gareth x reader

the fight

y/n pov

i wake up in the morning and realize at some point in the night me and gareth ended up a little close, so i was a little shocked when i opened my eyes and his face was right there. i roll away from him and check my watch. 10:27am. i sit up and notice that jeff is also awake. "mornin jeff" i say, really wishing i didnt have to sleep on the floor.
"oh hey good morning y/n" jeff responds.
"um do you know where the bathroom is?" i ask, not wanting to wake up gareth, "i should probably change and stuff"
"oh yeah its down that hall, first door on the left"
"great, thanks" i say, getting up and grabbing my bag.
i change into the clothes i brought for today and brush my hair. once i get back to the living room i notice gareth and james are awake now. "oh hey y/n," james says while smirking and looking between me and gareth. um gonna ignore that??
"hey?"
"so we were gonna practice for our band today, would you want to watch?" gareth asks.
"um yeah sure, its not like i have anything better to do." i mean its true, i literally have no other friends and i don't necessarily want to hang out with steve and whatever girl hes dating this week. (im sorry steve ily but ur a man whore)
we all go out into the garage and they set up and start playing. lord have mercy why is gareth so cute when he plays the drums. suddenly they stop playing and they're all staring at something in the driveway. i get up and walk over to them to see what they were staring at just to see some basketball losers walking towards the garage. "you're a little early fellas," gareth starts as he gets up and walks around his drum set, "shows not til next week."
"oh that was music you were playing" one of the guys says.
"we're looking for eddie munson. hes in this band, if thats what you can even call this" another guy says, he seems to be the leader of these guys.
"what do you care?" gareth asks.
"thats our business."
"lucas?" gareth says, turning his attention to the guy standing in the back, "what are you doing with these douchebags?"
"you know these freaks sinclair?" god can he shut up.
"they know my sister," lucas says, "they tried to recruit me to their, club, cult?"
"lucas, what the hell?" jeff says.
"we're just trying to find eddie man"
"well you have eyes dont you, hes not here." gareth says, obviously annoyed at this point. suddenly the one guy punches gareth in the face.
"HEY MAN-" jeff yells as the other guys grab us, restraining us from helping gareth.
"where is he?"
"i dont know!"
"WHERE IS HE?"
"I DONT KNOW" the guy punches gareth again, this time in his stomach.
"HEY LET HIM GO MAN" jeff yells, obviously its not doing much though. the guy throws gareth into his drums and before he even has a chance to get up he steps on gareths hand, slowly putting more pressure on his hand.
"its gonna be hard to play those drums with a broken hand," he says. who does this guy think he is?
"hey man get off him" i say, trying to get away from this guy, but like come on how am i gonna get away from this dude.
"oh yeah? and what are you gonna do about it princess?" the guy asks, turning to me but still keeping his foot on gareths hand.
"my brother is steve harrington, i could just tell him you called me princess and he will beat the shit out of you," i say, hoping it might scare him.
"steve harrington huh? you know you're too pretty to be hanging around these freaks." he says. what a creep. he still doesnt move away from gareth.
"dustin!" gareth says, "dustin henderson,"
"what?" the guy asks.
"dustin henderson, man he was- he was calling around lookin for eddie! maybe he found him- maybe he found him," gareth says.
"see? that wasnt so hard. now, where do we find this, 'dustin'?"
gareth tells them dustins address and they leave, throwing me, james, and jeff to the floor in the process. "holy shit gareth are you okay?" i ask, getting up and running over to him, "one of you guys call a doctor, he's definitely going to need x-rays" i say, turning to jeff and james. they both get up and run inside. i help gareth sit up. "can you try to move your fingers?" i ask, hopefully his hand isnt broken.
"yeah- yeah i can a little bit" he says, barely moving his fingers without wincing.
"here, let me get you cleaned up. are you able to stand up?" i ask, i dont really want him to stay on the floor.
"yeah, can you help me get up?" i help him stand up and walk him to the bathroom to get the first aid kit. i sit him down on the closed toilet and get the first aid kit out from under the sink. i grab a washcloth and soak it in water.
"okay this might sting a little," i say as i lift the cloth up to his face. at least only his lip is bleeding. i apply pressure to his lip and he winces and turns his face away. "i know, i know. but i need you to stay still," i say, grabbing his cheek and pulling him back to face me. i put the cloth back up to his lip and he tenses up again, but doesnt move away. i grab some ointment from the first aid kit and rub it on his lip, "you're gonna have to reapply this a couple times so it doesnt get infected" i say, looking up to make eye contact with him. we dont say anything for a while, just stare at each other. oh my god i feel like im gonna throw up if he keeps looking at me like that.
suddenly someone knocks on the door and i go over to open it.
"hey um theres a doctors office a few blocks away, they said that he should come down so they can check out his hand to make sure its not broken." jeff says, "me and james are gonna go though, you know, in case they come back."
"okay," i say, turning back towards gareth, "ill walk with you to the doctor." gareth gets up and we walk towards the doctors office while jeff and james walk towards their houses. we walk in silence until we get to the office. i quickly explain what happened and they take him back to get x-rays and a few others tests. i decide to sit in the waiting room until he comes back out. after about 2 hours he finally comes back.
"oh y/n, you didnt have to wait," gareth says, turning slightly red.
"i just wanted to make sure you were okay," i say, standing up and walking over to him, "your hands not broken, is it?" i ask, really hoping its not.
"no its just going to be sore for a few days, they gave me pain killers to help with that though." we started walking back to his house, once again in silence.

time skip to like 4ish cause like lets say they left the doctors office at 2:30

"hey gareth i should probably go, i'll see you later ok?" i say, standing up and grabbing my bag.
"oh um, okay. see ya later" he says. i walk out the door and head back home. as soon as i get up to my front door it swings open before i can even reach my hand out.
"where the hell have you been?" steve asks.
"i left you a note saying i was staying at a friends house, didnt you see it?" did this man really not see it cause i swear to god.
"yeah. i saw it. have you seen the news?" steve says.
"no? why what happened?" i ask, a little worried.
"a hawkins high student was murdered last night. i was worried sick, y/n. and you didnt call me at all or leave a number for me to call you and i thought-" he trailed off. did he think i was the student they found? "i thought you were dead. and if you were i would never forgive myself" he says, pulling me into a hug.
"well im alive and home so," i say, waiting for him to actually let me in the house.
"yeah yeah whatever come inside. im ordering pizza for dinner but ill let you know when it gets here"
"thanks" i say as i run up to my room. i flop onto my bed and think about gareth. wait no, y/n you just met him yesterday you cant think about him like this. but he did say he thinks im pretty. UGH why is this happening right now.
"y/n! pizzas here!" steve yells from downstairs.
"coming!" i yell as i get up and run downstairs.

time skip to like getting ready for bed

after we ate i took a shower and got ready for bed. i got under the covers and still all i could think about was gareth. and i cant even call him cause i dont know his number and i didnt leave him my number. i look at the alarm clock on my nightstand. 11:52. i might as well try to sleep. i fall asleep, but i still cant get gareth off my mind..

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heyyy sorry this ones short and sorry it took so long i wrote a lot of it then realized it doesnt make any sense and rewrote like half of it. also (spoilers for volume 2) but in this story eddie doesnt die bc i said so. anyways feel free to leave suggestions? luv yall 🤭🤭
(also in the next part theres gonna be a big time skip to when spring break is over, just a heads up)