~ceo of being a loser~

But while he was bitter and sometimes even cruel to most other people, he was always such a gentleman to you. You were certain that if he were here right now, he’d be hugging you, pulling you into his arms, stroking your back gently, talking to you in a low, soothing tone.

You shivered, suddenly feeling quite alone and scared. You were no stranger to nightmares, and this one had been plaguing you off and on for almost six months now. Miles was the only one you had confided about it in. You felt that he was the only one who would understand. He’d been perfect. Empathetic, concerned, all the right things.

Yet another reason why you were craving for Miles to comfort you right now.

His room wasn’t that far away, only a few doors down. The only thing holding you back was the weird note the two of you had left on before going to bed.

You had kissed Miles on the cheek goodnight. You went up on your tiptoes, and pressed a kiss on his smooth cheekbone.

He hadn’t responded, with either action or words, just looked at you with a funny look in his eyes.

You were embarrassed by your actions, even though it was only meant to be friendly, not suggestive at all.

So you had rushed away, back to your cold, lonely guest room, and fallen into a restless sleep.

You shivered again, and looked over to the clock to see that it was around three in the morning. The witching hour, you thought to yourself with a shudder.

Your nightmare replayed in your mind, and you couldn’t help but let out a slight cry and squeeze your eyes shut. It wasn’t pleasant.

You laid in bed, trying to fall back asleep asleep but having no luck.

Eventually you gave into yourself. So what did it matter if you and Miles had left on a “weird note”. So what? He was your best friend, and you needed him.

Right now.

You, pulling on a sweatshirt to be slightly more clothed, stumbled your way down the hall, careful not to disturb Flora in her bedroom.

The manor usually brought good memories for you, mostly of your younger days, having fun with Miles and then Flora when she was born. But for some reason over this visit, things felt off about it. You always felt like someone was watching you…

You hurried, not wanting to be out in the open hallway for very long, and crept into Miles’ room.

It was dark, so dark that you couldn’t even see him. Cautiously so that you didn’t trip over anything, you navigated your way to the window, where you pulled back the heavy drape just a mere inch or two. But that was plenty, the moonlight flooded into the room instantaneously.

Miles, sprawled over his bed, groaned slightly as he woke up and held up a hand to cover his face.

“S’ all that light for?” He muttered into his pillow.

You walked over and sat carefully on his bed, and took a nervous breath.

“Y/n?” He mumbled, seemingly just registering your presence. It was funny how alert he was during the day, but then at night, how he was so out of it.

“Yeah it’s me,” you whispered softly.

“What are you…?” He scrunched up his face, trying to focus his sleepy eyes on you.

“I, uh…” you faltered, suddenly at a loss for words. You weren’t sure why you were feeling so nervous, all things considered, that this was just Miles. Only your best friend in the entire world.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, leaning up now, so that one of elbows was supporting him. His hair was a wild mess, but you couldn’t help but feel a bit better seeing it. The sight of his concerned face made your stomach lurch, and that’s when you realized it.

It hit you like a ton of bricks. Of course. It was so obvious! You, Y/n, had the feels for Miles. You liked him.

No wonder you were feeling so nervous about coming to his room, seeking his comfort in the dead of night. Speaking of which…he was still watching you with a worried look.

“I-,” ...now you really didn’t know what to say, but luckily he sighed in a realization of his own, and reached out to gently touch his hand to yours, causing butterflies at the graze of his fingertips.

“Nightmares?” He asked softly, a shimmering look in his dark brown eyes.

You inhaled before responding with a sharp nod.

He frowned, sitting up and moving his other hand to your shoulder. Whether he realized it or not, he was subconsciously moving his fingers in small, slow circles. For you, it was as if you could feel his touch ten times more intensely than it actually was, and you stumbled over your words.

“I-it was the same dream,” you told him.

He sighed, assessing you for a moment with sad eyes, before pulling you to him, muttering a “c’mere.”’

You let yourself be hugged by him, and then in that moment you realized that you thought of him as way more than just your best friend because he treated you like more than a friend.

You thought back on all the times that you had subconscious feelings, all the little things he did. The way he would help you off of the horse when riding together, his hands lingering on your hips. The dorky smile he gave you when you would talk in other voices while reading to Flora. The way he -tried- to carry you home after you broke your ankle out playing in the fields. Hey, it’s the thought that counts. The things that ever so subtly made you like him, be inclined to want to be around him, things that made you feel like soup whenever he was doing them.

Like now, like hugging you. Yes, Miles treated you like he liked you.

And so you had to know. You lifted your head up, so that your faces were close together, your noses almost touching.

“Miles…?” You whispered.

He squeezed your arm, his way of non-verbally telling you to continue whatever you were saying.

“Do you...could you ever, I don’t know, like me?” You asked. Might as well find out.

He smiled a little, no, it was almost smirking. You tensed up, swearing to god that if he said, ‘of course, we’re friends,’ you wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t cry.

“No,” he said, still smiling. “I wouldn’t say so.”

You let out a short breath, not sure how to react.

“I would use the term love instead.”

Your eyes widened, “wha—really?”

He didn’t say anything, just smiled, his hand moving from your shoulder to caress your face.

He leaned in and kissed your neck, somewhat softly, but at the same time...not.

Your eyes fluttered shut, lost in the feeling of wanting, needing.

When he pulled away, you could only think that you wanted him to continue kissing you, even if it left a bruise, you didn’t care.

You just wanted him to-

“Yes,” he whispered.

“What?” You were puzzled, having been lost in your own thoughts.

“Yes,” he repeated. “You asked really? My answer is yes.”

There was nothing wrong with spending time with your significant other. In fact, that was what made a relationship healthy.

But there was a point where you felt like you needed space. Personal time for yourself. Or maybe a chance to hang out with people other than Will.

You tried to be accommodating. You knew that you were Will’s support anchor, his comfort blanket or whatever, but that didn’t mean that you couldn’t live out your own life.

You sighed, glancing at him. He was cuddled up into your side, arms wrapped around your waist. From where you were positioned, you really couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not.

His slow, steady breathing suggested he was snoozing, but then again, He-Man was on TV. It would be extremely out of character for Will to miss that.

Shit. He was so cute all curled up like that. See, this was your recurring issue. You recognized that you and Will needed to set up some boundaries, but whenever you got to the actual talking-about-your-problems, he would do something cute and your whole plan would fall apart.

You gave in to his adorableness for just a minute, brushing his hair out of his face. He looked up at you, smiling. Ah. So he was awake.

You cleared your throat, feeling brave.

“Will?”

“Yes?”

“Uh...can we talk?”

He frowned, and looked back to what was happening on the screen. “After this episode?”

You sighed, grabbing the remote and shutting the TV off.

He scowled at you, “Hey, I was watching that.”

“Sorry,” you rubbed your temples, “I just really need to talk to you.”

“About what?” His eyes locked onto yours, concerned.

“Um..I just think that, I’d rather be alone tonight…” you attempted a feeble smile, trying not to upset him.

His brow furrowed. “So...you won’t stay the night?”

Sleepovers were quite a regular thing between the two of you. Almost every night, in fact. Will slept better with you. That’s partially why you felt so guilty about wanting alone time, if it was at the cost of his sleep.

You shook your head, “It’s not you, I swear to god.”

Will huffed, “Oh lemme guess, then it’s you. Classic, y/n, just classic.”

“No,” you protested. “It’s not either of us. There’s nothing wrong with our relationship!” You bit your tongue after you said that. Way to go, y/n. ‘There’s nothing wrong with our relationship!’ Yeah right.

“Well there is, but...I just, I think I’ll say I love you through the phone tonight?” You said it in a questioning manner, and Will shook his head.

“What did I do?” He pleaded. “Please tell me, I’ll try to change,” he said it so sweetly it made you feel even worse.

“There’s nothing wrong. Not with you, not with me. I just want to be alone.”

His face fell, and he stared rather angrily at the blank tv screen.

“I mean think about,” you said eagerly, trying to find a silver lining for Will to hold onto, “How can i miss you if I’m always with you? Or you know, when I’m missing you, I bet it’ll change the way I kiss you,” You smirked a little, punching him lightly in the arm.

He didn’t respond, just crossed his arms, sulking.

“Will…” you whined. “I’m sorry, I just- I mean, you know what they say...time apart is beneficial!”

He scoffed, “Yeah right. I bet you’re just using all this wanting to be alone stuff as an excuse to dump me.”

Your jaw dropped, “What?? Will- no…”

“Let me finish,” he said sharply. “I know exactly what you’re going to do! You’ll stop hanging out with me, and then, and then,” he gestured wildly with his hands, “when I bring it up, you’ll just say,” he used his fingers to form quotation marks, “we grew apart. Where is this bullshit coming from, y/n?”

You gaped, not believing what you were hearing. This was the exact reason you didn’t want to confront Will about what you were feeling, this is what you had feared would happen.

“Will...just, think of it like this,” you tried one last time, “It’s like I’m the universe and you’ll be NASA,” you said, trying to pull at something he liked, space, to make him understand.

“That doesn’t make sense,” he said crossly.

“Sure it does. NASA visits space, the universe, but it’s not like, permanently out in space. Just like us. We’re still dating, but we don’t spend every second together. We get our own time…”

You gave him a moment. He seemed to be processing this, as he watched you carefully.

He inhaled, and you subconsciously crossed your fingers in preparation of what he was going to say next.

“I call bullshit.” He stood up, and you tried to grab his arm, but he shoved you off of him, storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him.

You dropped your head into your hands, groaning. Why couldn’t Will get over the fact that you were just on another page?

{ 1 week later }

You grinned as you adjusted the lens on your camera. Who knew that you would already have a new hobby a mere week after you started spending time on your own?

Your smile fell off of your face as you replayed the conversation in your head.

You kept telling yourself that you and Will were still together, that you weren’t broken up, but Will hadn’t spoken to you since the fall-out. You were beginning to lose hope that he was ever going to call you, or maybe apologize for how he freaked out.

You put your camera down, letting it hang around your neck. As much as you tried to convince yourself that you were fine, a tear slipped down your cheek.

“Hey, y/n!” A familiar voice called out, and you spun around, face to face with Jonathan Byers.

“Oh, hey!” You waved.

“I didn’t know you were into photography,” he pointed to your camera, a smile playing on his face.

“Oh yeah, I only started recently,” you tucked your hair behind your ear. “I just thought I would take some photos of these,” you gestured to the wildflowers growing off the trail.

“That’s a good idea,” he said encouragingly. “Floral photographers are really making a profit around here,” he told you with a wink, “It’s a good field to get into.”

“Oh,” you laughed, “I don’t- I’m not, uh, it’s just a hobby,” you explained.

“Ah,” he nodded. “Well, me too,” he gestured to his bag, which you noticed was perfectly molded to fit a camera.

“Cool…” you said, rather awkwardly now that it seemed you had nothing left to talk about.

He cleared his throat, “Um, I haven’t seen you around as much recently. Everything okay with you and Will?”

You nodded, putting on a smile. He raised an eyebrow, and you looked away.

“Okay, no,” you admitted. “I don’t know what’s up with him.”

Jonathan frowned. “Anything I should talk to him about?”

“Maybe,” you shrugged one shoulder up. “I just, we were spending sooo much time together, I felt like I never got to be alone.”

Jonathan nodded to show he was listening.

“And then when I tried bringing it up to him, he totally freaked out on me. He thought I was trying to break up or something. And now, he’s basically broken up with me,” you said sadly. “I keep waiting for him to call me, but he doesn’t.”

Jonathan made a face, “I’ll talk to him. I know I should probably be taking his side, since I’m his brother and all, but it’s not fair to you. There’s no contract that says you have to spend all your time with Will. He’s probably just paranoid. He gets nervous about this stuff. I’ll talk to him,” Jonathan said firmly.

“Thanks…” you smiled shyly. “But please don’t make him feel bad. I just want him to understand that I still care about him.”

“Will do,” Jonathan said, patting your shoulder. “Good to see you around, y/n.”

{ The next day }

You were tidying up your bedroom when you heard a knock on your window. You hurried over, and looked out to see Will.

It was strange to see him, after such a long period of no contact.

He looked sad and guilty, rather than the angry facade worn by the boy you had seen storming away from you. He looked ready to talk.

You unlocked it, and allowed him to climb in. Benefits of having a ground floor bedroom. No need for dangerous vine-climbing Romeo and Juliet shit.

“Hi,” you said awkwardly once he was in the room. You shoved your hands into your front pockets, watching him directly. He kept his eyes on the floor.

“Hi,” he said quietly.

“Uh, what’s up?”

He looked up at you for the first time, and you were surprised to see his eyes were glassy and tear-filled.

He rushed into your arms, engulfing you into one of the best hugs you’d ever received.

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed into your shoulder, “I’m such an idiot.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” you assured, hugging him back, keeping one hand on the back of his head and another on his lower back.

“No it’s not,” he whispered, pulling out of the hug to let your foreheads meet.

“Y/n, I was so stupid. I understand if you want to break up with me for real.”

You frowned, getting a bit emotional yourself, “No, I-,” your voice cracked a little. “I don’t want that.”

“Did Jonathan talk to you?” You asked carefully.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding and in doing so moving your head up and down with him. “I’m such a loser. I can’t believe I was so blind to see that you just wanted a little time for your own.”

You grinned through the tears that were now escaping your own eyes, “So you get it now? I’ll be the universe and you’ll be-“

“NASA,” he finished for you, and pulled you back into a hug.

You smiled over his shoulder. It felt good to be understood now. If you had known that it would only take a little nudge in the right direction from a sibling, you would have talked to Jonathan ages ago.

If you gave Will your whole world, you would need space. But you really did want to give Will your whole world. Now that he was ready to give you the space you needed, everything was good.

Vacation to the freezing coast of Maine was going, well...interesting so far. It was the losers' first road trip together with no adults, no parents. It was a bit chaotic, but fun nonetheless.  The wind was freezing and mostly unbearable, but Eddie, Ben and Stan were 100% focused and dead-set on gathering as many seashells, driftwood and even beach trash as possible. Nerds.

And on the other hand, Mike, Richie and Bev didn’t really give a shit about how cold it was. They were determined to build sand castles and play in the ocean no matter the temperature of the water or the air.

That left you and Bill, alone and shivering, on the cold and wet beach. Well, not alone. You were actively being buried into the sand, of course.

Part of Mike, Richie and Beverly’s ocean playtime shenanigans included burying you and Bill into the beachfront. And simultaneously trash talking you as well.

“Y/n, your ass is so flat that it’s the flat earther’s logo!” Richie hollered while dumping a bucket of grainy and cold sand over your body.

You couldn’t help but laugh. “H-hey, Richie! D-don’t say t-that about m-my g-g-girl-girlfriend,” Bill complained, cringing as Mike dropped another load of sand onto him.

At this point the two of you were almost completely covered. To anyone walking by, you would just look like two speed bumps in the sand. Well, two speed bumps with heads sticking out.

“Bill, if you’re going to talk about y/n, you should at least address her as a saint. Anyone who would date your boring ass deserves to be recognized as a miracle worker, in the very least,” Bev smirked as she poured more sand over you.

“Ooooh,” Mike laughed as he tossed another load over Bill. “Look, guys, Bev burned him so bad he’s not even cold anymore!”

You laughed, and Bill glared at you out of the corner of his eye, but you knew he was taking all this trash talk with a grain of salt, as were you.

The losers were just having fun. It wasn’t personal.

“Okay, people!” Beverly rubbed her hands together after she deposited her last bucket onto you. “I think we’re done here.”

You were completely covered from your shoulders down. And if you had tried it would’ve been hard to move, too. They had packed that sand down seriously tight.

“Aww,” Richie whined. “But I still have so many one-liners left that I was going to use!” He shot a devilish smirk in you and Bill’s direction.

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Bev grabbed him by the shoulder, “Pack it up Trashmouth.”

“Time to go back to the campsite and make dinner!” Mike pumped his fist.

“Food?” Richie adjusted his glasses.

“Yeah, fucker. Food,” Beverly flicked his head affectionately.

Richie got a thoughtful expression on his face, as if he was pondering the prospect of food. All of a sudden he ran off, yelling “Edddiiiieee, time for dinner!”

He grabbed the collar of the smaller boys’ shirt and dragged him off, everyone else trailing behind.

“Well,” Mike said, turning around to walk backwards, “Looks like that’s our cue. See you losers later,” he gave you and Bill a salute before jogging off to catch up with everyone.

You stared at all of them running away.

“What do we do now?” You turned your head as much as you could to look at Bill.

“I guess it’s time to go,” he said.

“Yeah. Food is starting to sound pretty good,” you admitted, and started to get up.

And that was when you realized that you were stuck. You grunted, trying to move your arms and pull yourself up, but you were frozen. It was almost like you had been encased in wet cement that was now dry.

You struggled, but your efforts to free yourself from the sand’s grip were fruitless.

You turned to look at Bill with a panicked face. His expression mirrored your own. You were both stuck.

“I just don’t understand how this is possible!” you exclaimed, still wiggling around, attempting to get loose.

“M-me either,” said Bill. “I didn’t know t-that sand c-could d-d-do this.”

“It can’t...” you started to say slowly. “No sand I’ve ever seen before can trap you like this. It’s impossible.”

“B-but, we’re stuck,” Bill reminded you. “So it is p-possible.”

“Not necessarily,” you said, the wheels in your head turning rapidly. “Not if this isn’t sand.”

Bill huffed, “What else w-would it b-be?”

“I dunno,” you tried to shrug, but your shoulders wouldn’t budge from where they were trapped. You wracked your brain, trying to think of what other substance could dry like this, and that's when you remembered something from biology class.

Your teacher had been discussing ecosystems along the Maine coastline, and somewhere she had offhandedly mentioned that oftentimes clay would form near the ocean.

She hadn’t said anything else about it because newsflash, clay isn’t alive. And god forbid you would discuss anything that wasn’t living in her military level strict classroom.

But it got you thinking. Whatever Bev and the boys had been dumping on you looked a lot like sand, but maybe there were clay particles mixed in.

“Bill?” you said, and he responded “Yeah?”

“We’re stuck in clay.”

He made a face, scrunching his lips together. “Uh, y/n...I d-don’t see how that could b-be.”

“I know, I know,” you closed your eyes, wishing desperately that your hands were free so you could fiddle with them.

“It looked like sand,” you explained. “But it wasn’t. It had to be clay. Cause last year, in bio, Ms. Starleign told us that clay forms near beaches, right?”

“I don’t r-remember.”

“Well she did. And what else could dry so damn fast?” You scoffed.

Bill nodded, “F-figures this w-w-would happen t-to us.”

“Got that right, bub,” you opened your eyes. “Goddamn Richie,” you muttered.

“And B-Bev and M-Mike,” Bill reminded you.

“Right.” If you could’ve reached up you would be pinching the bridge if your nose out of exasperation.

“So how the hell do we get out of here?” You tried your best to keep your voice calm.

Bill didn’t respond, only looked away.

You groaned, and looked up at that sky. It was around sunset, and some of the clouds from earlier had actually cleared up.

For a coastline that was usually miserable and foggy, the brilliant blue sky with reflections of pink splaying on the receding cloudline was hella unusual, but beautiful no doubt.

You probably would’ve been able to appreciate it a bit more if the temperature wasn’t rapidly dropping, and you weren’t still stuck in motherfucking clay.

“Bill…” you said to your boyfriend. He looked over at you, “W-what? D-do you have any i-ideas to g-get us out?”

“No,” you sighed. “I wish. All I was going to say was I love you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “God, y-y/n, you say that like we’re going to d-die.”

You gasped, pretending to be offended. “Can’t a chick just tell her boo she loves him these days?” You shook your head, “Ay dios, kids these days.”

“H-hey now,” Bill smirked, “I just m-meant that you shouldn’t wo-worry about us.”

“Oh, I shouldn’t?”

“N-no,” he laughed.

You joined him, and along with your breathless laugh, the only thing that could be heard were the seagulls squawking.

“Shit,” you said, crossing your eyes. “How the fuck are we gonna get out of here?!”

“Hey language, young lady,” you heard someone say behind you.

It sounded like an old man. You glowered. It definitely frustrated you to have an old dude for one, calling you ‘young lady.’ And secondly, chiding you over your language. Excuse him, but was he stuck in clay? No siree. You could cuss your damn head off if you like, considering you were the one stuck.

But on the other hand, here was an actual person that could possibly help you and Bill get out.

You stuck your tongue into the corner of your cheek, and decided to put on a nice face.

“Sorry,” you said sweetly, “I’m just a bit…er, compromised right now.”

He chuckled, “I can see that,” and stepped into your line of sight.

Your guess has been right, he was an old dude. He looked nice enough, though. If you could get past the fact that he called you young lady, he’d probably help you.

“What in god’s name were you kids playing in?” He smiled. His teeth were rather ugly.

You sucked in a breath, and tried your hardest to keep your nice face on. “Clay,” you said shortly.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he slapped his palm against his jeans.

“C-can you h-help us?” Bill asked hopefully.

“Sure can,” the man said. “I’m Ronny,” he held out a hand, and then the realization that the two of you couldn’t shake it seemed to dawn on him, and that set him off laughing again.

You looked at Bill, and Bill looked at you. You managed to roll your eyes as subtlety as you could, and the corner of Bill’s lips perked up in a slight smile.

“Can you just help us get out?” You said as politely as you could.

“Sure missy. Just give me a short while. I gotta go grab my shovel,” he pointed in the direction away from the ocean. “I live right o’er there. Be back in a jiff.”

And he walked away, whistling.

“Do you think he’ll come back?” You pursed your lips together.

“I hope,” Bill said softly.

And thank the lord that Ronny had happened to come by and not some creeper because he actually came back, shovel and wife in tow.

Ronny’s wife was really nice, she kept saying things about ‘these poor children’ and ‘good heavens are you frozen?’

Ronny was hard at work with his shovel, trying to break up the dried clay without accidentally smacking into you or Bill.

“Damn clay really likes ya, don’t it? It’s sticking real good,” he laughed while wiping some sweat off his brow.

You smiled and nodded, too miserable to be annoyed at Ronny anymore. At this point you were honestly just glad to be getting free.

It took about a half an hour for him to get the two of you completely out of the clay’s grasp.

You giggled a little noticing how Bill’s skin was tinted slightly gray.

You looked down at your shoulders and noticed the same. Any other time, you probably would’ve been slightly annoyed with that, but getting stuck in the beach was quite an ordeal, and your priorities in issues had changed.

Bill offered to pay Ronny and his wife for their help, but they insisted otherwise.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” His wife gave you both a warm smile.

After they left, you turned to Bill, exhaling a breath of relief now that everything was over.

“Wanna get a burger?” You grinned.

“A-absolutely,” he grabbed hold of your hand.

You definitely got some strange looks as you entered a small diner nearest to the beach.

You were both covered in gray dust, head to toe, and it was long after dinner time.

But neither of you really gave a shit. You each ordered a cherry coke, and slurped them in relative silence.

“Bill?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad it’s you I got stuck with today. If it’d been with anyone else...” you shuddered, imagining what being stuck in clay with Richie or someone for hours would be like.

“Me t-too,” Bill touched your hand across the table. “W-we can tell that story at our w-wedding,” he said, blushing a bit.

“Yeah,” you smiled, taking a sip of coke. Then what he said fully hit you.

“Wait...wedding?” You grinned. “You want to marry me?”

“Of c-course,” Bill said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Who w-wouldn’t?”

You laughed. “A lot of people. I mean, I’m annoying, and loud, and weird, and hey, you heard old Ronny say it, I probably do need to watch my language sometimes…” you trailed off.

Bill shook his head, smiling. “J-just shut up already. Anyone would b-be an idiot for not m-marrying you…”

You grinned somewhat sheepishly, “Well thanks. But I don’t think that’s true.”

“Just stop,” Bill put up a hand.

You raised an eyebrow.

“Stop,” he repeated, and moved his hand from where it rested on the table intertwined with yours to cup your face.

You felt your face go pink, anticipating what he was going to do next.

“Stop it y/n. You’re amazing. I’d be a f-fool not to l-love you,” and he leaned in, kissing you gently.

He let out a whoop and cannon-balled into the pool, screaming as he went.

“Oh god,” Will covered his eyes. “He’s going to kill himself.”

“Ah, don’t worry, Will the wise,” Mike set a hand on the shorter boy’s shoulder. “He’s fine.”

You peered over the edge, into the pool. “It looks pretty deep.”

You hated deep water. It was pretty much an irrational fear. There was nothing that was going to get you in that water.

You looked over at your girlfriend, Maxine. She was looking hot as ever, with her long red hair in a messy bun and her freckles sprinkled across her sun kissed face. She wore a red bikini, a good look on her, you had to admit.

You look back at the water. It was dark blue, intimidating.

The party was situated in the backyard of Kimmy Taylor, Robin’s super cool (and rich) girlfriend. She absolutely loved the ‘children’ when Robin introduced them, and because Kimmy would be working, she had generously offered her pool to the kids for the summer.

It was pretty awesome, except for the fact that you were scared silly of deep water.

“Hey, El!” Dustin called out, running over to pick up the brunette girl, “let’s get in the water!”

He ran over to the edge of the pool, Eleven shrieking, pretending to be terrified although anyone could tell she wasn’t really, and jumped.

The two made a huge splash when they entered the water, and you shielded your face, although the rest of your body got soaked.

They came up laughing, and smiling.

You grinned too, as their smiles were the most contagious ever, and watched as Will and Mike jumped in as well.

Lucas, already in the water, came up from behind the two boys and started splashing them.

Everyone in the water started hurling water at the others, and it was actually pretty funny for you to watch.

“Hey love,” a voice said in your ear, and you felt soft arms wrap around your middle.

You blushed, and turned to look at your favorite girl. She rested her head on your shoulder, blue eyes smiling up at you.

“We should get in.”

“Wha-?” You said, not really hearing what she had said. Her beautiful face was too distracting.

“I said,” she crinkled up her nose, “we should get in.”

You paled slightly as you realized what she was talking about.

“Uh, no. I- I can’t,” you looked away, breaking eye contact.

“Aw why not love?” She whined, placing her cold hand on your jaw and turning your head back to face her.

You shivered slightly and looked at the pool. It looked like a blue pit. Deep, dark, and ominous.

“I don’t know…” you mumbled.

“Why not?” She said again. “It’s so hot outside. I mean c’mon y/n, I know you wore that bathing suit just for me…,” she said with a smirk, and you reddened, looking down at your rather skimpy one piece, and she continued, “But you wore it to swim too, right?”

Well, yes. But you didn’t know that the pool was going to be this deep!

Aloud you said, “Yeah...I guess,” not wanting to disappoint Max.

“Alright let’s get in then!” She said cheerily, and shook her flip flops off her feet.

You gulped, eyeing the water suspiciously.

“I- I can’t,” you said nervously.

“Oh sure you can,” Max rolled her eyes, “it’s just water, y/n!”

You opened your mouth to say something, and then closed it. As much as you wanted to please her, you knew that there was absolutely no way you were getting in that pool.

No way. You would stay perfectly nice and dry today, thank you very much.

Ironically, just after that thought, your lovely babe decided it would be fun if she pushed you into the pool.

You screamed, flailing your arms as you tumbled down towards the water.

The party all turned to look, some laughing, some smiling, but none appearing distressed.

You belly flopped in, creating a loud smacking sound as you were submerged in the water.

The water was cold, and even though it was miserably hot outside, it was not refreshing or nice at all.

It was freezing and miserable.

You realized with a jolt of panic that you were sinking to the bottom, like a rock.

Your cheeks puffed outwards, trying to hold your breath in, as well as the scream that was just dying to come out.

You kicked upwards quickly, propelling your arms around, trying to get back up to the surface desperately.

It wasn’t that far to the top, and soon you were gasping and coughing up water. Max plopped into the water next you, and wrapped her arms around you.

She leaned her forehead against yours, a smile tugging at her lips.

“Nice in here, right?”

You shook your head wildly, a few tears slipping down your cheeks.

“No, no. I want to get out. Right now!” You hiccuped, still kicking your legs back and forth aggressively, trying to tread water and stay afloat.

Max frowned, a bit concerned by your reaction, “okay…” she said slowly.

She pulled herself out first, and reached a hand out to help you get out. All of a sudden she stopped, peering at you.

“Y/n, are you scared of water?” She asked.

Well yeah, no shit.

You glared at her, “What do you think?”

“I-“

“Yes!” You cried out. “Yes! Of course I’m scared of water, why do you think I didn’t want to jump in?!”

She stared at you, a little unsure of what to say.

“You pushed me in! Why would you do that?!” You cried.

“Y/n,” she started, hands on her knees.

“Get me out!!!” You screeched. “Right now!!”

“Okay okay,” she grabbed your forearms, and pulled you out of the pool, dripping wet.

“You wanna, um, go inside?”

You nodded, huffing.

“Okay, uh, you can do that then. Um, y/n I’m really sorry,” she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I swear if you’d just told me I would’ve never pushed you in,” she said sincerely.

You wiped your face off with your hand.

“I’m going inside,” you said stiffly, and marched off.

The rest of the party watched open mouthed, confused at the scene that had just unfolded.

You stomped into Kimmy’s house, flopping your wet body onto the couch. You groaned, feeling frustrated at your girlfriend and at yourself.

It was dumb that you got so upset with Max. She didn’t mean to push you in. She wasn’t that type of person.

Ugh. Why didn’t you just tell her that you were scared?! Why did your pride have to get in the way?

You groaned again, and clapped a hand over your forehead, covering your eyes from the light flowing through the window.

You surveyed the room. It was pretty nice, with some expensive furniture. Everyone’s clothes were scattered amongst the floor. Your eyes honed in on Max’s purple sweatshirt and brown shorts.

You smirked, getting an idea.

You pulled yourself off the couch, and closed the blinds on the window.

…..

“Is it just me, or did that pool get warmer as we swam in it?” you heard Dustin’s voice.

You were flopped in an armchair, watching tv and cuddled up in an afghan. It was surprisingly cold in the house, due to the air conditioning working overtime in the hot summer heat.

“You were probably just pissing in the pool,” Max retorted.

“Shut up Max,” Mike said. “We just probably got used to the water,” you heard him say to Dustin.

All of the party had shuffled in at this point. They all looked freezing cold, wrapped up in only their swimsuits and towels, shivering in the ac-blasted house.

“Hi, Y/n,” Max said, rather shyly.

You remembered that she probably thought you were still mad at her.

“Hi,” you said, giving her your warmest smile.

She smiled back, looking down at the ground. At least now she knew that you weren’t mad.

“So, who wants some pizza?” Lucas stretched out his arms, “I’m tired, and hungry as fuck.”

“Me too,” El piped up. “Can we get hawaiian please?” She gave Max her best doe eyes.

“Ah fine,” your girlfriend muttered, walking over to the phone.

She picked it up and started to dial the number. Growing up as a teen in the 80s, it was mandatory that you all had the pizza place’s number memorized. You never knew when you might need some fuel, or a pick-me-up.

Max turned back to look at El as she held the receiver up to her ear, “But don’t get that nasty fruit stuff anywhere near me,” she threatened, twirling the cord.

“I won’t,” Eleven smiled. Everyone knew that Max hated pineapple on pizza with a passion.

Max gave the order, and you, El, and the boys pulled out some board games to keep you busy while waiting on dinner.

The seven of you set up the candyland board.

“Why are we playing this?” Lucas deadpanned.

“Cause it’s fun,” Dustin countered.

“It’s a childhood classic,” Will insisted.

“You can cheat,” Mike smirked.

“Queen Frostine is sexy,” Max shrugged.

“It’s so FUN!” El beamed.

“I dunno,” you said. “But everyone else seems to like it.”

Lucas groaned, “Fine. But I better win,” he grinned, and flipped over the first card.

“Hey,” Will complained. “You don’t get to go first! The youngest always gets to first!”

“Yeah,” you laughed. “That’s me!”

And so the party played a rather uneventful game of candyland. Dustin won.

Knock knock knock.

Everyone looked up.

“Pizzaaaaaa,” Dustin said in a whisper, rubbing his hands together.

“I’ll get it!” You offered, standing up, and letting the afghan fall away from your body.

Max smiled at you, then a double take.

“Uh...y/n, are you? Wait a minute…” she eyed you suspiciously. “Are you wearing my clothes?”

“Caught me!” You laughed, and ran off to go meet the delivery guy.

“Hey!” She hollered. “Don’t think you get away that easy!” She was smiling, shaking her head.

“Get back here y/n!”, she giggled.

You ran, laughing and out of breath, to the door. You opened it up, and smiled at the short brunette pizza guy.

“Uh, three pepperonis and one hawaiian?” He confirmed.

“Ding ding ding,” you winked at him, and set the pizzas on the table right beside the door.

“Gotcha,” you felt Max hug from behind. You turned around, and kissed her cheek. “Hang on, I’m paying this dude.”

“Oh no no,” she said, smiling. “You, you are wearing my clothes! Why?” She touched the tip of her nose to yours, scrunching her nose.

You blushed, “Cause...I want to?”

“You look good, miss girl,” she whispered.

You coughed, and turned to the pizza boy and said, “Pay you back later?” as Max started to kiss you.

“Uh, excuse me-” he was cut off by you slamming the door in his face.

You laughed into Max’s lips, “You know, Lucas really was right.”

“What?” Max asked between kisses.

“This...is gonna be the best summer ever!”

You bit your lip and turned to look at the king of Hawkins high. He wasn’t looking back at you, or even paying attention to anything the teacher was saying, but was whispering with his friend Tommy H instead. You watched him chuckle at what was probably some stupid remark his friend said, and your eyes intently focused in on him running his hand through his expertly teased hair, messing it up.

You closed your mouth, realizing that it had fallen slightly open whilst watching him. You coughed, and made eye contact with your friend Kelly. She was looking at you with wide eyes, and a bit of a smirk on her face.

Of course. Of course with your worst luck you would end up with Harrington. The boy was an asshole. And that was that. But you thought, rather bitterly, that didn’t change the fact that you were totally in love with him. Yep. Go ahead and shoot y/n. You were smitten with the hottest possible douchebag of the whole damn town of Hawkins.

You had never even really talked to him. Maybe he had brushed past your shoulder once in the hallways back in middle school, or perhaps you’d maybe randomly made eye contact with him once across the cafeteria on a rainy day where you weren’t sitting outside on the baseball fields like usual.

Anyways, logically speaking, there was no real reason for you to like him. Other than for his looks of course, which was somewhat shallow reasoning. And this was a fact that you absolutely hated. You cringed knowing that this boy could make your eyes drop to the floor in an instant, face blushing red, trying to look at anyone, anywhere but him, and there wasn’t a single thing about his actual personality, or what you knew about him, that you even remotely liked.

So that is precisely why your stomach was a flip flop of fluttery and unwelcome emotions when your chem teacher assigned you and Steve Harrington as lab partners for the final project of sophomore year.

The devil on your shoulder was delighted, thrilled even to be paired with the basketball team hottie, but your true consciousness fought back, protesting and feeling guilty that you were only drooling over him because of how cute he was. And besides, you didn’t want to have to deal with his jerkish attitude. Oh dear lord you were going to have to invite him over to your house. You didn’t want him to be in your bedroom! Your personal space! But that nagging subconscious was telling you, ‘yes y/n yes, this is the break you’ve finally been waiting for. All this time and Steve will finally be all yours, all yours. You can seduce him, charm him, he’ll be yours, all yours!’

You grappled under your desk for your water bottle. You seriously needed some ice cold water to keep you regulated, keep those unwanted thoughts out.

There weren’t many good sides to getting the hair as your partner.

If the rumors were true, Harrington had never gotten an A in any class, like ever. So surely he would be a drag to have around this project, full of dumb comments and contributing nothing, no real substantial work towards getting a grade.

You swished down some more water. Life would be so much easier if your teacher would just let you be partners with Kelly. She was a real one, your best friend since forever really. She could sort of empathize with how you were feeling, since apparently she had a thing for a guy ‘just like Steve, only worse’ when she was in California last summer. That made you feel better. You two could vent together about how hard it was liking such hot assholes.

You decided to be bold. You raised your hand. Kelly shot you a look. She was watching you like you were about to tell your mom that you had snuck out the night before. Social suicide. Looking at you like you were crazy, and whatever you were about to do was unpredictable as hell.

Which was probably true.

“Yes, Miss L/n?” The teacher pointed his ruler at you, giving you permission to speak.

“May I choose another partner?”

Kelly’s jaw dropped open, and she looked from you to Steve, back to you, up to the teacher. Although everyone else in the class was bored out of their gourds, Kelly knew you like she knew her own self, maybe even better, and she was living for this shit show of emotions you were displaying.

“Umm…” the teacher fiddled with the pen hanging out of his breast pocket with one hand, while his other finger slid down a clipboard, looking for where your name was listed.

“Ah, yes with Mr. Harrington,” he mumbled to himself, before looking back up at you quizzically.

“Is there any issue with your current pairing? Something wrong with Mr. Harrington?”

At this Steve finally took notice, frowning slightly as his eyes flicked over to you.

You sat still for a moment, trying to format the best way to word what you were about to say.

“Uh, kind of.” Everyone gawked. Did you really just testify to the fact that there was something wrong with Steve, king of the school??

“I mean no,” you quickly added, covering up your mistake, although by now Steve was amused while watching, enjoying watching you, some random girl he didn’t even know, get so flustered over the topic of him.

“What I mean to say is…” you watched Steve out of the corner of your eye. “My mom won’t allow me to have any boys over. Ever,” you fibbed. Ay, what was the harm in a little white lie, anyways?

“So obviously Steve is a male,” you said with a smirk, the class nervously laughed as you said that. Immature hormonal kids. Kelly mentally face palmed at some of the implications that statement alone made.

“And my mom would never allow him in the house. So uh, how would we ever get the project done? I need a female partner,” you explained to your teacher.

He nodded, a firm line pressed across his lips, slightly frustrated at the inconvenience of hafting to switch up partners this late into the planning of this project.

“Wait, hold on a sec.”

Your heart skipped a beat. Oh no, no. You were so close! So close to convincing the teacher to put you with someone else!

Steve was sitting up straighter in his seat now, a hand up, “hold on a sec,” he repeated.

“I don’t see why…” hey looked at you. “Um..name?” He asked, brow furrowed slightly.

You flushed bright red, wanting to roll your eyes at how embarrassed you were getting. You weren’t a shy person by any means, but having this whole exchange in front of the entire class wouldn’t have been fun for even the widest open book.

“Y/n,” Kelly spoke up for you, seeing as you were not going to supply your name on your own.

Steve snapped his fingers, “Y/n! Thank you…” he trailed off, seeming still mostly unfazed as he realized he didn’t know Kelly’s name either.

“I don’t see why nobody else can see that there is an obvious and simple solution to this. If y/n’s mom won’t let me come over, then that's fine. Y/n can just come over to my place instead!”

Now why, why in gods name would he say that? You thought to yourself. It was almost like he knew that he drove you mad, and he was just enjoying teasing you, stringing you along, while the whole time knowing that you were no match for him. Or was it actually the other way around? I mean, why were you so worried over him anyways? If anything you were the desirable one. Sure, you weren’t popular, but Steve was a jerk.

It didn’t matter. Either way you were a sucker for him, and he seemed to be abusing that knowledge. Knowledge? Now where the hell did that come from? Seriously, how had Steve even figured out you liked him? Did he even know? Or was he really just so lame that...ugh fuck. You felt like your brain was about to short circuit, finally blow out after running on high, when

“Ms. L/n? Would that work for you? Doing the project both here at school and also at Mr. Harrington’s house?”

You looked at Steve. He smirked. He knew you liked him, he knew, that bastard-

You looked at Kelly. She raised an eyebrow, basically giving her approval and saying, why not amigo?

You sighed, “Alright.”

Your teacher smiled, “Peachy.”

You turned to look at Steve one more time, and to your dismay and stomach butterfly syndrome, he was watching your carefully. He was fiddling with his pencil absentmindedly, but he was smiling. No, not smiling. Smirking.

You turned back around in your seat, slightly shivering. Oh god were you excited to go to his house. You corrected yourself, no actually, how much you were dreading going to his house. You finally just gulped down some more ice water, rolling your eyes at yourself, and decided that it was okay to be feeling two things at once. It was okay to view your crush on Harrington as both a joy and a crime. Your chances of getting him as your lab partner both a blessing and a curse. Who knows? Maybe Harrington was a bit of a multi-sided di himself. Prickly on the outside, sweet on the inside. You took another sip of water, laughing at yourself inside, Harrington? Sweet? What wishful thinking. If only, you thought.