A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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Ryan pulled up to curb just outside her house and Steve's, putting the car in park. The entire drive back from Tina's house had been silent, just quiet music playing on the radio. For the first time in a whole year, Steve had nothing to say, just staring out the window. Occasionally he'd ask her a few questions, mostly about how her night was, whether or not she had fun. She didn't try to push him to talk about anything else.
"Hey," She glanced over at him, watching him stare up at his house in silence. "Are you okay?"
Steve turned to look at her, "Can I stay with you tonight?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure." Ryan nodded, smiling softly. "You want to grab some clothes?"
"No, no, absolutely not." He shook his head quickly, Ryan raising an eyebrow. "I don't feel like fighting with my dad."
"You aren't even drunk, what would he have to yell at you about?"
"I don't know, my hair, my choice of Halloween costume, my life that's going nowhere?" For the past few years, Steve's relationship with his father had been strained. From the time he had turned thirteen, really. The only thing his father ever approved of in that amount of time was her and Nancy, he criticized everything else- whenever he was actually home, that is. "He leaves first thing tomorrow morning, so probably me coming home late. I just don't want to deal with it."
"You can borrow some of Aaron's stuff, let's go." Ryan got out of the car, tossing Steve the keys to put on the hook when they got in the house.
"Hey! I thought you were staying with the Byers' tonight." Peter's voice came from the living room. Ryan looked in to see him laying on the couch watching a movie as Steve closed the door. "Oh, hey Steve, what are you doing here?"
"We're just going upstairs." Ryan pushed him to the stairs, avoiding Peter's gaze. "Steve's staying here tonight."
Peter walked to the entrance of the living room as they stepped on the first stair, leaning against the wall, "Wait, what?"
"Can he just borrow some of Aaron's clothes?" Ryan sighed, giving her older brother a warning look. The last thing they needed was Peter asking too many questions, making Steve feel worse. "He doesn't have anything to change into."
Peter ignored her warning glance, looking at Steve in concern, "Long night?"
"Doesn't even begin to cover it. I'm going upstairs." Steve sighed, walking up the stairs to Ryan's room. "See you in a minute, Sunshine."
Ryan sighed, turning around to face Peter, knowing he wasn't about to let her go upstairs without an actual explanation. Before she even had the chance to speak, he started launching into question after question, "How did you end up coming home with Steve instead of Jonathan and Will? What happened? Why is he so quiet?"
"We went to Tina's Halloween party-" She paused at Peter's raised eyebrows. "It was Jonathan's idea! Seriously, I was just as surprised as you are!"
