YOU WOULDN'T DO THAT TO ME !
☀︎
THE DAY AFTER THE MONSTER HAD ATTACKED HER, ALEX HAD ONLY FELT THE SMALLEST BIT BETTER. After Dustin's constant pestering to call Steve in the morning, she felt that there was no other choice. After all, he did deserve to know that she had made it through the night okay. Now she had found herself sitting in the diner with a plate of waffles in front of her and Steve watching her carefully.
There had been a silence between them as they had sat there, unsure who was supposed to say the first thing. To Steve, this silence was becoming unbearable. Laying his fork down, he looked at her in question. "Are we still not allowed to be friends or what?"
Alex shrugged. It was not an answer that he wanted and she had seen the disappointment spread across his face. "I didn't say that because I wanted to hurt you, okay? There's been a lot on my mind... I just wanted to protect you."
"Protect me?" he questioned back with a frown and a nod, but there was no understanding. "From what, popularity? I don't care about that."
"You do."
"Okay, fine. Then we're still friends whether you like it or not. Now you can't get rid of me." With a small shrug, he picked back up his fork and found his focus back on his food. "You know, even if you go crazy and try and protect me again."
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I can't really explain it all." Sighing, she had managed a smile that he was sure he would not get to see today. "Having you around makes me feel better, which only proves I was an asshole."
"Yeah, you were, but I forgive you. I'm always an asshole. You just scared the shit out of me is all, even after you tried to murder me with a baseball bat."
This had made her feel worse for what she had done to him. Her fear had overwhelmed her last night and she wanted to make it up to him. "Jonathan and Nancy weren't being sneaky or anything. He was just looking out for her."
"See, that's still weird to me. I didn't see you getting a shoulder to cry on after whatever the hell happened. But alone in her room... and the way they were sitting... somethings up," Steve said. No matter how much Alex tried to convince him otherwise, Steve still had his suspicions of Jonathan and Nancy.
"I can't say because I didn't see what you did, but I was hanging out with them before they went to Nancy's. Trust me, they fought nearly the entire time."
Steve leaned forward, drawn in by his curiosity. "About what?"
Shoulder's slacking, she rolled her eyes in annoyance. "About you. She thinks you're Mr. Perfect and he hates you just like you hate him. Nothing you didn't already know."
"But you said I was Mr. Perfect too, right?"
Alex pointed her fork in his direction, "You're annoying. I said I liked you but you're also an asshole. Totally neutral ground. You know I can't stand you."
"Right," he agreed, nodding along. "But they weren't fighting when they were alone. Opposite of fighting."
"People change their moods," she reminded him as she motioned to herself. "You know, you weren't there last night, okay? I mean, if you really think Nancy would do that to you, why are you even with her?"
"You wouldn't do that to me," he mumbled before quickly wiping his mouth with a napkin and tossing it down to his plate. It was out of line for him to say what he had thought out loud when he knew he was just getting back to normal with Alex after last night. "Screw this. All the Right Moves is playing and everyone keeps turning me down, so we're going." Standing up, Steve had not given Alex a moment to finish her bite to eat as he had gestured for her to follow along. Throwing down some money onto the table, he managed to get her up before she could turn him down once more. Placing his hand on her back, he guided her out of the diner. For a moment today, he had wanted something normal-- even if Hawkins had been falling apart around them.