SATELLITE [STEVE HARRINGTON]

dustin loves chaos

"Damn," said Steve. He met her eyes. "I knew he was a piece of shit."

Dustin frowned. "D'you think that Max is—"

"No," Ginny answered. "She seems genuinely cool, I meant that. Billy is... You're way better than him, okay?" She told Steve, with a determined brow. "Better hair, better personality, the whole deal... Sorry for saying he beat your ass in basketball."

Steve stared at her, eyes following as she fell back into step slightly behind them. A small smile pulled on his lips; he's never had anyone say anything like that, not even Nancy. "Yeah?" he asked.

She met his eyes with a soft smile and shrugged. "Yeah, totally."

They held gazes for another long moment, where something warmed in Ginny's stomach before she could recognize what it was.

Dustin looked between them, knowing what was happening and knowing that Lucas would not like it.

But Dustin loved chaos, and Ginny Sinclair with Steve Harrington, on a death mission to find and maybe kill his baby demogorgon? That was chaos.

"How'd you know I like Max?" he asked, spurring them to break gazes and continue walking.

Ginny shrugged. "Because you and my little brother are strikingly similar. And I'm really good at reading people. I can tell when pretty much anyone likes someone."

Steve swallowed quietly at that, then decided to deflect onto Dustin. "Wait, let me get this straight... You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who... who you just met?"

Dustin huffed. "All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things."

"I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?" Steve wondered.

Dustin gave him a look. "An interdimensional slug?"

Ginny shrugged. "That's kinda awesome." She slung some more meat onto the train tracks. "I'm sure he was less disgusting as a baby."

"He was," piped Dustin.

Steve frowned, "Well, even if she thought it was cool— which she didn't— I... I just..." He shrugged. "I don't know, I just feel like you're trying way too hard."

Dustin rolled his eyes. "Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?"

"It's not about the hair, man."

"All Lucas has done to keep her around is make her mad... Maybe try that?" Ginny joked, shrugging.

Steve shook his head, and both of them ignored her. "The key with girls is just... just acting like you don't care."

Ginny scoffed. "Well that's one way to make her mad—"

"Even if you do care?" Dustin asked, eagerly.

Steve nodded. "Yeah, exactly."

"It does not work like that," Ginny countered, glaring at Steve's back. "If you act like you don't care, girls are gonna think you don't care."

"It drives them nuts." Steve told Dustin, both ignoring her.

"Then what?" asked the boy.

Steve shrugged awkwardly. "You just wait until, uh—"

"This is bad advice, Dusty, don't listen to him—"

"You wait until, uh..." He turned and tossed a piece of meat at Ginny's shoes. She sucked in a breath and stopped, trying to avoid stepping on the raw meet.