After All This Time (Steddie)

Ch. 20: Henderson

"We'll see about that. Now go shower and get ready, we gotta go soon." He gets up and goes off to the bathroom to shower as well. I hear him yell, "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?!" From the bathroom. I dry my hair quickly, and go over to the bathroom, and open the door a little. "What did I do?" "STEVE. Look at my neck. How the fuck am I supposed to cover this?" He points to the side of his neck, and I snicker a little. "I have no idea. Good luck. Sorry, kinda." I close the door and he's mumbling to himself and I hear the shower turn on. In the kitchen there's tylenol on the counter for me, and the coffee pot has been brewed. Thank god.

I quickly drink a cup of coffee, taking the Tylenol and grab a pack of poptarts from the cabinet. They taste awful, and dry. But my stomach is complaining from being so empty, so I need to eat something. Is this what everyone feels like after taking what we did?

Eddie comes back out, and disappears into his room to get dressed. I hear him thumping around, and he comes back out rubbing the towel through his hair. "You still have eyeliner on."

"What? I washed my face!"

"It's running down your cheeks like you've been crying. Very Alice Cooper."

"YOU know who Alice Cooper is?"

I roll my eyes. "Everyone does. I'm not living under a rock, you know. I listen to more than just The Smiths and Tears For Fears... Give me some credit here, you've been shoving your music at me for years!"

"I'm just surprised. No need to get defensive, princess."

My stomach flips. "Don't start. Let's go get Henderson." He smiles a shit eating grin at me. "Awwwe baby you're no fun." A fake pout crosses his face, and we go outside to get into the van. My car is pulled over to the side of the trailer, still defaced with the awful words those guys decided to call me and Eddie. "I'm working with a guy to see if we can get it repainted for you. I have some windows I ordered through the mechanic's shop that I'll put in for you next week. Okay?" I nod slowly. It still stings. And now we have to tell Dustin about us. I don't know what he's going to say, or how he'll react. But I'm sure it won't be anything like the way we were treated by Tyler and the rest of those goons. 

The drive to Dustin's house isn't too long, and when we get there we see a very impatient looking kid on the porch. Although, he's not much of a kid anymore I guess. Freshly 18, and ready to concur the world.

"You getting in or not, Henderson?" He smiles widely and runs over and hops into the back of the van. "Where's your car, Harrington?"

"Oh it's uh. I'm getting it worked on..."

"Okay weirdo. I've missed you guys!" He wraps his arms around the front seat, giving a makeshift kind of hug. "I missed you too, kid. How's everyone in Cali?"

"Oh they're doing great. Nancy's zooming through journalism school. Go figure. And Jonathan's almost through with his photography degree. Thinks he's going to be a professional nature photographer... they're doing really good. What's been going on with you two?"

"Well we actually have something to talk to you about." Eddie pulls out of the driveway and we start driving towards my apartment. "Oh? Something exciting happening?"

"Let's wait to talk about it once we get to my place, yeah?"

"Sure man, that's fine. Hey do you mind if we listen to music? All Mike and Will listen to is The Ramones and I am SICK of it." Eddie turns the stereo on to play one of the many Metallica albums he has. I swear he's got copies in his room, the van, a couple at my place. We ride just listening to the songs until we get back to my place and go inside.

"So, what did you wanna talk to me about?" Eddie and Dustin go into the living room and sit on the couch, and I go grab a couple of sodas from the fridge, and sit in a chair, handing a soda to them both. "So let me start this with we both love you very much." Eddie wraps an arm around his shoulders, and Dustin pushes him off laughing. "Shut the fuck up, c'mon be serious. What's going on?"

"Eddie and I are... well... We're in a relationship."

"FUCKS SAKE FINALLY"

"Language!" Dustin rolls his eyes and laughs again. "Wait.. finally? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on, Steve. You guys have been dancing around this for years. We had a bet on how long it would take you both to get your heads out of your asses and realize you're in love. Max wins by the way. I don't know if I want to tell her, I'll owe her $10." He looks down at the floor, shaking his head.

"What? So you all have known this whole time?"

"Well not that you're dating no, but that there's no possible way that you guys weren't in love. Eddie is not as good as he thinks is playing off his flirting as a joke. You're just blind, Harrington."

"You guys are a bunch of assholes!" I laugh, and take a drink of my soda. "So you don't care, like at all?"

"No man, Will's gay. You know that. He's still one of my best friends. Why would you guys being together change anything?"

I get up, and wrap him in a huge hug. "Thanks kid..." He hugs me back, tightly. "Of course." Eddie joins the hug too, "Dustin, I owe you one."

We let go. "Why do you owe me anything?"

"You're kinda the reason we even know each other, man. I can't thank you enough for any of that."

He smiles and pats Eddie on the back. "I'm glad that I did. Now I have a mom and a dad!"

"Dustin I swear to god..." I shake my head, pinching my forehead between my eyes with my fingers. Eddie and him both burst out laughing.

"So, any other news I should know about?"

"About that... what would you say if I told you we're moving?"

"WHAT?! NO YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO MOVE!"

"We kinda have to, Henderson. Tyler and his stupid friends are basically threatening our lives. We can't stay here man. It's not safe anymore." I look down at the floor, with a flash of memories. "It's... why I don't have my car."

"What happened to your car? I thought you said you're getting it worked on?" Dustin looks over at me confused. My heart twinges, I feel so awful for having to tell him we're leaving. But there's no better option.

"They... broke all my windows. Spray painted it. And then threatened to kill me at the video store..."

"THEY WHAT?! Oh my god Steve.. I'm so sorry. What assholes... I can't believe they would do that to you... I mean, we're all graduating and going off to college soon. I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't be here forever. I just... I'm gonna miss you a lot. Where are you thinking about going?"

"Well, we're thinking New York..." Eddie sighs softly.

"Shit.. really?" He looks so sad. It's breaking my heart to have to tell him like this. "Yeah.. we have an appointment to look at an apartment next week."

"Are you still coming to graduation?"

"Of course we'll be there. I wouldn't miss that for the world, kid."

"Good." He smiles to me softly, trying to mask that he's really sad that we're leaving. I can still see the sadness in his eyes, though. This is going to hurt, leaving Hawkins. But it's going to be good for us in the long run. I honestly believe that.

"So, what're we gonna do tonight?" Dustin kind of shakes his head, like he was zoning out and coming back to reality.

"Well we can just hangout, watch movies. The usual?"

"Yeah, the usual sounds... sounds really good."