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“I don’t know Rob, I was really hoping I’d never have to see all those people again. Besides, why are you so eager to go? Like no offense but I’d have guessed you as the last person to want to attend a high school house party.” It’s a summer afternoon and Steve is walking around Family Video, sorting returned tapes back into their shelves, Robin right at his heel.
“None taken, admittedly it’s not my usual scene but Vicky is going to be there, I mean basically everyone is going to be there, it’s sort of an unofficial end of school party. My point is now that I know I might actually have a chance with her I don’t plan on wasting any opportunities.” She almost bumps into Steve as he stops at the counter. “Come on, it’ll be fun, you used to go to parties all the time, plus it won’t hurt for us to do some normal teenage stuff for a change.”
She looks up at him, now from the other side of the counter.
“Can I get a word in? Thank you. First of all I’m not all opposed to going, especially if it’s gonna help you get with Vicky”
A wide smile spreads across Robin’s face.
“But” Steve adds and her smile drops. “I’m not really eager on going either. See all those people who used to look up to me in high school, only now I’m some guy who works at a video shop for a minimum wage. Plus I’m just gonna be third wheeling with you and Vicky and then what do you want me to do, start up random conversations with some randos, find more kids that might need babysitting.” He looks at her, eyebrows raised as she shakes her head.
“Steve they’re all seniors, oh and I can ask Nancy if she’s gonna be there” Steve raises an eyebrow and opens his mouth to say something but Robin interrupts him. “Or not. Or not. But I bet Eddie will be there and you two get along pretty well right?”
Steve considers this for a moment, he didn’t think high school parties were Eddie’s scene either but they were the perfect place for business, the business Eddie was in. And Robin was right, they did get along pretty well on the rare occasions they saw each other. “Yeah alright. But you owe me.” He points a finger at Robin who’s jumping up and down in excitement. “You won’t regret it Steve. Can you pick me up at nine?”
It’s 9pm and Steve is in his car, parked in Robin’s driveway just as he’d said he’d be when they talked about this yesterday. As expected Robin is late. Not really wanting to get pulled into a conversation with her mom, Steve decides to just wait in the car, it’s wind out and the radio is playing the top 20 charts again.
He tries distracting himself from his nerves by singing along before he decides he was being silly. There’s no reason to be nervous, so what if he’s not in college or making lots of money, he was happy with his life wasn’t he? After all the shit they’ve been through he feels stupid for having worried about a high school party, he even tried styling his hair like he used to before leaving. It didn’t really fall right though so he gave up after a few tries.
The door to the passenger seat opens “Sorry, I couldn’t find my right earring and then my mom kept holding me up cause she wouldn’t stop talking and she said my make up didn’t match my outfit so I went to go change it but then I couldn’t decide what shade to go with and… I’m rambling again. Let’s just go, it’ll be cool, why am I even nervous? Do I look alright?”.
“Robin, you look great, and yes it’s gonna be fine. If things go well Vicky won’t even pay much mind to your make up cause she’ll be too busy focusing on other parts of your body.” He winks at her with a smirk.
“Gross! Shut up perv.”
When they get to the party it’s already in full swings, music blasting out to the streets, drunk teens sitting on the lawn, couples making out. Steve smiles to himself, maybe he did miss this a little bit. They head inside and both look around in search of a familiar face. “Steve Harrington? Is that you?” Steve turns around, a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Dude I haven’t seen you in ages, how’s it going man?” It was Jake Adams, he’d been a year below Steve but they played basketball together. “Hey man, yeah it’s, uh it’s going great. You know Robin right? She’s in band? Yeah she kind of made me come here.” A look of surprise, then approval passes over Jake’s face.
“A band chick? Full of surprises Harrington, full of surprises.” Before either Robin or Steve can assure that they are definitely not dating, something they have to do a lot more often than either of them would like, Jake puts an arm over either of their shoulders, taking them to the kitchen. “All right, we got beer, we got punch, we got some of the more fun stuff too” he winks at Steve. “take whatever your heart desires and then get to PARTYING! WOOOH” with that he walks off, leaving Steve and Robin standing in the kitchen, as they exchange looks they both break out in laughter.
“Okay so what will it be? Some of the more fun stuff?” Robin winks at Steve, catching her breath. “Later maybe, I’ll wanna stay conscious for a while.” He pours two cups of punch, hands one to Robin and they head back to the living room.
“Have you seen you know who anywhere yet?” Steve yells over the music?
Before Robin can answer he feels two hands on each shoulder. Not again he thinks, but as he turns around his mood brightens when instead of another old acquaintance from school it’s Eddie’s smile he’s greeted by.
“Harrington! Can’t believe you actually got him to come, Robin. Good to see you man.” Before Steve can even reply Eddie pulls him into a tight hug. Steve chuckles, patting him on the back. “Good to see you too, you’ve been here for a while?” Judging by the smell of alcohol and how long Eddie was holding onto Steve for he guessed the answer was yes.
“Yeah I got here a while ago, I had some uh business to take care of.” Eddie says, finally letting go of him and heading over to Robin to hug her hello as well.
“Hey, uh you guys will be alright without me right? I just spotted someone I’d really like to say hi to.” Robin says, giving Steve a look that tells him who that certain someone is. “Oh, yeah absolutely.” Steve nods vehemently, laying a hand on her back, giving her a slight shove in Vicky’s direction. “Have fun Buckley! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Eddie calls after her as he lays an arm around Steve’s shoulder. “They grow up so fast.” He says, wiping away a non existent tear drop.
Steve shakes his head smiling when Eddie turns is to look at him, arm still slung around his shoulder. “Just you and me then Stevie.” He smiles and pats Steve on his chest. “Guess so.” Steve replies, finishing the liquid in his cup.
Another drink, Steve had to keep it to a limit since he’d be driving later, and a couple of songs later him and Eddie are sitting on the staircase in the crowded living room, faces flushed and out of breath.
“Didn’t know you sang Harrington.” Eddie yells over the noise.
Steve laughs “I don’t think you can call that singing dude.”
They’d been screaming along to songs at the top of their lungs. At first it was only Steve, who had grabbed Eddie’s hand and pulled him to the living room when he heard they were playing Sunglasses at night. Eddie had laughed, surprised by Steve’s enthusiasm and childlike excitement. He’d refused to join Steve in singing along, insisting that he didn’t know the song, which Steve just didn’t believe.
But then the next song started playing and Eddie turned to look at Steve a grin on his face. Just as Steve recognized the song Eddie started mouthing along to the words, still grinning “Here we stand, and here we fall-”
“You listen to Queen?!” Steve had asked in both surprise and amusement.
“They have some pretty good songs okay? And it’s not like I only like Metal, Rock is pretty fucking great too. Plus playing songs from different genres is great practice.” Eddie had replied before he started singing along again, pretending to play the guitar as he did so. Steve shook his head in a laugh before joining him on the drums.
“You wanna go outside and cool off for a bit?” Steve says now, handing Eddie the plastic cup he’d filled with water from the kitchen sink. He takes it and finishes the rest before getting up and offering Steve a hand to help him up as well.
Laughing, shoulders bumping into each other they head out to the back yard. It’s a lot more quiet here, there are three people standing on the porch, smoking but most of the others are either inside or in the front yard. Eddie jogs over to the tire swing hanging from a tall oak tree. “I always wanted one of these!” He says, face towards the sky as he starts swinging. Steve chuckles and sits down on the ground, back leaning on the trunk of the tree. “You wanna have a go Steve?” Eddie calls to him.
“Nope, I’m good right here. I gotta say I’m surprised at how well you stomach your alcohol.” Eddie snorts, shaking his head. “That’s cause I barely had any. A can of beer and the punch we had earlier.” He jumps off the swing and topples to the ground.
This time Steve snorts “Oh yeah, I forgot you’re always like this.” He thinks back to the embrace he’d gotten from Eddie when they first arrived at the party and couldn’t help but admire how the guy just wore his heart on his sleeve like that.
“You know, I’m really glad you decided to come.” Eddie says, flopping himself down next to Steve. “Kind of missed hanging out with you.” He bumps his leg against Steve who feels a sudden rush of butterflies in his stomach. It didn’t come as a surprise or shock to him, he’d felt like that about guys before. He’d known this about himself since middle school. Of course he never told anyone.
And of course he never acted on it, even if he’d had the chance to once or twice in high school, he couldn’t risk anyone spreading that information about him around.
It hadn’t ever really been a big problem for him, keeping that part of him a secret to others, he still liked girls after all and he’d been with plenty of those.
“I don’t know if you can call fighting monsters from another dimension together hanging out, but yeah I kind of hoped we’d see a bit more of each other after going through all that peril together.” Steve turns his head to look at Eddie and smiles at him softly.
“Well why didn’t you ever call? Or come visit or something, I mean you do know where I live. You’ve been there before, remember?”
Steve wasn’t sure if Eddie was just joking around or if he was being serious. His eyes were fixed on the night sky.
“Um no what was I doing at your place? Must have slipped my mind, can’t have been important then.” Eddie chuckles a sound that fills Steve with warmth. “Well we’re hanging out now.” He leans his shoulder into Eddie’s a bit, testing to see if he’ll pull away. He doesn’t.
Steve knew what he was doing was potentially really stupid, but he liked Eddie and unlike other guys he’s liked or just found attractive he didn’t think Eddie was the type to go around telling others that Steve made a move on him. He also didn’t take him for the type who’d beat him up, which was a potential danger Steve knew had to be taken into accounts.
“Would you want to? Hang out again I mean.” Steve asks, heart racing despite the alcohol he’d drank which usually made him a lot braver.
Eddie turns to look at Steve, bright smile. “Sure.”
“Cool. Cool, cool cool.” Steve replies awkwardly, rubbing his sweaty palms on his jeans. Okay this doesn’t mean anything, no need to get excited. You hang out with friends all the time. But Steve had never asked a guy he actually liked in that way to hang out, he did the opposite, he’d always tried to avoid his male crushes. Afraid something he said or did might expose him. He wished it were as easy as it was with girls. If Eddie were a girl they’d probably be making out by now. But Eddie wasn’t a girl and even if there had been rumors about him at school there was no way Steve could even know if he liked guys.
“Hey Steve?” Steve tears his gaze away from his sneakers and turns to look at Eddie.
“Huh?”
“Have you ever kissed a guy?” What??
Steve’s heart almost jumped out of his chest. For a moment he thinks he misheard what Eddie hat said but there’s no way he could have.
“What?” He asks even so.
Eddie chuckles “Have you ever kissed another guy?” he repeats, now fully facing Steve, who can feel his face heating up.
“I- no, why would- I mean it’s not like-” Eddie’s gaze is still on him, his expression unchanged, he’s simply awaiting an answer.
“No. I haven’t.” Steve finally says. And in an act of bravery he decides not to look away.
“Would you? Kiss a guy?” Eddie ask, not breaking eye contact either. But that was just typical Eddie.
“I-” Steve considers for a moment. As absurd as it was that this was happening right now, it was just what he wanted wasn’t it? And hadn’t he just told himself he didn’t really need to worry about Eddie’s reaction if he found out? But being asked so straight forward, Steve was scared. Still, he’d done way scarier things.
“I don’t know. I mean… yeah, I think I would.”
The shadow of a smile passes over Eddie’s face as he nods. Steve still hasn’t looked away once and neither has Eddie, but now he turns his face away into the direction of the house. The people that had been on the porch had gone inside.
“Can I kiss you Steve?”
Again his heart skipped a beat, so many thoughts rushed through his brain but they were drowned out by the intensity of his feelings. He nods, looking down from Eddie’s eyes to his lips. Steve can’t remember the last time he got nervous about a kiss, but he’d never kissed a guy before so in a way this was his first kiss so it was okay to be nervous, right?
The moment Eddie’s lips touch Steve’s, hand on his cheek, all the nerves fade into nothingness. The kiss is soft and gentle. Eddie tastes of punch and cigarettes and the pricks of hair on his face, probably grown back after a day of not shaving, scratch at Steve’s skin. It’s so different to kissing a girl, but Steve likes it. He smiles.
The sound of breaking glass from inside startles the both of them and they pull apart.
“I’m good!” Someone yells from the house.
Steve and Eddie look at each other and laugh.
As the laughter fades into silence Steve feels like he should say something.
“I guess now when someone asks me if I’ve kissed a guy I can say I have.” Eddie chuckles and nods.
“Had you? Ever kissed a guy?” Steve asks, feeling a lot more confident now than he did before. Eddie smiles at him and nods. “Yeah.” Steve waits for him to continue talking, when he doesn’t Steve asks. “How- how many men have you kissed?”
Eddie chuckles. “You’ll be surprised but I don’t regularly pick up cute guys at parties.” He winks at Steve and Steve feels his cheeks heating up again. This really was a new experience all round. “First guy I kissed was my best friend in middle school, and I don’t know if that even counts, cause it wasn’t a real kiss, more a brief brushing of lips. The second was some drunk guy at a bar I played a gig at last year. So two, but technically only one man” he exhales a laugh. “Gotta be careful you know?” He looks up at the stars again.
A thought crosses Steve’s mind and worry creeps in. “But you offered me a kiss? Did I- did I seem to you like a guy who, you know, who might be interested in kissing guys? Before now I mean.”
Eddie turns to look at him, yet again, or still, with a smile on his face. “Na don’t worry man. Why did I offer you a kiss? Pretty simple reason I’m afraid.” His smile widens as he shrugs. “I just wanted to kiss you.”
Now Steve is smiling too, surprised and amazed at the beautiful simplicity that is Eddie Munson. Perhaps it’s the mood, or the way Eddie is looking at him, or maybe some of Eddie’s bravery rubbing off on Steve, but this time he leans in for a kiss.