𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐠 ━━ ❪ steve harrington. ❫

↳ ii.

"Wish I could say the same." His grip on her arm tightened as she tensed. Before she could ask him to kindly take his stupid arm off of her, the one person who annoyed her to his heart's content beat her to it, "let go off of her. Now."

Steve and the boy had an intense stare - down for about a total of five seconds before he let go, and went straight to the back of the class, his eyes burning holes into the side of Alice's face. "You didn't have to do that." Instead of thanking Steve, her tone was laced with annoyance. "You know, the least you could do is thank me."

Alice wordlessly walked off to take her seat, as Steve continued bothering her. "Why do you still hate me?"

"You're not important enough for me to hate you," She shot him a sarcastic smile, which he returned, turning to his desk with a bored expression. "We can be friends, you know."

"I choose my friends on the basis of their intelligence and a firm personality. Unfortunately, you don't exactly make the cut."

"Ouch. Your words hurt, you know that?"

"That was the plan."

Seeing as the teacher still hadn't arrived yet and the room was getting chattier than usual, Steve took this opportunity to bother her even more. He noticed how her hair weren't in their usual hairstyle, and she looked rather good with them down. As she opened her books, trying to start some of her remaining homework until the teacher arrived, she bit her bottom lip unintentionally. Steve's eyes flickered away, before he spoke again much to Alice's dismay. "Have you considered wearing contacts?"

"Nope. They're irritable." She replied shortly, her eyes still on the book. "I bet they look better than those awful grandma - spectacles you wear."

She huffed, "It's not that big of a deal."

"Yes, it is! How do you expect to attract guys like that?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes but then fixating her glare on him. "Unlike some people, relationships aren't my main goal in life." He rolled his eyes in response, but didn't really say anything after that.

It's not that Alice completely loathed his entire existence, which she sort of did at the beginning of junior year. She just found him a little dim, and shallow. The fact that he was always so obsessed with what other people thought of him; how much they loved him and how much they didn't, was really vexing to her. He was obsessed with his popularity and arrogant because of the fact that he was rich. He had a decent personality, but a lot of times he'd act like the biggest jerk on the planet — the biggest jerk on the planet who just so happened to be in love with her best friend. When they first started hooking up, Alice didn't really think much of it. But why she started disliking him even more, was because he'd started influencing Nancy in a wrong way, and she was constantly trying to be something she wasn't. She got lost in her greed for popularity.

But last year, they'd all gone through a hell of a time; facing things they didn't even know existed. Nancy and Alice had lost Barb, who was one of their best friends since the very beginning, and knew they couldn't rescue her from the dark, twisted place that was the upside down. It was where Will Byers had been stuck, and it was where the ugly, horrifying monsters also termed, the 'demo - gorgons,' existed. On one hand, Alice was terrified of everything that she'd learnt from the experience, but on the other hand, it was the coolest thing that could've happened to her anyway. Minus the part where one of her best friends died, because she couldn't stop crying about it for two days straight.