movies; steve harrington

one

As far as she knew, this was one of the best times of day to go. No one was in there other than when finals were coming up and students like Nancy Wheeler wanted to "get a head start." The library, for the most part, met her expectations. There were only a handful of people, as expected. The only thing that did surprise her was the first person she laid eyes on upon entering the library. Steve Harrington, nose shoved in a textbook, dark hair falling over his eyes.

The layout of the small library was set so that the middle of the room held sets of long desks and seats, five; one in the middle and four by each corner of the desk. Bookshelves surrounded said desks in rows, too many for anyone to have had the interest in counting. And, in all of his Steve Harrington glory, he sat at the middle desk in - what was assumed to be - the center of the space. Even considering there were four other desks around him, and smaller ones lining the walls to the far ends of the room, he sat directly in the middle, like Jasmine was destined to immediately take notice of him.

"It's weird for me, too, ya know." The voice caught her completely off guard, causing her to freeze up more than she already had. His words - a voice she'd recognize anywhere - spoke and it meant one thing (in her mind), that one thing being that he'd caught her staring at him in a public space. How embarrassing.

"It's not weird, essentially. You are a student, in a school, studying for - I would assume - an exam." She chose her words very carefully. People often assumed that people like Steve were stupid, and up until recently, Steve had believed it himself. But she knew he, as well as everyone else, were worth more than just their face, and didn't want to make it seem like he didn't fit in this communal area.

She was happy that he was finally putting an effort into his education.

Steve was now facing Jasmine, hair pushed back, his fingers twirling his mechanical pencil around. "Well you know what they say about assuming." His usual smirk came across his features in slight amusement - likely at his next words. The one to which Nancy would scoff at and reply "I'm glad you think this is funny."

"And what's that?" Her nervous fingers clutched around the books pressed to her chest even tighter than before. A conversation with Steve Harrington was never held, much less to this extent. By her, of course. Steve had a lot of long, in depth conversations with others (she assumed) just never actually her. In fact, she was sure this was one of the only times he'd spoken to her.

"That you shouldn't, 'cause, well, then you'll make an ass out of you and me." Jasmine stood in apparent confusion, trying to piece together where he got this from. Her confusion didn't go unnoticed and Steve laughed lightly. "C'mere," he responded to the look on her face, getting a blank sheet of paper from the notebook beside him.

She walked closer to his desk, placing her books down in front of her, and leaned over to see what he was going to be writing or drawing on the page. First, he simply wrote out the word assume. She watched carefully, slightly impatiently. Then he circled ass, underlined u, and put an uneven square around me. Jasmine couldn't help but notice how messy yet perfect his handwriting looked, but quickly pulled her eyes away from the words on the page.

Jasmine let out a small laugh when Steve finished and she pieced the statement together in her head. "Clever, Harrington. It scared her that she was inches away from Steve, leaned over the table in order to have seen the paper. And calling him by his last name!

"Are we on a last name basis now, Jones?" Her first thought was he knows my last name! HE KNOWS MY LAST NAME.

"Guess so," she paused a moment for emphasis. "Harrington." As soon as she leaned away, she was reaching for her books, before his voice stopped her.

"Actually," he paused, waiting hesitantly for her movements to pause. "I was wondering if you could help me out with something." His voice held hesitancy, as if he was scared to ask, and he masked it fairly well. So well, Jasmine hardly noticed.

"Sure," she reclaimed her former place, then went a step further, and took the seat directly across from Steve. She sat with him for the rest of the morning, making her 15 minutes late to first period. She talked to him for a couple of minutes during lunch. Shared a hello in the halls. It was odd, this sudden attention, but she adapted quickly.

**

It wasn't like the entire population of Hawkin's High expected it, but Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler were, as of date, broken up. As the rumors had it, after an argument at a party, Steve had found Jonathan Byers. in Nancy's bedroom, tucking her into bed. Which led to people theorizing that Nancy had cheated or been cheating on poor, unsuspecting Steve. It was all over school by now that Nancy was a slut.

In fact, Jasmine was the lucky person that got to witness the couple's last fight - the one that led to the actual break up. Since the interaction in the library, Jasmine had started to go to Steve's basketball games frequently to watch and cheer him on. The two had become fast friends and he was happy to see her there, enjoying herself.

He didn't have to know that she'd studied the sport to be able to understand what was happening as she watched, and soon became educated. This led her to actually enjoy watching it, so when she could, she caught the occasional game on her television. This also led to more conversation starters on her part, and conversations about something they both found themselves indulging in.

Steve had stepped out roughly ten minutes ago and everyone noticed, but not as much as Jasmine sitting on the bleachers. His time needed him and was now behind multiple points because of Billy Hargrove. That was her excuse. His team needs him, his team needs him repeated constantly through her mind as she pushes past the doors before convincing herself not to.

"Your team needs you in there," she faced the alleyway in which Steve and Nancy stood. She'd seen them leave out the doors together, but seeing them here, together, felt weird and wrong to her. Both Steve and Nancy looked at Jasmine like a deer in headlights, before Steve turned back to Nancy with some form of expectation in his eye. Like he was waiting for the girl to say or do something. Whenever she hesitated to do as he'd asked, Steve let out a hollow laugh and turned to Jasmine.

"Let's go." Jasmine didn't ask any questions as she held the door open for Steve, and he went back to playing the game like nothing had happened. She didn't ask any questions when Steve came up to her at her locker and asked if she would be interested in studying after school.

**

Jasmine had, if anything else, imagined what a relationship with Steve Harrington would be like. She would think about the first date, the second. She imagined he'd see the smallest bit of rain, and he'd take her hand, pulling her toward the rain just because he knew how much she'd like it. His hand would fall to her waist like it had meant to go there the entire time. Her hands would go to his shoulders and in the sprinkling rain water, they would slow dance. As their hair and clothes would become sopping wet, clinging to their bodies, they wouldn't care. They wouldn't bat an eye. They'd laugh. They'd embrace. They'd be together.

Yet much like anything else, she knew that this simply couldn't be. That he had recently broken up with Nancy Wheeler and what he needed today, after school, next week, next month wouldn't be her. She didn't know that it could ever be her.

He needed to study. They were falling back into the way that they met, not that Jasmine minded, but as that time neared closer, she knew giving Steve too much of her would lead to longing.

And she really couldn't afford to cop a feeling for Steve Harrington. The crush she'd developed over the years would have to be it. They could never cross that line, and she vowed to herself she wouldn't cross it herself.

Steve vowed to himself the same.

**