𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘰𝘯

Connie ignored the weird feeling in her stomach when he wiped her face.

Steve's gaze briefly met Connie's, but before he had the chance to linger, he noticed her attention was elsewhere.

Jonathan couldn't stop the slight flush warming his face at the knowledge that Steve didn't actually mind hanging out more with him. "You're, uh, not too bad... either."

"Good to know." He chuckled at the irony of the situation.

Honestly, Connie couldn't believe what she was doing here. On a date. With Steve 'the Hair' Harrington. Her once sworn enemy.

"Great, cool." Steve chuckled, digging into his own green, lime flavored snow cone.

"Oh, yeah, totally," Jonathan laughed. But for a second he could see it—Steve showing up to the Wheeler house with flowers, the two going on a walk and talking just like this, not having to "act like a man" or put on a show... jokingly. Definitely.

"Well—I would do anything for food right now," he admitted. "And you're not bad company." He looked at Jonathan, silently trying to tell him, he wanted more of his company.

Jonathan could tell Steve was dodging the whole "sleeping" thing. But he didn't think that he should be the one to say something about it. He turned his gaze to the joint between Steve's fingers. He took it and studied it for a moment before taking one last drag and stamping it out.

Steve definitely needed to get a full night's sleep sometime soon, but after a recent incident with Lucas, it was proving to be more difficult by the day. "Why? You asking me out, Byers?" He joked. Usually, he would avoid jokes like that with his guy friends, but Jonathan was different from the jocks he used to hang out with. "I should head home, but I might be too high," he admitted, thinking about going to the twenty four hour diner nearby.

Jonathan shrugged. "It's like... I don't know, like there's missing pieces everywhere. Or extra pieces. And it all doesn't fit right. Some things belong here, but others..." He took a long pause, then shook his head, laughing louder than he meant to. "Man, I am out of it. I should probably stop talking."

Now Steve was staring because, despite the jumbled words, he knew exactly what Jonathan was talking about. "That makes two of us because you're actually making sense." He laughed with him, nudging him teasingly.

The way Steve laughed now made Lucas's blood run cold. Steve was looking at him and talking to him as if he hated him more than anything. But just moments ago, they'd been peacefully playing basketball together. Was this some kind of weird joke that Lucas just didn't get? Lucas grew more and more uneasy, shifting nervously from one foot to the other. One of his eyebrows rose as he looked over at Steve, confused and uncertain. "Is that supposed to be funny?" he asked with an awkward laugh.

Steve's anger was only tempered by his confusion. Lucas was usually pretty on board with antagonizing him, the rare times they had crossed paths. This was different. The kid was genuinely remorseful and acting like they were just buddies playing a game. How could that be true?

One moment everything had still been completely normal and they’d just been out here training together and playing basketball. But then Steve’s behavior suddenly changed out of nowhere, for reasons Lucas couldn’t explain. The dark look Steve was giving him now made Lucas furrow his brow and pause mid-motion. What the hell was going on all of a sudden?

Steve felt his hands clench into fists. Realistically, he knew that no good would come of trying to defend his sister's honor. He knew that his protection would only invoke further gossip, but he couldn't help but hate this kid for what he had done to her.

After Lucas had that movie night with Steve recently, the two guys had gotten a little closer. And Steve had actually kept his promise to practice basketball with Lucas every now and then since then. Steve was an amazing coach and playing partner, so Lucas was always in the best mood whenever he got to be out on the basketball court with him.