TOMMY'S DRIVE was unfamiliar and Eve wanted it to stay that way. Steve was smirking and Eve laughed sheepishly, shaking her head. She slid her black ballet pumps against the ground and stood, slamming the door behind her.
"You're going to leave your car here?" Eve asks, eyeing the toilet roll thrown out across the lawn and at the discarded cans and bottles.
"Yep." Eve looked over Steve's face and he places an unexpected hand on the low of her back. "Stop." He says, laughing and nodding at the cans in his hands. "We're going to have a great time." Though her face was flushed with the presence of his hand against her spine, Eve began to smile. Looking at Steve's face, his bright smile and the laughter he always pulled from her, she thought she would, in fact, have fun.
"Steve!" Tommy's voice, slurring already from the alcohol in his hand, bellowed through the hallway and above the music blasting loudly from a speaker somewhere in his large living room. He hugged him, his can spilling, and Steve patted his back, leaning back cautiously. "I didn't think you'd actually make it," his drunken stare caught sight of Evelyn. His eyes trailed upwards from the hem of her dress. Emerald satin, tight around her chest and waist, flowing around her thighs. He paused. A lopsided grin and his arm around Steve's shoulders tightened. He looked at Steve and slapped him on the chest, straightening himself up. Eve's eyes were scanning the people at the party. She saw Carol in a red long sleeve top, tied high up her chest, pushing up her bra. She had high waist skinny black pants on and her hair was in curls around her face. She was cheering, stood on what Eve presumed to be a table but she couldn't see from all the people overfilling his house. There were men and woman ready to be sick, she was watching them swerve where they stood. She saw several people kissing on the stairs and two individuals, hand in hand, heading towards the doors at the top of them. She felt very out of place.
"Hi Eve." Eve's attention snapped to Tommy. His eyes were not on her face.
"Hello." He nodded, sipping his beer.
"You look hot." He was grinning, whistling and then his hand was on her left wrist. "Lemme show you something." She didn't want to follow him and her breathy protests were drowned out by the crowd. But then there was a hand splitting up their contact and Eve followed it to Steve's chest.
"How about you keep your hands to yourself, Tommy." Tommy laughs, raising his hand in surrender with a smirk.
"Jesus, Harrington. Didn't realise she meant so much to you." Steve pauses, looking at Eve quickly and stuttering. He was shaking his head but it was jerking.
"I-I don't." Eve let out a small breathy laugh.
"Thank you." She whispered to his turned head and he smiled back to her. She was already wound together with nerves, uncomfortable. There were so many people and so many eyes on her that she wasn't totally sure what to do with herself. Steve plucked a can from the six pack in his hands and passed one to her. Eve stuck to Steve like glue, knowing she looked uncomfortable. He could see her scolding herself for it frequently, her nose scrunching up and her hand rubbing her forehead. It made him smile to himself. He walked over to her each time and made it seem there was something he needed to talk to her about.
When Eve was a little drunk and her brain took time to catch up with her, she found she was now lay on the patio outside Tommy's house. The music was loud and obnoxious and she'd found Steve's hand was so warm and fit so well around hers that she didn't want to let go of it. Her head was now on Steve's coat, which he'd put out for her when she wanted to look at the night sky. Somehow, as they mumbled to each other, she found her cheek on his shoulder and Steve's fingers were playing with the dainty gold bracelet on her wrist. His fingers kept catching hers and tangling with them and they both told themselves it was an accident. But it was hard when her hand was on his stomach and her eyelashes kept brushing his bare skin. Steve closes his eyes, breathing her in while she spoke; she smelt of vanilla and coffee and perfume. It was a pretty, fruity smell that was sat in her hair. She was talking about something, not making much sense, and he was smiling and felt his chest was tight. He wanted to stay here, in this moment, forever. But he couldn't.
"Oi, lovebirds!" Eve scrambled up, all limbs and blushing pink. Steve frowned, his finger ghosting the space she'd been lay against. He missed it.
When they were back inside, Steve's hands found hers to keep her from dispersing in the crowd. Their fingers tangled together and with the music deafeningly loud Eve laughed at the lopsided grin on his pretty mouth. He twirled her hesitantly but when she giggled, her dress swinging, she grabbed his other hand and they danced again. They lost themselves, forgetting those around them. Large grins and laughter tickling their ears they spun and jumped with the beat of the music and they didn't stop until Carol fell drunkly into Eve and interrupted them. It forced Eve unwillingly into Steve's chest. He was breathing heavily from all their dancing and she could feel him rising and falling against her. His arms slipped around her as they both found their balance and Steve put an arm out in front of him to block Tommy and Carol's drunken walk.
"Moving fast aren't we, Harrington?" It was Tommy, laughing with the intoxicated giggles from Carol encouraging him. It wasn't clear if Tommy meant the things he was saying, or if he was looking for a fight from the four beers just put in his system.
"Don't know what you're on about Tommy." And Eve felt his arms slacken around her shoulders. She felt suddenly conscious and stood up straight, no longer needing his support.
"Nancy didn't really give him much choice." Carol was hiccuping, slurping from the red plastic cup in her hands. "Running off with that freak- mind you, they're both creeps."
Evelyn and Steve's words mixed into one sentence of protest and Tommy and Carol exchanged a look of entertainment.
"He's not a freak."
"She's not a freak, Carol. Shut up."
"Oooh." Tommy cooed, chuckling.
"That's right!" Carol began, throwing her arms out theatrically. "You're friends with that perv, aren't you? And his weirdo zombie brother! I knew it!" Eve's eyes pricked with tears and it was beyond her control. Her emotions changed so quickly the intoxication blushed her cheeks and blocked her throat. The ghost of how happy she had been just seconds before in the back of her foggy mind.
"Why are you being so cruel?" Eve said louder than she would have, had she been sober. "His name is Jonathan and his brother is called Will. And neither of them are freaks." Carol was cackling too loudly to absorb her words.
"Oh my god." She gasped, "are you crying?" And then, of all voices to join their conversation, Eve's body shuddered and her eyes were now more unclear.
"What's up, princess?" Billy Hargrove towered above them, girls twirling their hair and obnoxiously giggling at his words, oblivious to the conversation actually happening. Eve felt choked and Steve was now haunted by the thoughts provoked by Carol. How Nancy had 'ran away' with Jonathan and Eve could see it in his face. She thought of their hands tangled together and frowned. She felt like a fool.
"I want to leave." She says all at once, about to push through the crowd when Billy Hargrove stops her in her tracks, grabbing hold of her forearms.
"Whoa, where you going? You haven't even said hello." He says with cold blue eyes and a cruel smirk twisting his pink lips. "Surely, your Mom taught you that much?" Eve took a deep breath from the thin air around her. Stealing it and battling with it. She turns in his grip as Tommy whistles and Carol calls after her with mocking sympathy.
"Oh, Steve. How did you pick another freak?" Carol was laughing loudly.
"Might loose her to Byers as well, careful." Tommy shouts and Eve, hot and glassy-eyed, pushes harshly against Billy's chest until he stumbles unexpectedly and she rushes towards the door.
"Wait!" It's Steve, rushing to catch up with her, his fingers snatching at the air in between them. "I'm sorry, wait! Let me take you home. Eve please, wait!" But she's too busy shouting how her uncle is in the area somewhere and she'll just go and find him. "You can't do that. They're idiots, wait!" His skin meets hers, an overwhelming feeling from just his fingertips around the soft skin of her wrist but it steals both of their attention. They look at each other in the crowd that has split open from their chaos. "Let's just go somewhere else, let's ignore them." Eve's looking at Steve but can't see her Steve in him just yet. He's hurt over someone else and exhausted with it. It's painful for Eve to see, she realises. Though it shouldn't be; they're always just friends. She knows they can't ignore it because the damage has already been done. She can seen it. She can feel it.
"I want to go." She whispers, eyes on his fingers.
"We were having so much fun." Steve pleads, his voice breaking. Eves eyes snap up to his at the strange and unexpected sound even over the music. He sounds desperate. His eyes are clouded with intoxication and his brows are knitted together in discomfort. "So much fun, Evie." He's mumbling, his fingers rubbing her wrist, remembering her head against his shoulder. Eve opens her mouth in her shock, her heart aching for him. They were; it was all nearly perfect.
Eve was moving her fingers into his, a fragile smile growing on Steve's face until the moment Billy Hargrove splits their line of sight and Eve spins instinctively on the spot.
"Nance, please!" She stops. Her chest tight and breathless, the room falls silent. Everyone is listening to them. Eve looks at the door and must have forgotten her manners along the way because she never thanked Tommy for his hospitality, she only ran through the crowd and out of the door; on to the street; past Steve's car and on to the main road. There was a picket fence in front of Tommy's house and Eve sat down behind it. She had no reason to be crying; she had never been in love and had no right to think she had found it. Steve would come looking for her she knew, but she doubted he'd see her here. She couldn't stand to see him like this. Billy Hargrove, however, could see her just fine.