steve doesn't recognize the street at first. the houses are still standing, technically, but everything looks terribly wrong in the way hawkins has looked wrong for months now—too quiet, too gray... ash drifts down like snow that forgot how to be cold. the road is in shambles, asphalt cracked, disregarded like it stopped mid-sentence. this spot was marked as a dead zone, steve knows that, but something shifty in the atmosphere leads steve to tighten his fist around the bat in his hand, eyes flickering across the suburbs around him for anything out of the ordinary.

his senses go off to an abrupt sound in the distance. it comes from behind a close convenience store, half the windows shattered while the others are boarded up. metal scraping concrete–- careful, deliberate. not a monster. monsters never bother being careful here anymore. it's instincts that draw steve closer to the sound, shoulders tight, his sprinting heart proving that he still feels fear, despite all that's happened. he should be used to this shit by now.

❛ hey, asshole! you're not supposed to be here!! ❜ he calls, rounding the corner to reveal–- tommy??

thinner than steve remembers. older in the face, standing there at his own arms, with his own weapon, ready to strike just like the harrington boy. staring back at him with a similar familiar expression. the kind of familiar that feels wrong, like gaping at a version of yourself that you wished the world should've erased the way it had already erased every other form of normalcy.

for a moment, steve's frozen. the air feels heavy, charged, like the town is holding its breath to see what happens when the guy who stayed and the guy who left end up in the same place at the end of everything.

steve swallows and forces his grip to loosen at the base of his bat. softer in tone this time, he repeats himself, "you shouldn't be here." not an order, but a plain fact. however, his voice shifts towards the end of the sentence, almost like it was a question. "i thought everyone left."

@hagantm asked ❝ you look like you're havin' fun. ❞ // prompts from my 80s themed playlist

── .✦ susan and neil had gone away for the weekend and max was having a sleepover at jane's which left valerie and billy with a free house for the first time in awhile. the male stepsibling had invited tommy over to drink and hangout and do whatever boys do but he hadn't realised he didn't have any beer. he'd gone out to buy some, leaving the redhead and tommy by themselves in the hargrove house.

the younger teenager had taken an entire bottle of tequila from her mother's stash to her room, not feeling like hanging out with the boys. valerie had drunk nearly half of the bottle already and after returning from the bathroom, she'd forgotten to shut her door in her buzzed state. billy idol's ❛ rebel yell ❜ blasted from her cassette player as she stood in the middle of her room, bottle in one hand and lit cigarette in the other. clad in jean shorts and a cut off lita ford t-shirt, she danced around in her own little world.

a loud squeal left red painted lips at the sound of a voice and she span around to see tommy in the doorway, eyes blown wide for just a second before a look of pure sass appeared on her freckled features. ❝ do you make a habit of spying on girls in their bedrooms, tommy hagan? ❞

𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗧𝗦 !

➠ 1 message left on the answering machine from @hagantm : ❝ You look way too smug right now. ❞

✘♚✘ Though Billy hadn't been in Hawkins more than a month, he'd already made a reputation for himself. Enemies were made, friends were found, and more than a couple of girls were conquered. Though he loathed the small, boring town, his body aching with a need for the ocean, he had come to enjoy his time with the local rebel rouser, Tommy Hagan.

Leaning against his car in the parking lot of a Big Buy, Billy rested his hands on the Camaro behind him, opening his brown leather jacket to the chilly air. "I'm just saying, this could be the best thing for you. You don't want a bitch like that weighing you down now. These are the formative years, Hagan! Time to taste all that pussy you've been missing out on, you hear?"

don't  act  like  you're  the  one  hurting.

“jesus christ, tommy.” steve scrubbed a hand over his face, already exhausted. “don’t do that. don’t act like i don't have my reasons.”

why does he care now? the thought came sharp and unwelcome, followed immediately by the prickle of guilt he hated himself for. because yeah, once upon a time, tommy and carol had been his best friends. even when they were being shitty. but everything had changed so fast. steve wasn’t about to unpack that for him.

“where was this back then,” he went on, voice tight with irritation. “when things actually fell apart? when it stopped being easy?” he scoffed, shaking his head. “you sure as shit didn’t seem that torn up about it then.”

you seemed fine, he thought. better than fine.

they had their little falling out and then hargrove had shown up and suddenly tommy had a new favorite person. a replacement. steve remembered it vividly, whether he wanted to or not. tommy practically bouncing on his heels, so excited to tell him billy beat his keg stand record like it was some huge victory. like steve was supposed to care. like it mattered.

it mattered to you, steve thought bitterly.

“everything turned into this stupid competition,” he said aloud. “and i didn’t even realize i’d lost until i was already out of the picture.” he let out a slow breath, jaw tightening. “maybe i was hurting. yeah. maybe you were too.” his shoulders lifted in a small, dismissive shrug even if the truth sat heavier than that. “but i didn’t exactly have the luxury of dealing with it.”

not when i spent my whole senior year just trying to survive it, he thought. being background noise in my own life.

steve looked back at tommy, expression flat now. tired. “so don’t look at me like that and tell me not to act like i’m hurting. like i was the only one who had a hand in things, when we both know that's not true.”

“you don’t get to decide what mattered to me.”

FRIENDSHIP.     childhood friends  /  work buddies or coworkers  /  family friends  /  friends with benefits  /  smoking buddies  /  adventure buddies  /  fake friends  /  recently friends  /  party buddies  /  friendship of need  /  dying friendship  /  circumstantial friendship  /  partners in crime  /  old friendship  /  [ your muse ] is the good influence  /  [ your muse ] is the bad influence  /  [ my muse ] is the good influence  /  [ my muse ] is the bad influence  /  opposites attract  /  ride or die  /  frenemies  /  roommates or flatmates  /  penpals  /  exes to friends  /  enemies to friends  /  other

ROMANCE.     childhood sweethearts  /  [ your muse is mines ] childhood crush  /  [ my muse is yours ] childhood crush  /  exes  /  exes to lovers  /  forbidden lovers  /  highschool sweethearts  /  secret relationship  /  opposites attract  /  long distance  /  unrequited [ from your muses side ]  /  unrequited [ from my muses side ]  /  unrequited [ from both sides ]  /  skinny love  /  friends to lovers  /  enemies to lovers  /  spurious relationship  /  power couple  /  newly entered  /  soulmates [ metaphorical ]  /  soulmates  [ literal ]  /  awkward  /  turning toxic  /  toxic love  /  cheating [ on your muse ]  /  cheating [ with your muse ]  /  other 

FAMILIAL.     siblings [ half ]  /  siblings [ step ]  /  [ my muse ] is an older sibling figure to your younger sibling figure  /  [ my muse ] is a younger sibling figure to your older sibling figure muse  /  [ my muse ] is a parental figure to yours  /  [ my muse ] is a child figure to your muse  /  guardian figure  /  legal guardian  /  adoptive child  /  foster child  /  [ your muse ] is taken under mines wing  /  [ my muse ] is taken under yours wing  /  other

ANTAGONISTIC.     dangerous to each other  /  dangerous to others  /  unpredictable  /  rivals  /  petty  /  developing into sexual or romantic tension  /  based off family matters  /  based of off circumstance  /  based of professional matters  /  based off misunderstanding or lies  /  conflict of ideology  /  betrayal  /  hero - villain dynamic  /  enemies  /  fight club  /  friends turned enemies  /  lovers turned enemies  /  exes turned enemies  /  other 

you told me you'd stay put.

"I don't remember you telling me anything. and if you did, I don't remember agreeing. also your friends kind of made that impossible, so not sure what you wanted me to do there." and really he would have rather been able to stay put, but with half the basketball team breathing down his neck... well he wasn't keen on finding out what they'd have done to him if they had gotten their hands on him.

so really he thinks that they all won here. he's not sure how but he was alive and Jason probably looked insane trying to explain what happened. so really, he was pretty okay with his choice.

"look man, what was I supposed to do? stick around and try to convince Carver that Chrissy is just in some kind of coma between punches to my face? he seems like he's really in the right frame of mind for that." he'd known that the kid was a little unhinged, but this was a level that even Eddie hadn't imagined.