Soft Static Club

Just as Steve deepens the kiss—his large hands on either side of your neck gently titling your head back to coax your lips apart with his tongue—the sound of someone gasping in surprise rips the two of you apart.

Please don’t let it be Dustin. Please don’t let it be Dustin.

But as you pull away from Steve, your face burning and Steve looking a little dazed, you quickly realise that it wasn’t Dustin who had caught you—it was Lucas.

“Um, hi Sinclair,” Steve says by way of greeting, trying to act casual and as though you hadn’t been making out merely seconds ago.

Lucas’ eyes dart from Steve, to you and back again.

“Oh, Dustin is gonna flip—”

“—you can’t tell Henderson!” Steve insists, eyes widening in slight panic. “He’ll kill me—”

“—maybe you should have thought about it before you started making out with his sister—”

“—it was just a kiss—”

“—that’s a bunch of bull—”

“—Lucas, please don’t tell Dustin,” you plead with Lucas, cutting him off mid sentence so you didn’t have to hear him and Steve bicker back and forth a moment longer.

“Why not?” Lucas asks. “He deserves to know, this isn’t fair on him, you know? Besides, the party doesn’t keep secrets from each other. I have to tell him.”

The guilt stirs in your gut because you knew Lucas was right. You knew not being honest with Dustin wasn’t fair on him but you were trying to be sensitive around your brother’s current state.

Steve glances at you, seeing the torn expression on your face and his hand twitches, as though he was desperate to reach for yours.

“Just give us a few days, yeah?” Steve asks Lucas. “We’ll tell him. We just need to figure out how to do it gently.”

Lucas looks unconvinced and you decide to plead with him instead.

“Please Lucas?” You press him gently before he could open his mouth to tell you no. “Th—this isn’t a bit of fun for us and we want to tell Dustin properly.”

Your eyes are on Lucas but you could feel Steve looking at you at your words. You try not to think too much about it.

“Wait—you guys are like…serious?” Lucas asks.

You feel your face warming and you force yourself not to look at Steve at that moment.

“Yeah,” Steve says, his hand finding yours, thumb gently rubbing over your skin and making it hard for you to hold back a smile. “We are.”

Lucas looks at Steve for a long moment before finally, he nods. “Okay,” he says, somewhat reluctantly. “Okay, okay. I won’t tell him. But you two should probably stop making out in the basement if you don’t want him to catch you.”

You learned a day later that Lucas Sinclair could not keep a secret.

You were back in the basement of the radio station, planning the next crawl. The basement was full with the entirety of the party present as well as the older kids, Joyce and Hooper. You stand beside Steve, trying to keep a straight face as you listen to Nancy but it was proving difficult when Steve kept nudging his foot against yours.

You hear your name being said and you look up to see Nancy looking at you expectantly.

“What?” You ask, your mind half on the conversation and half on Steve’s arm that was brushing against yours. “Sorry. What did you say, Nance?”

Nancy looks at you, slightly suspicious of the distracted look on your face before she glances back down at the map. “I asked if you and Steve were okay to take the van tonight? We need Dustin to stay here to cover—”

Lucas snorts with laughter and you don’t even have time to send him a warning look before he bursts out, “Oh, they’ll be just fine. They’re just gonna make out the whole time.”

His words were met with complete and utter silence.

Your face was burning and Steve was almost completely lost for words. Lucas seems to realise two seconds too late what he had just let slip and attempts to laugh it off.

“I was kidding! It was just a—”

But nothing gets past Dustin Henderson.

“What are you talking about?” Dustin asks, brows furrowed in confusion as he looks from you to Steve and back again. “Is there something I don’t know about going here or?”

“I um,” Steve begins, looking at you while Robin—who was the only person who knew about you and Steve—struggles to keep a straight face. “I mean he was probably jo—”

“—no, don’t try and bullshit me man, what is Lucas talking about?”

You look up your brother then and you almost see the way he’s putting two and two together. At the way Steve’s body was turned towards yours, how he was looking at you with a soft look of concern on his face. 

“Dustin, I swear we were going to tell you—” You begin but Dustin is quick to cut you off.

“—we?” Dustin asks, nostrils flaring as he looks at Steve. “There’s a we?”

“Can we please focus?” Hopper’s gruff voice cuts in before you or Steve could respond. “There’s more important things that we need to—”

“—you can’t be serious,” Dustin interrupts, clearly no longer caring about the crawl as he glares at both you and Steve. “You and Steve? Seriously?”

“Dustin, could you just—”

But Dustin is already shaking his head, curls bouncing as he walks away from the table without another word to either you or Steve.

Everyone in the room seems to hold their breath as Dustin practically stomps up the basement stairs while you and Steve look at each other. You vaguely register Lucas profusely apologising for running his mouth but you weren’t listening.

“I’ll go after him,” you say to Steve. “I can talk to him and—”

“—no, I’ll go,” Steve insists with a shake of his head. You open your mouth to protest but Steve is already leaning in to press a kiss to your cheek before he follows Dustin up the basement stairs.

“So you and Steve, huh?” Robin asks, trying and failing to seem surprised. “I had no idea! That’s such a surprise!”

Both Nancy and Jonathan laugh in a disbelieving sort of way and even you manage to crack a smile, despite the way your heart was pounding in your chest as you can’t help but imagine the conversation that Steve and your brother were having.

“Alright! Can we focus up now, please?” Hopper calls out, trying to wrangle everyone’s attention back to the mission at hand. “Alright—Wheeler—no Mike, not you—I need you and Buckley to—”

“—I’m just gonna go and check Steve and Dustin are okay,” you interrupt Hopper, ignoring the audible groan of frustration from him as you slip past the group and race up the basement stairs.

You follow the sound of Steve and Dustin’s voices, all the way up the basement stairs and out of the maintenance room where the entrance to the basement was hidden. You’re about to round the corner to head into the kitchen when the sound of Steve’s voices stops you.

“—I promise you man, I’m not just fooling around with her. I wouldn’t do that, especially not to her.”

“Then why would you not tell me? If you were that serious about her—”

“—I was scared, okay? I was—I was scared you wouldn’t handle it well and honestly? I was scared because I hadn’t felt this way about anyone before.”

Your breath hitches and even Dustin is taken aback by Steve’s words.

“Not even Nancy?”

A beat and then—

“Yeah. Not even Nance. With Nance it was—it was constantly worrying if I was doing the right thing, if I was enough. But with your sister—” Steve begins and though you can’t see him, you can hear the smile in his voice. “—she’s the real deal. She’s my favourite person and I was scared that telling everyone about our relationship would burst that bubble or something.”

You bit back a smile as you lean against the wall, your heart feeling fuller at Steve’s admission.

“She’s your favourite person?” Dustin repeats, his voice a little softer now.

“Yeah,” Steve says quietly. “She is.”

You almost step out and into the kitchen but what Dustin asks Steve next keeps you rooted to the spot.

“Do you love her?”

You swallow because three months together meant that you hadn’t yet breached the L word yet with Steve. You knew you loved him—you had known since the very first kiss if you were honest with yourself. But you had never told him that and you couldn’t be sure that Steve was actually in love with you too.

You almost leave, so that you don’t have to hear Steve’s response. In fact, you started to do just that—stepping back towards the stairs that lead back down to the basement when—

“Yeah,” Steve breathes. “I do. I love her.”

Your heart was doing funny things in your chest, things that surely defied science and all because Steve Harrington admitted that he loved you. He loved you, he loved you, he loved you.

“Wow,” you hear Dustin say a few seconds later, after he had digested Steve’s words. “Love. That’s um, that’s big, Steve.”

“It’s kind of hard not to fall in love with her.”

The smile that was beginning to tug on your lips almost hurt at Steve’s words. You had to fight the urge to run toward your boyfriend and kiss him stupid.

“You know if you break her heart that I’ll get Jonathan to beat you up again—”

“—oh c’mon, that was one time, I could totally take Byers again if I—”

“—so as long as you don’t do anything too stupid then—then I guess…I guess I forgive you for keeping it from me.”

“I promise you I won’t,” Steve reassures Dustin. “I’m gonna keep her for as long as she’ll have me. You never know, I might be your brother in law one day—”

“—nevermind, take everything I said back—”

“—too late, I can already see it now. A spring wedding, you can be the ring bearer and—”

You don’t see it but you hear a thumping sound which could only mean Dustin had smacked your boyfriend’s arm to shut him up. And you can’t help yourself, you let out a laugh.

There was silence from the kitchen and your heart thumps as you realise that both Steve and Dustin had heard you. 

Dustin calls out your name and asks, “is that you?”

You squeeze your eyes shut, silently cursing yourself before you respond. “Yeah. It’s me.”

You step out then, heading towards the kitchen where Dustin and Steve were watching you step over the threshold. Dustin looked incredibly amused while Steve had a look of apprehension on his face, likely worried about just how much you had overheard.

“You’re so like mom, you know that? She’s always eavesdropping on my conversations—”

Your face burns at that and you glance quickly at Steve before looking away, “—I wasn’t eavesdropping, Dustin—”

“—you totally were. But whatever, I’m glad you two are happy. Just don’t make out in front of me. I don’t want anymore reasons to go to therapy at my age.”

You let out a choked out sound while the tips of Steve’s ears turn red. Dustin pays no mind to it, slipping past you as he heads towards the basement door with a slight spring in his step.

You don’t speak and neither does Steve. You begin to fiddle with a button on your cardigan while Steve seems suddenly interested in looking out of the kitchen window. 

“So, do you wanna head back down before Hoppers kills us or—”

“—how much did you hear?”

You flex your fingers, the button slipping from your hand as you look over at Steve. He has a carefully measured expression on his face, as though he was bracing himself for the worst.

For a moment, you debate whether or not to lie to him. Whether you should tell him you hadn’t heard much at all but one look in those big, hazel eyes that you loved so much and you couldn’t find it in yourself to lie to him.

“You said I’m your favourite person,” you say finally with a faint smile. “That was sweet.”

Steve swallows nervously, a pink flush creeping up his neck as he looks back at you. “It’s true, you are.” He takes a tentative step closer, his eyes not leaving yours as he asks, “what else did you hear?”

You pretend to think, finding it near impossible to not smile as Steve stands right in front of you, his hands planting themselves on your waist and squeezing affectionately.

“I heard you say that you love me,” you say softly, your eyes flickering over his face.

“Yeah?” Steve murmurs, leaning in until his lips ghosted over your cheek, his breath hot against your skin. “And what did you think about that, baby?”

You exhale a shuddering breath, Steve’s lips placing a tender kiss to your cheek, then another to your forehead, then your nose and finally the very corner of your mouth. The contact makes your entire body shudder.

“I think,” you breathe out, head tilting back instinctively so as to look back at him. “I think it’s a good thing that I love you too.”

You feel Steve’s breathing slow, his hands grip you that little bit tighter and there was a look in his face that you hadn’t seen before.

“Fuck,” he breathes out, barely able to contain the smile on his face, “I love you. I love you so much. I can’t believe—”

He doesn’t even finish his own sentence, his lips sealing over yours in a kiss that leaves you breathless. Your hands find their way into his hair and his pull you flush against him, your mouths moving against each other as though you had all the time in the world.

It was you who had the sense to pull away first—Steve chasing your lips and pressing kiss after kiss there until you were laughing against him.

“Later,” you promise him, placing a finger to his lips to stop him. “We’ve got a crawl to plan.”

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It had felt like fate when he’d seen your ad in the shop window. Female, twenties, seeking new roommate. Clean and tidy applicants preferred. Rent negotiated on meeting. The photo provided showed a gorgeous and spacious two-bed apartment with a balcony view over the park. Despite his current situation, Travis couldn’t shake the feeling that this ad had been put there for him to find. Maybe it was stupid of him to believe in fate after everything he’d been through but he tried to remain optimistic that you would like him. Hence the nerve-stricken cab ride he was currently on.

“This is you.” The cab driver told him, jolting him back to reality as the car slowed to a stop. “Nice neighbourhood here.” He glanced at Travis in the rear-view mirror, not being subtle with the look he gave him. Travis suddenly felt very self-conscious, running a hand through his hair nervously.

“Thanks, man.” He threw down the little money he had on him, which included an acceptable tip in an attempt to show that he meant well. “Have a great day.”

He climbed out the cab and checked the directions he’d scribbled down on a piece of paper. Having only spoken to you briefly on the phone to arrange a meeting, you’d given him very specific directions which had warmed his heart a little, clearly you were a conscientious person and it only made him want even more for this to go well. After some searching, he located the building and made his way up, butterflies fluttering around his stomach.

Travis knocked on the door five times and immediately cringed at himself. Was three times too many, was it too insistent? Were you going to think badly of him already? Damn it, he should have stuck with three, that was always a safe bet. His inner monologue was spiralling when you opened the door, beaming out at him with a smile that for some reason made his insides turn to jelly. He straightened up, trying to look presentable.

“Hey.” You held out a hand for him to shake, which he accepted graciously. “You must be Teacake?” You questioned, and he didn’t miss the way your eyes sparkled when he said it.

“Uh, yeah. Hi.” He nodded. “That’s me. I hope I’m not late, I had to take a cab over here and there was a shit-ton of traffic, and then I had to find the place. That actually didn’t take too long, not with the directions you gave me, they were awesome, I found it right away. This is a great building by the way.” He stopped himself when he saw you nodding along, obviously waiting for a break in conversation. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” You waved him off. “I’m glad you appreciated the directions, I’ve been told before that sometimes I worry too much. But you’re here now, so why don’t you come in and we can hash out the details.”

Travis followed you inside, taking in the place. It was so much nicer in person and it was obvious you cared about making the place homely. You led him into the living room and signalled for him to sit on the couch, taking the armchair across from him. He sat on the edge of the couch, hands clasped together as you rifled through the application he’d submitted.

“So, you work at Atchinson?” You queried. “You must meet some interesting people there. You know, my uncle has a storage unit over there, maybe you know him?”

Travis ran another hand through his hair. “Yeah, I actually only just started working there. But I’ll get my first pay-check soon, so I’ll be able to cover whatever my half of the rent is. You know, if you offer me the room, that is.”

“What were you doing beforehand?” You asked, not to be nosy but just out of pure curiosity. Travis felt like a bug under a microscope.. He knew at some point he’d have to tell you and he knew once he did, he could most likely kiss the apartment goodbye. He cleared his throat nervously.

“You know, I was sort of between jobs.” He stared down at the floor.

You studied him for a moment, the way he hadn’t quite made it through the door, like he was getting ready to leave at any minute. He was visibly stressed and you could tell there was more to him than he was letting on. “So, uh, Teacake? Is that your real name?”

“Uh, it’s a nickname. Long story.” He told you.

“Right, it’s just I’ll need your name to add to the tenancy if you’re accepted.”

“Oh, yeah.” He grinned. “Sorry, I didn’t think of that. Uh, it’s Travis. Everyone calls me Teacake, though.”

“Alright, Travis.” You nodded, and the way you used his real name made him feel a sense of contentment, the first sense of belonging he’d felt since going to prison. You looked over his application one more time before putting it down and sitting forward, meeting his gaze. “Listen, you seem like a great applicant but I can’t help but feel there’s something you’re not telling me here.”

He sighed, knowing that he’d been caught out. There was no way to side-step this one. “OK, yeah. The truth is, I was just released from prison.”

“Oh.” You blinked in surprise.

“I’m on probation at the moment, I was put up in temporary housing at first but the truth is I wanted someplace new to start over. I saw your ad and it seemed kind of perfect.” He was rambling again. “I know I probably should have said something sooner, but the truth is I’m just tryin’ to make a new start. I swear, no bad intentions. I just want to put the whole thing behind me.”

“Hmm.” You took in everything he was saying. “OK, that’s a lot to process.”

“I’m sorry for wastin’ your time.” Travis said. “I can let myself out.” He made to get up but you held a hand out, stopping him.

“Travis, hang on a second.” You told him. “Look, the truth is I’m kind of eager to rent out that room as soon as possible, not a lot of great memories attached to it.” There was something underlying there but Travis could unpack all of that later. “To be honest, I’ve had a lot of crazy applicants reach out to me and you’re easily the best one.”

He blinked a few times, trying to catch up. “What are you saying?”

“I’m assuming you’re not some kind of dangerous felon.” You joked. “The room’s yours if you want it.”

“Oh, seriously?” He was practically buzzing as he stood up, face beaming. “That’s…wow, that’s amazing, thank you.”

“I will need you to fill out some paperwork first, but why don’t I show you the room, just in case you change your mind.”

“That’s not gonna happen.” He assured you as you got up. “Is it weird if I hug you, this is just the best news I’ve had all week.”

“A hug might break the ice, who knows.” You said, just as he surged forward and swept you up, spinning you around the room. You laughed as he put you down gently, scratching the back of his head.

“Sorry, got a little over-excited.”

“Don’t be sorry, ice well and truly broken.” You told him. “Alright, roomie. Let’s show you this room.

***

The next morning Travis crept into the apartment after having finished a night shift at work, only to find you already awake and bustling about in the kitchen. The smell of coffee and pancakes drifted through, making his stomach growl. There was only so much surviving he could do on a bag of chips during his shift. As he came into the kitchen, you smiled at him and handed him a mug.

“Here you go. I made you some coffee, thought you could probably use one.”

“Thank you.” Travis took it from you, reeling a little at the simple gesture. No one ever really did acts of service for him, but to you it seemed like second nature.

“You’ll have to tell me how you like it made best for future.” You informed him. “I know how important morning coffee is. How was your shift at work?”

“It was long and boring.” Travis responded, taking a sip of coffee and sitting at the kitchen table. “Not too much excitement happening at a self-storage unit, you’d be surprised to hear.”

“You gotta start finding things to do to liven it up.” You told him as you rifled through the cupboards, trying to find the maple syrup for the pancakes. “You know, podcasts, make a playlist. Something like that.”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Never really been much for making things. By the way, I found a box under the bed last night labelled Emily. Should I do something about that?”

“Oh, yeah. That was my old roommate. You can just leave that there.” You didn’t elaborate any further and Travis figured it was best not to push it. Instead he watched as you continued your struggle to reach the top shelf. He stood up and made his way over to you, stopping when he was just behind you. You didn’t hear him at first until you took a step back and collided into him. He instinctively reached out and steadied you with both of his hands.

“Shit, sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya. Can I help you, looks like you’re struggling a little.”

“Yeah, I just…” You stood up on your tiptoes, trying to reach the back of the cabinet. “I can’t reach the syrup.”

Travis could swear that his heart grew three sizes watching you, but he decided to put you out of your misery as he reached up with ease and grabbed the syrup, handing it down to you. Your feet sunk back to the floor, sighing as you took if from him.

“I totally could have gotten it if you’d given me another second.”

“Oh, sure you could.” He teased you a little.

“Are you doubting me?” You asked him.

“I wouldn’t ever dream of it.” Travis held his hands up in surrender. You gave him a fake glare before relenting. “Does this mean I’ve lost out on pancakes?”

You grinned. “I would never do that to you. Unless you’re still too tired from work, don’t feel like you have to eat with me if you don’t want to.”

“Are you kidding? After all that time eating the prison food, I need my fill of pancakes.” He spun around the kitchen. “Where are the plates, let me help by laying the table.”

For a moment, you felt light as air as you took him in, watching as he set the table for breakfast. Recent events had led to doubts bouncing in your brain, that your acts of service were overbearing and you were too much. However, Travis seemed genuinely touched that you’d made him coffee and was excited to eat breakfast with you. You had to remind yourself that it was only day one and the honeymoon period would likely wear off soon. Still, as he sat at the table, rambling about one of the customers he’d met last night, you couldn’t help but feel optimistic.

That you’d struck gold in the roommate department.

***

You were absolutely right. It had been a few weeks now since Travis had moved in and so far everything was going fantastically. Despite the fact that you worked opposing shifts most of the time, you were still able to sit down at least once a day and catch up on each other’s lives, whether it was in the mornings before you darted off to work, or when you were making dinner and boxing some up for Travis to eat on his shifts. The two of you just seemed to fit like two jigsaw pieces. And it wasn’t just the daily catchups. It was the little things as well.

Travis would write silly notes on the mirror after he got out the shower for you to read when you went in after him, knowing it would make you smile and set you up for the day. You would leave your favourite books on the coffee table for him to find after he told you reading was one of his favourite hobbies. The pair of you learnt the others favourite snacks and alternated between doing snack runs. Travis began to seep into every crack and crevice of your life, something that you found you actually quite liked it. You weren't just existing in the same apartment, you were living together.

It didn’t take long for you to realise that you were falling for him.

Which was bad on so many levels. Travis was the best roommate, you couldn’t mess that up by involving mixed up feelings. The two of you had become such good friends and it was best it stayed that way.

Although he did make it exceptionally hard at times.

“Hey, you want a movie night tonight?” He asked as he strolled into the living room, eating a bowl of cereal. Apparently that was his go-to meal no matter how much you tried to get him to eat a real dinner. It was one of the rare evenings that you both had off and had to do something to make the most of it.

“Yeah, sure.” You nodded. “That sounds like fun.”

“Great,” he responded cheerfully. "What are you thinkin'? Action movie?"

"I could go for horror." You said. "Unless you're going to spend the whole time hiding behind a cushion again?"

"I don't do that." His face wrinkled in the most endearing way. "Last time I was just keeping the cushion close in case you needed it."

"Mmm, sure." You nodded, completely unconvinced.

"I totally wasn't scared." He insisted. “Want me to make the popcorn?”

“Oh, fuck.” You cursed loudly.

“I mean, I don’t have to if it’s that bad.” He joked, to which you rolled your eyes with a grin.

“No it’s not that, idiot. I forgot to run to the store yesterday, we don’t have any.”

Travis held a hand to his chest. “What? No popcorn? Who even are you anymore?”

“Shut up.” You chucked a cushion at him, which only made him laugh more. “I guess I can run out quickly now and grab some.”

“Hey, why don’t I come with you?” He offered. “Late night grocery runs are always more fun with company.”

“Is that scientifically proven?” You asked.

“Uh, yeah. Can’t believe you didn’t know that.” He shook his head at you. “I’m actually pretty sure there is some genuine science-y shit that could back that up if you really looked into it. Nothing beats company, trust me. Especially yours.” He finished with a devilish grin.

“Alright, Teacake. You got me.” You stood up. “Let me just grab my jacket and we can get out of here.”

Twenty minutes later the two of you were wandering around the grocery store, searching for movie night supplies. Travis had insisted upon pushing the cart, which had worked for you as it meant you were able to fill it up.

“Alright.” You said as you reached the popcorn aisle. “Sweet or salted?”

“Sweet, obviously.” Travis responded, leaning against the cart.

“Obviously?”

“Come on.” He argued. “You’re telling me that you’d rather have salted over sweet, there’s no way.”

“I can’t believe this is even up for debate.” You shot back. “Salted is the classic choice for movie night, why are we even discussing this?”

“Wow.” Travis shook his head at you. “Can’t believe you could be so wrong about something so crucial. You know how awesome I think you are, but this might just be a dealbreaker for me.”

“Oh.” Now it was your turn to hold a hand to your chest, pretending to be offended. “Are you saying our roommate bond is at risk over popcorn.”

“I’m sensin’ some sarcasm coming from you right now and I need to tell you, it is not a good colour on you.” Travis told you. You rolled your eyes.

“Alright, compromise.” You grabbed both packets. “We’ll get them both, that way we’re both happy.”

“I like your thinkin’.” He pointed at you. “You really are the best.”

“Shut up.” You told him.

“I’m serious.” He said.

“Teacake?” A voice interrupted your conversation and you both spun around, seeing a young guy walking towards you, smile on his face that was directed at Travis. He seemed to reciprocate as he straightened up and held a hand out, shaking with this other guy.

“Hey, Pete.” He said brightly. “Man, how long’s it been?”

“Couple of months, right?” Pete mused. “When did you get out?”

“Bout’ a month ago.” Travis answered. “Been strange.”

“Right? No one prepares you for that, huh? What it’s like after you get released. Did you get a good set-up?”

Travis nodded. “Yeah, man. Got some work at the self-storage company, managed to get back on my feet.” It was then he glanced over at you and immediately beamed. “Sorry, this is my roommate.”

“Hey, nice to meet you.” Pete shook your hand. “How’d you guys meet, then?”

“Oh, total coincidence actually.” You replied. “I needed a roommate, Travis needed a place to live. It was sort of like fate.”

“Yeah, it kinda was.” Travis smiled at you.

Pete glanced between the two of you with a grin. “Wow, man. Looks like you really landed on your feet here. I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks, man. Hey, it was great seeing you.”

“You too. If you’re ever free we should definitely catch up sometime.” Pete told him.

“Yeah, maybe.” Travis nodded.

“Well, I’ll see you around.” Pete waved to you both before wandering away, leaving you to continue your shopping.

“He seems nice.” You said to Travis.

“Oh yeah, Pete was great. He was one of my only friends when I was in the slammer. Got out just a few months before I did.”

“You gonna go out with him? Might be nice to catch up with him?”

“Ah, no.” He waved the idea off. “I don’t think I should.”

“How come?” You asked, hoping you weren’t being too pushy by asking.

“I just…I don’t want to fall back into that mess again. Pete’s great but he knows a lot of shady guys and it’s a slippery slope, you know.” He shrugged. “Don’t want to mess up what I got now. I got my job, I got a roof over my head. I got you.” He added, tilting his head towards you and giving you that smile that made your stomach flip. “I got all I need.”

You nodded on understanding. “I hope you don’t mind me asking about it.” You said.

“Are you kidding? Feels like you know me better now, it’s kinda nice.” He said. “Now, back to the popcorn?”

“Back to the popcorn.”

***

A few days later you were in the apartment alone, waiting for Travis to get back from work when there was a knock on the door. Checking your phone, you frowned as you realised it couldn’t be him, it was still too early. Making your way to the front door, you opened it to find the last person you wanted to see. Or rather, people.

“Emily. Josh. What a nice surprise.” You plastered on a fake smile.

Your former roommate rolled her eyes as her boyfriend leaned against the door-frame, looking bored by you already. “We really don’t have time for small talk. I just came by to grab the rest of my stuff. Do you have it?”

“You know where it is. Be my guest.” You stepped aside. “I’m not getting it for you.”

“Wow? You’re not bending over backwards and invading my privacy? You’re really mixing things up, huh?”

“I thought you didn’t have time for small talk?”

Emily sighed and waltzed into the apartment, making her way into her old room to grab the box of belongings she’d left behind. You turned back to Josh, who was looking you up and down with judgement. “So, are you finally going to find the nerve to say it to my face?”

“Say what?”

“You know what? The crazy lies you were spreading about me, trying to turn Emily against me.” He leaned in slightly. “It was never going to work, you know?”

You refused to be intimidated by him. “I didn’t tell any lies. You know exactly what you did and so do I. Maybe Emily doesn’t see it, but I do.”

He smirked at you. “Don’t waste your time. She already chose me, let’s not embarrass ourselves further, yeah?”

“Go to hell, Josh.”

“Don’t talk to my boyfriend like that.” Emily warned you as stepped back out with the box. “I see you already replaced me?”

“Oh, yeah.” You nodded. “In fact I did. And let me tell you, he’s a hell of a lot  more pleasant than you are.”

“Oh, ‘he’?” Emily raised an eyebrow. “So, what’s his name?”

It was at that exact moment that Travis decided to make an appearance, stepping into the door frame and taking Josh and Emily in. As he glanced at you and saw the disdainful look you were giving them both, his hackles immediately went up. Whoever these strangers were, he was pretty sure he had grounds to hate them.

“Is this him?” Emily asked. “Hey, pretty boy. What’s your name?”

“Uh, hey? I’m Travis.” He didn’t offer a hand to shake, feeling the sudden urge not to be friendly which wasn’t like him at all. “Who are you?”

“I’m Emily.” She told him and when she was met with a blank stare, she scoffed. “Oh, so she hasn’t told you about me. Nice.”

Travis’ face suddenly registered recognition. “Oh, Emily? You’re the one who had my room before me, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Her voice was dripping with malice. “Was honestly such a shame when I had to move out.” She flashed a sarcastic grin your way, making you squirm a little. What was it about her that made you feel so bad? You hated it.

Travis folded his arms and came to stand beside you, a silent signal of loyalty. “I’m not sure what you mean, moving in here was the best decision I ever made.”

Emily giggled. “Give it some time.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” He shot back.

Emily glared at him, just as Josh’s gaze flickered down to the tattoo on Travis’ arm and devious grin crept across his face. “Nice ink, man. Where’d you get it?”

You suddenly felt defensive. It was bad enough that they’d barged in here on your morning off, but now they were interrogating Travis and that didn’t sit right with you. “Alright, I think it’s time for you both to leave.” You began to usher them both out the door. “Always a pleasure, though.”

“Right, of course. Throwing us out so you can make coffee for your new roommate, right?” Emily turned around and leaned in, voice low so only you could hear her. “You know, it’s only a matter of time before he decides you’re too much.”

“It was great seeing you, Emily.” With that you shut the door on her face, blocking out her harsh words. Though they were already swirling around in your head. Too much. Too much. Too much.

“Well they seemed like a god-damn delight.” Travis weighed in sarcastically from behind you. “What the hell did I just walk into?”

“It’s nothing.” You brushed him off. “I didn’t even know they were coming round, otherwise I would have just left the box outside the door. I don’t love talking to her.” You turned your back to him, making sure he couldn’t see the pained expression on your face. There was the familiar sinking feeling in your stomach and you couldn’t seem to shake it.

“Are you OK?” Travis asked, immediately noticing that you were a little off. “Did she say somethin’ to you?”

“Honestly, don’t worry about it.” You told him, not wanting to burden him with your innermost worries. He surely didn’t care that much anyway. “You must be tired from work, you probably want to go to take a nap, right?”

Travis shook his head. “Actually, what I really wanna do is go shower and grab some coffee. You want to join me?”

You sighed. “Travis, come on. You don’t need to try and cheer me up right now.”

The look of sadness on your face told him otherwise. It wasn’t often thus far that he’d seen you upset but on the rare occasion that he did, Travis wanted to do everything he could to take that feeling away. He’d learnt pretty quickly that going for coffee and a walk was the perfect remedy and despite your protests, he knew how much you needed this. Plus, it meant he got to hang out with you and that was always a bonus to him.

“Too late. I’m already dreamin’ about espresso. We have to go.”

Slowly but surely, a smile crept across your face. “Fine. But only if we can get cookies too.”

“Oh, like you even have to ask.” He said. “Give me ten minutes to wash the storage place off me.”

You grinned after him as he dashed towards the bathroom, wondering what you did to deserve him. Even though he was being so sweet, it still wasn’t quite enough to shake off what Emily had said to you. Sometimes you felt like you were too much, and your biggest fear was that Travis would start to think so as well. The doubt had planted itself in your brain and it was hard to get rid of it.

He wouldn’t think so, right?

***

The thing about Travis was that he was the human equivalent of a golden retriever. The next couple of days, you’d been wrestling with your own self-doubt and he instantly picked up on it, only wanting to try and cheer you up. No matter how much you insisted you were fine, he still went out of his way for you. He brought flowers home, offered to cook you dinner and even surprised you by cleaning the apartment. After a few days, you felt that doubt start to lift like magic. Travis had done that for you and you loved him for it.

It was doing nothing for the feelings you were catching.

That evening, you were searching your freshly cleaned apartment for your house keys, having been called into work for a late shift. Most of the time your keys were thrown on the side in the kitchen but he’d obviously tidied them away somewhere without thinking. You made your way to his bedroom, knocking gently.

“Hey, Travis?” You called through the door.

“Hey, come in.” You heard him shout from the other side. Immediately opening the door, you casually wandered in. “Do you know where-?” You stopped suddenly as you took him in. He was standing in front of the mirror with just a towel around him, having just come out of the shower. His blonde hair was hanging loosely around his face, still a little damp and you could totally appreciate his form. You’d always known he was in good shape but damn, now you could really see it.

You didn’t realise you were staring until he tilted his head, a smirk on his face. “You alright?”

“What?” Your brain was completely crashing out and you needed to recover quickly. “Oh, yeah. Sorry.” What had you come in for again?

“You sure, you’re blushin’ a little.” His voice was cocky. “See somethin’ you like?”

There was absolutely no way you could let him know this was having such an effect on you. Even if your mind was currently drifting elsewhere, wondering what he was hiding under the towel, what might happen if he came a little closer. Your heart was starting to beat faster. Shaking your head quickly, you cleared your throat. “Have you seen my keys?”

“Oh, yeah, They’re in the bowl by the door.”

“Right, thank you.” You tore your gaze away from him. He frowned suddenly.

“You goin’ out?”

“Oh, yeah.” You nodded. “I got called into a late shift at work. I’ll be home later, I’ll try not to wake you up when I come back in.

Travis’ heart sank a little, one of the rare nights he didn’t have to work and you weren’t going to be in? “That kinda sucks, we can’t hang out tonight.”

You smiled. “You can still have a good night off. Don’t miss me too much.”

“I always miss you when you’re gone.” He muttered softly and you tried to ignore the way your stomach flipped when he said it. Did he have any idea the effect he had on you? Was it ever possible to think he might feel the same. It felt scary to cling onto any hope.

“Anyway, I have to shoot off. Have a good night.” You him as you walked out of his bedroom. “Don’t wait up for me.”

As you went off to work, you knew you wouldn’t be able to get the image of Travis out of your head, particularly the one where he was half-dressed with a sad puppy-dog look on his face because you were leaving him.

“Screw you, Travis.” You said to yourself as you walked out the door. Why did he have to be so perfect?

***

The shift at work seemed to drag on for an eternity until eventually you were climbing the stairs back up to the apartment and sneaking back in through the door. The place was quiet and you assumed Travis had turned in for the night, so you tiptoed into the living room to take off your shoes.

And almost jumped out of your skin when you saw him lying on the floor, head resting against the couch with his headphones in, eyes shut as he gently nodded his head along to whatever he was listening to. As soon as the initial shock had worn off, you couldn’t help but grin at how adorable he looked right now, slightly sleepy and a little disheveled. You slowly made your way over to him and crouched down, gently placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, Travis.” You spoke softly.

His eyes drifted open and when he saw you next to him, his entire face lit up. “Hey, you’re home.”

“Yeah, I told you not to wait up for me, what are you doing in here?” You weren’t mad, if anything you were really happy to see him.

“Well I had to make sure you got home safe.” He told you, sitting up. “Besides, I was listening to this new playlist I made for work. Remember you told me to do that? I actually read that it was a good way to boost motivation when you’re working so I figured it was worth a shot.” He shrugged.

“Alright, I like it. What are you listening to?” You reached out and took one of the headphones out his ear, placing it in your own. “NSync?” You smirked.

“What, they’re classic?” Travis defended himself.

“I had no idea you were so cheesy.” You picked his phone up, scrolling through the rest of the playlist. You stopped on one particular song. “Hanson?”

“Yeah, I love this song.”

“Of course you do.” You chuckled, pressing play. “I actually don’t hate it either, weirdly enough.”

You settled down next to him, resting your head on the couch cushions and staring up at the ceiling as the music washed over you. You felt Travis relax next to you, shifting slightly so his arm was pressed up against yours, fingers brushing gently, Butterflies fluttered in your stomach as you realised how close the two of you were all of a sudden. After a while, the initial shock wore off and you unclenched, tiredness suddenly hitting you after your long shift. Your eyes started to droop a little and without even really thinking, you moved in and let your head rest on Travis’ shoulder, a contended sigh escaping you.

You felt Travis laugh softly. “Someone’s sleepy.” His own voice had dropped now from fatigue, a little husky. You groaned in indignation.

“I am not.” You lightly hit his arm which only made him laugh more. He reached out and stroked a hand through your hair and your breath hitched in your throat. Eyes fluttering open, you looked up and saw him gazing down at you with pure adoration. You smiled back at him, eyes subconsciously dropping down to his lips.

And then it happened.

Travis’ hand came to rest on your jaw and before you knew it, he was leaning in and pressing his lips to yours. Your brain completely scrambled as his thumb stroked your jaw softly and you felt his tongue swipe across your bottom lip. Without hesitation, you granted him access and he groaned into your mouth, sitting up and pulling you gently into his lap. The kiss quickly turned into something more as you instantly rocked your hips into him, a moan escaping the both of you as he gripped your hips, encouraging you to move against him again.

“Fuck.” You heard him mutter against your lips, and you felt like you were on fire as his hardness pressed against you.

“Travis.” You breathed softly, reaching down to pull up the shirt he was wearing.

He pulled away from you suddenly, eyes searching yours and suddenly that familiar sinking feeling snuck up on you again. The moment was quickly shattered as you worst fears overtook you again. Maybe he didn’t really want you after all

“Shit, I’m sorry.” You stuttered. “If you don’t want to-“

“No, it’s not that.” Travis assured you, but you didn’t wait to hear more. You were going to give him an easy out.

“It’s alright. You don’t have to explain. We live together, maybe this was a mistake.”

His face fell at your words. “Is that how you feel?”

Of course it wasn’t. But it was easier to pull back now rather than get your heart completely broken. “Let’s just forget it, yeah?” You jumped up and hurried towards your bedroom, leaving Travis sitting there completely alone. He felt your absence immediately.

Looking at his phone, he quickly opened up the other playlist he’d been working on, the one full of songs that reminded him of you. He’d been planning to show it to you tonight, hoping it might make you smile.

In a previous, pre-prison life, he may have already let some dipshit talk him into accidentally committing another crime, but Teacake's been keeping busy. There's not a ton of stuff to do when you're broke and saving every penny you've got to move off of your cousin's couch, but his parole officer suggested taking a stroll through the local library and... well, to Teacake's surprise, the library is actually pretty cool.

Besides all the free stuff you can just get with a library card, he may or may not have taken a liking to a certain librarian. You, who work the afternoon shifts during the week, and always smiles brightly and greets him by name — his real name. You offer commentary on the books he takes out and even ask if he wants recommendations, and you recently started setting aside specific books for him to take out.

Teacake never thought he'd have a hard-on over someone because they're kind and soft and intelligent and have a beautiful smile and look like they give great hugs, but... these days, it's really all he can think about.

"Hey, Travis," you greet sweetly that Wednesday afternoon. He grins at you, feeling his stomach flip as he approaches the front desk you do most of your work behind. "How're you doing?"

"Good. I, uh, finished that one book you recommended for me. The Hobbit? It was really good, you were right. What'd you say you liked the best about it? The, um, the building?"

"The world-building?" you ask, mirroring the excited smile on his face. Teacake nods enthusiastically. "I'm so glad you liked it! I feel like you finished that one super fast. Here, lemme return it for you so I can give you something else."

Teacake nods and pulls it out of his backpack, then places it on the desk. Your fingers brush against his as you take it from his grasp, and Teacake tries not to be a total loser over something as small as touching.

"What kind of books do you like?" he asks, drumming his fingers against the table's worn mahogany. "You don't feel like a fantasy, sci-fi kinda person to me, but... I dunno, I could always be wrong. I feel like I don't always read people right, but that's very much a me problem, ya know?"

You giggle as you listen to him, typing away on the computer to locate where the next book is.

"I mean, I'm around books all day so I tend to know my way around most genres," you explain with a shrug. "But in my free time, I mainly like to read romances."

Teacake raises his eyebrows, then lowers his voice to a sharp whisper. "Like... like those sexy books with shirtless dudes on 'em?"

"No!" you exclaim, laughing loudly, and you're grateful this is a relatively dead hour for the library, "Like... I dunno, some of them have that kind of stuff in it, but they don't look like that!"

"Oh, shit, you do read sex books!" Teacake gasps teasingly. "Who woulda thought? The sweet, cute librarian reading porn in their free time?"

"Shut up!" you round the desk to gently bat at his chest, then nod in the direction of the science fiction section. "C'mon, let's go find your book."

"Is it a sexy one?"

"I'm gonna ban you from the library, Travis."

He snickers as he follows you into an empty aisle, watching you bend down to the O section. You quickly find the spine of the book, then pull it out with diligent fingers.

"1984," you announce. "It's another classic. A little darker, a little more thought-provoking, but still very good. I'll be curious to hear what you think about it when you're done."

You press the book into his grasp, swallowing as Teacake's tongue darts out to wet his lips.

"Why romances?" he asks. This time, his voice is soft, gentle — not looking to tease.

"You're really stuck on this, hm?"

"I'm just curious," he replies with a shrug of his shoulders. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to. There's things people have asked me that I don't want them to know."

You shake your head. "No, it's... I just like the idealism of it, I think. I like that everything gets wrapped up in this perfect bow at the end. I know what to expect. Sure, there's drama, but..."

Teacake's eyes soften. "But what?"

"But I never get disappointed."

You watch as his Adam's apple bobs with a swallow. Shaking your head, you place your hand on your hip and go to brush past him, back to the front desk.

"I'm sorry, that was too much—"

"No, it wasn't." Teacake says, but for once, he's stumped for words. His brain his screaming at him to say it — I'll never disappoint you, I promise, I'll do whatever I can to make you happy, I'd move mountains for you and visit you every day and bring you lunch and show you off to the world and buy you flowers — but he doesn't know why he can't get it out.

You wish he would say it, too.

The next afternoon, when you clock into work, Ella is straightening up the front desk as you're getting started.

"Oh! Before I forget, these came for you." she says, pulling something huge and wrapped in paper out from beneath the table. Your eyebrows furrow, glancing between her and the monstrosity in front of you.

"Um... are you sure?" you ask, confusion apparent in your expression.

Ella shrugs, "Some guy came by looking for you, I said you weren't in yet but he asked me to make sure they get to you. Said it's very important."

"Some random stranger came by looking for me?"

She sighs. "Well, no. I've seen him here before. Talking to you."

That only piques your curiosity even more, so you gently pull the paper wrapping off, only to reveal a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Your eyes widen when you see them — tulips, peonies, hydrangeas, azaleas, snapdragons, all in a smattering of pastel pinks, purples, yellows, and reds. You blink, then see the note stapled to the bottom. You don't think twice before grabbing it, desperately hoping it's the person you think it is.

i should've said this yesterday, but i pussied out. sorry, "pussied out" isn't a really romantic thing to say. anyway, i can't promise that i'll never ever disappoint you, but i can promise i'll always fucking try not to. for the past few months, seeing you has been the highlight of my days. sorry if that's really pathetic. if it is, then call me pathetic i guess.

anyway...again... if you aren't too weirded out by this, and maybe by the grace of god or whoever or whatever exists out there, you like me too, would you wanna go out with me? here's my number. text or call me when you get these. if you want.

travis

ps - if you don't like me and this is really weird for you, can we just pretend it never happened? please dont ban me from the library. i actually really like it here. thank you

"I never noticed you wore a ring."

Travis shrugged, taking his wallet out of his pocket and opening it. Inside was a picture of you, and he handed it to her. "That's my girl, Y/N. Ain't she beautiful?" Travis beamed, proud to show you off.

Naomi took the picture. It was a candid photo, and you were smiling. You wore a beautiful, flowy sundress, your hair blowing behind you. "She's pretty."

"Careful with my picture." He chuckled, taking it back and staring at it for a second. He never could take his eyes off of you. "Damn it, now I miss her. She's asleep right now, stupid night shift." He mumbled, putting it back into his wallet.

"Y/N..." Naomi repeated, wondering where she'd heard that name before. As Travis twisted to reach his pocket, she saw it. That was who the name on his tattoo behind his ear belonged to. "You got her name tattooed?"

Travis smiled sheepishly, reaching up to feel it. "Yeah, before i'd even met her in real life, actually. No regrets here, don't get me wrong."

"What?" Naomi asked, shocked. "How'd you guys meet?"

𓆩♡𓆪

You stared at your computer, looking at the volunteering requirements for your college course. You sighed, clicking through your options. You had too much coursework and papers to be writing rather than waste your time with this, but unfortunately you wouldn't graduate without it.

'Write an inmate program: spend 10 weeks conversing back and forth with an inmate at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility, KS.'

You contemplated that one for a moment, it seemed the simplest. You could write letters in between work, easy enough.

You scrolled their website, looking at the potential inmates you could write to. They all looked scary to you. Your eyes landed on one in particular, Travis Meacham. He had big, beautiful brown eyes, bleached blonde hair, and a rather handsome face.

His bio read: Travis Meacham, incarcerated for accomplice to robbery. Looking for pen pal across the United States.

He seemed good enough for what you were looking for, and his charges didn't seem dangerous to you, so you sent an email to the attached address.

Dear Travis,

I saw your picture on the write an inmate website, and you intrigued me! I have to do some volunteering for my course at college, and this was one of the options.

Please let me know if you're willing to talk!

From Y/N

You sent the email, and quickly forgot about it, instead burying your head in textbooks and attempting to make a dent in your assignments.

Around a week later, you were flicking through your mail when you saw a letter from the Ellsworth Correctional Facility. Then, you suddenly remembered about your volunteering and the email you had sent to Travis.

You sat back on your bed and opening the letter. Inside was a handwritten letter on a piece of paper. It read:

to y/n,

i appreciated your email, i can for sure help with whatever volunteering you need, sounds interesting. BTW you have to send letters to the return address on the envelope, and beware they get checked before they reach me, so don't be writing anything naughty ;)

anyway, like i said i'm interested in your volunteering thing, what are we doing? just conversing is cool, it gets lonely in here and you'd seem cool to talk to.

travis meacham

You found yourself smiling at the letter, and little did you know, this was going to go on for more than the required ten weeks.

At first, your conversations were polite, brushing on the weather, what was going on in the world. Travis told you his favourite sports teams and musicians, and you found yourself spending more time researching those so that you could update him on what they were up to than you did focussing on your work.

Eventually, your conversations turned flirty. You never wrote anything explicit, too scared to get him or yourself in trouble, or that the letter won't reach him at all, so it was innocent.

You send pictures of yourself back and forth, just selfies, and Travis gushed over them every single time, telling you how beautiful you were.

Once specific letter really caught you off guard, as it included a picture of him with your name freshly tattooed down the back of his ear. Written on the back of the picture read 'Forgive me'. You forgave him of course, it was so hot.

𓆩♡𓆪

"Wait, so you got her name tattooed after only seeing a few pictures of her?" Naomi asked, bewildered.

Travis nodded. "Yeah, I still got those pictures, wow. I mean, I knew I wanted to marry her, she's the sweetest and the best thing I had in jail."

Naomi thought of a moment. It was nice in a twisted, slightly obsessive way. "I suppose that's... sweet of you."

"She ain't seem to care, she said it was hot. I take what I can get from her, plus, I needed her to know I was commited. Like, when I got outta there, I'm going straight to wherever she is."

Naomi had to swallow a few words down, it was weird as hell, but Travis didn't seem to have any ulterior motives, his only reasoning being that he was hopelessly down bad for you.

"So, when you got out... She picked you up."

Travis nodded again. "Yup, flew from her fancy school in New York to come meet me." He paused for a second, before furrowing his brow. "I ain't at that part of the story yet, hold your horses."

𓆩♡𓆪

Graduation day came, and you sent pictures of you in your cap and gown, holding your diploma to Travis, and thanked him for helping with your volunteering.

to y/n,

you look so pretty in those pictures, i'll defian definitely stick those over my bunk so i can be reminded of how smart my girl is

but hold on now, this isn't over between us? i'm proud of you for graduating baby, but please tell me this wasn't just you volunteering, i tattooed your damn name on me

i need your response asap pretty girl, please please please tell me good news

from travis

Your heart broke slightly when you read his letter, of course it wasn't over. You could understand how your words maybe could have been interpreted by him to suggest so, and you felt bad for giving that impression.

You wrote back to set the record straight, but you continued to count down the days until you could meet him for real. The prison didn't allow visitors for anybody who wasn't a solicitor or a direct family member, so that wasn't an option. Travis had offered to marry you in prison, then you'd get to visit, but you shut that down quickly.

Not that you didn't want to marry him, you definitely did, but you wanted a ceremony, and you hadn't even met him for god sakes!

Time ticked by slowly, each day crossed off of the calendar with a red X. Slowly... slowly... until it was realistic to book a flight... then the flight was next week... before you knew it, you were on the plane... then you were in the parking lot of the prison, waiting to see him.

Your stomach churned with nerves, your eyes flickering to the prisoner exit every couple of seconds. This was it. You had flown all the way to Kansas to be here right now, as he didn't really have anybody else to pick him up. Also, you were desperate to kiss him, to run away and get married.

You saw his blonde hair, and your entire body drowned in chills. You hopped out of the car, and ran over to him, diving into his arms.

"Travis!" You grinned, and he held you firmly, his beefy arms wrapping tightly around you.

You kissed him passionately, right in the middle of the parking lot, probably in front of cameras, but you didn't care.

"I love you." He said, the first thing he ever said to you in real life. You just nodded, before kissing him again, your fingers running all over him, through his hair, over his tattoo, down his broad shoulders and soft stomach...

𓆩♡𓆪

"Happy ever after." Travis concluded.

"That's cute." Naomi smiled, staring at his wedding band.

"Yup. Got married a year later in a small ceremony... I didn't care, man, I just wanted to be with her forever."

"So it all worked out?" She asked.

He nodded. "Oh, yes. Like I said, I kept all those pictures, the letters, too. I reread them sometimes, when she goes home to see her family or whatever. When my parole is up i'll go with her."

Naomi's eyes travelled down his body until they landed on the outline of the ankle monitor underneath his trousers. "Oh, sure."

"Man, best damn decision I ever made answering that email."

Steve had slept on your couch, though he had offered to sleep on the floor of your bedroom. You were grateful to have a friend so willing to inconvenience himself for you, but your heart still yearned for the comfort of someone else. 

“Coffee?” you called across the room when you saw Steve stir awake. 

“Sure,” he yawned, unsuccessfully rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 

The coffee you shared was just as silent as Eddie was in his own trailer. Neither of you knew how to bring up what had happened. There was nothing to say. 

“I have a shift this afternoon,” Steve finally spoke as he went to rinse his mug in your sink, “But I’m sure Robin won’t mind covering for me if you’d like me to stay.” 

“That’s very sweet of you, but I’ll be fine,” you were barely able to keep your eyes open as you spoke. 

“Hey,” Steve sat on the bar stool next to you, and urged you to look at him, “I don’t want you to be polite about this. If you need me, I’m here.” 

“I know,” you smiled halfheartedly. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

You simply nodded as you leaned further into the counter in front of you. 

“Why didn’t you want Eddie to come over last night?”

The question woke you up instantly. The scenes from the night before flashed behind your eyes, so you fought to keep them open to ground yourself back in your trailer. 

“I know he chased you down because of Eddie, but-” 

“Eddie can’t know about this, Steve.” 

“But why?” 

“Because,” you blurted out loudly, and quickly shied away from your own voice, “If he finds out that something like this happened because someone saw us in public, he’s never going to go outside again. This is exactly what he was afraid of. And I don’t want to be the reason he backslides.” 

Steve knew that that was your reasoning, but he didn’t realize just how much weight you had placed on your own shoulders. 

“You know this isn’t your fault right?” He asked gently, and waited for you to answer. When you didn’t acknowledge him he spoke again. “You’re right, this is the last thing he wanted. He was terrified of this, but not for his own sake. For yours. But that doesn’t mean you should keep him in the dark.” 

“I can’t tell him,” you cried softly, staring down at your lap. 

Before Steve could think about what to say, a knock sounded at your door. It wasn’t loud, in fact you may have missed it if you had been in any other room. But despite its volume, your heart immediately began to race and you nearly jumped out of your skin. Steve saw the panic in your eyes, so he rested a hand on your shoulder. 

“I’ll send whoever it is away, don’t worry.” 

You nearly stopped him, nearly begged him to not let whoever it was know that anyone was inside. But he left before you could organize your thoughts enough to speak. 

You stayed hidden in the kitchen as he answered the door. When he opened it and you heard Eddie’s concerned and tired voice ask if you were ok, the pace of your heart only increased. 

Steve looked back over his shoulder at you, but you weren’t looking in their direction. He stepped outside without acknowledging your presence. 

“Eddie it's like 7am,” he chided in lieu of an answer to his question. 

“I know, I couldn’t sleep,” Eddie sighed. His eyes scanned over your trailer, trying to gather any information on the events of the previous night, details that he obviously wasn’t going to be getting by asking. 

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to stress you out. I promise, she’s not hurt. It’s not worst case scenario. I just don’t know how much she really wants me to discuss with anyone right now.” 

“Am I just anyone?” Eddie tried to hide the pain in the question, but Steve knew how much it hurt. And he was right, he wasn’t just anyone. But that was exactly why he couldn’t tell him more. 

He knew he was already riding the line of a lie. He knew that Eddie would have considered this a worst case scenario, but he was holding on to the fact that Hunter hadn’t been able to touch you. You outran him and you were going to be ok. Worst case scenario to him would have been sitting at your bedside in the ICU. Just like he had with Eddie. 

“You’re not. To me or her. Just… God I hate playing middle man,” Steve sighed and dragged a hand down his face, “I’ll talk to her, ok? The last thing I want to do right now is show her she can't trust me, so just give me some time.” 

Eddie barely nodded in response, and he hesitated before heading back to his trailer. He wasn’t sure what else he could say or do. He couldn’t stand the thought of walking back home without answers, but the only alternative was bursting through your front door and demanding them. The thought had occurred to him, but he figured he better save that as a last resort. 

He spent the next several hours pacing his living room. It was a habit he was far too familiar with, but this time felt different. He had spent the past year fearing for his own well being, fearing what life would be like if he never left those four walls, and fearing what could happen if he did. In all those months, he never once paced like this while trying to process fear for someone else. 

Steve convinced you to try to take a nap while he was at work. He had tried to insist on staying with you, but you maintained that you would be fine and he needed to go. The nap was a hard sell, but you could admit you needed the rest. He helped you check all the locks on your windows before he left, at your request. You gave him your spare key to get back in just in case you actually managed to fall asleep. You tried to quell the thoughts that somehow the key would land in the wrong hands and you would wake with someone who meant you harm standing over you. 

It wasn’t until after Steve left that you realized that your car and belongings were still at work, which led you to remember that you were late for your shift. You went to call your boss, but when you lifted the receiver, there was no dial tone. You looked to the side of the counter, where the phone usually plugged into the wall, but found that the cord had been tugged out, sometime between Steve calling Hopper and now. You quickly plugged it back in and called the store. Your manager just happened to be the first person to answer. You were surprised to hear him both panicked and relieved when you stated who was calling. It was a nice change from the usual annoyance in his tone. 

“I tried calling you 5 times this morning, I called the cops when I couldn’t reach you. You had us all worried.” 

“All that because I missed the start of a shift?” You tried to not sound upset. 

“A shift? What? No, David told us he walked out on some kid holding you at knifepoint last night. And that you ran into the woods and the kid sped off. We weren’t sure if you were alive, y/n.” 

“Right,” you sighed and closed your eyes. You had completely forgotten that David had been the only reason you had gotten away, and you didn’t even think about the fact that he had been there to witness it. “I’m fine, I’m home. But all things considered, I was hoping you would be ok if I miss the rest of my shift tonight. I’m sorry I didn’t call in sooner.” “Take the next week for all I care. I’m just glad you’re ok. Please, let me know if there’s anything we can do.” 

“Actually, I left some things in the break room. Would it be alright if I sent a friend in to get them for me?” 

“Of course.” 

You thanked him and quickly hung up the phone. You had half expected to get fired, so you were happily surprised by your boss’s out of character reaction to the situation. 

The relief you felt about having an entire week off was enough to finally kick you out of active fight or flight. You turned the tv on and flipped through the channels until you landed on some old black and white western that was halfway through. You were asleep before the next scene began.

Steve made it to work later than usual. He made a habit out of being punctual, so Robin made sure to tease him over it. She felt terrible when he explained why. 

“So why the fuck are you here?” 

“She made it very clear she wanted me to go to work. I tried telling her it was ok if I stayed.” 

“I really think maybe this is one of those situations where you ignore what the other person says and you stay anyway. So why don’t you head on back? I can cover for you, no problem.” 

“You sure?” Steve asked, but he knew the answer. He finished the task he was working on, but left quickly after. 

While Steve’s car was gone, Eddie considered heading over to check on you. He hoped that without Steve as your line of defense he might have a better chance of seeing you, of finding out what was going on. He didn’t have much time to talk himself into it before Steve returned. It had been maybe an hour, and there Steve was, walking right back up to your front door. 

Eddie was able to stop him before he went in, just as he had finished unlocking your front door. He definitely took note of the fact that he had a key. 

“Steve, I have to see her. Or I have to know something man, I’m going fucking crazy.” 

“Eddie,” Steve sighed, but this time it sounded more sympathetic than annoyed, “Fine. I think she’s sleeping right now, but when she wakes up I’ll do what I can to talk her into talking to you. Or at least letting me fill you in, ok?” 

Eddie’s expression showed clear frustration with Steve’s solution, but before he could protest that it wasn’t good enough, a loud scream came from inside your trailer. 

Both boys were inside in seconds, met with the sight of you clawing the blanket off of yourself and trying to get away from some imaginary threat at the other end of the couch. Eddie remained at the door, heartbroken by what he saw. Not only at how you were acting, but how tired you looked. How terrified you seemed to be. 

Steve was by your side in seconds, reaching out to grab your arms with both hands. You jumped at the touch, but once your eyes landed on his you began to ground back into reality. It took you a second to be able to actually hear the noise in the room over the buzzing in your ears. 

“You’re ok, you’re fine,” Steve continued to repeat over the sound the tv was playing. 

“S-sorry, I think I h-had a ni-ightmare,” you struggled to speak, stuttering over syllables between gasps for air. 

“I know, it’s alright,” Steve tried to soothe. You didn’t quite calm down, it was more like you had just become more lucid. Your breathing began to slow back to normal, but your eyes still shifted around the room, searching for threats. That was when they landed on Eddie, still standing by the door. 

“What’s he doing here?” You glared at Steve, but Eddie mistook it as anger towards him. 

“We were talking outside when we heard you scream,” he gave you a look, as if to say “Now is your chance to talk to him.” 

You still weren’t sure what to say. You weren’t sure if there really was anything to say. How were you supposed to tell someone you cared for that you had to run for your life from a man with a knife all because you knew him. 

“I need some water,” you sighed. You had to stop Steve when he tried to get up to get it for you. As you made it to the cabinet to grab a glass, Eddie crossed the room to hoist Steve up from where he was kneeling and dragged him towards the hallway, as far away as he could get from you without entering your bedroom. 

“Maybe you were right. I’m gonna head home. Just let me know if there’s anything I can do.” 

“Are you serious? She’s right there, why don’t you just try to talk to her?” 

Steve couldn’t read the emotion on Eddie’s face when he glanced over at you, he supposed it may be because he was experiencing too many to differentiate between them all. 

“I think it’s time I face the fact that she doesn’t need me right now,” Eddie began, ripping his eyes from you and returning them to Steve, “She obviously needs you though.” 

“What the fuck are you talking about Munson?” Steve’s entire face soured at Eddie’s poorly masked show of jealousy. 

“Look I get it, I’d choose you too, but-”

“Eddie, you sound like a fucking idiot.,” Steve interupted, just as the phone began to ring in the background. 

“No, I just should have listened to you. I’m not going to push my luck any further.” 

They continued to bicker back and forth as you made your way to the phone. You asked them to quiet down as you walked, not focused on a word they were saying. They seemed to hear you just as much as you heard them, as they continued to speak without pausing. 

“Guys,” you pestered, annoyed that they didn’t seem to hear a word. You tried two more times before losing your temper. “Can you guys shut the fuck up for a minute?” You yelled, much louder than either boy had ever heard you be. 

They both shot their attention over to you instantly, barely more shocked than you were by your own outburst. When you pointed at the ringing phone, Eddie knew exactly why you were on edge. The thought that had occurred to him didn’t quite make it to you though. You were unfortunately caught off guard by the voice on the other line. 

“I thought we agreed we weren’t going to have any issues reaching you anymore,” your fathers stern voice made your entire body tense instantly. Both Steve and Eddie noticed the muscles in your back tensing in fear. Steve took a step towards you before you could reply, fearing who was on the other line, but Eddie grabbed his arm and put a finger up to his own lips to make sure he didn’t make this any worse for you. 

“Yes, I’m sor-”

“So tell me why your mother has called you twice today and you never picked up the phone?” 

“I know sir, I’m sorry. The phone got disconnected last night, but it’s back up and running now.” 

“You should have called us the second the line was running again.” 

“Yes sir, I’ll keep that in mind in the future.” 

“You sound tired, were you out late last night.” 

“No, sir.” 

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work right now?” 

You were pleased by the fact that he couldn’t see you roll your eyes through the phone. You wanted to scream “Why call me if you know I should be out of the house” but instead you replied with a polite, “I have the night off, Sir.” 

“How are you supposed to afford to live out there if you start taking nights off all willy nilly?”

“Dad, please,” you sounded exasperated, which would never fly with him, but you didn’t back down, “I promise I could afford to take the night off. I’ll be alright.” 

Steve shot Eddie a worried look, and mouth the word “dad” to him, questioning if Eddie was aware of the concerning way you were addressing him. Eddie offered a tight lipped smile in return. 

“You are on thin ice, young lady. One more misstep and we will be down there to move you right back home.” 

You didn’t want to reply in the affirmative, didn’t want to give him a foothold when he inevitably actually did show up to your doorstep with moving boxes. But you were too tired to fight him, so you replied with a small “Ok” before saying goodbye. 

You could feel their eyes on you before you turned around. After all you had been through the previous night, this should have been nothing, but it felt almost just as upsetting. 

Just as you had the first time Eddie witnessed a call with your father, you chose to completely ignore the elephant in the room. 

“Hey Steve,” you called in the most normal tone you could, “I left my keys and purse at work last night. Could you maybe go pick them up for me? I already asked them if you could.” 

“Uh,” Steve struggled to catch up, looking to Eddie for confirmation that he should disregard, “Yeah, sure.” Before he could leave the trailer, he gave you that same look, urging you to say something to Eddie in his absence. 

The second Steve exited, the atmosphere inside felt 10 times thicker. 

“I’ll get out of your hair,” Eddie gave you a tepid smile and began to walk for the door. 

You scrunched your face as you fought the voice telling you to let him go. 

“You saw the chief's car last night didn’t you?” 

Eddie paused with his fingers on the door handle.

“I did,” he admitted, looking at you from the corner of his eye. 

“I’m assuming that’s why you came over this morning?” 

“Yeah. And last night.” 

“You came over last night?” You asked, eyes finally landing on him. You tried to think back to when Eddie could have shown, unable to place together a proper timeline. 

“Yeah, Steve didn’t tell you?” 

You just shook your head. 

“He said you didn’t want to talk to me. Was that true?” 

“Not entirely.” 

“But you still told him that?” 

You took a deep breath. There was no way to explain the intent behind your words without telling him everything. No matter how hard you tried to concoct the perfect thing to say, you came up short. 

“I thought it was better if you didn’t know. I’m sorry.” 

“Didn’t know what?” He turned away from the door, finally engrossed enough in the conversation to forget how much he wanted to leave.

When you looked up at him, you looked terrified. The tears brimming your eyes were seconds away from spilling, and he didn’t know what to do. He wanted to comfort you, but if he didn’t know what was wrong he didn’t know how to make it better. 

You tried to think of the best way to tell him what had happened, to let him know just enough but reassure him that he was still ok to keep improving. You had to fight the downward spiral your aching chest was pushing you towards. 

“Someone must have seen us outside the store the other day. One of my regulars heard about it and he wasn’t too happy,” you paused, unsure of how to elaborate any further. Eddie’s heart had already sunk, and he was trying to decide if his predominant emotion was sympathy or rage.  

“Who,” was the only word he could get past his lips.

“It doesn’t matter Eddie.” 

“Like Hell it doesn’t,” he shouted, but immediately regretted it when you flinched at the noise. “Did he touch you? And don’t you dare say it doesn’t matter.” 

“I’m fine. That’s all that matters.” 

“You’re not telling me everything. What happened?” 

You struggled to reply, but pushed yourself to maintain eye contact with him. The more you could convince him you were ok, that you were brave, the easier it would be to maintain his sense of safety. 

“He confronted me, and I…ran,” you struggled to give so little detail, to pretend like it had been nothing. 

“You ran home? Like from work?” 

You nodded. 

That was all the information Eddie needed to tell him just how bad it had been. No one in their right mind would have run that far that late at night. Not unless it was their only option to survive. 

“Did he pull a gun on you?” “What? No!” 

He was reassured by the surprise in your voice. 

“A knife then?” 

“Eddie, none of this matters. Like I said-” 

“Oh my god,” your deflection had given him his answer. He fought off the bile fighting its way up his esophagus

You could have died. You could have died. You could have died. 

It’s all his fault. It’s all his fault. It’s all his fault. 

“I was right,” he spoke just above a whisper, and he sounded completely broken. 

“But it didn’t even leave his pocket before I ran off.” 

“No, not about the knife,” he urged, looking up at you, gaze burning into you, “I should have never let you get involved. I knew that this would happen.” 

“Wait,” you began to panic. 

“No, I told Steve you were better off without me. God, I’m so fucking stupid.” 

“Eddie stop.”

“No. I was selfish to think that anything had changed. If you stick around I’m just going to fuck up your life. Just like I have everyone else’s. You need to stay far away from me.” 

“Please,” you pleaded, finally taking a step towards him. You reached for his hand but he shoved you off. When you looked up and saw no regret in his expression you froze.

“Steve will be really good for you,” he choked up, “You need to stop coming around. Don’t worry, I’ll do the same.”  

The tears were blinding you, but you could still see him storm through the front door. But you were paralyzed, unable to stop him.

Tags:

Music bumped from inside of Tina’s house. The place was packed with loads of drunk teens.

You wanted to be anywhere but this party. Nancy Wheeler, one of your close friends, somehow managed to convince you to come.

You watched as a small group of teens surrounded a boy. He chugged a bottle of beer and afterwards slammed the glass onto the floor with a loud shatter. The crowd cheered him on as if he had done something spectacular.

You scrunched your nose as you walked past, confused and disgusted at how so many people condoned such nonsensical behavior. “Nancy, this is ridiculous,” you groaned.

She smiled and led you through the house into the kitchen, handing you a red solo cup. “It’s gonna be fun, loosen up.”

She filled your cup with a mysterious red substance. You eyed her momentarily before smelling it, your nose burning immediately. “Holy shit,” you breathed out. “What is this?”

Nancy shrugged. “Gotta try it to find out.” She raised her cup to you and the two of you toasted.

You placed the cup to your lips and took a large gulp. It burned like fire down your throat and you felt it make its way down into your stomach.

You coughed, covering your mouth with your arm. “Jeez, Nance.”

She didn’t seem to have any sort of reaction which was beyond you.

Tina came over a moment later. “Hey guys,” she greeted with a smile. You flashed her a small smile as Nancy said hello. “We’re playing truth or dare in the den if you two want to join.”

You went to decline, but Nancy spoke sooner. “Yes! We’ll be there!”

“Perfect! I'll round up a few more people.”

Tina turned on her heel and walked away. You turned to Nancy. “What the hell?! I don’t wanna play that shit!”

“Yeah you do,” Nancy said, grabbing your wrist and dragging you into the den.

A few people were already in the room. It was a little quieter in there as in comparison to the rest of the house where larger crowds were. 

You and Nancy took a seat on the couch. More people filed in, some joining on the couch, and others sitting spread out on the floor. You all surrounded the small coffee table at the center of the room.

Tina had walked in moments later and two people trailed behind her, catching your eye.

Robin Buckley

And much to your dismay…

Steve Harrington.

God, you hated him.

You graduated together that year and he was a total asshole. Or rather, that’s the impression you were under. He played basketball all four years and he was pretty damn good at it, you had to admit. He was confident and cocky, bagging any girl he so desired. He had pride, too much pride and it made you sick. You couldn’t figure out why Robin Buckley of all people hung around him so much.

You never spoke to one another, caught up in your own crowds and own worlds. But you knew of each other’s existence because no one in Hawkins didn’t know who King Steve or the Chief's daughter was.

Steve caught you staring and he smirked at you, eyes slowly dropping down to scan your face and body. You rolled your eyes and turned away.

Tina set down a few shot glasses and a couple of bottles of alcohol before clasping her hands together to explain the rules. “Okay, so,” she began. “Rules are simple. Truth or dare and if you don’t want to answer the question or do the dare, you have to take a shot. Everyone got it?”

You all nodded.

“Okay,” she chirped, drawing out the word. She tapped her chin and turned to Carol. “Truth or dare?”

You were already bored despite the game just having started. Tina asked Carol a question about Tommy H., something about whether or not they were a thing, you weren’t too sure because you weren’t listening.

You were staring at the floor, tapping your foot against the floor to the rhythm of a song you heard earlier at the party. You didn't hear what Carol said in response that earned such loud gasps and you weren’t too sure you wanted to.

You were so fixated on the floor and your own imagination that you hadn’t noticed Steve glancing over at you every now and then as the game went on. He was slightly intrigued by the fact that you were so quiet and didn’t seem interested in any part of the game.

God, he thought you were weird as shit.

It was now Robin’s turn to choose someone. She hummed before turning to Steve, pulling him from his thoughts. “Steve,” she said and he side eyed her. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Steve said without hesitation.

Robin tapped her lower chin as she thought. Something devious flickered behind her eyes as she smiled. “I dare you to kiss the hottest girl in the room.”

Steve’s eyes lingered around the room. Almost every girl in the room looked at him with anticipation in hopes of him choosing them.

Even after graduation, every teenage girl in Hawkins wanted Steve Harrington. He was known to mess around with girls every now and then. He never had anything serious.

With that in mind, you always wondered why so many girls wanted him knowing he had a reputation for never being into something serious.

What made them think they’d be any different?

He was taking his sweet time to decide.

You let out an annoyed sigh and crossed your arms, leaning further back into the couch.

That’s when his eyes landed on you, lingering a little longer.

You didn’t even notice. You were busily messing with the little bracelet on your wrist.

Steve stood up suddenly and everyone watched him as he rounded the coffee table. The girls he passed watched in defeat.

You finally looked up and noticed his eyes were locked on you as he approached.

You furrowed your brows. Was he…no. No. No fucking way. No way Steve Harrington would ever-

Your own thoughts were cut off as he leaned down, cupping your face with both hands.

You went to ask what the actual fuck he was doing, but it was too late.

His lips crashed onto yours as a wave crashed into the shore at high tide.

Everyone gasped. Even Nancy.

Steve Harrington kissing the Chief’s daughter who was a renowned outcast just a week ago in high school.

And now she’d end up one of the most envied girls in town.

You moaned into his mouth at the unexpected contact and as soon as you did so, his tongue dipped into your mouth.

He tilted his head slightly and hummed against your lips, the vibration, much to your dismay, sending a volt of electricity through you.

He took his hands off of your face and placed them onto the back of the couch as he kissed you deeper, which you didn’t even think was possible.

His lips moved against yours like a man hungry for more. 

You didn’t know what came over you. Maybe it was the bit of alcohol coursing through your veins. Maybe it was the fact that this was the best kiss you’d ever had.

But you kissed him and he groaned, smiling against your mouth.

Nancy was still beside you and her jaw was dropped, eyes wide.

What the fuck was going on?

King Steve making out with the weird Hopper girl.

What alternate timeline did she end up in?

Steve pulled away to catch his breath. Your noses were inches apart.

You looked up at him through your lashes, lips parted as you breathed heavily, face flushed.

“Hottest girl in all of Hawkins,” he murmured, just low enough for you to hear.

You faltered for a second but it didn’t go unnoticed by Steve. “This doesn’t mean anything, Harrington.”

He smirked.

“Sure it doesn’t.”

That was the first incident.

The second occurred a few days later when you were at work.

You topped off a cup of black coffee, sliding it over the counter to the older man who thanked you. He was a regular and you knew his order by heart. Black coffee with three shots of espresso.

You told him to have a great day before returning to the cash register to take another order. “Hi, how can I help-”

You cut yourself off, narrowing your eyes. “Harrington? What are you doing here?”

Steve stood tall, black sunglasses on his face concealing his eyes. He smiled at you. “Can’t a guy come get a drink?”

“Not if you’re you.”

You knew everyone who came into the coffee shop. Steve wasn’t one of them. You weren’t so sure he ever set foot in there until now.

“That’s no way to speak to a paying customer,” he teased, taking his sunglasses off and putting them on top of his head. He leaned over the counter, a few inches away from your face. “Especially after he gave you the best makeout of your life two days ago,” he murmured.

Your eyes widened as you stepped back, your cheeksflushed pink. “You’re ridiculous,” you scoffed, trying to conceal your nervousness.

“You liked it,” he said plainly, palms still on the counter. “You definitely still think about it. You’ve never been kissed that good in your life.”

“That’s presumptuous of you.”

“Not presumptuous if it’s true.”

You stood there for a second with your arms crossed over your chest as you stared at him with narrowed eyes.

That stupid smirk on his face made you want to slap him.

“Cat got your tongue?” he asked, titling his head slightly.

You rolled your eyes with a scoff. “Are you gonna order or just antagonize me, Harrington?”

“I see no harm in both.”

You couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy.

“You are ludicrously annoying.”

“And you are ridiculously hot.”

You raised your brows. “Are you trying to flirt with me?”

“That’s presumptuous of you,” he mocked.

“Not presumptuous if it’s true.”

Steve couldn’t help but to smile with all teeth. He didn’t expect you to have such a radiant personality. In fact, he wasn’t so sure what he was expecting because he never once spoke to you. Not like this. “I’m having a few friends over tonight for a kickback.”

“Cool,” you said dryly.

“You should come.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re gonna be there.”

“Aww, too nervous to see me again?”

You laughed. A genuine laugh. You shook your head, glancing down at your shoes then back up at him. “You’re hilarious.”

Steve finally stood up straight. “Come on. You can even bring Nance.”

You furrowed your brows. “Why do you want me there anyway?”

“Because unlike you, I can be honest about my feelings.” You tilted your head slightly. “That was the best makeout I’ve ever had in my life and I wanna do it again.”

“Oh, so you were projecting.”

“Yes.”

You didn’t understand how someone could be so bold, but then again, you were talking to Steve Harrington.

“So, are you in or are you out?” he asked.

“I’m out.”

“No, you’re in.”

Your lips curved upwards into an amused smile.

That makeout with Steve was quite nice…and…what would be the harm in doing it again?

Besides, it didn’t mean anything, and you were leaving for college at the end of the summer anyway. You could just pack up and forget about this…fling you were about to get yourself into.

“Fine.”

Steve flashed you a smile as he walked backwards towards the door. “My house. Ten. Don’t be late.”

You threw your arms in the air, a perplexed expression drawn across your features. “I thought you were gonna order?”

“No, just came to antagonize you,” he said with a wink.

You scoffed and crossed your arms over your chest, leaning back against the counter as you watched him go. Steve Harrington confused you. This whole time you thought he was an asshole, which could be true, but…for some strange reason a part of you thought that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t so bad.

You rang the doorbell to his house at 10:32, Nancy by your side.

Nancy had a small smile on her face as she nodded slowly. “So, Steve Harrington, huh?”

You turned to her with furrowed brows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Before she could answer, Steve answered the door in seconds with a bright smile. “I was beginning to think you weren’t gonna show.”

You averted your gaze from Nancy, looking up to Steve as he leaned casually against the doorframe. Your eyes scanned over him and you smirked slightly at the blunt tucked stupidly behind his ear. “Yeah, well, my dad still thinks I’m a little kid, so I had to sneak out,” you said with a light shrug.

Steve snorted and motioned for you and Nancy to come inside.

There were a few people in the house and a couple scattered outside, which was where he led you.

Nancy walked off after finding Jonathan, which left you and Steve.

You were both sat at the pool chairs, the summer night breeze blowing your hair gently and Steve couldn’t help but to notice that you were indeed very pretty under the moonlight.

Steve grabbed a can of beer and a pocket knife. He cut the bottom of the can and he chugged the drink swiftly. Once he was done, he set the empty can down and lit the blunt that was tucked behind his ear. He leaned back and groaned, flexing his bicep and side eyeing you.

Your lips curved upward, a very amused laugh leaving your mouth. “Was that supposed to impress me, Harrington?”

He blinked. “You’re not?” he asked, the blunt still caught between his lips.

You laughed. “Not in the slightest bit.”

Steve hummed and took a drag of his blunt. He handed it to you and you took a hit before giving it back.

“So,” he began casually, taking another drag of the blunt. “What are your plans for the summer?”

You hummed and shrugged a little. “Dunno, really,” you admitted honestly. “Last summer in his shit hole until I leave for college.”

“Oh, yeah,” Steve nodded, smoke coming from his mouth. “You’re, uh, you’re like super smart. Where are you going again?”

Steve didn’t know you very well and you didn’t know him well either. You always thought he was a piece of shit who just wanted to get into every other girl’s pants. Which, you figured, was probably the case with you, but you didn’t necessarily care. It was your last summer in this town and you’d be off to start your own life in college.

But you couldn’t help but to wonder…did he always talk to girls like this? Ask them about their plans and tell them how smart they were?

“UC Berkeley,” you told him.

He raised his brows. “Oh, shit. You’re moving all the way to California?”

You nodded with an excited smile. “Yep. Indiana is just not for me.”

As much as you loved your small town and tight knit community, it drove you crazy knowing that there were much larger cities and millions upon billions of new people to meet.

Hell, it drove you crazy to know that some people got to live on or near the beach. So of course, you chose one of the most prestigious universities right on the beach.

Steve hummed. “Are you going to stay in California after college?”

You shrugged. “I’m not sure, maybe.”

“Wow, you really hate Hawkins, huh?” Steve joked.

“I don’t necessarily hate Hawkins,” you laughed. “I just…don’t really think there’s anything here for me.”

Steve hummed again and took one last hit of his blunt before offering you more. You declined and he put it out.

“Well,” he smirked, leaning in towards you, your noses just inches apart. Your breath hitched as you froze. “I’m gonna miss that pretty face of yours,” he murmured.

His lips ghosted over yours and your body hated the way he teased you. His lips went up to your ear. “Wanna go to my room?” he whispered.

You nodded and he led you back inside, though the house, up the stairs, and into his bedroom.

As soon as the door was shut, his lips were on yours, moving with just as much need and desire as they did two days ago.

He pushed you against the door and you gasped, giggling against his lips.

He smiled and caught your lips in between laughs.

If you would’ve told yourself two days ago that you’d be giggling and bumping noses while kissing Steve, you would’ve lost it. Completely lost it and maybe burned down the entire town.

Yet, there you were.

Steve’s hands found their place on your hips and he guided you to his bed. You sat down and he sat beside you, your lips never parting.

His hands slid down to your thighs and he lifted you up to straddle his waist. Your knees were on opposite sides of his waist, hands wrapped around his neck and he kissed you deeper, his hands squeezing your hips gently.

He pulled apart, the room filling with the sound of your breaths catching. He leaned back in, this time kissing down your jaw. He inched his way down to your neck and your breath shuttered, a soft sound coming from your mouth that made him groan quietly against your warm skin.

His lips trailed down to your neck and you moaned softly when he started to suck on your skin.

He smirked and his grip on you tightened.

And that…

That was the start of something so painfully detrimental yet exhilarating.

That was the start of Steve seeing you for you and you seeing Steve for Steve.

Maybe you weren’t just ‘the Chief’s’ weird daughter.

And maybe he wasn’t just the asshole ‘King Steve’.

You climbed through your window, your feet hitting the wooden floor with a soft thump.

You walked over to the light switch and flicked the light on. You turned around and jumped, almost falling to the floor.

“Jeez, El!” you whisper shouted. “What are you doing?!”

She was sitting on the edge of your bed in her purple pajamas, her eyes narrowed, arms crossed over her chest. “Where did you go?”

You eyed her for a moment. “Out.”

“With who?”

“What is  this, fifty questions?”

“I only asked two.”

“I was being sarcastic.”

“Oh…”

You let out a small laugh. “I went to a kickback.”

El hummed and stared at your neck. Her pointer finger lifted up. “What is that?”

You furrowed your brows and walked over to your vanity mirror.

That little shit.

“I burned myself,” you lied, turning around with a fake smile.

El crossed her arms over her chest. “You lie. Why do you lie?”

“It’s true!” you exclaimed, far too high in pitch.

El stared at you. “I will figure out what you lie about.” El hopped off of your bed and headed for your door. “Told Hop that you were with Nancy,” she said before opening your door. She went to leave but stopped in the doorframe and looked at you over her shoulder. “He will be very upset if he knows you were not there.”

You narrowed your eyes at her, arms crossing over your chest. “What are you insinuating?”

El shrugged. “Tell me everything and he does not have to know.”

Your lips parted slightly. “Are you blackmailing me?”

“Yes.”

You scoffed. “I’m not telling you shit and you’re not telling Dad shit either. Because if you do,” you said, tone dropping as you walked up to her, staring her down. “I’ll tell him about all the times I covered for you and Mike.”

El’s jaw tightened as she stared at you. You covered for her more times than you could and she covered for you. She so desperately wanted to know who you were with. She was your nosy little sister and he’d do whatever it took to get to the bottom of it.

“I will figure out what you lie about,” she repeated before turning on her heel and walking to her room.

“Ahoy ladies! Are you ready to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me? I’ll be your captain, I’m Steve Harrington.”

Robin was watching Steve theatrically serve a group of girls ice cream. She leaned against the back counter, her arms crossed over her chest. 

Steve handed the last girl a scoop of vanilla ice cream before turning around to face Robin with a bright smile.

He let out a sigh. “Ah…” he exaggerated. “Today is a great day, wouldn’t you agree? The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and most importantly, Steve Harrington is one more step closer to getting laid all summer long.”

Robin scrunched her nose. “Gross, dude,” she gagged. The girl then realised what he said and tilted her head slightly. “Wait a minute,” she began, realization written all over her face. “You’ve had flings before, so why are you so chirpy about this one?”

Steve’s demeanor fell. “What? I’m always the same no matter who the fling is.”

Robin narrowed her eyes at him. “No you’re not. You’re never this happy.” Her lips curved upward. “Who is it?”

Now it was Steve’s turn to cross his arms over his chest. “Pfttt. No one.”

Robin started to name off random chicks from the party and he said no to each and everyone one.

Your name then fell from her lips and she noticed the way he just barely faltered. “Aha!”

“No! No! It’s not-”

“It is her!”

“No!”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Robin laughed. Her eyes lit up. “Oh my gosh, I started this! It’s because you made out at the party!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

Steve scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Okay fine,” he admitted. Robin flashed him a triumphant smile. “But it’s just like, uh…like, a fling. Nothing more. She’s leaving for college at the end of the summer anyway.”

Robin smirked. “I never asked if it was anything more.”

Steve opened his mouth to say something but he stopped.

“Do you want it to be something more?” she pried.

Steve scoffed. “Hell no. She’s so weird. Hottest girl I’ve seen, but weird.”

Robin furrowed her brows. “How is she weird?”

Steve shifted, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t know. She’s into comic books and weird shit like that?”

Robin raised her brows, slight annoyance in her tone. “So…she’s weird because she reads comics?”

Steve nodded affirmatively. “Yes.”

Robin let out a loud laugh and Steve furrowed his brows. “Holy shit,” she breathed out after noticing that he wasn’t laughing along. “You’re fucking serious?”

“Uh…yeah?”

“You’re an idiot. Like, an insanely stupid idiot,” Robin ridiculed him.

Steve scoffed. “How?”

“That’s how. You literally need me to explain to you like a child how what you just said out loud is ridiculous!”

Steve put his hands up in defense. “It’s whatever. It’s just a-”

“Just a summer fling, yeah I know,” Robin interrupted. “I’m just saying, you need to stop being so…you.”

“Me?”

“Yes!”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Stop making hasty generalizations,” Robin said. “Just because she’s a little nerdy doesn’t mean she’s the biggest weirdo on the planet.”

“Yes it does.”

Robin sighed, her palm coming up to her face. “You’re helpless…”

You were over at the Wheeler residence, laying on your back in Nancy’s bed.

“How was Steve last night?”

You shot up from the bed and nearly choked on your spit. Nancy was sitting at her desk, painting her nails as if she hadn’t just asked the most insane question known to man.

“Sorry?”

“Steve. Last night. I saw you go upstairs with him.”

You laughed awkwardly. “That was just…we…I mean….”

Nancy stopped painting her ring finger and put the cap pack on the polish bottle. She turned around and gave you that stern look a mother gives her misbehaving child. “You stuttering and getting all nervous tells me all I need to know.”

“We didn’t hookup or anything!” you defended yourself. “We just…kissed.”

“Kissed?”

“And like…touched.”

“Touched?”

“Yes.”

Nancy’s brows were raised in amusement. “Do you want to hookup with him?”

“No!”

“That’s a yes.”

You scoffed and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “He’s just fun to kiss. And touch.”

“So, is he like, a summer fling or do you want to actual be with-”

“No way in hell!” you exclaimed. “Are you insane?! Do I wanna be with him?” you scoffed.

Nancy raised her brows. “Just asking.”

“He’s like a total dud!”

“I didn’t ask that.”

“And he’s so dumb! The dumbest person I’ve ever met!”

“And yet…” Nancy trailed off, tilting her head slightly. “You kiss him?”

You couldn’t help the smile on your lips. “Yeah ‘cause he’s a good kisser.”

Nancy laughed and returned to painting her nails. “As long as you both know it’s just a summer fling. I don’t want you getting hurt by King Steve.”

You scrunched your nose. “King Steve,” you scoffed. “I’d never.”

In your mind, only an idiot would ever get played by Steve Harrington. You knew the type of guy he was. You knew what relationship you two had formed. And you sure as hell knew that there was no way you two could ever or would ever be together.

It was late at night and you were lying in bed on your stomach. Freshly showered with your favorite pajamas on, you lit a small candle and cracked open a new comic.

You kicked your legs up and played with the ends of your hair as you read through the panels.

Tap tap.

You whipped your head to your window.

Your eyes were about to pop out of your head.

You got up and opened your window and without even saying a word, Steve hoisted himself inside with ease.

“Steve!” you whisper shouted. “Are you insane?!”

It had been a few days since you last saw Steve and here he was, sneaking into your bedroom.

He landed on your bedroom floor quietly, as if it wasn’t his first time sneaking into a girl’s room. “Maybe a little,” he said with a smirk. 

He looked around your room. You had posters all over the wall, cute little polaroids of you and your friends and family. You had a few little stuffed animals on your bed and Steve immediately smiled.

“Awww,” he cooed, walking over to your bed as if he had owned the place. He picked up a little stuffed deer. “So cute,” he teased, holding it up. “You sleep with all these?”

You looked at him with disbelief. “Give me that.” You reached for the stuffed deer, but he held it up above your head and you rolled your eyes. “Why are you in my room?”

Steve shrugged, that stupid smile on his face. “I wanted to see you.”

“Why?”

Steve moved the stuffed deer in front of his face. His hazel eyes peered over the little deer’s head as he looked at you sheepishly. “Because you’re a good kisser.”

You hummed and smirked at him.

He eyed you up and down and put the stuffed animal down. “Cute pajamas.”

You glanced down at your clothes. A baggy X-Men t-shirt and the tiniest pink shorts.

You looked back up at him. “I look like a bum.”

“It’s kinda cute.”

You looked away in an attempt to hide your smile from him. You climbed back into bed and grabbed your comic, ignoring him. You sat with your back against the headboard.

Seconds later, the side of your bed dipped. You side eyed Steve as he sat beside you. That goddamn smile…

“So first you climb into my window. Then, you take my stuffed animal off my bed, and now, you’re just gonna make yourself real comfortable in my bed?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

You scoffed and your eyes diverted back to your comic.

Steve stared at you for a moment, trying to understand you. He never had a girl in his life act the way you did towards him.

It was intriguing.

He looked away and looked at some of the pictures on your wall. You had a bunch of photos with El, a few with Nancy, and a few with your dad.

You had photos from school, vacations, and even from just around the house.

One picture stood out in particular to Steve.

It was a little polaroid of just you. 

You had a pink lily in your hand and you wore one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen. He thought you looked pretty.

The sound of you turning the page in your comic snapped him out of his thoughts.  He turned his attention back to you.

“Can you stop staring at me?”

Steve sat straighter. “I’m not staring at you.”

“Uh huh. Sure.”

“We should play a game,” Steve suggested.

“No,” you replied, turning the page in your comic.

“Why no-”

“Shhh,” you shushed him, pressing your index finger to his lips. “I’m reading.”

You removed your finger from his lips and he eyed you intently. “What are you even reading?”

“Secret Wars.”

Steve didn’t know what the hell that even meant. He just didn’t understand how you could so easily be entertained by literal pictures.

“So you’d rather look at pictures than be highly entertained by me.”

“Not so sure how you’re highly entertaining so…yes.”

Steve smirked, leaning a little closer. “I can be entertaining in many ways.”

You raised a brow and finally looked over at him. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. He leaned a little closer, nose bushing yours. “Why don’t you find out?”

“Why don’t I not?” you replied, leaning away from him and looking back down at your comic.

His eyes widened and he didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. “Are you serious?” he scoffed. You didn’t respond, turning the page in your comic book. Steve saw the slight smirk on your lips. You were clearly messing with him and he was clearly into it.

He smirked and leaned into your neck, lips kissing gently at your skin.

You shifted awkwardly, your breath shuttering. “Steve,” you whined quietly as he started to kiss the spot that he learned you liked the day you came by his house. He ignored you, smiling to himself. “Steve…”

“What?” he asked, playfulness in his tone. “Thought your book was more entertaining than me?” he asked, lifting his head to meet your gaze.

You rolled your eyes at his cockiness. “It is.”

“Then act like it.”

He leaned back down and began kissing at your skin again. He was moving slowly and deliberately. It was driving you insane.

You tossed your comic aside and leaned in to kiss him. He immediately melted into it with a low moan.

He pushed you down onto the bed and climbed on top of you, his lips never parting from yours.

His fingers slid up under your shirt and you whimpered against his lips.

One hand stayed splayed on your stomach and the other trailed up your thigh.

Inching closer…

And closer…

And closer until his fingers were dangerously close to the hem of your shorts.

“Steve,” you whispered, breathless. “Are you insane?!”

“Do you not want you?” he asked, eyes scanning your face looking for any sign of disapproval.

“No, I- I want to,” you reassured him. “Just, not now. Not here. My dad and sister are home.”

Something about what you said only turned Steve on more.

He smirked. “Guess we’ll have to be extra quiet then.”

His fingers slid under your shorts and you immediately let out a loud moan.

Steve’s hand cupped over your mouth and his eyes went wide. “Are you insane?!” he whisper-shouted.

Your eyes went wide too, shocked to have been so responsive.

It was quiet as you both listened to hear if anyone else in the house heard.

It was silent.

He slowly removed his hand from your mouth and he smirked. “Barely even touched you and you’re already a mess,” he teased.

You rolled your eyes. “Shut the fuck up Harring- oh…oh, shit.”

The next morning, you were sat at the small table having breakfast with El and your dad.

El was staring at you with narrowed eyes and you were staring back at her. A silent threat.

Hopper glanced between the two of you and set his fork down. “What the hell are you two doing?”

“Nothing,” you both deadpanned at the same time, eyes locked on one another as you took a bite of your waffles.

Hopper rolled his eyes. “Can you guys stop staring at each other like a bunch of weirdos?”

“I know what you did last night,” El mouthed to you.

“Shut the fuck up you little shit,” you mouthed back.

“I am not speaking,” she mouthed.

Hopper looked between you two and slammed his fork down on the table. “What is going on?!”

“Nothing!” you both exclaimed at the same time.

You took an aggressive bite of your waffle off of your fork and El slurped on her orange juice louder than necessary, both of your eyes never leaving one another.

Hopper groaned and wiped his mouth on a napkin, excusing himself from the table before going into his room to finish getting ready for work.

Meanwhile, you and El were in the kitchen. You were washing dishes as she dried them.

“I am onto you,” she whispered.

You glared at her, scrubbing a plate harder than necessary. “You’re onto nothing.”

“I know you and Steve are doing weird stuff. Last night I could hear it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you deflected, though, you were slightly concerned about the fact that she knew it was Steve.

How the hell had she known that?

“Max taught me about happy screams. That is what I heard.”

You dropped the plate back into the sink and looked at her with wide eyes. “Okay, first of all, there was no screaming, second of all-”

“Yeah huh,” El interrupted you. “You are so loud. I am surprised Dad did not hear you.”

Your jaw dropped as you stood frozen, like a deer in headlights. El snickered and began to tease you like a primary school child.

“Oh, Steve! Oh my-! Steve!”

So that’s how she knew it was Steve…

You flicked water on her and she only giggled. “Steve this! Steve that!”

You clammed a hand full of soapy water onto her mouth and she finally shut up. “Okay I get it!” you whisper-shouted. “Just shut up before Dad hears.”

You moved your hand away from her mouth and she gagged, wiping her mouth with a paper towel from the roll, spitting into the sink dramatically. “Gross! You got soap in my mouth!”

“Good. Maybe you’ll shut it next time.”

You spent the entire day with El, bickering back and forth about Steve as she pried for more information.

Once she realized you wouldn’t let anything slip, she gave up and made you spend the day making bracelets with her and watching old movies.

That night, you were about to go to bed when the landline in your room rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Steve?”

You were taken back.

He chuckled. “Yeah. What are you doing?”

You leaned back against your headboard. “About to go to sleep.”

You expected him to say something like ‘without me’ or something else perverse.

Because he’d spent a week trying to get into your pants and he did. And the night that he did, you both agreed to just be friends with benefits.

Surely, neither of you would end up falling for one another…surely.

“Oh…” he trailed off.

You furrowed your brows. “What?”

“I hope I’m not bothering you.”

“Kind of.”

He laughed. “How was your day?”

Now, you were truly taken back. He was actually curious about your whereabouts? And why was he asking so many questions? Why did it seem like he actually wanted to talk to you?

And why was this so…awkward?

“Hmm…okay. Hung out with my sister.” For some reason you cringed at yourself. Why’d you cringe? Why’d you wish you didn’t sound so awkward. Why’d you care what he thought? “What about you?” you asked quickly before your own thoughts made you spiral.

Steve sighed and you could hear him shifting in what you assumed was his own bed. “Work. Kinda boring.”

You hummed and it was painfully silent for a beat.

“What are you doing tomorrow night?” Steve asked, breaking the silence.

You went quiet for a moment before responding. “I don’t know.”

“Let’s go skating.”

You furrowed your brows, fingers wrapping around the phone cord. So…Steve didn’t want to hookup…?

What the hell was going on?

Your mind circled round and round, wondering one too many things at once. You were under the impression that you two would only ever meet up to hookup and nothing more. You never thought he’d ask you to hangout with him like you were one of his friends or…or something far worse.

His girlfriend.

“You there?” he asked when you didn’t respond.

“Yeah, sorry,” you laughed awkwardly. “I uhm…do uh…do friends with benefits do that?”

Steve hummed. “Totally. We’re friends, hence the word is in the name friends with benefits. It’s summer, you know, summer fling. We could hang out,” he said confidently. “Unless you don’t want-”

“No, no, I do,” you reassured him. “Just…wanna make sure we’re clear on what we are.”

You couldn’t see Steve, but he was leaning back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. “We’re uh…friends,” he said. “Friends who make out and hookup sometimes.”

You sucked your teeth, leaning down into your bed into the same position as Steve. You back against the mattress and eyes staring at the ceiling. “And when the summer ends?”

Steve was quiet for a beat, the quiet hum of the telephone filling your ear.

“Then, we end.”

The following morning you told your dad that you were going to hang out with Nancy. El had her eyes narrowed at you. She knew you were up to no good, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it as soon as humanly possible.

Regardless, you met Steve at the skating rink. 

He said he’d pay for your skates and when you insisted that you could do it, he did it anyway.

You sat by one another on a bench as you tied the laces to your skates.

“Can I be honest?” you asked, tying off your left skate.

“What’s up?”

“I don’t know how to skate.”

Steve whipped his head to you, a look of pure disbelief on his face. “What? You can’t skate?”

You shook your head. “No.”

“That’s like, a basic life skill.”

You giggled. “No it’s not!”

“Uh, yeah! It is!”

You rolled your eyes, but your smile never faltered. “I’ll just use one of those stupid skate aid things.”

Steve laughed. “Or, you could use me.”

You turned to him with raised brows. “What?”

Truth be told, ‘use me’, sounded a little dirty in your immature mind.

“You heard me,” he said. “I’ll help you skate.” He tied off the lace on his skate and stood up, extending his arm out to you. “Come on.”

For some strange reason, your cheeks flushed as you reached for his hand. He helped you stand up and almost slipped, catching yourself and looking at him with wide eyes.

“You’re like a baby deer,” Steve laughed. “You can’t even stand up straight.”

“Because I’m standing on literal wheels!”

Steve smiled. “You got it,” he encouraged. You hated the way it made your heart skip a beat.

He held onto your hand as he led you over to the rink. You wobbled on the skates and he looked back at you with a small snicker.

You both made your way to the edge of the rink and he stepped onto the wooden floor, taking your other hand into his free one, so now he was holding both of your hands.

He stood facing you with that stupid goddamn smile. “Okay, step onto the floor.”

You lifted your left leg and placed it onto the slippery floor, your foot slipping. You let out a gasp as you nearly ended up in the splits but you caught yourself, squeezing Steve’s hands.

He hated the way your hands fit perfectly into his. The way you held onto him. The way your soft hands felt on his.

He had felt your hands on his before, but in a lustful, desire ridden way.

This was the first time your hands were enveloped in his in an intimate way. And the feeling was strange. He wasn’t sure if he liked it because why the hell would he feel anything for the girl he thought was weird his whole life?

You looked down at your feet as you placed your right leg onto the floor.

As you did so, Steve’s eyes never left your face. He noticed the way your nose scrunched as you smiled. The way your eyes sparkled as you watched your own two feet. The faintest smile line that was forming on the side of your mouth.

Your gaze met his once you stood fully on the floor. You both stared at one another before he awkwardly cleared his throat.

He couldn’t take it anymore.

He couldn’t take the feeling, whatever that might’ve been.

Yes, he was the one to initiate this hangout, and when he hung up the phone, he realized what he had done. He wanted to hangout with you. He wanted to get to know you better.

But why?

He couldn’t understand why.

“Let’s go,” he said, snapping you out of the moment.

He skated backwards, dragging you along with him. 

You looked down at your skates, the wheels rolling as Steve dragged you along. You giggled, making Steve laugh as well.

“It’s fun, right?” he asked.

You nodded. “I mean, I’m just getting dragged around in a giant circle,” you laughed, cheeks hurting from smiling too much.

Why the hell were you smiling so much?

“Oh. I’ll just let go then,” Steve teased, letting go of one of your hands.”

“Wait!” you exclaimed, reaching for his other hand again.

He smirked, squeezing your hand. “I’ve got you.”

Somewhere in between your smiles, the loud music, and flashing lights, you two got lost in your own world.

So lost, that you had in fact not seen that your sister and her friends showed up.

“Holy shit!” Max exclaimed, holding her skates. “Is that your sister and Steve Harrington?!”

El furrowed her brows, looking to where Max was.

And there you and Steve were. Holding hands and laughing as he dragged you around.

El’s jaw dropped. “I knew it!”

Dustin scoffed loudly. “He never told me about this!”

Will’s brows pressed together. “Since when were they a thing?”

“Right?” Lucas said. “I mean, they don’t make any sense.”

Max shrugged. “I know. Could just be a summer fling,” she suggested.

Mike scrunched his nose. “That’s disgusting.”

El blinked. “What is a summer fling?”

“It’s a relationship with no strings attached,” Max explained. “So, you just hookup all summer long except, you’re not together.”

“Hookup?”

“It’s just…you kiss. A lot.”

El tilted her head slightly. “Why would you not just be boyfriend and girlfriend?”

Dustin rolled his eyes. “Steve’s got a big ego and so does your sister. He doesn’t think he’d ever fall for a girl like her and she doesn’t think she’d ever fall for a boy like him.”

Will nodded in agreement. “They’ve got too much pride.”

Lucas furrowed his brows. “How the hell could you go a whole summer acting like a couple just to act like it never happened after? If that happened to Max and I, I’d just die from a heartbreak.”

“I wouldn’t,” Max said, earning a shocked look from Lucas. “Though…I would feel horrible,” she admitted with a small smile.

El watched in confusion as you laughed at something Steve said and his eyes looking at you like you were holding the fucking moon.

She just didn’t understand why you couldn’t see what she saw.

You both clearly liked each other.

Scoops was slow despite it being midday in the wake of June. Robin was in the back on her break while Steve sat on the counter at the front, talking to her through the open window.

“I mean, it was insane, Robin,” he went on.

Robin gagged and dropped her head against the table. “Can you, like, not talk about your sex life at work?”

“Sorry,” Steve apologized sheepishly, bringing his legs up to sit criss crossed. “And she had all these little stuffed animals on her bed. It was cute,” he went on.

Robin lifted her head up in an instant. “You think she’s cute?”

Steve opened his mouth yet, nothing came out. His slight hesitation made Robin raise a brow. “No. I- I mean the animals on her bed were cute.”

Robin’s lips curved upward.

“What, Robin?” Steve groaned.

“Nothing.”

“Yes, yes something. You’re smiling.” Robin shrugged her shoulders, her smile never faltering. “I don’t- she’s not-” Steve scrambled over his own words. Robin raised her brows. “I mean the animals are cute, not her!”

Robin nodded. “Okay.”

“Yeah.”

“Right.”

“Exactly.”

“Totally.”

Steve looked away from Robin as she continued to look at him with a smile.

“Ahoy!”

Steve looked up and saw none other than Dustin Henderson standing at the counter. He rang the bell twice with a small smile.

Steve hopped off of the counter. “What’s up man?”

“Oh, nothing,” Dustin sighed. “Just…well…you never told me you had a girl.”

Robin lifted her head slightly to get a better look at what was going on.

Steve furrowed his brows. “Uh…yeah. I don’t have a girl.”

Dustin narrowed his eyes at Steve. “Well then why were you out on a date with the Chief’s daughter?”

Steve’s eyes widened as Robin snickered in the back. “You little shit, were you spying on me?”

Dustin rolled his eyes. “You just so happened to be at the skating rink at the very same time I wound up there. I have no interest in what you do in your spare time,” Dustin scoffed.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest. “Obviously you do since you’re interrogating me about some girl I was hanging out with.”

Dustin pursed his lips and held a finger up. “Except it isn’t just ‘some girl’. It’s the Chief’s daughter. The girl you despised in high school.” He leaned his palms against the counter. “What is even going on between you two?”

Steve glanced around, leaning over the counter too with his voice lowered. “Look, it’s just for the summer. We fling and then forget it ever happened.”

Dustin’s lips parted slightly. “You’re an idiot.” Steve went to say something, but Dustin kept speaking. “You’re gonna fall in love with her,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Steve scoffed. “No I’m not.”

“Then why’d you take her out to skate?”

Now that got him. Usually his flings were just nothing but sexual. He never really took girls anywhere but the bedroom.

“Mind your business,” Steve mumbled before turning on his heel and walking into the back.

And that’s how it went for the rest of the summer. You and Steve doing most of the romantic things together.

Movie dates.

Diner dates.

Arcade dates.

The kids would notice and ask both of you in private why you wouldn’t just date. You’d both say it’s just a fling.

It had become routine by now.

Steve was back at Scoops, but not to work.

He was out with you.

Steve glanced into your little cup of ice cream with a scrunched nose. “Why do you have so many damn sprinkles?”

You looked inside your cup. Vanilla ice cream with one too many scoops of rainbow sprinkles. You shrugged. “‘Cause they’re fun,” you said, going to take another bite of your ice cream.

Steve watched you as his lips subconsciously curved upward into a smile. He thought you having rainbow sprinkles all over your ice cream was cute.

Not you, just the sprinkles, obviously.

You put your spoon back into the cup and glanced inside of his. It was something with too much chocolate. Chocolate ice cream. Chocolate fudge. Chocolate brownies. Everything chocolate was in it.

Now it was your turn to scrunch your nose. “What is all that?”

“Shit ton of chocolate,” he said.

“Yuck,” you grimaced. “There is such a thing as too much chocolate and I think that’s it.”

Steve chuckled and scooped some ice cream into his spoon. He lifted it up towards your mouth and you leaned away. “Try it,” he insisted. “It’s good.”

You eyed him suspiciously before leaning in and taking a bite of the ice cream. You hummed around the spoon as he pulled it from your mouth. Your eyes widened. “That is good.”

Steve shrugged. “Told ya. Better than that sprinkles crap you got going on over there,” he said, motioning to you with the spoon.

You scoffed and scooped some of your ice cream onto your spoon, raising it to his mouth. “Try it.”

He tried your ice cream and let out a sigh. “Mine’s better, without a doubt.”

Your eyes widened. “What?! No way!”

“Yes way. You might as well not order ice cream if that’s what you’re getting.”

The two of you bickered back and forth over ice cream flavors for what was way too long. Consumed in the ridiculous discussion, neither of you noticed the two kids peering around the corner of the entrance, eyes fixated on the two of you.

“Holy shit,” Max chuckled. “No way they’re out on a date again!” she whisper-shouted.

From beside her, Mike’s lips were parted. “Just wait until El finds out, she’s gonna lose it. I mean-”

Max swatted Mike. “Shh! I wanna hear what they’re talking about.”

You giggled as Steve spoke, waving his hands around. Something about some guy who kept coming in trying to use expired coupons for discounted ice cream.

Max blinked, wondering why you thought something so stupid was funny.

Unless, of course, you liked him back.

“And then-” Steve cut himself off, doing a double take and eyes landing on Max and Mike.

They both gasped, Max yanking Mike’s wrist as they disappeared around the wall, sinking to the floor as people passed them by.

“Do you think he saw us?” Mike asked.

“I totally saw you.”

They both slowly looked up, Steve standing before them with his hands on his hips. “What the hell are you guys doing?"

“We uh…” Mike trailed off. “We’re-”

“Shopping!” Max cut in with a laugh. What she said wasn’t entirely a lie. They were both there to shop until Mike swore he saw you and Steve inside of Scoops.

Steve narrowed his eyes at the two of them. “Uh huh. And you’re shopping by sitting on the floor outside of Scoops?”

Mike snorted. “We’re obviously tired from all the walking and needed a break.”

Steve reached for Mike and yanked him up by his collar, eyeing him intently. “Listen to me,” he began, a tone so serious it made Mike’s eyes widen. “I’m gonna-”

“Oh, hey Max. Mike.”

Steve turned around and saw you outside of Scoops with the three of them, a small smile on your face.

Max stood up and waved at you. “Hey! Mike and I were just shopping and needed a break from all the walking when your psycho boyfriend grabbed him by the collar of his shirt,” she explained, eyes darting between you and Steve to see how each of you would react.

Your face heated up and the thought and your eyes immediately went wide. “Oh, he’s not-”

Steve let go of Mike, running a hand through his hair. “She’s not-”

“It’s not like were-”

“We’re not together-”

“God, no!”

“We could never be a thing-”

“We are not a thing-”

“Exactly.”

“Not a couple.”

The two of you spoke over one another, finally finishing to look at Max and Mike. They looked at the two of you in disbelief.

“Oh…” Max trailed off. “See, I was under the impression you were together because you’re, like, always out on dates.”

“This is not a date!” you and Steve exclaimed at the same time.

“Right…” Mike trailed off. “Whatever you say,” he said with an exaggerated wink.

“What the hell does that mean?” Steve asked, growing slightly annoyed.

“You two obviously like each other but don’t want anyone to know because you’re both so stupid with so much pride.”

You and Steve froze, completely taken back by Mike’s words. Unfortunately, he was right. You two were stupid.

Steve looked down at his wrist as if to check a watch. “I’ve gotta go.”

“You literally don’t have a watch on,” Mike deadpanned.

You side eyed Steve and he glanced over to you, seeing if you had noticed, which you had.

“Right…” he trailed off. “I have to go.”

You reached to the floor and grabbed your shorts, pulling them up your legs and buttoning them back up. You grabbed your button up shirt and tossed it on, not bothering to button it yet as you reached for your socks.

Steve walked out the back into the bedroom in his boxers and a t-shirt. He watched as you slipped your socks over your feet. 

He stood in the doorway, leaning against the wooden frame. His eyes were fixated on you slipping your shoe on.

You could feel him looking at you and you froze. You turned to meet his gaze.

“What are you doing?” you asked.

He seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in. He shook his head. “Nothing, sorry.”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “Do you have something to say?”

He opened his mouth, then shut it. He looked like a lost puppy meeting your gaze again. “I just…do you wanna, like, stay the night?”

You looked taken back. “Stay the night?”

“Sorry,” he apologized quickly. “Is that weird?”

“Well, we’ve just never done that before. We usually just leave.”

Steve nodded slowly, eyes not daring to meet yours. “I know…but, what if I don’t want you to leave? What if…what if I want you to stay?”

You blinked. “You want me to stay?”

Never once had you stayed the night at each other’s places before. You typically left and went on about your business, but now…now he wanted you to stay.

Maybe it was Mike’s words from a few days ago, maybe it was just him becoming conscious and realizing that perhaps what he was feeling was something more.

But he wanted you to stay.

It was just a matter of you setting your pride aside too and admitting, even it it was slightly staying, that you were feeling what he felt too.

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So when Hunter started coming in during work and flirting with you as you checked out his items, you didn’t stop him. The attention felt nice, and though you had absolutely no interest in pursuing him, the idea of someone wanting you stopped you from thwarting his advances. 

It had been several weeks of smiling and nodding, giggling at both his compliments and terrible jokes. You didn’t find yourself thinking of him outside of those interactions, but they felt nice while they lasted. They fed what little ego you had left. 

It was a Thursday night, and you were closing with one other coworker. Five minutes before close, you heard the bells on the front door chime and you had to stop your eyes from rolling. It had been a long night and you were hoping to get out of there quickly, but knowing the locals, someone coming in that late meant you would be there for another half hour. 

Your mood somewhat improved when you saw who it was, but when you saw his indifferent expression you knew something was off. 

“Hey Hunter, you’re in a little later than usual. Looking for a late night snack?” you asked softly with a forced smile that wasn’t returned. 

“Something like that,” he finally cracked a small smile, but it didn’t feel as warm as usual, “You guys closing up here soon?” 

“Yeah, we’ll shut the doors at 11,” you continued to smile, hoping he would take the prompt to hurry. 

“Ok, I won’t be in your hair long,” he winked and disappeared into an aisle. As you waited for him to finish shopping and approach the register, your coworker, David, appeared from the back room. 

“I’m going to finish sweeping up the stock room, are we good to lock the door?” 

“One more customer came in, I can lock up after him,” you fought off a sigh and shot him a half-hearted smile. He rolled his eyes, but not at you, and returned the cold smile before disappearing back into the stock room. 

You turned back to the register as Hunter approached again. He set his items on the counter with a thud, and you tried not to make a face at them. He had set down a couple Snickers bars and a six pack of beer next to the largest pocket knife you had in stock, nearly the same size as a switch blade. 

You scanned his items in silence, trying to ignore the strange incessant watch he had on you. After he paid, you politely handed him his bag and thanked him for shopping. He didn’t say anything in return, just turned and headed for the front door. You found the whole interaction strange, but you found it even weirder that he didn’t get into his car after he left. As you locked the front door, you watched him set his bag into the back seat of his car before making his way to rest against the front bumper with a beer in hand. 

You didn’t have the time or energy to dwell on him though, so you made your way to the back of the store to shut off the lights. You checked in with David before you left, but when he brushed you off you took the opportunity to clock out. 

You exited through the back door, taking the trash to the dumpster on your way out. After throwing it in the large green bin, you took a second to take a deep breath and shake off the day. The back lot was a good place to calm down after a long shift. It was directly facing the dense brush of the forest, and if you were there at just the right time, you could see the moon illuminating it through the trees. The crickets were chirping as loud as ever, a sound that reminded you of your nights alone back home. There was a melancholic beauty to it that you loved. 

You didn’t stay back there for long, too excited to get back to your car so you could get to bed sooner. You fantasized about laying your head on your pillow until you turned the corner around the front of the building. Hunter was still leaning against the hood of his car, and you wouldn’t have paid him any notice had he stayed there. But when he kicked off and started to approach you, you took notice. 

“Hey, I need to ask you something,” he called down the sidewalk towards you. He discarded the can he was drinking by throwing it in the backseat, along with the 5 others he had already downed. You didn’t love his tone, but you played nice in the absurdity of the situation. 

“Yeah, what’s up?” 

“I, uh, heard you were getting sweet on Munson? Is that true?” He asked in a dominant voice, leaving no question to his thoughts on the matter. Your heart stopped knowing how this could go. 

“Oh, uhm, he’s my neighbor and he’s become a bit of a friend, yeah,” you replied sweetly, trying to hide your nerves behind the smile you struggled to keep on your face. You started to check the distance to your car to see if you could make a break for it, estimating the time it would take to lock the door behind you. 

“Just a friend? Because that’s not what I heard,” his voice suddenly grew lower, deeper, darker. You patted your back pocket inconspicuously, but grew nauseous when you realized that your keys weren’t there. In your rush to clock out, you had left your purse and keys in the breakroom. 

“You know what he did, right?”

“He didn’t do anything. The charges were dropped.”

“See, now I just have to decide if you’re really that stupid or if you’re just as evil as him.” 

He began to advance further towards you, and as your back met the wall behind you, your mind was drawn back to the knife he had purchased inside. The stench of alcohol was strong on his breath as he backed you up against the wall. Between the nerves and the smell, you could barely breathe. 

“Hunter, you’re scaring me,” you tried not to cry as you looked up at him, standing nearly a foot taller than you. 

“How scared do you think Chrissy was when he killed her? Do you think you’re as scared as she was?” He spat down at you. He began to reach into his pocket, and you watched as if it were in slow motion. 

You didn’t consider yourself a lucky person, but looking back, you would suppose you had been saving up your luck for that very moment. Before Hunter could do anything, David exited the front door of the store, exhaustion leaving his face as he glanced over towards the two of you. 

“What’s going on out here?” he yelled, voice deep and authoritative. Hunter’s head snapped towards him, shooting him a dirty look. You knew this was the one chance you were going to get to get out of this alive. So you took it. 

You ran as fast as you could back towards the back lot, ignoring the yelling after you. You didn’t know if it was David or Hunter, but you wouldn’t pause to figure it out. You heard footsteps running after you as you made your way into the forest, dodging trees and bushes as you went. 

Each time you tripped you thought it would be the end, but found yourself climbing to your feet before anyone could catch up with you. After what felt like an hour of running, but had perhaps been only a few minutes, you noticed the chasing steps had subsided. You leaned against a tree and took a chance to try to catch your breath, trying to listen past the blood running through your ears to see if you were still being followed. Sure enough, it was silent. 

You knew that the main road would only be a few hundred feet to your right, so you made your way there, to the edge of the trees. You struggled to catch your breath, but you pushed to walk faster, knowing if he were to catch you out there, you likely wouldn’t make it out. 

You refused to leave the coverage of the trees, and jumped behind a trunk each time you heard a passing car on the nearby road. You waited for one of them to be Hunter, for him to jump out of the car and chase you down. 

After ten minutes of walking, a car slowly passed, scanning the treeline hoping to find you. Hunter yelled your name out the window, nearly singing it in an intimidating resonance. You stopped moving, panting as you rested against the tree, hoping you weren’t visible from the road. You waited for him to pass, but he returned driving in the opposite direction. You watched patiently as his headlights swerved down the road during each lap, barely staying in his lane. 

You waited at the edge of the trees near the trailer park for an eternity, waiting for him to pass again and again. After the third pass he seemed to disappear, but you just knew that the second you would emerge, he would be there lying in wait. It was only another mile down the road, but there was no more tree coverage on the way. You weren’t very athletic, you ran a 15 minute mile in high school, and that wasn’t after running for your life already. But you hoped that the extra adrenaline and need to survive would carry you just a little faster tonight. 

It did. 

You ran as fast as your legs would take you, each breath tearing through your lungs and keeping you even more alert. No headlights passed as you ran, but you kept your head on a swivel. You made it to your front door in just over 10 minutes.

Not having your car keys meant not having your house key. Your father had insisted that you never leave a spare key outside your home, that it was just asking for intruders. You were thanking your lucky stars that you decided not to listen to him. You fumbled to grab it from where you had buried it in the gravel next to the steps leading up to your door. Your hands were shaking, and each time they missed the key hole, the tremors only got worse. 

Once inside, you slammed the door behind you before locking it. You had to stare at it and try it for a minute straight just to reassure yourself that the latch had stuck. When you found yourself confident enough in the result, you turned the living room light on and glanced around. 

Though you were safe inside of your own home now, you didn’t feel any security. You continued to scan the room, expecting something or someone to jump from the shadows. You had to force yourself to close your eyes. 

You backed yourself against the wall and slid down to finally sit. Your legs burned as if the flesh was being torn from the muscle, but not even that pain could pull you from your fear. 

It was nearing midnight but you couldn’t stand the thought of being there alone, knowing there was a good chance Hunter knew where you lived. Even if he didn’t, if he had any idea where Eddie lived, you had just told him you resided in a neighboring trailer. He could have figured it out. 

Without thinking, your hands grabbed the phone and dialed the only number you knew could possibly help.

“Hello?” Steve answered, half asleep and groggy. In any other scenario you would have teased him for this quite possibly being the first time he had greeted you over the phone. 

“Steve?” your voice cracked and as you tried not to cry into the receiver, but what little composure you had wouldn’t last long. 

“Y/n?” He asked, instantly more awake at the sound of your quivering and panting. 

You didn’t answer, just quietly sniffled and tried to catch your breath over the phone. 

“Y/n, what happened? Are you ok?” 

“I-I’m fine… I just, I didn’t, I don’t-” you continued to stumble over your words as you struggled to breathe, both from exertion and the panic rising in your chest. 

“Where are you?”

“Home,” your voice broke, letting out a small cry. 

“Are you safe?” 

“I don’t know,” you whispered, finally letting out the sob tearing its way up your throat. 

“Ok, I’m going to call Eddie to come over. And I’ll be right there,” he rushed, and you could hear him fumbling to get out of bed and grab his car keys. 

“NO,” you nearly shouted, and had to stop yourself from apologizing so you could urge, “No, no Eddie. Please.” 

Steve wanted to ask why, he worried what the answer would be. But he didn’t want to push you on it in this state, so he gently replied, “Ok, no Eddie. I’ll be right there, ok?” 

“Ok,” you replied, and continued to hold the phone to your ear, even as the dial tone rang after he hung up. You sat there and cried for a few minutes, fearing that if you moved a muscle Hunter would somehow find you. You tried to reassure yourself that you had lost him. There were no cars behind you on the back road that you had run down. But the fear you felt was no longer rational. 

Just as you had begun to calm down, you heard a car door shut right outside your trailer, followed by rushed footsteps. You held your breath as you listened to them approach, cursing yourself for leaving the lights on. He would know you were cowering inside, and he could assume correctly that you were there alone. The knock on the door was loud and insistent. The sound made your heart drop to your stomach. You squeezed your eyes shut and tried to will him away, but you knew from experience that would never work. And you were right, the knocking came several more times. 

You sat there, in the same spot on the floor next to the phone, until a voice called from the other side of the door. 

“Y/n, it’s Steve. Please, let me in,” he shouted from the other side of the door. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding before rushing to your feet. You fumbled with the lock before cracking open the door. You had to see Steve’s face first before opening it fully, reassuring yourself that this wasn’t a deception. Your eyes shifted around on the road leading to your trailer, making sure no one else would be following him inside, before you opened the door for him to enter. 

Steve had only ever seen one other person like this, the one person you had begged him to leave out of it. 

He rushed inside, shutting the door behind him and locking it. He hadn’t even fully turned around before you crashed into him with a hug, clinging to him for dear life. Your legs could barely hold your weight anymore, and Steve could feel the drag of your aching body. He led you over to your couch, letting your legs take a much needed rest, but you refused to let him go. 

He felt sick to his stomach seeing you like this. This wasn’t a simple panic attack, this was something much worse. 

“Y/n, what happened,” he asked softly but sternly as he held you to his chest, quiet sobs still leaving you. 

He waited patiently as you caught your breath, knowing that you wouldn’t be able to speak in this state. Once you could breathe just a bit easier, you pulled away from him, but you diverted your gaze. 

You told him everything about the night, from the moment Hunter walked into the store to the moment you dialed his number. Steve tried his best to keep his cool as he listened, knowing that you didn’t need his temper, you needed a sense of safety. 

Your eyes continued to dart around as you spoke, obviously stuck in fight or flight. He wasn’t sure how to best comfort you, but he did know one thing. 

“We need to call the police.” 

“No,” your eyes grew large at the suggestion. 

“We can’t let him get away with this. I don’t know for sure what he would’ve done, but I know it wasn’t anything good. And we aren’t going to give him another chance to do it.” 

“But-”

“I know the chief personally, ok? He’s a good guy, and I know he’ll take care of it. If it helps at all, he’s the one that got Eddie’s name cleared. He’ll be on our side.” 

You took a moment before nodding, knowing there was no use fighting him on it. He was right, you wouldn’t be safe until Hunter was dealt with in one way or another. 

You waited on the couch as Steve dialed Hopper’s personal number. You weren’t focused on his apology for calling so late, or his explanation of the situation. You were too focused on the fact that a police car was about to pull up to your trailer in the middle of the night, and you were hoping he wouldn’t have his lights on. The last thing you wanted was attention from all of the neighbors. 

Steve sat with you in silence as you waited for Chief Hopper to show up. Time had begun to distort, you weren’t sure if you were waiting for minutes or hours. But when the knock sounded at the door, you nearly jumped out of your skin. 

Chief Hopper was a large man, quite possibly the last kind of person you would want in your home to feel safe in that moment. His brooding nature and annoyed demeanor did little to reassure you. Steve stood with him near the door and explained the situation further. You continued to not listen to a word being spoken, until Hopper crossed the room to kneel in front of you. 

“Hi,” he greeted with a sympathetic smile, “I’m going to need an official statement. That has to come from you. Think you can do that?” 

You struggled to make eye contact, but you nodded. You answered every question he asked, but you kept your gaze focused on your hands resting over your criss-crossed legs. You only looked up occasionally to seek reassurance from Steve from across the room, and each time he gave you a small smile and nod. 

“Ok, that’s all I need to hear. Don’t worry, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he never comes near you again,” Hopper offered a stern yet warm smile, which was met by a soft one of your own. 

He returned to speak with Steve again, and the only words you gathered were the request that Steve stay the night with you. 

Just across the road, Eddie emerged from his trailer for a quick smoke before bed. The fatigue he was feeling shot right out of him at the sight across the street. Your car was missing, but Steve’s sedan and Hopper’s police cruiser were both parked haphazardly in the front yard, as if they were both in a major rush to get inside.

He didn’t have a second to think before his legs carried him across the street. Just as he approached, Hopper emerged from the trailer with Steve hot on his trail. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their facial expressions weren’t very reassuring. 

“Steve, what’s going on?” Eddie called as he approached. 

“Eddie,” He sighed, not knowing how he was going to address this. He bid farewell to Hopper, who gave Eddie a short nod before getting in his car to drive away. 

“Is y/n ok? What happened?” Eddie asked in a rush as he watched Hopper’s car approach the main road. 

“Listen, Ed, I don’t think this is my story to tell.” 

“What the fuck does that mean?” he asked, no aggression in his voice, just worry. 

“Look, I’m going to be staying with her tonight, I’ll see if she wants to talk to you in the morning.” 

“Does she not want to talk to me?” 

Steve paused and looked back at the closed door of your trailer before turning back to the man in front of him. 

“She specifically asked me not to involve you right now, ok? And I honestly kind of agree with her. I just need you to trust me on this.” 

Eddie’s heart cracked hearing that, but he did his best not to let on. 

“But she’s ok?” 

Steve took a second to think over his response and landed on a simple “She’ll be fine.” He couldn’t reassure Eddie that you were ok, you were far from it. 

He left Eddie in front of your trailer as went inside to try to get you to go to bed. He knew it would be a losing battle. 

Eddie remained outside for a few minutes, unable to get his legs to take him back home. He wanted desperately to go inside, just to see you alive and in one piece. He couldn’t imagine what you had been through, but he was correct in his assumption that it had been directly linked to him. He had to convince himself that you would be safe with Steve, and that no matter what had happened, his presence would do nothing but put you in more danger.

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