Behind Closed Doors

November 9th, 1984

"Okay, sex can wait, I gotta see this." Billy said as he pushed past Steve into the house.

Billy had only ever seen pictures of VCRs in magazines or advertisements, they were way out of Neil's price range. Even renting them was extremely expensive, so the fact that Steve's parents bought it just confirmed that the Harringtons were rich. In the entryway, it felt a bit more middle class than rich. Art on the walls, different types of wallpaper, not flashy but not boring.

'Sex can wait', what kind of sex did Hargrove mean? Technically everything they did was foreplay, right? Steve had no idea how sex between two guys worked, but hopefully Hargrove could lead him through it. He'd been good at that so far. Steve gestured to the room on the right of the foyer and Hargrove immediately darted for the TV. Right there on the TV stand underneath the 2 year old TV, was the brand new VCR player. Steve watched as Hargrove kneeled in front of it and stared in awe.

"Holy shit." Billy whispered. "These are like 2,000 bucks and you just... have one in your living room."

"My dad is kind of a nerd, he had that on pre order as soon as it was available."

"Then why the hell are you living in Hawkins if you can afford this? You could be living in a mansion in Beverly Hills, or at least a condo."

Steve shrugged. "Dad grew up here, went to the city for college, he met mom in the same program, and decided to raise a family back home."

Billy stood up and placed the beers on the coffee table. "Well, show me what your nerd of a dad spent so much money on."

Steve manually turned on the TV at the console, then picked up the TV and VCR remotes. "I'm still figuring this out, so I'm sorry if I screw up."

Steve's dad had written down what to do on a note inside the manual, and after a few minutes of switching inputs and such, he finally was able to put the VHS tape into the VCR. His dad also made a note to rewind the tapes when you put them in using stop and rewind, which gave Steve a few minutes to go into the kitchen to get plates and the pizza.

While Steve went to the kitchen, Billy took off his coat and opened a beer. He figured that Steve's dad was a homebody. Anyone who wanted to stay in Fucking Nowhere Indiana was either boring or didn't want to leave. But in a small space in the back of Billy's mind... he wished he'd gotten here sooner. Apparently last year was the height of King Steve's reign, which meant no one would question if Steve and Billy hung out.

"I didn't know which pizza you liked," Steve came back into the living room with three pizza boxes and two plates. "So I got one cheese, one pepperoni, and one meat lover's."

Billy smirked. "You trying to make me fat, Harrington?"

Steve sat the pizza and plates on the coffee table, and sat to Billy's left. "And have you lose your six pack? Hell no, it makes basketball practice bearable."

Billy let out a laugh that was like a caw. "That explains why you suck at basketball, I keep distracting you."

Steve blushed. "Maybe."

The two plated some pizza and talked a bit about their favorite movies. It turned out Hargrove was an Arnold Schwarzenagger fan ("He's what every man wants to look like, Harrington") and he was actually a pretty good student. Steve would have never guessed because of the whole bad boy routine. They both even liked the same basketball players. Apparently they talked for longer than they thought because in no time at all it was 9 pm, and the movie had been fully rewound for a while.

Strangely enough... Billy enjoyed just talking with Steve. In the past when he had a friend with benefits, it was simply show up, have sex, set up anothr time to have more fun. He never really bothered to get to know his partners beyond what they liked in bed, but with Steve it just... seemed easy.