Chrissy wants to say that it wasn't that bad — that it wasn't bad at all. Anything else seems stupid, something that she knows shouldn't be worth complaining about when she had it better than most. He's not wrong, though. Popularity was always precarious, and living up to expectations was never guaranteed; it was, at once, both a shield and a weakness, that status offering protection even as it left her more vulnerable by ensuring that people's eyes were always on her. It might have been nice just to fly under the radar, unnoticed. She suspects that it wouldn't have changed much, if anything, and it definitely would have left her with a different slew of problems, but all the same, it's hard to argue with the idea of that.

"That's pretty much exactly what it was like," she admits, expression thoughtful as she spears a piece of lettuce with her fork. Just being seen with him like this back in Hawkins would have been the end of her, as far as her reputation is concerned. The more time she spends with Eddie, though, the more convinced she becomes that it would have been worth being ostracized to have a friend like him. "Everyone watching you all the time... knowing who they expect you to be."