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The farthest thing from your mind that night was for Ms. Henderson to call you and ask to babysit her son. You hadn’t babysat Dustin since he was practically a baby, he shouldn’t have needed a babysitter. Ms. Henderson started to explain to you, though, about how Dustin and that Byers boy were friends and she couldn’t seem to keep Dustin from going out at night to look for his missing friend.
You figured it should be fine. After a lengthy debrief from your dad about not getting kidnapped, you made your way over to the Henderson’s.
Dustin was only a bit older than you were when you begun to babysit him, and you made an extra point to make it known to him that you’d agree that he’s a responsible tough guy who can stay home alone for one night. (Under different circumstances, but you didn’t tell him that.)
“You’re a little taller than I remember,” you put your hand on his head and drew an invisible line out to yourself. “Almost as tall as me.”
Dustin scoffed. “I’m definitely taller than you by now.”
The night went by without so much as a hiccup. You ordered pizza, played video games, and let Dustin go up to his room to talk to his friends on their walkie-talkies.
It was all fine until you woke up on the couch in the dead of night to the sound of Dustin trying (and failing) to sneak out. By the time you got up, you were too far behind to stop him but you knew the general direction that him and his friends ran off to in the forest.
So, trying not to get fired, you rolled up your sleeves and marched into the pitch black woods.
The fact that your dad was somewhere in the same woods as you with a search party provided little comfort for your nerves. You loathed to admit it, but the dark unnerved you. Sure, you grew out of your nightlight, but you also stopped getting out of bed at night.
Hearing the screams of a boy immediately quelled your fear. You sprinted at the source to find Dustin with two other boys you recognized as his friends and a girl whose nose was bleeding.
“Dustin, what the hell is that?!” You pointed at a twitching thing on the ground, patterned with black spirals.
The dark skinned boy spoke up not to answer your question, but to raise some of his own. “Woah, woah, woah.” He held up his hands. “Dustin, who’s this? I thought this was supposed to be top secret!”
Dustin facepalmed and you knew he was trying to think of a way out of the situation. “Guys, this is… my…”
“Friend!” You decided to save him the embarrassment of admitting he had a babysitter as a middle schooler. “I work at the video store down the street. Just came over to pick something up and I saw Dustin run into the woods with you guys.”
“Right…”
You didn’t know how or even why it happened, but from then on you were stuck with those kids. Every stupid adventure they dragged themselves into, you were always on the tail end making sure that they weren’t getting themselves killed.
Plus, someone had to teach them how to use a gun if your dad wouldn’t. Something about morals and minors.
Being around the boys also meant being around their other friends who were your age (however obnoxious) but you didn’t interact with them much. Nancy was your favorite of the three— she seemed to be the only one that you hadn’t been told horror stories about from your father.
Meeting the legendary ‘King Steve’ was underwhelming to say the least.
You expected the arrogant, spoiled, selfish guy you’d heard about from… well, everyone. Instead he was only arrogant.
“I’m Steve.” He leaned on the spiked bat he was carrying around, chest still heaving from using it on a demigorgon. “Y’know, the coolest, bravest guy here.”
You knew it was a joke, but it still go under your skin somehow. “I know who you are.” You rolled your eyes. “Do you know who I am? We’ve only been in the same classes for, what, three years now?”
“I…” Steve looked at you incredulously. You knew the comment was petty and unfair but you didn’t care very much. “We aren’t- weren’t even friends, why would I?”
“Whatever.”
——
Steve must have had a thing for women who were out of his reach because he couldn’t fathom any other reason he could be attracted to you.
You’d been arguing practically every chance you’d had since the day you met, and you’d made it extra clear that you would rather be eaten by a demigorgon than deign to spend even a second with him willfully.
That didn’t stop Steve Harrington, though. He still indulged you when you wanted to argue, but most of his time was spent trying to get you to see any good in him, which often ended with Steve embarrassing himself and you rolling your eyes and walking away. He even got Eleven involved after some time.
——
“So,” she speared an Eggo on her fork, trying to act casual. “Steve’s nice.”
You couldn’t believe he even got your sister involved in his sad attempts in trying to get you to see past his arrogance, but a small part of you appreciated how hard he was trying.
You would never tell that to anyone, though.
“It’s not happening, El. Don’t even try.”
She sighed and returned to her waffles in silence, but after a short silence you became curious.
“Hey, what does everyone see in that guy anyway? At school everyone says he’s like, a total jerk.”
“He saved my life.” She looked at you with those large puppy dog eyes. “Also Mike, Dustin, Jonathan, Nancy-“
“I get it, he saved a ton of people, but like- what else?”
“I don’t talk to him much. Dustin thinks he’s very cool, though.”
Your opinion on him didn’t change much just from your little sister’s words until you were actually forced to spend time with him.
Unknowingly, you and Steve had both come up with the same stupid plan in the head of the moment: do whatever you could to draw demigorgons away from the kids, including using yourself as bait.
Amidst flailing your arms and running like hell, you hardly noticed that you had no idea where you were until you’d managed to shake the monsters.
Chest still heaving and limbs aching, you turned to Steve and grimaced at the large gash on his shoulder. “Think we can go back now?”
He let out a dry laugh. “If you know which way is back, sure.”
“Shit.”
Steve, being Steve, did the last thing on your mind at the moment and flopped down into a pile of leaves.
“What’re you doing?! We need to get out of here before dark and if you don’t get up, so help me I’m going to… I’ll… leave without you!”
He did that infuriating face that he always did when you started rambling. “You done?” He raised his eyebrows slightly. “Cause I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel much like walking now-“ he gestured to a gash on his leg that you hadn’t noticed. “-and I’m like, 90% sure everyone’s looking for us right now, so.” He patted the ground right next to him.
You reluctantly sat down next to him, not wanting Steve to be left alone in the woods at the very least.
“Hey, now that we’re here anyways,” Steve scowled and absentmindedly picked at grass. “Why do you, uh… hate me so much.”
The question took you aback because you didn’t hate him, not really. “I don’t.”
“Yeah, right.” He leaned back against the same tree you were sitting against. “Why’re you so… like that with me. I know for a fact you don’t talk to Nancy or Jonathan like that.”
“I…” You loathed to admit the actual reason you acted like you hated him so much. Thankfully, you were saved by the angelic sound of a pre-pubescent boy yelling your name.
——
From then on, thankfully your arguing turned more playful than malicious. The shift wasn’t obvious to most people, who just read it as your usual bickering, but they didn’t see the sly smirk that creeped its way onto your face when Steve delivered a particularly clever line or the way that Steve had started waiting at your locker between classes so you had a chance to see each other for minutes out of your busy schedules (aka fighting monsters.)
Steve had run thousands of scenarios through his head in which he’d asked you out. He’d thought of ways you’d say no and ways you’d say yes, even ways you’d make him wait for weeks on end for an answer, but he’d never even thought that it would ever happen on the Hawkins High bleachers after you’d gotten a bloody nose when a transfer student decided to try her hand at a bicycle kick during pe.
He had happened to be walking by the soccer field (totally not skipping class) and saw the incident. Seeing an opportunity for an excused absence and a way to hang out with his best friend, Steve quickly ran to your pe teacher and generously offered his help.
“Who even goes that hard at pe!? Especially in our senior year.” Your voice came out nasally because your nose was being pinched between paper towels by Steve.
You were lying on your back on one of the bleachers while Steve pretended to fuss over you, making the simple nose bleed seem like a bigger deal than the life threatening injuries you’d both endured fighting different monsters from the upside down.
Somehow, he’d never thought you’d looked more beautiful.
“… come on, Liza! Honestly, I think she might have done it on purpose. Who does she think she is-“
“D’you want to go out with me?”
That made you sit straight up, bumping Steve’s nose in the process who recoiled quickly and grabbed his nose in pain.
“What!?”
“What?” He winced and felt to see if his nose was bleeding. “You don’t want to?”
“No, I didn’t say that! I just… what!?”
“It just came out, I don’t know!”
You looked at him for a beat in silence, not knowing what else to say.
Then, you leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“Pick me up at eight.”