Chapter Text
As soon as he walked in the door to Steve’s house, something felt off.
Someone hollered at Steve to come back into the living room, but Eddie heard fast approaching footsteps and when he rounded the corner, Steve was practically in his face.
This wasn’t going to be good. Eddie could feel the tension in the room. It was thick.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Steve asked, face red, clearly a few drinks in, and apparently seething with anger.
“I finished practice with the guys and then I ran an errand.” Eddie said.
“Of course you did.” Steve replied. “Movie night started an hour and a half ago. We’ve all been waiting for you.”
“I’m sorry, Stevie. I called and nobody answered, so I took care of my shit as quick as I could and then got here.”
“Oh so it’s everybody else’s fault you couldn’t be here on time?” Steve retorted, his tone rich was accusation. His body was tense, a straight line from head to toe. His brow was furrowed and his mouth was a thin, angry line.
“Woah. That’s not what I said. What’s with the code red? I said I was sorry. I had something really important to take care of.” Eddie replied. Why was Steve making this a huge deal? This wasn’t a date, or a meeting or a dinner, it was a casual movie night with their friends.
“Right. Important. I’m sure it was.” Steve replied sarcastically, snapping Eddie back to the conversation. “Ya know, I just asked you to be on time, Eddie. And you couldn’t do that. I thought you could be responsible for once… just once in your whole fucking life, Eddie. I…” he paused, taking a deep breath and then a step back. Eddie could see Steve stop and think before continuing “Ya know what. Nevermind.”
Steve wanted to fight. Eddie didn’t know why, but if there was one thing he’d learned by sticking with this group, it was to not back away from a fight.
“No. Go ahead and say it, Steve.” Eddie said, agitated.
“Guys?” Robin said, stepping in between them, followed closely by Nancy, Jonathan and Argyle all looking confused and worried.
Neither of them guys responded. Steve took another step back from Eddie.
“I don’t want to do this, Eddie.” Steve said, crossing his arms.
That infuriated Eddie. Of course he wanted to do this, or else he wouldn’t have come barreling at Eddie for no fucking reason.
“It’s a little late for that.” Eddie replied. “You have a lot you apparently need to get off your chest. So fucking say it..”
Steve stared at him for a brief second, took a breath, took a step forward and spoke,
“Fine. You’re a fuck-up, Eddie.”
“Steve!” Robin gasped, slapping him on the arm. Her face colored in shock.
Eddie held his hand up.
“Let him, Rob”.
“You’ve always been a fuck up.” Steve continued. “A drug dealer, arrested how many times?.. I mean it took you three fucking times to graduate high school. I’m dumb and even I got it on the first try.”
Eddie scoffed. He was trying to play unaffected but his hands were betraying him. Fiddling with nothing. So he stuck them in his pockets, fingers resting around a brand new set of keys in his left pocket.
And Steve wasn’t done apparently.
“And you’re unreliable. You can’t be trusted to take out the trash much less being a fucking adult.” Steve spat, a disgusted look on his face. Not entirely different from a certain King Jock from years passed.
“That it?” Eddie asked.
“Almost…” Steve replied, breathing heavily. He squared his shoulders to Eddie and continued. “All that talk about not being like your dad… but you’re exactly like him” Steve spit out.
It hit Eddie like a bullet to the chest. His breath caught in his throat and he felt the sting of tears creep up behind his eyes. He took a deep breath, attempting to maintain some dignity.
The room around him was deadly silent. Shock and horror was etched on his friends faces. The only sound was Steve’s heavy breathing.
“Wow…” Eddie chuckled, humorlessly.
“You wanted the truth.” Steve responded, bitterly.
“You’re right, Steve. And who better to give it to me than you.” Eddie replied. Eyes flashing red for an instant before glossing over into cold indifference.
The room was deadly quiet, until Jon stepped forward.
“Guys, let’s all calm down for sec” he said, weakly attempting to de-escalate.
Eddie glanced over at him and faintly shook his head. Jon stepped back a bit and Eddie turned back to Steve, looking him dead in the eye.
“Probably for the best you got that out of your system now, huh? I’d hate for you to hold onto that for years and resent me for it. Having to live with a dumb, unreliable fuck-up would really be hell for someone of your status. Perfect Steve Harrington. It’s bad enough you’ve been shacking up with poor, drug dealing, wanted for murder trailer trash for this long. Long term?what would the rest of the Harringtons say?”
Eddie asked, feigning shock.
“Eddie..” Robin started to say, but he kept going. If he stopped now, he’d break. He knew that much.
“You want to talk truths? Let’s talk about it. I may have fucked up before, Steve, but I try. I try really fucking hard… I tried hard to prove to LITERALLY EVERYONE in your life that I was good enough for you. And then I had to prove it to you! Because YOU weren’t sure if I was. How long did you tell me we couldn’t be serious because your parents would disown you? Parents who haven’t seen you in, what, 9 months?! How many times did you say we couldn’t tell our friends because you didn’t know how they’d react. You don’t think I know it had nothing to do with us being bi? They all adore Robin, and everyone knows about her… it was because it was ME. The dumb, trouble-making, drug dealer who repeated high school three times. The freak who despite trying really fucking hard, was never going to be good enough for golden boy Steve Harrington.”
Having maintained eye contact with Steve, Eddie saw as something flashed in his eyes and his face fell from anger to horror, as if the gravity of his words finally hit him.
“Eddie…” Steve tried to say, but Eddie spoke up again, stopping him before he could finish.
“Leave it to King Steve to put me back in my place though… it’s just like old times. You hid him pretty well there for a good while. I’ll give you that.”
Steve’s eyes began to water and he dropped his gaze, breaking eye contact with Eddie and looking at the floor.
Eddie’s fingers instinctively squeezed the keys in his hand. “Oh, and the unimportant, irresponsible errand I was running? That made me late to movie night, the most important of events… I finally signed a lease for that apartment…” he said, pulling the keys out of his picked and dangling them from his index finger.
“What?” Steve asked, sounding shocked. Eyes meeting Eddie’s again.
From beside Steve, he saw Robin’s hand cover her mouth in shock. Why was everybody always surprised when he managed to accomplish anything?
“Yeah, I’ve been saving for a while now. It’s why I stopped selling and took that second job at the plant with Wayne on the weekends. I was hoping to surprise you in a couple days. Took the day off and everything. I was going to ask you to move in with me, because I know how much you hate how big and empty this house is. It was going to be my irresponsible, untrustworthy, fuck-up of a birthday present.” Eddie managed to get out. Face still dry. That was a good thing right? No tears is a good thing, he thought.
“Eddie, I…” Steve started, but Eddie knew his resolve wasn’t going to last long, so he kept going.
“No worries though, Harrington. You’ve made your point loud and clear.”
He turned toward the door.
“Ed’s wait..I’m sorry” Steve said, his eyes filling with tears. Any other time and he would be rushing to wipe them away, and comfort this beautiful man, but he knew how Steve really felt about him now. The same as everybody else in this shitty town.
“Don’t be. You’re right. You deserve somebody you can trust. Who isn’t such a fuck up. That’s not me.”
“No, Eddie…” Steve said softly.
“The dad thing though… That was a low blow.” Eddie’s voice broke. He had to get out of here, he thought.“I may not be much, but I’ve never been Al Munson and I think I’ve proven that over and over again.”
The tears he had been holding back pushed their way out and down his face.
“So, fuck you for that.”
He quickly wiped his face.
Steve stepped forward and tried to reach for him
“Fuck, I’m so sor-“ but Eddie slapped his hand away.
“Don’t fucking touch me, Harrington.” Eddie snapped, coldly.
Steve backed away from Eddie, opened his mouth like he was going to say something but stopped himself. Then he turned around and walked out of the room.
Eddie turned to his other friends. Their faces a mix of confusion and shock. He imagined his was quite similar. Because how the hell had this evening turned so bad so fast.
“Yeah, I’m going to go.” Eddie finally said.
Robin stepped forward.
“Eddie, please don’t. You know he didn’t mean..”
“Robin, save it.”
She paused, not used to Eddie’s tone. He couldn’t imagine a single time he’d ever spoken to her unkind, but his anger was about to boil over.
“That was foul. I was late to a group movie night… a movie night that we have twice a week. I didn’t do anything wrong and I didn’t deserve that.”
“You could’ve tried to get in contact with..” Nancy tried to reason.
“I did!” He yelled, she flinched. “I called 3 fucking times! Nobody answered! I left two goddamned voicemails. If you don’t believe me, which I’m sure you don’t, go listen for yourself.”
“But…” Robin tried to interrupt.
His face was red, and his breathing was fast. Of course they were trying to justify Steve’s behavior. Why would this time be any different? Robin always had Steve’s back. Which was a great thing! He’d always loved how close they were, but somehow that also meant Steve could do no wrong. The whole party was the same way. Wonderful, strong, protective, Golden-Boy Steve Harrington always got a pass. Eddie was ok with being called out when he fucked up but not this time.
“No, y’all don’t get to find a way to make this my fault. Not again. If I said anything REMOTELY that hurtful to him, you all, especially you Robin, would have my fucking head. But of course, not him. Not Steve. I get it. He’s your soulmate, and your ex” he said pointing at Nancy “and your battle buddy, I guess” pointing at the two guys… “but I thought I was part of this group too and y’all NEVER have my back the way you have his, and maybe it’s because y’all have been through more shit with him. I don’t fucking know, but it’s bullshit.” Eddie spit out, his words venom in his mouth.
The group looked dumbfounded. Searching for some way to deny anything he said, but finding nothing so Eddie continued.
“Friends don’t lie, right? That’s y’all’s mantra. Well the truth is, I didn’t deserve that and I won’t take it from anybody… not even THE Steve Harrington. So, yall have fun. Enjoy the rest of your movie night. Go console your friend. Tell him he’s going to be fine, because he will be. He’ll have all of you to coddle him. And I’ll do what I’ve always done, and deal with shit by myself.”
He turned his back on his friends and opened the door. They were silent, still at a loss for words, so he stepped out into the night, closing the door behind him.