A Crack In The Glass (steddie with some Rickie)

21

Eddie awoke the next day, Steve cuddling him, a plate on the bedside table with pizza crust on it, a slice of pizza still in the box which was laying open on the bed. He sighed groggily, leaning into steve. Robin was passed out on the floor next to the bed, argyle somewhere off doing something. Jonathan was probably in wills room like he said he was.

“Mm, rise and shine amigos!” Argyle's voice chimed, as he entered the room. Eddie groaned, sitting up. Steve grabbed him in his half asleep state, trying to pull him back down. Eddie laughed softly as Steve slowly opened his eyes. “Guess what day it is.”

“Holy shit- its homecoming?” Robin said, looking up. 

“Huh?” Steve said incoherently. “Homecoming..? Homecomings today!?” He shouts, suddenly very awake.

“Yeah, and we gotta step on it if you guys wanna make it to school on time.” Jonathan said, throwing open the door connected to Will's room. They had a door that connected the rooms, for some odd reason. He grabbed a striped blue button down and put it over his gray tank top, his sunglasses already on his face.

“Shit shit shit!” Eddie said, throwing himself out of bed. He quickly threw his hair into a ponytail with one of Argyle's hair ties on the dresser, since it was easier than having to brush out and style his hair. He just wore what he was in, a pair of jeans and the crop-top from the night prior. Steve was a bit slower that morning, the after effects of weed taking its toll on him.

“Argyle, will you drive?” Jonathan asked. “I know these idiots well enough to know they won't make it in time.”

“Yeah man, totally!” He said, grabbing the keys to his van. Eddie and Steve looked each other over, they looked presentable enough to go to school.

So they quickly followed Argyle and climbed into the back of his van. Robin followed, and they drove off to school.

The day was normal, just another school day. And despite questions from teachers about random unexcused absences, everything was fine for steve. Eddie had just headed off for detention, because he yelled at a teacher. Typical eddie stuff.

Steve walked the halls as always, people noticed him but didn't bother him for once. It was the end of the day, but he actually had to stay after school around the premises or in the library for eddie. Which is what he did.

He decided to go off to the bleachers in the back of the school. He was on the ones furthest from the basketball court, since the basketball guys were playing and well- he had some mild resentment against them after everything that happened with eddie.

And though he tried to ignore them, Jason still approached and took a seat by steve.

“Ah, harrington! I haven't seen you at basketball practice, what's up with that?” he asked, softly laughing.

“I left the team.” he deadpanned.

“Well why’d you do that?” He asked.

“It wasn't my thing.” he comments softly, as Jason throws an arm over his shoulders. Steve rolled his eyes annoyedly.

“I'm worried about you, steve.” he says genuinely. “I think you're spending too much time with that munson. He's gonna corrupt you if he hasn't yet.” Jason continued. “He’ll make you into one of himself. A little bitch boy fag.” His sentence ends with a solid punch to his nose. He flinches back, a hand flying to his nose. The others hit the deck, scattering.

“Who do you think you are, huh!? Who do you think you are!?” Steve shouts, as Jason hops back up to swing. He wipes his face before his fist collides with Steve's jaw. Steve and Jason were about the same height, Jason just a little shorter. He was quick to try and get him down, he got a good few hits on him but Jason was just continuing to go at it.

Someone was quick to break them up,  pulling Jason away from Steve and Steve away from jason.

“I'll kill you bitch! You hear me!?” Steve shouted, spitting blood. Both were seething.he looked up at who was dragging Jason away. Lucas gave him a soft look.steve began to fight the person holding him.

“Steve, steve.” He said. Jason was dragged inside by lucas, eddie pulled steve by one arm to the phone booth outside the school. He quickly called Nancy to please come pick them up, which she agreed to. Eddie had not said much to Steve yet, as he sat against the school building.

Eddie let out a sigh, kneeling in front of steve.

“Love, when will you learn your lesson?” Eddie asked, wiping the blood from under his nose off and onto his black pants. Steve felt a tear roll down his cheek as he looked away. “I’m not mad at you, but what happened?”

“Why are people so mean?” He asked softly, catching Eddie off guard.

“I wish I had that answer. So many things. Because they're scared, or jealous, or sad, or angry.” Eddie sat next to Steve with a soft smile to his boyfriend. He grabbed his hand, caressing it with his thumb.

“He called you things. Things I'd never repeat.” Steve said softly. Eddies smile dropped,

“Oh, steve.” Eddie said softly, as he stared off into the near vacant parking lot. 

“I'm sorry.” He plainly said. “I just couldn't listen to him say things like that.”

“You know I don't care when people say that, don't you?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah.. I care though. And it hurts to hear.” he says. Steve had not looked at Eddie the entire time.

Nancy showed up not much later, and after a small interrogation, she dropped them off at steves instead of eddies. While yes, all his money along with Jonathan, Nancy, and robins help had gone to the suits and dresses, he had barely enough to keep his lights on. That was the main reason he was staying at eddies.

Eddie sat him on the couch. “Take your shirt off.” He instructs. 

“Why?” He asks.

“You have blood on it.” He replies, and Steve sighs and takes it off. Eddie was quick to find a first aid kit, despite only being to Steve's house a handful of times before. He sat it on the couch cushion next to the two, straddling Steve without warning. Steve looked down and back up, Eddie rolling his eyes.

“Chill pretty boy, this is just easier.” He says, grabbing a wet cloth. Steve was lucky to not have any bruises, just a cut on his lip, eyebrow and a bloody nose. Steve sighed and stared into Eddie's eyes as he worked, smiling softly.

“Ah, my own personal nurse, huh?” He joked, Eddie smiled and shook his head. “Where'd you learn all this anyways?”

“Well, I was a rowdy child. Very active, always out running the streets. And besides getting into fights, I was constantly falling and hurting myself. My uncle, he worked a lot. He cared about me, he just wasn't home often. So uh, you kind of figure stuff out after a while.” he said, putting a bandaid over the one on his eyebrow. “Now that you're cleaned up, I think we should probably start getting ready.”