steve:
the next morning went pretty normal for steve. he got ready, picked up robin and as soon as he stepped on the school's property he felt the urge to leave again.
"one last month. only one last month", steve said to robin who shared his excitement for sitting in a room with student's who were exactly as motivated as them for the next five hours. even most of the teacher's themselves gave up on trying to squeeze anything out of the almost adults which was at least one good thing.
"we have chemistry now, right?", robin asked while both of them walked through the corridors.
"yup, and i am so unmotivated to enter this class room right now just to hear another one of mr. bots boring life stories you wouldn't believe it", steve answered and leaned against his friend's side.
"the date with vickie went okay? i guess?", his friend suddenly blurted out while nervously playing with her fingers.
"oh my god, rob! i am so sorry i forgot to ask you how it went! really, i am so sorry i completely forgot about it, jeez", steve went with his hands over and over through his hair. he couldn't believe it. how could he forget about something which was so important to his best friend!? steve couldn't deny he felt horrible and guilty in that moment but robin quickly wrapped her arm around his shoulder.
"steve, it's fine i am not mad at you! don't let your brain tell yourself i would be mad at you because i am not, i promise! i saw how tired and overwhelmed you were yesterday after you drove me home", robin tried her best to cheer up her friend.
"thanks, rob. just know that i am very sorry that i forgot about your date. however, i am glad that it went well! did something between you two happen?", steve smirked down at his friend whose face just turned a shade of pink.
"sshhh! you can't just ask that this loudly!", robin whispered and pushed steve to the left where their class room's door was located.
"don't think you can get away this easily, buckley", steve said while he was just getting his friend's laugh as an answer.
multiple lesson's passed and steve took a deep breath when the bell finally rang to announce the lunch break. he packed his utensils in his bag and left the room when a voice called for him as soon as he walked a few steps in the canteen's direction. he would meet up with robin and maybe also eddie in the canteen and was just not in the mood to let someone change his plans. instead of stopping steve decided to ignore the familiar voice and pushed farer through the crowd. he knew he'd pay for this later but who cares? no jason before lunch.
when he entered the canteen he let his eyes move from table to table, trying to find his friend. or friends? was eddie already a friend? steve shook his head to get rid of those dumb thoughts before spotting robin's white sweater. he didn't see eddie so robin might have been right about the other young man not coming to school. or well, that's what he thought until someone put his left arm around steve's shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze.
"hey! what's up, stevie boy? looking for me?", eddie teased him.
before steve could answer, eddie already passed him and literally ran in robin's direction. steve could only stare how the young man slid through the small gaps between all of the students who balanced their food on their tablets. finally, eddie stood next to robin but instead of sitting down next to or opposite her, he stood on a chair and waved excitedly in steve's direction.
steve was at a loss for his words.
"how could eddie care this little about what other people might think or say about him?", steve thought and made his way to robin and eddie.
when he stood in front of eddie, he looked up in the grinnig face and secretly wished that was him. or at least that he could be like him. cool and nice and funny- even though steve didn't forgive him for eating almost the entire pack of his crackers.
steve lift up his left hand and offered it to eddie as a gesture to help him get down from the chair and rather take a seat. he could see the surprise in eddie's eyes about his actions but took his hand after a few seconds.
"thanks, stevie boy", eddie smiled at him and rubbed above steve's knuckles with his thumb before letting go of his hand. afterwards eddie chose the seat next to robin which left the one opposite his two friends.
steve took out a box of cut cucumber and another one with gummy bears and placed them in the middle of the table. while steve put away the lids of the two boxes he noticed how both of his friends immediately reached for the gummy bears.
"seriously guys?", steve laughed in disbelief "sweets before cucumber? how does that even work in your minds?"
"it's pretty easy to be honest: just eat the sweets and ignore the veggies", eddie answered and the gummy bear disappeared in his mouth.
"you know how much i love the sour one's!", robin defended herself while searching for a green apple flavoured one.
"i've said it before and i'll say it again. i am a fucking babysitter ", steve stated while grabbing a slice of cucumber but before he could put it in his opened mouth, eddie placed a gummy bear inside instead and him and robin gave each other a high-five.
"well, first of all if you're a babysitter you're a god damn good one and seondly you need energy. sweets deliver energy to your body, steve. don't be so serious", eddie said and leaned towards steve. he could feel eddie's hand giving his a little pat and the feeling of the cold silver rings touching steve's soft skin made him feel flustered for absolutely no explainable reason.
" okay, eddie, enough flirting with my straight friend!", robin laughed and shook her head slightly.
"labels are overrated", eddie replied, shrugged his shoulders and took a sip from his water bottle.
"you're right about that on, eddie", robin said and raised her water bottle in his direction as if she wanted to say "cheers to that statement" which left robin and eddie grinning at each other.
"man, just do whatever you want you fruit loops", steve added which made the trio burst out in giggles.
"steve!", a voice suddenly called his name and he turned around. already annoyed.
"yes, jason? what's up?", steve tried to let his voice sound at least not completely fucked up which seemed to work at least partly.
"can we speak in private real quick?"
not a question. definetely none.
"yeah sure", steve checked his watch.
only five minutes left. the worst jason could do is annoy him for five minutes.
steve said a quick "bye" to eddie and robin leaving his stuff behind for him to have an excuse to shorten the conversation as much as possible. steve and jason left the canteen, turned right and stopped in a quiet hallway.
"i called you on the corridor when the break started you know that, right?", jason stated, standing in front of steve with a little distance, his arms tensely crossed.
"yeah, sorry about that man. i just wanted to get a seat. you know how fast the canteen is filled with people", steve tried to explain himself.
"hm yeah, it's fine", jason responded dryly and steve was convinced that if jason didn't want his help, steve would have taken a punch for his lame excuse.
"so anyway. about chrissy's party. you're fine with it right?"
again. not a question. just another way for jason to make sure that everything he said was right.
even if it wasn't.
"actually, jason, i am really busy right now so i don't think that i will have the time to organize this whole-"
"steve, i promise you won't have to take care of anything. we'll bring the drinks, we'll bring the food, we'll hand out the invitations- it's all good! and come on, dude! it's just one evening! don't let those weirdos you had to share a table with at lunch influence your character or behaviour, am i right?"
that was just so funny. however, steve really didn't feel like laughing. but it was just so funny because it was exactly the other way around. jason was so used to everyone always agreeing with him simply because no one wanted to break the loop and really put themself out there. standing up for themlself.
"hello?! harrington?", jason's annoyed voice tried to get steve's final approval but steve's mind was spinning down a really deep path of thoughts right now, leaving him unable to answer.
"just say no!", robin's voice echoed in his head, his mind spinning more and more, deeper and deeper.
"harrington?", jason grabbed his shoulders shaking him aggressively. jason's patience officially ended at this point.
"are you deaf or something? he said he's busy. what part about that didn't you understand?"
steve turned to the direction the voice was coming from and discovered eddie standing there leaning against the wall with his hands in his vest's pockets.
"oh come on- you, freak? when did you even come back? did you miss me so badly that you wanted to see me one more time before graduating, huh? oh wait- i am sure you will stay another year again. but don't worry, freak. i will come and check up on you, okay?", jason chuckled and made a few steps towards eddie.
"you're the same asshole as the day i left hawkins. i am not surprised", eddie shrugged his shoulders and approached jason. "now get fuckin lost", eddie spat the words out angrily.
the spoken to turned one more time towards steve who just watched the scene from a little distance.
"you really let yourself down by talking to these people, harrington. embarrassing!", jason spit on the floor in front of steve's feet and left.
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would mean the world to me if you'd leave a vote :']
also do you think the speed of steve's and eddie's relationship growth is comfortable or is it too fast/slow?
PLEASE let me know this is really important to me because now i can adjust it before writing this entire book this way <3