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“It’s prom, you have to go!” Steve demands with a smile, standing there with his arm thrown over Donna’s shoulders.
Billy scowls at him, then looks down at Stacy, who’s holding his hand near her heart, big eyes bursting with excitement at the prospect of going to prom with the keg king.
“Yeah Billy, come on,” Donna talks between blowing up her gum.
“Pretty please?” Stacy begs of him.
This is what the brochures in the counselor’s office means when they write about peer pressure.
“I don’t have anything to wear,” he throws out an excuse.
“You can borrow something from me, don’t worry about it, Hargrove.” Steve’s still smiling. He’s not personally invested in prom itself, but teasing and annoying Billy is too much fun.
Billy isn’t going to get out of this without a yes. “Fine.”
And Stacy bursts out in glee, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek.
After school Steve and Billy hang out at the Harrington mansion, with the blonde on the queen sized bed, lying down with his legs over the edge.
“Why does this matter so much to you?”
“It’s our final year in high school, I think we deserve a little fun!” Steve says with certain excitement.
“And prom, of all things, is your idea of fun?” Billy raises himself up on his elbows. “Can’t we just hang out by the quarry and get drunk or high, or both?”
“Look on the bright side, you’ll probably get lucky with Stacy after prom!”
“Harrington, I can get lucky with her anytime I want.”
Steve’s standing by the walk-in-closet, shuffling through his fancy clothes, when he pulls out a light blue suit. “Doesn’t mean you can’t put in a little effort from time to time. Here.”
Billy gets up and walks the short distance toward his best friend.
“This goes well with your eyes.”
Their fingers graze as the clothes exchange hands, and Steve is never going to get used to his heart leaping through his chest whenever they touch, but he doesn’t linger before letting go of the suit.
Yet he watches Billy, who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care, as he steps toward the mirror.
He pulls his white tee over his head of golden curls, and at the sight of his bare, toned top, Steve turns around at the speed of light to rummage around for another suit for himself. Still, he steals a few glances over his shoulder, catching Billy undress down to a pair of possibly too snug briefs.
“I don’t even know how to dance to that cheesy music they’ll be playing at prom,” Billy admits as he zips up the trousers.
The suit is a little long in the leg, but it looks good around his chest and broad shoulders.
“It’s super easy to do, don’t worry, just let the music do its thing.” Steve keeps his back turned, he already knows what to wear, but his attention on Billy might be too obvious if he just stares at him like he wants to.
“No, I mean, slow-dancing, I’ve never…”
At that the brunette turns around, looking at Hargrove quizzically. “You’ve never been to a dance before?”
Billy looks away in something akin to shame, worried about getting judged for his lack of romantic experience. It’s always just been about sex between him and girls, never anything like this.
“I can show you how,” Steve blurts out without much thought, but at least he sounded somewhat casual saying it, and not as if it’s a desperate move to get closer to Billy.
Who meets his gaze in the mirror before turning around. “Yeah?”
His voice softens Steve and he smiles kindly. “Yeah. Come here.”
He barely hesitates to help out a friend, walking closer and getting into position as the lead.
“I’ll show you how it’s done first, then you can take the lead after.”
“Alright Harrington, show me how it’s done,” Billy speaks with unintentional enthusiasm, breaking his role as the tough guy for just a mere moment, but Steve doesn’t comment on it, thankfully.
“Grab my hand, the other on my shoulder here,” Steve instructs with forced calm, his heart beating him senseless as they touch.
And when he places his hand on Billy’s back, he swears he can see his face change color.
“And then you just sway side to side.”
Billy’s looking at their feet, avoiding eye contact the best he can in case Harrington could read his racing mind. “Is that all?”
“Well, if you’re lucky, she’ll let you place your hand here…” Steve lets his hand slide down to the small of Billy’s back.
Steve feels like he’s going to combust, Billy feels like he’s going to melt.
“Then what?”
Billy dares look up till their eyes meet, breaths intermingling, standing closer and closer together till there’s no more room between their bodies.
“Then… she’ll rest her head on your chest…”
Blue eyes fall down to stare at Steve’s chest, then slowly, Billy lowers his head to rest there, and he can hear how vigorously Steve’s heart is beating. He decides it probably doesn’t mean what he wants it to.
“What comes next?” Billy asks, maybe a little too hopeful, for next Steve lets go of him and steps away.
“O-oh, nothing much, maybe you’ll kiss or something, I don’t know.”
“Ah, well, that I know how to do.”
They both laugh, but it’s jarringly awkward.
They don’t talk about it after, but things get… tense. Not hostile or anything like how they were at first when they met, everything is just awkward from that point on, even their so-called girlfriends notice and ask them about it, but they’re evasive about those questions every time.
It’s not like they stop hanging out, or even do it less, there’s just a palpable distance between them now, sitting further apart, talking less; it’s all so stilted leading up to the prom.
Then the night comes, and they’re standing there by the punch bowl that hasn’t even been spiked, a little closer than what is normal lately, just not as close as they both want.
Donna and Stacy are out on the dancefloor together, dancing wildly to music that neither Steve nor Billy likes.
The two of them take turns glancing at each other, thinking they’re so secretive about it until they both turn their heads at the same time, and for a split second there’s so much unsaid between them suddenly becoming too much, and their eyes flee again.
“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” comes on, and their girlfriends rush up to them to grab their hands and force them onto the dancefloor filled with couples.
And everything goes as Steve said it would; one hand on the small of her back, the other in her hand, her head on his chest, Billy feels like he’s doing exemplary, yet he doesn’t feel what he felt with Harrington.
He knows what it means, of course, has known for a while.
But he’s fine with living in denial, or he thought he was until he catches those brown doe eyes staring at him with an almost longing sense.
It’s as if Stacy notices something, and she looks up to catch Billy stare back at Steve.
Thankfully she seems oblivious and simply waves at the other couple, Donna waving back, and then the girls turn to face their boyfriends, who in turn look down at them.
Next lips meet, and for a brief moment Billy focuses only on Stacy, and Steve on Donna, but like magnets to metal, eyes meet again, growing intensity between them as they continue kissing their girls.
Steve’s gaze keeps switching between Hargrove’s crystal clear stare, and how his lips mingle with Stacy’s. The brunette doesn’t know how to feel, for there is so much jealousy in him, and yet… it is trumped by longing.
Longing to be in Stacy’s place, or for Billy to be in Donna’s. He almost forgets to kiss back, but she doesn’t seem to notice or care about it.
Then he does it.
The most bastardly thing he could. Billy brings his tongue into the kiss between himself and Stacy, perhaps a little too much, but fuck… Steve feels it in his gut, and even further down, twitching in his dick at the way Billy kisses so passionately.
He’s only ever heard great things about how Billy kisses, but this? This is the closest he’s been to experiencing it himself, and the temptation is almost too much. If he could have his way, he’d close the short distance between them, pull Billy off of his girlfriend and swallow his tongue himself.
Steve bets Billy tastes like cigarettes and punch, not a great mix no doubt, but he’d give the world for it right now. Their eyes remain locked, chained together, immovable, as Billy full on makes out with his dancing partner.
Although it feels like forever since the song began, it ends too soon, and Billy steps away from Stacy, both of them smiling all satisfied and with slight panting.
“Is something wrong, Steve?” Donna asks, looking all innocent and sweet.
He takes a deep breath. “Yeah, I just think I had too much to drink, I’ll be back soon.” And before she can object he rushes out the room in the direction of the bathroom.
Steve’s in utter turmoil, pacing back and forth in the locker room of the gym where the prom is taking place. Flashes of Billy’s kisses ingrained in his mind, and if he closes his eyes hard enough, he can place himself there instead of Stacy.
The door creaks open, and Billy rushes in, looking somewhere between worried and determined, stopping just a few feet away from Harrington.
They stare at one another, waiting for words but there simply are none left, only action will do.
Meeting halfway their lips clash together, and it is pure perfection, tongue and teeth and a little too much force from unbridled passion that has been building up for who knows how long.
They stumble backwards until Steve’s back meets with the lockers, his hands running through Billy’s hair, whilst Hargrove himself feels every inch of Steve’s body, from his shoulders to his chest, his sides and hips, where he locks on with a vice grip and brings their bodies together.
“Billy…” Steve whispers, and Billy gives them both a few inches of space.
“Yeah?” He’s so breathless.
“I… I…”
“Yeah.”