ic inbox.

[heatmetal]

[ his voicemail greeting is just a guitar riff ]

Comments

[heatmetal]

Yeah.

[ ... ]

Still not convinced this isn't some kinda fucked up afterlife.

[camarod]

Yeah? Yeah, maybe. Never really believed in anything after.

[heatmetal]

Can't say I really did, either.... least not the way the church spun it.

[ granted he'd only ever been to a church a few times. wayne wasn't the religious sort, and his father had never believed in anything that wasn't himself. ]

[camarod]

My old man was real big on Hell whenever I stepped out of line.

[he means got a little too close with anyone not fitting Neil's perfect little all American image. ]

I kind of thought I'd just stop. Used to be comforting.

[heatmetal]

[ ... and what a terrible thought that is. billy, being so desperate for freedom, that oblivion was a comfort.

eddie can't say he doesn't get it. ]

I spent a really long time wanting to just disappear. [ an uncertain pause. ] And then when it was actually happening, all I wanted was more time.

I'm glad we both got more time. Here. Together.

[camarod]

Yeah - [comes out in one breathless little wheeze. He hadn't been ready, not really. ]

Yeah. Me too. I think Hawkins might've killed us in the end, anyway. Sucked out all the shit that makes us us, in the end.

[heatmetal]

The town's a tarpit. [ he agrees. ] If it doesn't kill you, it just traps you until something else does...

[ and here? they're free. to be themselves. to love whoever they want to. it's... it's hard. and for some ineffable reason he wants to go back. for the kids. for his uncle. but there's no denying his future is brighter here than home. ]

What were you gonna study? At school, I mean.

[camarod]

- Double major, probably. Politics and, I don't know. History? Lit?

[He hums, low. Dreams that are a little impossible now and then. He isn't sure he would have done well in college, but he knows he would have tried. Tried so fucking hard if it meant getting out from under Neil's thumb. ]

[heatmetal]

Lit, huh? Never would've guessed.

[ the politics don't surprise him. ]

[camarod]

I've read the classics, E.

[heatmetal]

Not the classics that matter.

[camarod]

Hey, hey - I read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

[heatmetal]

[ oh wait hold up ]

You've read Narnia? Mmm... Guess that is required reading for every closeted guy.

[camarod]

Don't you know it's a wholesome Christian allegory, Eddie?

[heatmetal]

Nah. I got hung up thinking about what Mr. Tumnus' dick would look like.

[camarod]

You goddamn freak, you leave Mr. Tumnus alone.

[he's laughing - ] Caspian and Lilliandil had me a chokehold. I never knew if it was my fucking mommy and daddy issues or if I wanted in there.

[heatmetal]

Both. Deeeeeeefinitely both.

[camarod]

Shut up. I have a serious question okay?

[very serious, look: ] You think Dracula fucked Jonathon?

[heatmetal]

Oh, absolutely. You don't make someone a thrall and not fuck them daily, nightly, and oh so rightly.

And speaking of classics, Gatsby and whatshisface? Also definitely fucking.

[camarod]

I mean, speaking from experience here - it's a 50-50 kind of deal.

[it is maybe too soon for him to make jokes about this. ]

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Bronte's are full of closet lesbians too.

[heatmetal]

That's different. Vecna doesn't have a dick.

[ he is relatively certain that this is fact. ]

You think Mr. Darcy and Bingham were fucking? I wrote that in an essay in English and got a big fat F for bringing degeneracy to the classics.

[camarod]

No wonder he's such a prick.

[ha -] Oh, yeah. Listen, any two guys in Victorian Lit that are that friendly are fucking. I mean, just look at Lord Henry and Dorian Gray.

[heatmetal]

Shit, didn't even clock that one.

[ he's laughing. ]

I'd have paid attention in class if this was the topic at hand. Which characters are subtextually fucking.

[camarod]

Now you know the secret. If you go back.

[if. if, if, if. ]

What's the deal with you and math, by the way. Don't you need to know that shit to deal?

[heatmetal]

Math's fine. Or the basic shit is. Imaginary numbers kinda fuck me up.

[ mostly. once you get into the real abstract shit he gets messy. ]

I don't test good. And I never do my fucking homework, so... between that, and missing shittons of class.