Chapter Text
A new life is all finney blake got when he escaped the grabbers basement. Getting adopted by a rich family that seeked someone to play the role of their son and being separated from his sister wasnt something he could control nor change.
What changed though was his name, "Steve Harrington". The son of Richard Harington that was born with an untreatable illness and due to his poor physical and mental health was never introduced to the world. Died at 17 years old due to unknown for him reasons and now to keep up good faces and to have a heir to pass on the family business, Finney seems to be the perfect subject for the role.
He was easy to control because of the traumatic situation he was put in and had no legal guardian or close relatives that could (or wanted) to claim his custody. See, no one wants damaged goods and he for one was definitely ruined by the abuse of his alcoholic father, the bullying he was put through at school, the death of his best friend ( maybe if he tries hard enough he will finally convince himself that that's what their complex relationship is- was) and the Grabber incident.
What he didnt expect to hurt more than anything was losing the last person that really knew him and who he really was. Finney Blake. Having to be stripped out of your identity, your name, your life really hurts when you have no support. Especially when you get the queer beaten out of you because "Harrington 's aren't disgusting like those people" and " You are good for nothing, we shouldn't have bothered adopting you in the first place!" after finney- steve refused to have a relationship with the daughter of a business partner and saying he wasnt interested in her.
Though the physical abuse was better than following the persona they had built for him. "King Steve", the ladies guy, athletic and certainly not an academic s guy. Acting like you are above everyone when you had spend your whole life on the opposite side of things is so soul crushing. Pretending to be the stupid jock was really easy, no one seemed to suspect a thing. What was very helpful was knowing all the right answers to an exam to manipulate his results and get enough answers right just to pass it.
This persona was perfect to fly out of the radar of high class students and the Harrington's knew it. So after they spend enough time to "train" him about his behaviour and had him memorise names and faces of some important people they went off to another one of their business trips leaving him to deal with aftermath of his life falling apart.
While pretending to be Steve Harrington, Finney blake was determined to escape this place and find his sister. For that although, he needed money and information on where to find her. Two things he had no idea how to do as "Steve Harrington". So, he picked up jobs at Indi, ranging from bartending jobs at sketchy places that dont check ids to small gigs playing his guitar (not really his if he had stolen it from Robin but thinking about him hurts most of the time so he only accepts when the memory of them kissing doesnt make his whole body shake).