Stranger Things - Imagines

Steve Harrington X Wheeler!Reader - Same Jeans

A/N - This chapter was inspired by the song Same Jeans by The View. Reader is Karen's Wheeler's niece, who used to spend her summer holidays with them in Hawkins when she was a kid. This one is set during season one. I'm not sure I liked how this turned out, because I hate making Steve a bad guy, but I hope you all enjoy it anyway.

Hawkins was exactly like you had remembered, even if it had been a couple of years since you'd last had the chance to visit. Even now, it wasn't exactly on good terms, either. Your mom had needed to leave town on business and transferred you over to Hawkins high to finish the year whilst she was gone, all without ever consulting you on the matter. But still, it was nice to be back in a place that you'd grown to love over the years.

You were wandering Main Street when you heard some kids clamouring a little further along, clearly making trouble. You attempted to keep your head down and avoid drawing any attention to yourself. Head down, pretend you didn't exist. It usually worked to keep you out of any real trouble. 

But then you'd heard a voice that you would've recognised anywhere, and your head had shot up to find Steve gripping the bottom of a ladder whilst one of his friends was defacing one of the movie theatre signs in plain sight. 

"Steve?" you murmured, brow furrowed when he glanced up at you, his smile dropping from his features. Your head lifted, looking at his friend's handiwork, and then any happiness you had felt at first seeing him was gone. "What the fuck?" you breathed out.

"It's not what you think-" 

Steve released the ladder, moving towards you slightly, looking a little more sheepish than he had a couple of moments before. 

"Do you think that's funny?" you murmured, nodding up to the sign with a deep frown painting your features. "Nancy 'the slut' Wheeler? You think that's clever or something?" 

"I didn't think you'd see it," he uttered. God, he looked so concerned that it would've made you feel guilty if you hadn't caught him red-handed, plastering hate about your cousin where everyone could see it. 

You scoffed slightly. "And that makes it better?" you breathed out, shaking your head. "I thought you were better than that-"

"She cheated on me with that creep Byers," he interrupted, hovering awkwardly at your elbow. "Do you know how humiliating that is?"

"She didn't fucking cheat on you, idiot," you bit out. "Jonathon is her friend. She's helping him look for his brother-"

"They were in her bedroom together-"

"I know," you told him. "I was there. I didn't leave them alone for more than a couple of minutes, alright?"

"What?"

"Nothing happened. And if you'd just talked to her, you'd know that already." You shook your head. "You know, I used to think you were nice? Clearly, I was wrong about you-"

Steve looked heartbroken at your comment. You'd spent years' worth of summers playing together. Hell, you'd probably spent more time at his place, splashing around in the pool, than you had at your aunt and uncle's house, some years. And now here you were, looking like he'd let you down beyond what he had ever thought possible. 

"You weren't wrong about me."

You scoffed, shaking your head. "You know, Jonathon told me about the camera, too? I know he can be weird sometimes, but he's a good kid and he is suffering, Steve." You paused swallowing down the lump in your throat. "And you're a bully."

"I'm not a bully-"

"Yes, you are. Nancy has told me all about your friends, too," you uttered, glancing up at the boy at the top of the ladder, watching you with a small smirk. "You all think you're better than everyone else, but you're just assholes."

"No, it's not like that-"

"I'll save you some time, alright? Set you up with some ammo? I've been wearing these jeans for four days, and it's not because I like them, it's because they're the only ones I own. They're hand-me-downs too if that makes a difference," you told him, scowling at him. "The car I drive is older than I am and it only just managed to crawl its way into town. It makes this weird rattling sound that I'm pretty sure means it's on its last legs, but I can't afford to do anything about it, so I tend to just turn the music up and pretend I can't hear it." You paused for a moment, shrugging. "I can't do anything to my hair without it going frizzy within a couple of minutes of me walking out the door. It just gets all knotty and tangled and I've kind of just given up on trying to fix it-"

"Stop it," he muttered, interrupting you.

You put on a faux-pout. "Oh, I'm sorry Steve, am I embarrassing you in front of your cool friends? Am I making a scene?" you murmured.

"I don't want ammo on you, okay?" Steve finally bit out, silencing you. "I'm sorry."

You let out a frustrated snort of laughter. "I'm not the person you should be apologising to, am I?"

"I'll clean it up," he uttered. "And I'll call Nancy and tell her that I'm sorry."

You shook your head. "Honestly, I think she'd be better off if you didn't. She deserves better."

"I thought we were friends," he murmured, frowning down at you. 

"Yeah, so did I," you breathed out.

Please consider supporting me for just £3 using Ko-Fi. The link is available on my profile page. If you have any questions about Ko-Fi please feel free to private message me. Thank you. L x