iris. - steddie

28. packing

saturday may 21, 1986
(2 months later)

school was finally done.

robin, dustin, lucas, mike, will, max, eleven, wayne, and joyce all sat watching eddie & steve graduate.

eddie walked the stage and to their surprise, he looked the principal dead in the eye, flipped him the bird, took the diploma, and ran.

steve quickly followed him out laughing, having already gotten his diploma a few minutes earlier. he ran out into the almost empty highschool parking lot, still in disbelief eddie actually flipped off principal higgins in front of the entire school.

'i can't believe you just did that!' he said, going over to the van where eddie leaned against it laughing.

'did you see his face?!' eddie replied, head falling back against the wall of the car. 'oh my god, that was one of the greatest things ever—'

he hardly had a moment to talk before steve pulled him into a kiss, hand on his cheek as they both had huge smiles on their faces.

it felt so freeing to know they were leaving, to know they got a fresh start and could make a life for themselves in the apartment without worrying about their parents stumbling upon their relationship.

'harrington we're in publi—'

'i don't care.' steve shook his head, kissing him again.

'you're insane,'

the next day, the two of them were packing up the harrington house. sure, majority of the furniture was steve's parents', but it's not like they'd ever notice.

everything had been boxed up after many exhausting hours of working, to which robin and dustin helped.

'lift with your back harrington, not your ass!' eddie shouted, holding one end of a very heavy couch.

'how do you even lift with your ass?!' he groaned in return, lugging his side of the couch into the uhaul.

eddie grunted, shoving it into the back with an exhausted sigh. he had tied his hair back with the others' help, and was wearing his normal hellfire shirt/ripped jeans combo.

'it's so hot eddie, i don't know how you wear that.' steve said, eyebrows raised at him.

'oh yeah? want me to take it off?' he said mockingly, pulling the hellfire shirt off over his head and tossing it into the open garage.

'i'm not complaining,' he grinned, eddie pulling him closer, hands on his hips as he kissed him.

'oh gross, guys!'

they both turned to see dustin standing in the doorway holding a box labeled 'kitchen' with a look of disgust on his face at the shirtless metalhead kissing steve.

'what henderson? you mean this is gross?' eddie said, sticking out his tongue with a mocking grin and gesturing for steve to do the same, touching their tongues together with an exaggerated 'alalala' noise just to see him make that face again.

'eugh! i'm helping you move!' he said louder, putting the box down and tossing a roll of tape from the garage floor at them.

he missed, of course, and the tape hit steve in the calf.

'i cannot believe you henderson, after all these years you're just gonna throw tape at me like that,' steve said in a fake sob, putting his hand on his forehead in a 'woe is me' way.

'leave him alone,' robin shouted, following dustin out carrying a chair. 'and move, or i'll drop this on you,'

she carried the chair up into the truck, leaning it against the couch. 'is that it?'

'..besides that box,' eddie nodded his head towards the one dustin was now putting in the uhaul. 'yeah, that's it.'

'the guitar too?' he glanced over at eddie, just making sure.

'duh. she's in the front.'

'i can't believe you guys are gonna be out of hawkins tommorow,' robin said, hands on her hips as she looked at the two of them.

'yeah.' steve huffed, looking between her and dustin, his two closest friends he'd genuinely do anything for. 'i can't believe it either.'

'don't do that,' dustin said, rubbing his face in annoyance.

'do what?' he looked back and forth from them, confused.

'get all sappy! i'm gonna cry again,' robin added on, her voice already in a sad tone.

eddie was quick to yank steve over, putting an arm around him and robin and pulling the 4 of them into a hug. 'group hug, c'mon! no bitching henderson,'

they laughed a little, a sniffle coming from robin's direction.

'let's go get food or something, alright? it's on me,' steve patted dustin's shoulder, nodding his head towards his bmw that he still had dibs on until they moved into the new apartment.

'ooh, can we get ice cream?' robin said, running to get shotgun before anyone else cound.

'milkshakes and fries!' dustin said back, getting a big head nod in agreement from her.

'fine, milkshakes, fries, and maybe ice cream for robin,' steve yanked the door of the uhaul closed, watching the 2 of them as they got into the car.

robin got in the passenger seat like she wanted, and dustin hopped into the back leaving a spot for eddie open.

'..don't give that look,' he said softly, walking over to steve and draping his arms around his waist. 'they'll be fine, steve.'

'i know, it's just..' he sighed, looking at eddie. 'they're my only family, y'know?'

'i know,' eddie nodded, pulling him into a comforting hug. 'you need to think about yourself for once though, yeah? we can't live here safely,'

'hm.' steve mumbled back, forehead resting against his as he still stayed in the hug.

'it's gonna be great, harrington. we're gonna be living together. now come on idiot, i'm hungry.' eddie said, pressing a quick kiss onto his lips before running over and getting in beside dustin.

'..living with eddie munson. jesus.'

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a/n: 1 chapter left !! i'm so glad so many people have stuck around through the whole book, you guys have my heart <3