The Babysitters: Steve Harrington x Reader

Chapter 17

"I mean, you don't have to stay," I said as we began to walk down the train tracks, every few steps dropping a few chunks of steak onto the ground. "I can handle this. I know wrangling middle schoolers isn't really your forte."

"Hey, don't be stupid," He said, pointing a gloved finger at me very sternly. We both had on these bright yellow rubber gloves on, so we weren't touching raw meat, but seeing him wear them along with those stupid sunglasses and his stupid hair, I couldn't help but hold back a laugh at his attempt to be serious. "I mean, this thing has already killed your cat, and now it's twice its size. You need all the help you can get."

At the mention of Mews, my head bowed. A few tears flooded my vision, but there was no way in hell I was crying in front of the boys.

"Oh sorry," he said quickly. "Too soon?"

"Just a little, Stevie," I said, giving him a watery smile.

"Stevie?" Dustin scoffed, turning back to look at us from a few feet ahead. "I think I just threw up in my mouth."

"Shut up," I glared at my brother, flipping him off. He flipped the bird back at me and began to walk again, this time a little farther ahead.

"How old was she?" Steve asked, a little softer this time.

"Ten." I tossed some steak behind me before we started walking again.

"Ten, that's..." Steve counted on his fingers, "The year your dad died."

"Great math, Steve," I teased, bumping into him lightly as we walked. "Yes, the year my dad died. We got Mews for mom a couple days after the funeral. It was Dustin's idea."

"So she was a pretty special cat."

"Most definitely," I smiled, my eyes starting to water again. I wiped them on my shoulder, seeing as my hands were covered in raw meat.

"Could you two just stop flirting for like, five minutes please?" Dustin called to the two of us. Steve and I immediately separated, walking with at least two feet between us now.

"We're not-" Steve started, annoyed, but Dustin cut him off.

"Nuh-Uh I don't care about your excuses," Dustin wagged a finger, laying on the dramatics. "Let's talk about something much important than your love life, Steve. Me."

I snorted. "What about you, Dustin?"

"I'm having a bit of a crisis here!" He yelled, throwing his hands up in the air.

"And what," Steve asked, throwing down more meat on the tracks for emphasis,"Would that be?"

"I'm having..." Dustin sighed, looking at me, and then back at Steve. "Girl problems."

I gasped so loud that I almost dropped the bucket. "Finally!" Both of the boys looked at me. "I've waited years for you to come to me with your crushes! This is so exciting!"

Dustin rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna pretend like you didn't say that. Ok, so..." He started, looking mostly at Steve. He had fallen back so that Steve and Dustin were walking next to each other and I was there a few steps behind them. "There's this girl. And she's so cool. Not like the other girls here, she like, skateboards and plays videogames. And so I kept Dart because I thought she might find him cool-"

"Alright wait, hold on," Steve interrupted. "You kept something you knew was probably dangerous, to what? Impress some girl you just met?"

"Not only probably dangerous, but it also had confirmed origins from the Upside Down," I added.

"Ok that is grossly oversimplifying things," Dustin said.