Keeping His Head Low So Strangers (or Worse, Friends) Wouldn’t See The Dopey Grin On His Face, Cole

eddiemcnson​:

+++

eddie very nearly hissed when cole pulled on his shirt, when he felt his breath ghost over his ear a few seconds later. almost instinctively, his grip on cole’s waist tightened, fingers experimentally darting underneath the fabric to feel the warmth of his skin, the sensation made his arms break out in goosebumps. god, it had been a fucking long time since he’d last been this close to someone. and eddie certainly hadn’t expected to find himself in this situation when he’d loaded his stereo into the van to drive to an illegal party in the mall some four hours ago.

a slight, dazed grin tugged at his lips, he rolled his eyes. “you’re a cocky bastard, you know that?”, he whispered with a slight shake of his head before their lips were connected yet again and eddie gasped into the kiss, shivered as their tongues lazily brushed together.

he hummed, pleased, when cole moved onto his neck, let one hand travel up to card his fingers through cole’s hair. he let his head fall back, eyes closed, trying to town in the sensation of cole’s lips on his skin -

- but no, there was something else, something disturbing them. he frowned, and, tugging at cole’s hair slightly, pulled back. “i - d'you hear that?”

xx.

When Eddie slipped his hands beneath Cole’s shirt, Cole decided he was glad he came to this protest/party/whatever it was. A rush of warmth flooded Cole’s chest and he leaned into Eddie’s body, wishing they could be closer still. He knew he made Eddie feel good; the goosebumps and hums were evidence enough.

At Eddie’s eye roll, a confident grin pushed Cole’s lips upwards. “It’s been said. Not sure I agree,” was all he managed before their lips connected again with a desperate crash. Cole relished the feeling of Eddie’s soft lips, his tangled hair, their arms intertwined. 

As Eddie tugged on Cole’s hair, his kisses became more frantic, eventually leading back to the other’s mouth. Cole hummed back as their lips connected; the hum turned into a groan when Eddie pulled back. Blinking and catching his breath, Cole reluctantly pulled his hands out from underneath Eddie’s shirt.

Shit. Did someone just say the cops were here? Smoothing out Eddie’s tussled hair, Cole grabbed his hand and pulled him to the wall nearest them. There was an exit that way, if he remembered correctly. Cole glanced at Eddie one last time and winked, “That’ll be hard to forget, Munson.” Patting down his own hair, Cole slipped off to the right to inconspicuously re-join the group, allowing Eddie to do the same a few moments later. He was sure the vandals would be too frantic to notice.

rcbinbvckleys​:

⚢

“i think some faces are just, way more noticeable than others.” it would have been much easier to pretend that she didn’t know him at all, but words had escaped her mouth way quicker than robin’s mind working to figure that one out. hopefully, she’d just managed to pull it back. if cole ever actually found out… she’d practically beg the ground to swallow her up. 

“truthfully if you said that you didn’t know him, only then would i be surprised.” it felt like steve knew everyone, and they all definitely knew him. he had been known as king steve, after all. “and he was so obnoxious back then, right?” it wasn’t surprising that cole and he were friends, even if robin felt like there were some other details she didn’t know. “it was truly some crazy fucked up shit. i’ve never been more scared in my life.” until the events of 1986, but that was a whole other ball game. “if it wasn’t for steve and that stupid hair of his, i honestly don’t think i’d be here right now.”

xx.

“If this is your roundabout way of calling me pretty, I’ll take it,” he teased, trying to ease the tension. Hawkins High was a small school, anyways, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they’d seen each other around. He needed to let it go, but was used to being on the defensive with his classmates.

Cole laughed, nodding knowingly. He didn’t believe there was anyone who’d gone to Hawkins High in the last... six years, give or take, who didn’t know Steve Harrington. “Was, past tense?” he joked, “As far as I can tell, he’s still obnoxious. Less of an asshole, though.” Cole’s teasing quickly subsided into a sad smile. “I can’t imagine being here. It’s fucked up enough that I knew people who died, you know? Like, I can barely deal with that.” Deal with it was generous, as he really hadn’t, but Robin didn’t need the details. 

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET

© Carl Timpone for TimesTalks

[Timothée Chalamet, cismale, he/him] who’s that? oh it’s [walden cole montgomery]. i hear they’re [21] and are known as [the loverboy] around [the skate park]. they’re also a [junior] at [indiana state] and a [manager] at the [music center]. they’re known to be [artistic + intellectual] and [self-involved + elusive]. some people say they remind them of [poetry whispered during a rainstorm, snide remarks from the back of the classroom, the outline of a flask in his jean pocket].

STATISTICS

FULL  NAME: walden cole montgomery GENDER/PRONOUNS: cis male; he/him AGE: twenty-one FACECLAIM: timothée chalamet BIRTHDAY: april 23 STAR  SIGN: taurus HOMETOWN: albany, new york HEIGHT:  5′10″ OCCUPATION: manager at the music center; junior at Indiana state ORIENTATION: homosexual (but not officially out)

HEADCANONS

* Cole is the half-brother of Jonathan and Will Byers (Lonnie sure got around in high school); he only found out a few years ago, right around when Will went missing and, frankly, Cole didn’t say anything because he didn’t particularly want to be tied to “Zombie Boy.” Since then, he hasn’t known how or even if he should say something. * Cole has been in love once: with Adam, the star quarterback two years his senior. For two years, they shared clandestine meetings and quiet declarations of love and whispered promises that they’d move somewhere where things could be different, where everyone could know. But then Adam changed, seemingly overnight. He avoided Cole and acted cruel and empty; Cole still doesn’t know what happened, and never will, because Adam died in the mall fire. *note: Adam was one of The Flayed, and while Cole knows something was very off, he has no idea how to find answers * Cole hasn’t been the same since Adam died. He went away to college to study Literature, which should have made him happy, but he just felt like a ghost. He’s not sure if it’s worse to be away at college pretending like nothing happened, or back in Hawkins constantly reminded of him.

PINTEREST | BIOGRAPHY | CONNECTIONS | PLAYLIST

After a few days at the hospital, Cole was finally home, in his bed, staring at the same Smiths poster he’d tacked up when he was sixteen. He’d pretended not to notice that his room was much cleaner than he’d left it, instead flashing his mom a guilty smile when she’d first ushered him up the stairs. Cole knew that she’d found his stash of beer cans, and something in her eyes promised he’d be hearing about it later.

His first few days home had passed thanks to a steady rotation of Adam, his mom, and his aunt. He felt better than he had in the hospital, but it was still hard to walk on his own and he hadn’t been sleeping at all. Every time he closed his eyes, he heard people screaming during the explosion or saw Adam shoving him away. None of it made any sense, and Cole wasn’t up to figuring it out. He’d leave that to Will and his friends. 

When his mom called up the stairs that he had a visitor, Cole expected it to be Adam. If it was Max, she would just climb through the window or something, and he assumed Chrissy was under her mother’s lock and key. He was pleasantly surprised when he recognized her sing song-y voice. Pasting on a grin, he attempted to push himself into more of a seated position. “Hey, Chriss!” he said, hissing the ‘s’ sound in pain at his sudden movement. 

Cole smoothed out the comforter for her to sit down. “You didn’t have to do that,” he smiled, though he took a tart right away. Biting into it, he savored the flavor. “This is so much better than hospital food,” he praised her, mouth still full. “God, how did you know I needed this.” 

Wiping any lemon tart remnants off of his mouth, Cole gave Chrissy a half-hearted shrug. “Like I got hit by a bus, honestly.”  

𝐖𝐇𝐎: Chrissy Cunningham & @loverboymontgomery​

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓: Chrissy’s first order of business after being set free? Visiting Cole!

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: Cole’s House!

When Chrissy found out about the explosion at the carnival, she had counted her blessings that she had been far away from the fairgrounds, despite the circumstances. That was until word got around of all who had been killed or hurt and when she heard Cole’s name, she was set into a slight panic which led to calling the Montgomery residence which led to a conversation with Maggie that Cole was fine for the most part, or at least fine enough that he was alive and would recover. She let that qualm her anxiety for the next few days, until she knew that Cole was home from the hospital. She knew that his hospital room was probably full of family and friends, and she just didn’t want to be a burden. She’d let everyone else see him first. 

When she heard that Cole was back home, Chrissy spent most of the morning figuring out what she wanted to bring over. Cole was sick, and what brought someone back to life more than a sweet treat? She sat atop her kitchen counter, perusing her grandmother’s cookbook (until he mom yelled at her to get down), and she eventually settled on a lemon tart recipe she found.

Hours later, lemon tarts in hand, she knocked on the front door. She made light conversation with Cole’s aunt, even handing her a tart, before making her way to Cole’s room. Tapping lightly on the door, she pushed it open, holding up the lemon tarts so high that they were covering her face. “Coley,” she sang, pushing the door closed with her foot. “I’ve got the best medicine you could buy… lemon tarts!” It may or may not have been helpful in her case that she knew Cole liked fruity desserts.

She sat towards the edge of his bed, holding the plate out to him. “How are we feeling?”

Cole had just gotten off his shift at The Music Center and had nowhere to go; he had already gone by the skatepark looking for Max, but he figured she was still under her mom’s lock and key ever since the whole mall incident. So, Cole had taken to skating around town, looking for someone to kill some time with. His mom had been particularly icy since he came home in a wrecked car, so he was trying to avoid home as much as possible. God, he felt like a teenager again.

Cole’s thoughts were interrupted by a girl he didn’t recognize, but even still, he obliged. Pulling his headphones down around his neck, he planted a foot on the ground and stopped the roll of his skateboard. “Oh,” it dawned on him who she was. Nancy had mentioned a friend from college coming to stay for a while. Who else would be contributing to the booming tourist economy of Hawkins? “Yeah, no, not quite. But you’re close, it’s just around the other side of the strip.” He started to motion and then decided against it. “I’ll take you, it’s a little confusing. I’m Cole,” he smiled, deciding that any friend of Nancy’s was a friend of his. 

WHO: cassie conrad & you!

WHERE: the strip mall, outside the video store

Cassie wasn’t used to small-town. Even the suburb she’d grown up in had more people in a square mile than Hawkins did in the entire town. Boston was even more of a monstrosity, but it was where Cassie felt most at home. Despite the less than logical layout of the city, she knew her way around every corner, every nook and cranny. It somehow became easy after being there for three years. What she couldn’t understand, though, was how the hell to get around Hawkins, Indiana. It shouldn’t have been so hard, with how little there was to memorize, but everything just looked the same. 

So, here she was, standing with her map outside the strip mall where she thought the Radio Shack was, looking and feeling quite lost. She’d stupidly left her Walkman in Boston, and Cassie couldn’t get around very far without ABBA in her ears. “Excuse me,” she asked the person walking toward her, looking like they were making their way into the video store. “This might be a weird question, but I’m kind of not from here, and I’m looking for the Radio Shack. I’m not … in the right place, am I?” she asked, flashing a pained smile. “I promise I’m not usually this directionally challenged, I just think this map is severely outdated.”

To be honest, Cole had forgotten it was a holiday. He usually didn't work Mondays anyways, so it was easy to forget the date and any federal holidays that happened to fall on Mondays. That is, until he woke up this morning with a primal craving for a Wild Cherry Pepsi. Two stores down and Melvald's was his only hope. As Cole rounded the corner on his skateboard, he couldn't keep his laugh in. There was Max, arm cocked like she was about to-- throw a rock through the window?

He couldn't blame her determination, but he knew she'd get found out. "Maxine!" he called out, making a tsk sound. "Are you positively determined to prove every negative stereotype about skaters right?" He propped his skateboard up against the curb and sauntered over to his unlikely friend. "Well, fuck, Max. Did you try to pick the lock?" he motioned for her to put the rock down. "At least, something that won't get you caught immediately. What's so important, anyway?"

WHO: max mayfield && open.

WHERE: outside of melvald’s general store.

this wasn’t max’s most…well-thought-out plan, but she had ransacked the trailer for anything she could bring to the wheeler’s barbecue. and she was pretty sure cereal or swanson’s tv dinners wouldn’t cut it.  as she skated her way downtown in hopes of a miracle, she brainstormed what she could bring that wouldn’t be too complicated. she came up with the likes of doritos or boxed pasta salad. of course, when max pulled up to melvald’s and tugged at the doors, they were locked.  melvald’s, like the hawk, and every other godforsaken business in this town just had to be closed. “shit…” she breathed out, scanning her surroundings. not a car in sight…not a person … but there was a rock. maybe if she just…she could get away with it…

max scooped it up from the ground and raised her arm to chuck it through the window, but she felt these eyes on her.  turning around, max initially jumped at the sight of another person.  hadn’t she checked for people? in a swift recovery, max rolled her eyes and frowned, “asshole. you can’t just sneak up on people like that.” as if to explain herself, she stepped forward and gripped the handles once more, “it’s locked.”  after chucking the rock out into the road, max placed her hands on her hips, then eyed the other, “i need in, like now.” then as a hint to help or get lost she asked, “got any better ideas?” 

stevehharringtcns​:

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everything had been such a blur and happened so fast that steve wasn’t sure what had happened anymore. he thought if some parts of it had been his imagination, but… he had definitely gotten into a fight with both jack and adam, but only he had come out injured. which was weird to think about, because he had definitely thrown around a couple of punches and he remembered quite well hitting jack in the face and then immediately feeling the pain in his face. he wasn’t sure how that had worked, but he wouldn’t be the one to figure out either. not while he was recovering, he thought to himself.

he looked over at adam for a couple of moments, pursing his lips as he did. he knew that he wouldn’t do anything like he had done at the carnival, he was hoping that whatever had happened had been a one time thing, which he doubted. but he wasn’t about to go around doubting everything that adam did. it just wouldn’t be cool of him to do so, and adam was a good friend to him when he wasn’t puking out some black goo and attacking him.

letting out yet another chuckle, immediately wincing at the pain that it caused, steve shook his head. “listen, i’ll ask the nurses to bring some more for you.” he said, nodding his head slowly when he heard cole talking about eddie. sighing, steve nodded again. “yeah, they… they arrested him. which was stupid because eddie would never do anything to hurt anyone. they were just trying to find a way to get him arrested for… the shit that happened two years ago.” he said, shaking his head, clearly still angry that someone would just do that for fun. he hated everyone who had been part of arresting eddie. “we’ll all be okay… eventually.” he nodded, letting out a sigh. at least he hoped that they would be.

at the question, steve just shrugged his shoulders. he hoped that he would have all of the answers to give to cole. he hated that he had been dragged into this, just like everyone he knew had been dragged. he hated that something was back and that they couldn’t do anything about it. “i don’t know… i really don’t know. i would try asking nancy, she’s… she’s the whole brains of the group. i’m sure she knows something by now.” he said, not knowing if it was true or not, but considering their last encounters with something supernatural, nancy was always the one to figure it out.

xx.

Cole tried, desperately, to read Steve’s expression when the others’ eyes fell on  Adam. Right now, in the hospital room, Adam was the least threatening presence-- his arm snaked around Cole’s fingers, intertwined, dirty blond hair rising and falling with his breaths. But Cole and Steve both knew what he was capable of when he wasn’t in control, and it was something Cole had begun to fear. What would others say or do to Adam now? And could Cole protect him? From others, from whatever was causing the blackouts? 

He trusted Steve to be fair and kind, he had no reason not to. Since Steve had stopped hanging out with Tommy H and Carol, Cole had seen another side of him-- from afar-- a more sensitive and caring Steve Harrington. And after everything that had happened between the two of them, Cole hoped that Steve’s goodwill could extend to Adam, too. 

Cole smiled, relieved that Steve’s comment pulled him out of his head, at least for the time being. “Yeah, bat your pretty eyes at them and get them to bring extra, while you’re at it,” he joked. It felt nice, even normal for a minute, until Steve told him about Eddie. Cole’s frown pulled his eyebrows together. “No, he wouldn’t. That’s bullshit,” his voice raised, which hurt his throat. “I can’t believe they’re holding onto that, with... Chrissy back.” Steve’s sigh seemed more hopeful than it was convincing, but Cole decided to let it slide. Positivity, however forced, wasn’t bad for them at the moment.

He nodded, then frowned when he remembered that Nancy was in the hospital, too. He wasn’t surprised, really, that she was the brains. It made him feel even a little confident that whatever this was could be stopped, with Nancy at the helm. “Is she doing okay? Have you heard?” Cole asked, worry creasing his brow. He leaned back in his bed for a minute and studied his and Adam’s hands, how they’d always fit together so naturally. Cautiously, he glanced back up at Steve. “You know that that wasn’t him, right? He would never... he doesn’t hurt people.” Cole’s eyes betrayed his desperation for someone to believe it, for someone to be on their side.

zccming​:

“something like that…” max stared at her shoes for a moment. she couldn’t recall precisely what the report had said, she merely knew that she was pulled out of the fire along with her friends and what her lines were for when she couldn’t quite place herself in the fabricated story, “–it, it happened really fast.” then, she divulged, “i don’t remember what they even said and i don’t read those stupid articles about the fire.” max huffed, getting more agitated the more she spoke off book. she didn’t take well to personal questions, even from cole. not because she was mad at him, but she was still so mad at everything, and that was an unnerving beast to let roam around outside her mind. yet, max had still managed to share something with him. some real frustration about the cover up, even if he didn’t know.

the ghost of a smile on cole’s face told her that she had been successful in aiding his mood. “i’m always right.” she assured, a curve in her own lips appearing. max took the blunt and puffed on it, mirroring cole’s body position. “and you aren’t?” she deadpanned, “sometimes  i’d say you’re more than–” if he didn’t seem so urgent when cutting her off, she would have told him to shut the fuck up. and once cole fully asked his questions? max was wishing she had. her mouth dried and her jaw clenched. was billy like, different, right before? that didn’t even begin to describe it. lost in the terror in her chest, max didn’t speak until she felt a stinging on her knee. looking down she clocked the source; burning ash on her skin. she had forgotten about the joint. “shit.” she winced, brushing it off, then immediately passed it back to cole. he might have needed it for what she was about to say.

the cover up infuriated her at times, but simultaneously, max understood why it existed. it existed for people like cole, where the lie would hurt less than the truth. the lie would still hurt, greatly, but she wouldn’t wish knowledge of that supernatural can of worms on anyone. ears burning, she prepped the fib on the tip of her tongue, “he wasn’t.” i totally didn’t like, lock him in a sauna or watch him nearly kill my friends. max fought back the urge to pick at her nails, “but then again, billy was always weird.” she rolled her eyes, wishing it was that simple and shook her head, “i don’t know.” 

she left it at that. 

in some kind of miracle though, max’s mind was torn away from billy, and her attention was averted somewhere rapidly different. she looked at cole, brows knitted deeply in thought. so many puzzle pieces clicked together all at once. adam wasn’t a best friend, he was a boyfriend. there was a stray inkling about it, once, a heart-to-heart ago when max was equating his feelings about adam being gone to hers about her best friend el ‘moving away’. but she never followed up on that with cole. she should have. while there were so many things she wanted to say, and a dozen more questions she wanted to ask, max plucked a four leaf clover and went with the unexpected option. tenderness. “oh cole.” a hug, “i’m so sorry.” what a horrible realization of what he’d been going through. 

suddenly, max felt very guilty about lying. 

xx.

I don't remember what they even said. Something about that stood out in his mind, almost like "they" had been feeding Max lines. He felt, deep down, like she was lying. But he dismissed it with the next drag he took. Hadn't the shrink his mom forced him to see said that it wasn't unusual to make up stories to explain away tragedy? Maybe that's what he was trying to do. "Yeah. I guess no one really knows what happened. And we just have to... be okay with that. Move on, or try to," he said, his flat tone evidence of his unbelief.

Though he barreled through her sarcastic comment, her meaning wasn't lost on her. And she wasn't wrong. God, what he wouldn't do to make fun of the selfish prick one more time without feeling the sting of loss. He watched as Max inadvertently burned herself, and he raised an eyebrow at her sudden nervousness. Signs of lying again. But his heart sank all the same at her response. There he was again, trying to explain away the tragedy. "Oh," he nodded, taking the joint back again.

He felt himself leaning away, afraid of her response if she even had one. Maybe it would be best if she didn't, then they could get sober and pretend he hadn't said what he did. That would be better than losing a friend because of a stupid need to overshare. He was surprised at the feeling of her arms around him. The understanding in her voice. Even with the circumstances, Cole felt a lightness in his stomach. Finally, someone else knew. Finally, he wasn't alone with it. His blinks were rapid-fire and he silently willed the moisture to stay behind his eyelids. "Thanks," he spoke after a long pause, his voice barely above a whisper. He tilted his head slightly towards hers, relieved for the comfort, the acceptance. "And I'm sorry too. I know it's not the same thing, but... I get it, sort of."

Cole ventured a glance at Max and his eyes fell to the four-leaf clover. A sign of good luck, ironic. "And if you ever want to talk about it, any of it, or just... remember him. I'd like that," he met her eyes again. "Might make me feel less crazy."

eddiemcnson​:

+++

“oh.” eddie just continued to stare, stupidly, until his eyes widened, brain finally catching onto what cole had just admitted here. shit. so hawkins wasn’t as prim, proper and heterosexual as he’d been made to believe all this time. eddie licked his lips, blinked. wracking his brain on what to say next. nearly choking on his own breath when he said ‘we fucked’ and oh, his cheeks immediately lit up, stained a deep red colour. he nodded.

“so you’re….”, he trailed off, browd furrowed, giving cole a meaningful look before he dropped because shit, what else did he need, here? cole had just said he used to have a boyfriend, whom he quote unquote ‘fucked’ - or the other way around? he tried not to think about it, it was getting hard trying to concentrate as is -  what other confirmation could he possibly need to know that cole was into guys?

he didn’t miss how cole’s eyes slipped to his lips and his tongue darted out to swipe over his bottom lip. shit, why was he this flustered? getting hit on in chicago eddie usually wasn’t this squirming and blushing mess of a man. but hawkins? whole ‘nother story. not that he was totally suave in chicago, either, but at least a little more in control. here, he felt powerless. 

however, he straightened his back, took another drag. however, he thought, it didn’t need to be that way. if he pulled himself together. “oh yeah?”, he questioned, brow raised, a grin forming on his lips. “yeah? well, what if i -” and he actually couldn’t believe he was going to use a line this corny but here went nothing - “ well, what if i wanted to skip straight to dessert?”

xx.

As redness overtook Eddie’s cheeks, Cole took another drag of his cigarette. “Yes, I’m gay. You can say it,” he confirmed, his voice remaining low. Cole was sure Eddie would never out him, partially because that wasn’t Eddie’s character, and partially because of mutually assured destruction.

It was exhausting to have to keep such a large part of him a secret, and Cole was frustrated by it. Maybe that’s why he told Eddie (other than, obviously, trying to hook up with him). When Cole went to college, he was able to be himself more freely; he wasn’t out, per se, but he was much more comfortable discussing his sexuality. He wondered if Eddie had a similar experience in Chicago, and was now, like Cole, struggling to reconcile all the different parts of himself.

Cole grinned, noting the change in Eddie’s demeanor. Cole finished his cigarette and reached behind Eddie to throw it away. He brushed his arm against Eddie’s and took advantage of proximity this move afforded him. Glancing up into Eddie’s eyes, Cole’s own twinkled mischievously. “Well, that’s too easy. What about foreplay?” his voice was barely above a whisper.