𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐢 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 | steve harrington

chapter seven

Steve had made an utterly terrible, horrible mistake and there was nothing he could do about it. Well he supposed he could fire Rory and pretend that he'd never invited her in the first place but Steve also knew that he'd made his grave and now he had to lie in it.

She'd disappeared into the back room, all empty eyes and cracked lips. Rory had looked different that day, dark hair wrapped in plaits and small curls hanging in front of the eyes usually darkened with makeup. Without that she had a youthful air to her that Steve couldn't explain. She had looked so mature before but now Steve could imagine stages of her growing up and it felt weirdly personal.

A few more customers came in including a woman of some Cuban decent with olive skin and gorgeous hair. Steve had spent a bit too long recommending her flavours while the woman smiled and reapplied some berry gloss to her beautifully plump lips. There'd been flirting and Steve had laughed softly at her words that weren't remotely funny. He'd handed her the ice cream with his number written on the napkin. She never called, Steve hadn't really expected her to.

He got bored and Rory didn't emerge from the back room. Steve got annoyed, were they paying her three dollars an hour for nothing? She was stretched out on a sofa listening to Queen on her Walkman, drinking banana milkshakes and scuffing the toes of her doc martens. She had bruises on the pale skin of her knees and Steve didn't want to know why. She'd covered up those on her neck with foundation that wasn't her colour and it made her skin look cracked like a worn makeup sponge. She was biting her nails and accidentally ripping hangnails into her flesh, long and stinging with dry skin between her fingers. She looked ghostly, like a face you'd see in the window at a haunted house but Steve thought of the bruises on her knees and knew they didn't match her face.

"Dude!"

Steve snapped his gaze up to see Dustin striding into the parlour. He was wearing a green jumper that Steve had given him and for once didn't have a cap on his head. But he looked angry. Usually when Steve saw his friend, Dustin was toothy grins, ice cream addictions and stories of dungeons and dragons but now his eyes were set with the determination to complain, bag slung over one shoulder.

The painful awareness of Rory in the room behind and the slightly open glass window made Steve's heart race. He could hear the soft thrums of Queen stop. Seven seas of rye coming to an abrupt halt. Dustin didn't notice, he strode right to the front while Steve internally panicked and constructed musical notes with the bass of his heartbeat.

"Hey man" Steve laughed nervously, "how you doing... you want an ice cream, milkshake?"

"Not right now" Dustin waved his hand, "you will not believe what she did"

Steve gulped and it felt like the way a cartoon character would gulp, obvious and loud. The sound rung in his ears and he could see her in his minds eye, sitting up slowly with her boots planted on the floor, Walkman between her hands and plaits falling just below her shoulders. Those small curls that hid the creases of smile lines beside her eyes which was strange because he'd never seen her smile, not really.

"Who? Max"

"Don't be an idiot Steve" Dustin rolled his eyes, "my goddamn sister who else? Eddie comes round to my house yesterday thinking I was at Mike's again and you can guess who he wanted to see"

"They were friends right?" Steve frowned, Dustin didn't ask how he knew this.

"I asked her to stay away from him" Dustin sighed, "because Eddie's my friend! He's been so great to me in high school and sure he's a bit intimidating and at least partially insane but me and Mike, we have Eddie. She just screws up everything, I know they were friends but then she left and I didn't want Eddie to like her... I hate that he likes her"