can't blame you. At least you don't have the hots for a Brad, he's so prep in a way that it's not even camp, it's pedestrian."
"Well I am best friends with one," she replied, grinning into the donut in her lap.
Eddie chuckled. "Yeah, Harrington is quite the Brad, huh? Vanilla as vanilla can be."
Robin laughed in return. "No kidding. I mean I can't even stand to listen to his sex life because it's straight and it's Steve, but I don't think he's mentioned anything other than missionary. It's like he's Mormon or something."
The pair burst into uncontrollable laughter. For one fleeting moment, Robin was able to let the worries and stresses that came with her sexuality float away. She knew someone like her, someone courageous and funny and kind, and they were going to be okay. They would speak their own language, forge their own paths, wage wars on oppressors but tonight, they were two kids cracking jokes in a trailer beneath the stars.
Robin wouldn't frequent the trailer too much after that night, though she'd spend at least one night a month lighting up with Munson to talk about Dyke Rights and the clubs in Indianapolis. Now trusting Robin fully, Eddie began to bring Harrington up a bit more, and Robin would rave about the pretty girls that would stop into Family Video. They still sat together in drama class, and Eddie always knew that a surefire way to make Robin laugh was to use that damn Frank N' Furter impression.
Autumn came and went, and the pair stumbled into the holiday season. Eddie and Wayne's Christmas was a pretty laid back affair, with beers and TV on the sofa, but Robin was wrapped up in Buckley family gatherings. She rushed into the trailer late night after Christmas Eve dinner because her uncle made some snide comment about those "twisted perverts" on the streets getting AIDS and she couldn't stop crying and Steve just wouldn't get it, okay? Eddie stroked her hair as she cried softly into his shoulder.
As the semester drew to a close, the final project was announced to be a monologue. Robin hated monologues. Though she had gotten more comfortable performing for an audience, she still didn't want to have to do it alone . Eddie quickly found a piece that he liked from A Midsummer Night's Dream and encouraged Robin to find something from a play that she was interested in, something she related to. Still, she couldn't quell her anxieties. When Schulman would let them go out into the hallway to practice, Robin would refuse to perform and instead would sit on the floor, leaned against the brick wall and tell Eddie to do his again.
"Rob, come on, you have to practice at least once before the final. You can't bomb the fucking drama final, come on."
She glared up at him. "Says you, you're on your third try of high school."
"Yeah and I've passed drama every semester." He paused. "Please tell me you at least have a monologue picked out."
Robin looked down at her lap nervously. "I mean, I was considering doing something from Antigone again but it might be stupid and I don't want to get all dramatic in front of the class-"
"Robin, it's literally a drama class." Eddie kneeled down in front of her. "Everyone's gonna be dramatic, and everyone's going to look absolutely stupid. Who cares?"
Eddie looked up to the fluorescent ceiling lights before tracking his vision down to the tile, and then back up into Robin's eyes. "People in this world are going to judge you no matter what you do, especially when you're given the kind of deck that the Lord Almighty gave us. You might as well do something you'll enjoy."
Robin looked down and took a deep breath, considering. Of course, he was right, but that didn't make it any easier to confront. To be fair, if she looked like a total idiot theatre kid on stage, it was performed on the last day of class, and these other kids wouldn't see her ever again come June.
"Fine, I'll do my Antigone monologue, but can you promise to tell me beforehand how to pronounce all the Greek names? I'm really only good with French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian."
Eddie smiled. "Of course. You'll rock it out, I promise."
When the time came for the final day of class, Robin was devastatingly nervous. Like heart falling out of your ass into a pile on the floor nervous. However, it came with a tinge of sadness knowing she wouldn't have a class with Eddie anymore. Sure, she'd come over to the trailer to get high and catch up, but there was no more daily routine. Her sadness dissipated when she saw Eddie stroll into class though. Her mouth widened into a toothy grin as she saw that he had made a dorky fairy headband for himself, made with vines and moss and flowers. He smiled back at her as he made his way to the back of the class where Robin sat.
"You fucking dweeb," Robin grumbled.
"What can I say, I'm theatrical."
Mrs. Schulman walked them all to the auditorium and had them sit in the house, one by one walking to the stage to perform. Eddie immediately volunteered to go first, "to get it over with" he muttered to Robin, as Mrs. Schulman called him to stage.
Instead of walking around to the stairs to get on stage, Eddie hopped up onto the ledge and climbed to stand on top. Mrs. Schulman made eye contact with him and shook her head at him disapprovingly, but with no real weight, as she returned to her usual pleasant expression right after.
" If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended, " Eddie began. He was clearly enraptured by the text, his voice lilting rhythmically to the iambic pentameter. Eddie 'Metalhead' Munson was a true theatre kid in action, his brows furrowing with intensity as the monologue grew. Puck was tricky and fanciful, and Eddie could play as much as he wanted to in the text. He shone, as bright as that October sun, as bright as Tim Curry on screen, as bright as the Christmas lights outside of his trailer.
The monologue came to a close with his final lines. " Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends. "
Robin's heart softened. She knew Eddie had loved his monologue, and that he loved performing as Puck, but she didn't realize that the last line mentioned her name. She knew that within the context of the play, Puck was referring to himself, but she didn't care. It was their last day in class together and hell, she was feeling a bit sentimental.
The class gave their usual nonchalant applause, and Robin clapped and hollered louder than the rest, beaming from her seat. Eddie gave a dramatic bow, headband falling onto the stage in front of him. He snatched it off the floor and skipped over to where Robin was seated.
"See, now that wasn't so bad," he said, smiling.
"Yeah, yeah, don't get ahead of yourself, Munson. I can always find a way to screw mine up."
Eddie sat down in the seat next to her. "You're gonna kill it, Rob. I know you will."
Robin smiled back at him. Her anxiety still began to creep its way through her body. About half the class performed their monologues before there were no volunteers left. Mrs. Schulman then referred to her class roster to call people up. How convenient to have Buckley as your last name in a moment like this.
Robin stuffed her monologue under her seat and walked up to the stairs, then onto the stage. It was kind of strange to be high up in front of everyone. She drummed her fingers on the sides of her thighs. She would much prefer tech crew to this. Everyone was quiet and waiting and staring at her, and Robin could just about scream with nerves.
But there was Eddie.
Right in the back of the auditorium, the one person that was never scared to screw up. The one person who was never afraid to be himself and loud about it. He was given the worst deck in the game and he could not be more proud to be a queer and a Munson.
Robin took a deep breath and began.
" O ... tomb, vaulted bride-bed in eternal rock,
Soon I shall be with my own again "
As she spoke, she felt herself relax into the cadence of the speech. She understood Antigone because she knew what it was like to fight against the odds to do right and she hoped that one day, she would have the fearlessness that Antigone did.
That Eddie did.
She enjoyed it. She enjoyed performing. God, she wouldn't ever tell a soul, but she wanted to be a drama kid forever if this is what it felt like.
" But if the guilt
Lies upon Creon who judged me, then, I pray, May his punishment equal my own. "
She hadn't even realized she'd finished until she got to the last word and by then she was ready to smile into the high heavens. She had done it. She aced the drama final, she learned that she could like performing, and got Eddie along the way. Eddie immediately rose to his feet, giving her a standing ovation. His cheers were loud and boisterous and okay, maybe a little over-the-top for a minute-long monologue, but still. She smiled back at him, basking in the almost nonexistent glory of getting an A on the drama final.
The memory washed away as Robin felt her boots squeak against the linoleum floor of the trailer. No more Rocky Horror nights, no more overzealous monologues, no more familiarity and comfort in this town. No one else was like her anymore.
When Dustin told the group how Eddie died, it was like another hit to the chest. Tears welled in Robin's eyes that she couldn't force away. A fury burnt it's way up from her boots straight into her skull, but was washed away by the lump forming in her throat. She wanted to scream, to punch the thin trailer walls and knock on every damn door in this godforsaken town until everyone knew what a good man he was.
Eddie didn't need to learn to be brave. He was brave because, despite the odds, he was still Eddie.