Chapter Text
“You do?” You gasped into the Wheeler’s home phone, staring at the boys, two of which looked amused while one was pouting as he’d been doing for months, “You have? Oh, no, they’ll be very discrete,” you slammed the phone back on the receiver and jumped to face the boys. “We got one!”
Dustin and Lucas laughed and pretended like they were running around like they were getting dressed to go out and bust some ghosts. Mike, on the other hand, gave you a blank stare before rolling his eyes, “Aren’t we old enough to not need a babysitter?”
You knew Mike had been having a rough couple of months since El was gone, but you couldn’t take the constant attitude anymore. With a heavy sigh, you leaned over so you were eye-level with him, your hands resting on your hips as you stood there in your Janine Melnitz costume, “Aren’t you a little old to still be whining like a baby?”
Okay. That was an immature response to a child, but, really, it was Halloween, he couldn’t attempt to have fun for at least one day of the year?
Annoyed even more, if somehow possible, Mike turned to his friends and said it was time to go outside before his mother tried to take more photos of the four of you. You all went outside and you watched the boys fool around with each other as you waited for Will. It’s not that they needed a babysitter, but you had gotten used to taking them around for Halloween before you went to your evening plans. Plus, you always dressed up with them every year. You genuinely had fun with the kids, and Halloween was the time of year you were really, really looking forward to.
Plus, as the babysitter of Dustin Henderson, you loved the candy tax on him.
While waiting around outside, listening to the boys fool around, it finally sounded like Mike was easing up and getting out of his sour mood brought on by the never-ending pictures from his mother, and what he deemed to be your poor acting skills of Janine Melnitz. You looked over your shoulder when you heard a car approach, and you smiled and waved at the two Byers boys. Will and Jonathan spoke for a moment before Will ran out of the car with a grin on his face.
As Will was running to join the gang, you could see Jonathan wave you over. Will approached you, saying that Jonathan wanted to talk to you as he quickly ran by you and went to join his friends. You told the boys to wait as you went and leaned against Jonathan’s side of the car as he rolled down the window.
“Feel like going to a partY?” Jonathan asked you.
You raised an eyebrow,” Do you feel like going to a party? Really? You?”
“What? I party.”
“No, no, you don’t,” You laughed and crossed your arms over your chest. “You want to see a certain girl there, don’t you?”
Jonathan dodged the question, “Do you really want to hang around the kids the whole night?”
“Kind of, Dustin gives me candy,” You said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Besides, I love Halloween and seeing all the decorations. Also, I’m pretty sure your mom was counting on two teenagers being here to help watch her baby, no?”
Jonathan sighed heavily, shoulders sinking as he looked up at you, “Please? Moral support?”
You groaned. You weren’t planning on hanging around a bunch of drunk teens that night. You were going to go around, get some candy, then go back to your own home so you could watch scary movies by yourself and terrify yourself beyond belief for no reason other than holiday spirit. But…annoyingly enough, Jonathan was your friend, and you didn’t exactly love most of the people there, but you got along with them fine enough, not seen as much of a social pariah as Jonathan was. You could just go and hang out with your friend.
Plus, free drinks and snacks…
“You’re driving me home, then,” you pointed a finger at him. “And if that new kid starts talking to me, you’re pretending to be my boyfriend, please. He gave me the ick in the hall today already.”
“Fine, done, deal.”
“Okay. Let me check in with the kids,” you said.
You had barely turned around when you saw they were all staring at you, bored, waiting. Dustin threw his hands up in the air, silently asking what you were doing. When you asked if he’d be okay without you, Mike clapped his hands together, turned around, and told everyone to hit the road so they could get candy. Dustin rolled his eyes at Mike, told you to not get drunk and harassed by perverts, and then joined his friends as they went to get candy.
You quickly jumped into the car, shaking your head as Jonathan grinned and pulled away from the curb to drive to this house party. His grin faltered for a moment as he realized what he was doing. He shifted in his seat and glanced at you nervously, “Do you think I—“
“I think, maybe, a night without being watched the whole entire time might do him so good, help him relax a little,” you suggested. “He seems on edge.”
“He is,” Jonathan agreed. “Can you blame him?”
“No, not at all. I was on edge and I didn’t even go through half of what he did,” you reasoned. “He’ll be okay. And if not…he has people who can help him.”
“You’re right, you’re right,” Jonathan nodded to himself. “He’s getting older, he can handle this.”
“He totally can,” you agreed. “And, if anything, I already told Dustin if we get separated, to have some nice family bring their phone to the door so he can call for help.”
Jonathan laughed, “How far do you think those cables stretch?”
“Whatever, man! I was hoping he wouldn’t have to do such a thing because I would’ve been with them, and that would’ve been a last resort in case I was, like, dead, or something.”
Jonathan rolled his eyes, “Now I’m second-guessing bringing you to this party.”
“Too late,” you leaned back into your seat and adjusted your big glasses from your costume. “Let’s do it. I haven’t really hung out with kids our age since…” you trailed off as you remembered your deceased best friend.
Jonathan frowned and glanced at you quickly, apologetically, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to — “
“No, it’s okay,” you nodded to him. “Although, if Barb were here, I’d have someone to talk to when you inevitably ditch me for Nancy.”
Jonathan sputtered, “What? N-no, I’m not ditching your for Nancy.”
“We’ll see, Byers, we’ll see.”
~*~
Arriving at the party, it was immediately uncomfortable just entering the place. You snorted at Jonathan’s awkwardness, then you paused to watch when you noticed a girl talking to him. Your eyes went up, impressed with his quick wit as he spoke to her. You stood behind the girl, Samantha, and gave Jonathan a thumb’s up, knocking him off his game a little bit before you went to find yourself something to drink.
As you were getting yourself a drink, you could see the party stop for a few seconds as a bunch of people stared into the living room over something. You shrugged, unable to see what the commotion was about before taking your first sip of the drink from the punch bowl, and oh, god, was it disgusting. It tasted like jet fuel. Who even enjoyed this?
“Please, please tell me you’re the sexy librarian just for me,” a newly familiar voice said from behind you. Rolling your eyes, you turned to see Billy leering at you. You looked at him from head to toe before shaking your head.
“I’m Janine, from the movie Ghostbusters. What are you? Billy Idol? George Michael? Drunk?”
Billy smirked, stepping closer to you as he blew a ring of smoke in your face and put out his cigarette on the counter beside you, “You’re funny, Glasses.”
“My name is Y/N, not Glasses.”
“Come on,” Billy purred, reaching up to take off your glasses while you swatted his hand away. “Lighten up, loser. I can give you the time of your life, elevate your rep here.”
You blinked several times as you studied Billy. This was the most you had spoken to him since his arrival and, already, in an incredibly short amount of time, he established himself as the new King Douchebag with Steve’s old crew of morons. He stunk of smoke and cheap beer, and he gave off the impression of an incredibly insecure boy trying so hard to stay cool and establish dominance in a new place.
“If I wanted to be completely dissatisfied with a cheap ride, I’d hit the county fair’s ferris wheel,” you scoffed as you slid away from Billy.
Billy grabbed your wrist and yanked you towards him, causing you to stumble into his side, “You want to try that again, little girl?”
You yanked your hand free and scoffed, “Go ahead, Billy. Do something, but my dad’s a cop over in the City and I know the chief here. Try your luck. Do something,” you challenged him.
Billy seemed to think about this. Not wanting the trouble, at least not right now, not while he was still establishing himself, he licked his lips and stepped back, hands up beside him as he watched you shake your head and walk away from.
Amazing. You’d barely been at the party and you were already over it. You looked around for Jonathan with the intent to see how long he wanted to stay around or if he was possibly ready to leave as quickly as he had gotten there. However, you couldn’t find him anywhere. Sighing, you thought that maybe he was having a moment with that girl from earlier, or he was just in the bathroom, something, at least, right?
You went out the backdoor thinking that maybe he came back here for some quiet time that you could totally interrupt. However, when you were outside you could see Steve sitting on the steps and staring out into the woods. You cleared your throat, prompting Steve to shake out of his daze and look up at you with wide eyes.
“Sorry,” you said quickly. “Have you seen Jonathan?”
He scoffed. He scoffed, laughed, and shook his head as he returned to staring at the woods, “He left. Had him take Nancy’s drunk ass home.”
“Of course he did,” you sighed as let the door close behind you as you took two steps forward and took a seat next to Steve. “Great.”
Steve blinked as he quickly glanced at you, “Was he your date or something?”
“What? God, no,” you shook your head. “We’re just friends. He was my ride, though, and he was supposed to take me home…guess he forgot who he said that to,” you muttered as you leaned on your palm and rested your elbow on your knee. “Cool — wait, why aren’t you with Nancy?”
“Did you miss that explosion earlier?”
“Oh, was that you guys?” You asked. “I have no idea what happened.”
Steve shook his head and leaned back on his elbows as he stared up at the sky, “Nancy was hitting the punch really hard. I tried getting her to stop, it got all over her blouse. We, um, we kind of had a fight in the bathroom.”
“Oh,” you coughed into your fist and nodded a bit. “Sorry. That really sucks.”
“Tell me about it. Bullshit,” Steve muttered. “I’m just a bullshit pretender.”
“Oh, that sounds like it needs to be unpacked,” you teased. “Sorry.”
Steve shrugged his shoulders, “No, I’m sorry. I’m just being a downer. I just—I,” he sighed heavily and spoke quietly, “I thought she loved me.”
What the fuck?
Steve Harrington had feelings?
“Wow,” you trailed off as you turned to stare at him. “Sluttington has actual feelings? I’m genuinely shocked.”
“Wow. And who are you again?”
“Okay. Funny. This is Hawkins population level, not a New York population level, jerk, you know who I am,” you scoffed while he grinned at how easy it was to rile you up. “Look, I’m sorry things are rough with Nancy. It seems like you really, really like her, so that sucks things aren’t going well.”
“Yeah,” Steve agreed with you, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. “I thought it was going super well too, but, like, it’s not, apparently. I just feel blindsided.”
“That’s the worst,” you agreed. “I mean, I wouldn’t know.”
Steve raised an eyebrow and stared at you, “You haven’t dated?”
“And my first kiss is still my poster of Indiana Jones,” you sighed. “No, Steve, we can’t all be the most desirable person in Hawkins.”
“I,I’m just surprised, that’s all,” Steve reasoned. “You’re so pretty, you know? And smart, and nice, most of the time. I mean, not to me, but to other people.”
“Well, you don’t really give people a reason to be nice. You hang out with jerks.”
“And you hang out with kids all day.”
“Yeah, I need new friends,” You muttered to yourself. You exhaled deeply and nodded as you wiped your hands on your thighs and stood up. “Okay. Well, it’s really late, and I’ve got a long walk ahead of me. So I’m just going to get going. Sorry, again, about Nancy.”
“Hey, uh, wait,” Steve stopped you with his voice after you had taken one step down with the intent of leaving around the side of the house. “Uh, why don’t I take you home?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” Steve nodded and stood up too. “It’s really dark, plus your ride ditched you and my date ditched me. I guess it’s square.”
“Okay. If you don’t mind,” you said, following Steve out of the backyard. “That’s actually nice of you, Sluttington.”
“I can be nice, Y/N.”
“Yeah,” you commented. “Like when you came to my job and wiped off that Nancy ‘the Slut’ Wheeler thing on the display.”
He cringed, “Okay. That writing on the marquee was not my finest hour.”
“No, it really, really wasn’t, Steve,” you muttered as you climbed into his car. “Super gross, actually. If anything, you’re the slut, slut.”
“Are you and Nancy even friends?”
You shrugged, “We’re cordial.”
“And you stick up for everyone you’re cordial with?”
“Spell cordial, and I’ll answer your question,” you dared Steve who pursed his lips.
“Is there a J in there?”
“No.”
“Right. So, where’s your place?” Steve asked quickly, hoping to change the subject away from his questionable spelling skills. You snickered and told him where to go. Steve quickly nodded in acknowledgement and began to drive you home.
At first, the ride was quiet and awkward. I mean, what was there to talk about? Steve could tell you clearly had some preconceived negative notions about him, and you could tell that Steve was hiding how much of a miserable mess he was at the moment.
Hell, you were still surprised to find out that the man was capable of having actual feelings. Honestly, that seemed more surprising than fighting a monster last year with a telekinetic little girl.
Eventually, Steve turned on the radio. You were happily singing along to whatever song would come on. Steve was reluctant to be as cheery as you at first, but he found himself succumbing to mumbling the words to himself, bobbing his head as he drove to your house.
When the two of you approached, the house was dark, which told you that no one was home yet. Your dad was spending the night in the city since he was working an overnight shift; and your mom probably stayed on campus, getting too caught up in her work to remember to look at a clock and come home. It meant that you, once again, were home alone.
“Parents are still out?” Steve asked as he took in how dark everything was.
“Yeah, they’ll be back tomorrow,” you sighed as you unbuckled your seatbelt. “Anyway, thank you for the ride, Steve. I hope everything works out with Nancy.”
Steve nodded, “Well, I did kind of steal your ride from you. I owed you. And thanks, yeah. We’ll see, I guess.”
You nodded slowly, awkwardly as you stared at him, “So are we good here?”
“Yeah, yeah. We’re fine,” Steve nodded. “Uh, are you sure you’re good in there alone?”
“Trying to get into my place while the parents are gone, Sluttington?” You joked while he rolled his eyes. You laughed nervously, “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. It’s no big deal. Happens all the time.”
“Same here,” Steve agreed. “My folks are off on some business trip again.”
“Yeah…” you trailed off. “Just going to, you know, order a pizza, watch a movie, probably.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the silence was deafening and painfully awkward. “You can join, if you want, but no funny business.”
“Please,” Steve laughed as he turned off the car. “You’re so not my type.”
“Good, same.”
“What?” Steve scoffed as he got out of the car and followed you. “I’m totally hotter than Indiana Jones.”
“Don’t you ever insult Harrison Ford like that ever again,” you said quickly as you two entered your home. “Shoes off and by the door, please. Do you want any toppings?”
“Uh, pepperoni would be cool,” Steve said as he kicked off his shoes and looked around your cozy, yet painfully quiet home. “You sure this is okay? Your folks aren’t going to come home and kill me, will they?”
“Nope,” you told him. “They’re too into their jobs right now. Make yourself comfortable. I’m just going to put on a scary movie — uh, unless you need to….like…talk, I guess, about Nancy or —“
“Nope, definitely not. No more of that,” Steve shook his head. “That is the last thing I want to think about right now, seriously. But I will happily think about pizza and scary movies.”
“Cool,” you placed the order, left the money by the front door so you wouldn’t forget it, and went to join Steve. You two sat on opposite ends of the sofa after you put in your VHS of Halloween. It took a few seconds for you to realize you needed snacks for this event, and the realization involved you gasping and jumping out of your seat, which scared the breath out of Steve. You left him there clutching his chest as you ran off to the kitchen.
Steve followed you to the kitchen after pausing the movie to see what you were doing. He spotted you stuffing a bag of popcorn into the microwave before running over to the refrigerator to grab some soda. When you spun around, you jumped seeing Steve standing right behind you and staring, “What?”
“You’re kind of weird, Y/N.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Have you never hung out with people that didn’t involve alcohol or weed?” You replied as you handed him two bottles of coke. “Open, please.”
“You don’t have a bottle opener?”
“I have no idea where it is. I lost it and I’m not owning up to it, I’m letting my dad think he lost it,” you explained. “And you must have one, King Steve.”
Steve rolled his eyes, but held eye contact with you as he fished around his pockets and grabbed a bottle opener from his keys. You smirked, pleased with your deduction while he sighed and handed the bottle to you.
“Lucky guess, Y/N.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, since you hang out with kids all day, should I assume we’re going to color and paint the rest of the night once the movie gets too scary?”
You laughed, “Funny, Sluttington! No, no. Look, everyone knows when you’re having a Halloween movie night, you need pizza, snacks, soda, all the necessary junk foods —“ you gasped. “I think I have some Doritos, too!”
“Wow,” Steve whistled as you shoved bowls and snacks into his arm. “You go hard for Halloween, huh?”
“Yes! It was our thing — well, my thing. Barb loved Christmas, but we always got together for Halloween to hang out and watch movies and talk and,” you trailed off when you saw the pitiful look he gave you. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to be a downer.”
“No, no, it’s fine. You’re not a downer. Barb was your friend.”
“Best friend,” you corrected him. “Yeah.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Steve nodded along as you opened the microwave and grabbed the popcorn with your fingertips. “Yeah. Actually, Nance and I just had dinner with her parents, KFC. God, I love KFC.”
“Dinner with her parents,” you hummed. “Why?”
“Huh?”
“Why?” You asked Steve. “She’s done that a bunch of times already, no? Why is she still having dinner with her parents again?”
“Well, because, because they were — “
“She feels guilt, doesn’t she?” You asked Steve who remained silent. “It’s fine. Jonathan told me about the pool, the picture, everything.”
Steve slowly started nodding as his eyes narrowed and he followed you back to the living room, “Wait. Nancy didn’t tell you?”
“Nope,” you cleared your throat. “No, no she did not. Um, careful with the popcorn, it’s still hot. Pizza should be here soon.”
You had quickly changed the subject, so Steve knew to drop it. However, a part of him kept staring at you just wondering why exactly Nancy wouldn’t tell you, of all people, the truth. It wasn’t as if you hadn’t been involved with what happened last year. You were dragged right into the middle of it by the kids, so why didn’t she come clean and tell you about Barbara herself?
Pizza came, and Steve answered the door since you had already ordered and paid for the pizza, served a bunch of snacks, and were being really, really nice to someone who you had no business really being nice to. After all, the last time you two had ever really hung out or spoken to each other was after you had just moved to Hawkins and Steve hadn’t reached a level of popularity yet, he was still an average kid.
And, you know what, this new ‘Sluttington’ ‘King Steve’ kind of guy was actually enjoying this. The party was fun for awhile, but he’d be lying if he didn’t admit to enjoying not having to babysit anyone at the moment. He was bad with movies, and, for a moment, he thought this was supposed to be that new Nightmare on Elm Street movie coming out, but whatever this was, he liked it. Sort of. It was scary. He jumped a few times while you giggled through it all.
To Steve, the more he got to know you, the more weird he found you to be as opposed to the ‘normal’ girl he thought you were in school that tutored during free periods and worked at the movie theater at night. How deceptive you were, avoiding the nonsense, the labels, the drama of high school by passing through quietly, just to live out your true personality and desires outside the place. You didn’t depend on any of those people to build you up and make you who you were like Steve did, you were just you.
After a few movies, and it being a school night, you decided to call it. Shocking you, Steve helped you to clean up so you weren’t left with a big mess all by yourself. He did the dishes with you and offered to take the trash out with him. It was actually pretty nice of him. It was surprising.
“Thanks, Y/N, “Steve said as he spun around at your door. “This was…. this was actually fun. You’re kind of cool.”
“Oh, I’m kind of cool,” you laughed and leaned against the door. “I know it doesn’t fix things with Nancy, but, you know, I hope it helped you to feel a little better.”
“It did, yeah. It got me thinking, put some things into perspective — “
“I’m not sure why horror movies did that to you, but, you know, okay. Cool. I’m glad, I think.”
“Yeah,” Steve smiled a little and scooped up the trash bag. “Cool, so, um, I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”
You chewed on your lip as you stared at him, “You’re actually going to say hi to me?”
“Well, yeah, I mean. We got scared together, so —“
“You got scared. I’ve seen these a million times,” you teased. “I’ll see you around, Steve.”
Steve nodded, a small smile on his face. “Goodbye, Y/N. Thanks for tonight.”
“Same to you, Steve. Get home safe,” you shut the door behind him and locked it.
With a tired sigh, you made your way upstairs to your bathroom to shower before going to bed. Tonight was definitely an unexpected night, and not something you could’ve ever guessed happening for a long time, but it was a happy, unexpected twist.