Beds and Rings || Steddie ||

7 ~ Almost holding hands

EDDIE'S POV
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I stand looking out the window jingling the chain on the right side of my jeans like I usually do when I'm stressed or nervous. I can feel Harrington standing next to me, but I keep my eyes locked on the window. I can feel them tearing up again.

God, not now.

With my left hand I rub my eyes to stop them from tearing up, and more specifically, so he doesn't notice. It's too late though, fuck.

"Hey," he says, hesitantly placing his hand on the left side of my face to turn it towards his. It's a little confusing, but I don't say anything about it because I don't think I want him to stop.

"Your eyes are kinda red and puffy," he whispers, "are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine," I say in possibly the most unconvincing voice imaginable.
I sigh, I don't really want to tell him, but I'm going to. Maybe he can help.

My hand is still shaking the chain, and it's probably noticeable, because the next thing Steve does is place his hand against mine to stop the shaking. He almost does it off instinct, not even looking down.

But we're almost holding hands.

It only takes about 5 seconds for me to look down and ruin it. Of course I ruin it. He realises what he did and quickly pulls his hand back, but before he can I grab his pinky finger.

I'm not entirely sure why I did that.

He doesn't pull away, though. My hand just stays there, wrapped around his finger, and both of us know what's happening but neither of us stop it.

I look away from him and run my free hand through my hair. He's still just standing there in my shirt, and I change my mind, I think it looks nice on him.

"It just dawned on me this morning, I'm wanted for murder. Like, I just want things to be normal but how will anything ever be normal after this? The police are after me, the whole town is probably after me-" I stutter, I really didn't want to have to say that out loud, because it just makes it more real.

"Hey hey, those assholes aren't gonna find you, ok? They're not gonna lay a finger on you, ok? As long as we're here, as long as I'm here, nobody's gonna touch you. I promise," he says, more serious then I've ever seen him. He moves his hand away from mine and claps me on the shoulder as a sign of reassurance.

"Jeez Harrington, I didn't know you cared that much about me," I teased.

He went a little red and smiled.