𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝︱steve harrington

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟏. love is patient, love is kind.

It's obvious the driver intended to put on a show the second he pulled into the school's parking lot. He's dramatically opening his door, sticking a leg out, and planting a biker boot directly into the gravel. Elijah doesn't exactly know what to feel when a guy who so painfully looks like an asshole but is also really hot all at the same time reveals himself. He flicks a dead cigarette away as he turns his head, cocking it to show a sculpted jawline, and a dark gaze scanning the audience he drew in. Elijah almost misses a small, red-haired girl that kicks herself away on a skateboard.

"New guy," Elijah mumbles. He rolls his eyes as the guy takes off after a huge, unneeded entrance. "Douchebag."

"Hm," Nevaeh hums. Elijah's head snaps towards her. She has her eyebrows raised, a mischievous glimmer in her eyes. "I don't know. He's definitely - "

A wave of protection washes over Elijah. He thrusts a threatening finger in Nevaeh's direction. "Don't even think about it," he warns.

His sister falls into a fit of giggles as they exit Elijah's car. Nevaeh tries to keep up with him as he rushes to try and block out anything that has to do with his baby sister finding another guy attractive. "Come on!" She teases. "I didn't say anything!"

"No more men!" Elijah pleads without glancing back. He hates that the stupid face of Shane Lewis pops into his mind and has to imagine punching it away again. He doesn't know if there'll ever be a man good enough for her.

"Okay." Nevaeh shrugs as she finally caught up with him. They were out of earshot, a few yards from the school's entrance when she asks, "What about girls?" While fiddling with the hem of her dark purple sweater.

Elijah stopped in his tracks. Nevaeh almost ran into his shoulder. He stares back at her unreadable expression that held nothing but a warm smile. He didn't know what questions to ask after being caught so off guard. It's hard to tell if she's messing with him or not. But Elijah, who would love this girl regardless if she was attracted to men, women, or both, smiles back and throws his arm over her shoulder as they walk into school together.

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It wasn't that Elijah didn't want to leave Hawkins for a better life, for a nicer school, a degree that he knows he deserves. He just needs to find where the right direction was to take the first step. It was hard enough to focus on tests, homework, and schoolwork in general without remembering what happened. Elijah can't block the Demogorgon out of his head. The awful screams, the way its face could open up, how it would kill and maim anything alive. How it was Barb and Eleven. How it was almost him. How it was almost Jonathan, Nancy, Will, Nevaeh, Steve...

And it's ridiculous. Elijah knows it. And yet, every time he tries to focus on the words in his History textbook with his fingers curled into the knots of his hair, all his mind can do is wander into the waves of fear. He questions, what if it's still out there? What if there's more? Because Elijah, who let Nancy shoot that thing in the back as many times as it took to get its hungry attention off of Jonathan, knew it'd be pissed. And it'd be looking for him. All of them.

Elijah knows he's bombed yet another lesson as soon as the bell rings. He doesn't know if the sigh that follows is heavy with sorrow or shakey with relief as he shuts his textbook and stuffs it into the backpack hanging on his chair. It's heavy enough as it dangles on his shoulder, but whatever. Elijah's too tired. It's a miracle he's still on a pair of wobbling legs that carry him out of the classroom and into the school halls slowly filling with more students as they pour out of their ended classes.