𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 • Steve Harrington

Chapter 25

It's hard to say how long they were laid like that in the bedroom lit dimly by the side table lamp. Julie was rested on Steve's bare chest, their bodies tangled in bedsheets and her torso swallowed in his white t-shirt with a blue and a yellow stripe on either short sleeve.

As he drew small circles on her shoulder, the silence wrapped around them like a warm blanket, but it wasn't enough to prevent her from missing his face. So she turned onto her front and weaved her fingers together on his chest.

A stupid smile curled on his lips and met his eyes.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," she repeated back softly. "I need to ask you something."

"What? You think now that you've got in my pants, I'm just gonna do anything you ask me to. Because you'd be absolutely correct."

They both fell into faint laughter. "When I spoke to my mom earlier she told me about her shop," Julie continues. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Steve responded complacently, barely phased at all. "Probably nothing. I haven't given it that much thought."

That irked her. The not caring. She didn't want to be the kind of person that cared about someone more than they cared about themself, but she didn't anticipate knowing Steve let alone feeling the way she did about him.

Of course she was aware no one had to have their life entirely figured out at this age. Young adults deserve the freedom to determine what they want from their lives. Steve was no exception.

He couldn't see all of those thoughts glistening in her eyes, but he could see that she was thinking them. "Don't do that."

"What?"

"Worry about me."

"I can't help it."

"Well, trust me when I tell you you have nothing to worry about." He smoothed the circles he drew on her shoulder out with his palm, running it up her collarbone before brushing his fingers through her hair. "I just want to enjoy this."

His smile relaxed her enough to keep quiet about the matter for now. "I have something that might help."

"Oh yeah?"

She bit down on the inside of her bottom lip to contain her sheepish smile, and pushed herself up. Steve's eyes followed her across the room until she was tiptoed in front of her wardrobe and reaching for her middle school lunchbox she kept on the shelf above between binders and a Rubik's cube.

Upon sitting cross-legged in front of Steve laying on his side with his head propped up against his palm, she clicked open the metal box with Mork and Mindy on the side. Steve could have never prepared himself for what he saw next.

A small plastic wallet with a nugget of weed inside.

His mouth pricked with an amused grin. "Where the hell d'you get that?"

"Eddie Munson."

The name didn't ring any bells for him.

"Shaggy hair, was held back a year."

Steve frowned and Julie's head jerked forward. "Seriously?" she asked disappointedly. "He's in that semi-shitty band."

"Is he a trombone kind of guy or clarinet?"

She cocked her head, not appreciating his humour. "The marching band's not what I meant and you know that."

His eyes softened with apology, a boyish smile playing on his lips. "Then I have no idea, sorry. I'm still processing the fact you get pot from burnouts."