wires, steve harrington

one.

to say that meadow henderson had been to hell and back the past year would be an understatement. after all the happenings with the upside down, finding will's body, and fighting the demogorgon, she had only wanted a normal school year, a merry christmas, and a happy new year.

however, things in hawkins, indiana, would never be the same after what had happened. despite the public being unaware of the demogorgon, the upside down, the lab, or eleven, meadow was left with the countless horrors that remained in her mind.

if anything good had come from 1983, it was that meadow had made some new friends. she and nancy wheeler, who was a year younger than her, hadn't ever really hung out. after barb holland died, however, nancy had needed all the help she could get, leading to her contacting the other girl. this also united meadow with jonathan byers, who she'd never gotten to really have a conversation with beforehand.

of course, meadow had always known of the two. after all, her little brother, dustin, was friends with both of their younger siblings. yet despite always being in close proximity, the three had never had anything that they had in common. now that they had nearly died together, they had a common ground that united them.

that isn't to say that she was.. particularly close to either of them. jonathan was a bit of a lone wolf, she thought, and didn't often want to talk to her or to anyone. nancy, while she was very kind, seemed to only be close to her when it came to hanging out or going somewhere. not that meadow didn't appreciate the invitations to parties, but she would always roll her eyes and deny the invitation.

nancy wasn't necessarily her closest friend, but then, who was? meadow had been friends with everyone in middle school, it seemed, and then when high school came around, she claimed that she had grown accustomed to the bullshit and was tired of it. she supposed that was why she didn't tolerate the trauma bonding nancy wanted, and why she didn't make much of an effort to be closer to her or to jonathan.

and there was also steve harrington. steve was the other person she had become close to in 1983, not that she necessarily wanted to. "king steve" was all of the rage at school; so of course meadow had known of him. he was in the same grade as her, and she herself had fallen victim to the lusciousness of his brown hair, and the charm of his smile. in middle school, she'd even heard rumors of him having a crush on her, not that anything had ever come from it.

she remembered when he sat in the same classrooms as her, smiling as girls would go on and on about his shoes or his shirt, trying to compliment their way into gaining his favor. meadow would always roll her eyes at this, focusing on a random conversation that she could distract herself with.

well, almost always. there was a time (seventh grade, was it?) that the rumor of steve having feelings for her finally made its way to her own ears. she didn't believe it, of course, because whoever thought it was funny to come up with that was, certainly, super funny. but that was before she noticed him talking to her more than he talked to anyone else in the class, and at that point she thought she might like him back.

then his friends (which, by the way, fuck tommy h, and fuck his whole group of friends) had begun to joke about meadow, and she lost whatever feelings she thought she'd had for steve harrington. she dismissed the entire thing as confusion, 'i thought he liked me, so i thought i liked him', and moved on.

that was, until 1983, when she was forced to talk to him again.

the first time meadow had conversed with steve, and not in a school setting, was when his friends had spray painted the sign at the movie theater. now, a sign saying that nancy wheeler was a slut probably wasn't the best way to start off a conversation. meadow liked nancy: she was kind, pretty, and only wanted to find her missing best friend. so, naturally, meadow punched steve harrington directly in the jaw.