Chapter Text
Steve hated feeling tired, but lately that was all he ever really felt. He was currently in his last class of the day, mind wandering away from the lecture of his science teacher, daydreaming about anything that could get his mind off of school, mostly he thought about the monsters he had faced in the past. It had been three months since the Mind Flayer attack and the normalcies of every day life had finally begun to return to the town of Hawkins, but the overlying fears that the Upside Down had created within Steve hadn’t seem to leave. He often imagined himself being attacked by the monsters he had recently experienced and felt uneasy about this new period of peace Hawkins was going through, as if it wouldn’t last much longer knowing the craziness that had lingered in the small town. Steve’s over imagination hadn’t just started to affect his daydreams, but had also snuck its way into his actual dreams on occasion and had given him nightmares about horrific creatures in the Upside Down realm that would make him wake up screaming and covered in sweat, unable to sleep the rest of the night, “another reason for this current exhaustion.” Steve thought.
Steve rubbed at his weary eyes, looking up from his previous position of laying with his arms crossed on his desk, and stared at the clock on the classroom wall. He had thirty minutes till school was out and two more hours until he could go home due to having basketball practice after school. Steve used to enjoy basketball, but just like many things he use to enjoy it just didn’t bring him the same amount of pleasure anymore. Steve also started putting off his friends, the few he had, and preferred the company of himself lately. Drinking beer after beer while watching the same old movies over and over on his tv rooted on his couch was Steve’s new favorite pastime. “Was it pathetic? Absolutely.” Steve knew this, but he just didn’t have the energy to do anything about it.
The sound of the final bell going off jolted Steve out of his own thoughts. Slowly leaving the room behind the rest of his classmates, Steve walked down the hall towards his locker to grab the rest of his things he needed for practice . As he was closing his locker with his backpack in tow Steve felt a gentle hand rest on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Nancy Wheeler, who was currently sporting a shy looking grin on her face. “Hey, Jonathan and I were gonna go to the movies tonight and we were wondering-“ Nancy tilted her head and continued smiling, “that maybe you would like to join us? I mean you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I thought it might be nice, the three of us hanging out.”
Steve looked down at Nancy, he knew that even after breaking up that she still cared deeply about him, but everything was different now. She was no longer his girlfriend and he was no longer her boyfriend, their relationship had been one of the best things that had ever happened to him and while he appreciated her trying to remain friends, Steve knew that it was something that just wouldn’t work out. Plus it wasn’t fair to Jonathan either, and Steve severely doubted that he wanted Nancy hanging out with her ex.
“Thanks for the invite, but I um, actually already have plans tonight.” Steve mumbled whiling glancing down at the ground.
“Oh really?” Nancy raised her eyebrow in a challenging gaze, “What are you doing then? Because I haven’t seen you go to a party in months or even hang with Mike and his little gang.”
“Crap,” Steve thought, he had dug himself right into a ditch and wanted nothing more than to end this entire conversation. He looked back up to Nancy, her deep brown eyes bore into his, trying to read his expression. Steve knew at this moment he had only two choices. He could tell Nancy the truth, that after practice the only thing Steve actually planned on doing was going straight home, eating whatever he found in the fridge and then booking it up to his bed and calling it a night, or he could lie, Steve didn’t usually lie, especially to Nancy, but telling her he was going to hang out with Tommy or something would set her mind at ease and also get her off his back. And so as the strategical guy he was, Steve went with the smartest option.
“Tommy and me are watching movies at his place tonight after practice.” Steve gritted through his teeth, praying to God that Nancy would just accept his lie and leave already.
“Really? You actually have plans?” Nancy paused for a moment, thinking over the fact that Steve for once was doing something other than lounging around his home all night.
“Yeah I know, a real shocker, anyways thanks again for the invite, but practice is about to start soon so I gotta scram.” Steve remarked as he slid pass Nancy and headed towards the gym, knowing that when Nancy found out that he lied, because somehow she was always able to, that he would never hear the end of it.
Practice went relatively fast for Steve, with the only interesting thing that happened was when Billy Hargrove, asshole extraordinaire, got in an argument with their coach and ended up calling him a “sack of shit” to his face. Steve didn’t care much for Billy, he tried to move past the anger he had for the boy when he attacked both Lucas and him at the Byers’ house the night of the Mind Flayer attack, but after Max threatened him by almost smashing his dick Billy had actually stayed out of Steve and the rest of the kid’s way, no longer bothering him at school with snide remarks, this plus the fact that Max told Steve that she knew deep down wasn’t a bad person made him feel more indifference to Billy rather than hatred. Steve watched as Billy was kicked out of practice, feeling no sympathy for the guy as he stalked out of the gym pissed and fuming. The remainder of practice was pretty dull and when it was over Steve made it into the locker room and changed back into his normal clothes in record time.
As he walked towards his ride in the school’s parking lot Steve saw a familiar Camaro parked right next to his red BMW. Leaning against the Camaro was Billy, with a cigarette in one hand taking slow drags and looking up into the night sky. Steve paused for a minute and held his breathe, he didn’t want to start any shit with Billy tonight, much less acknowledge his presence. Keeping his head held low and pulling out the keys to his car, Steve shuffled over toward the driver side of his ride, making just enough noise for Billy to withdraw from his little trace. He turned his head to look at Steve and then took a long drag of his cigarette. Once Steve finally had the door open Billy pushed himself off the side of his Camaro and stepped closer to him, they were now merely five feet away.
“Hey, Harrington.” Steve holds his breathe as Billy’s voice is heard from behind him.
After a moment Steve finally looked back at Billy, instantly noticing that he was no longer wearing his workout clothes, but instead the tight white t-shirt, faded black jeans, and jean jacket that he wore to school. Steve then looked up at Billy’s face, and for once the guy didn’t look angry, didn’t look like much of any emotion that Steve could actually read, if he had to guess he would actually say calm, but then again it was Billy Hargrove and Steve seriously doubted that Billy had that kind of range of emotions.
“So I was gonna head out earlier, but my fucking car decided to be a bitch and wouldn’t start, do you have any jumper cables?”
Steve looked between Billy and his car, wondering what kind of joke this was, but the longer he stareed at Billy he slowly realized that he’s wasn’t kidding.
“Are you- are you actually asking me to jump your car for you?” Steve asked in minor disbelief.
“Um no shit, do you see anyone else here right now Harrington?”
Steve looked around the parking lot and realized that Billy was right, he was the only car left besides Billy’s.
“I think I have some cables in the trunk, let me check.”
Steve did in fact have a pair of cables in his trunk and with Billy’s help the Camaro roared to life in a mere matter of minutes. While Steve was putting the cables away Billy got back out of his car and walked toward him.
“Look I just wanted to say thanks, or whatever.” Billy paused as he peered at Steve, “Looks like I owe you one pretty boy.”
Steve didn’t know what kind of answer to give to that so he just turned away from Billy and got into his car.
“Have a nice night, King Steve” Billy yelled as he flipped Steve off and also got into his own car.
Steve thought about the confrontation he had with Billy his entire drive home, he couldn’t believe that Billy and him had an actual conversation that didn’t end with yelling or fists, “what a crazy night.” When Steve arrived home he threw down his stuff, grabbed some leftover lasagna from his fridge and plopped down on his old burgundy living room couch. While grabbing the tv remote and flipping through channels Steve thought back to Nancy and his conversation, he felt guilty for lying to her, someone who genuinely cared about him and his wellbeing. Steve shook his head, it didn’t matter if Nancy cared anymore, they weren’t a couple and he had no reason to get all worked up over her anymore. Then he thought about Billy, who always was a supreme douche towards Steve, but seemed pretty decent tonight, maybe Max was right about Billy being more normal lately. “Go figure.” Steve thought as he ate his dinner.
After watching some random episodes of Cheers that he had stumbled upon and finishing his lasagna, Steve got up from the couch while turning off the tv, then went into the kitchen to put his plate away, and headed up the stairs towards his room. As he laid down on his bed Steve tried to push all thoughts of school, Nancy, and “stupid Billy Hargrove” out of his head, and after about an hour minutes of tossing and turning Steve was out like a rock.
Dreaming about the Upside Down and the monsters it held was some what of a constant recurrence that Steve was familiar with, but tonight his dreams were different. He looked around at the landscape of his dream, he was suddenly standing in the middle of the street next to his house inside the Upside Down and felt nothing but fear, this was a nightmare and was more realistic than usual, “way too real.” Steve shuttered from the cold and wrapped his arms around him as he took a few steps forward, observing his surroundings carefully. He knew this was a dream because he remembered falling asleep, but this was way worse than any nightmare his mind had come up with before.
Just then he heard a familiar noise making his blood run cold and his entire body freeze up, it was a howl, the exact same as the Demodogs that him and the kids had fought off before. He slowly turned around, toward the source of the sound and saw in the distance a shadow the exact same size as the monsters he feared so damn much. A second passed before Steve turned and broke into a run. He could hear the creature as it ran after him, snarling as it followed him further down the street. Steve didn’t know what to do or where to go, only that he had to keep moving because dream or no dream he knew if he got caught by the creature he was sure as dead.
Steve could taste his blood in his mouth and could feel the pain and burning in his lungs as he continued to sprint down the street, turning only when the street ended. “Please for the love of fuck wake up!” Steve screamed internally. The barking behind him was only getting louder and closer, only a small distance away now. Steve knew he couldn’t keep running forever, his adrenaline was running out and the pain was almost too much to handle. “I’m just dreaming! There’s no way any of this could be real! The gate is closed, El closed it!” Steve was out of options, there was no out running the Demodogs and no way to attack them in this state. Steve went to turn around quickly to get a glimpse of the dogs, but as he turned he ran straight into something solid and fell back hard into the pavement below.
All the air remaining in Steve’s lungs was knocked out and pain shot throughout his entire body from the force of the impact. He laid with his eyes close, head spinning, waiting for death to get him, but instead of the growling of the creatures he heard the sound of an engine, a car engine.
“Holy shit! Holy fucking shit! Harrington?!?” A familiar voice screamed out causing Steve’s head to ache more.
He felt a hand hand grab him his shoulder and a body hovering over him, “This is the end” a sob racked through Steve, “This is where I die.”
“Oh my god dude we gotta get you to a hospital or something! Fuck Steve say something man!”
Steve’s mind cleared up some and he finally found the strength to open his eyes and look at the figure before him standing in front of a pair of bright headlights, but what he saw wasn’t what he had been expecting at all.
“...Billy?” Steve whispered right before he fell into darkness.