Head Over Heels » Steve Harrington

chapter sixteen

Chapter Sixteen: Base of Operations

"Lucas!"

"Yo, Lucas!"

"Lucas, hey!"

Lydia waved a hand in the air excitedly as she approached him. He was stood with Jason (yuck) and some of the other basketball team meme nerd. Lydia was highly aware that she was about to publicly embarrass the younger boy – and potentially ruin any shred of street cred he'd gained after winning the basketball game for the Tigers – but she didn't care. And honestly? That ship had already sailed when Lydia and Steve jumped up and down like complete maniacs at the final whistle.

A huge smile stretched across Lucas' face. He moved away from his friends to greet them. "Holy shit, you guys came?"

"Hell yeah we did, superstar!" Lydia cheered. She bounded over to the teenager and squished him into a tight hug. "You were amazing!"

"Agh, you're suffocating me!" Lucas complained, his voice muffled against her shoulder. Lydia pulled back, ruffling his hair. He batted her arm away and she grinned.

"Really good game, man," Steve added, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks for coming." Lucas glanced between the couple appreciatively. "Did uh...did Max say anything about..."

The dreaded fucking question.

Lydia hesitated and he seemed to notice, shoulders slumping in defeat. She felt terrible for him, especially whenever she had to break the bad news. It was always a No, Max isn't coming to your game tonight. Or a Yes, I talked to her about you guys hanging out again but she's not ready for that. Never a Omg yes Max would love to spend time with you again!

Lydia wasn't entirely sure when she became their personal messenger – well, more so Lucas' since Max was also mostly avoiding her too – but it was breaking her heart to have to keep diminishing his hopes.

But Lydia didn't actually think that Lucas should give up. Maybe she shouldn't have, but she'd told him exactly that a while ago. Max needed people to prove they would stay.

"She couldn't make it tonight," Lydia settled on. "But I'm sure she's really proud of you. All your friends will be."

Lydia added that last part through gritted teeth. She wasn't even going to start on how furious she was with Dustin and Mike for not showing up. They had absolutely no excuse and she was planning to kick their scrawny asses.

Lucas's eyes became downcast. "Yeah, I don't know about that."

She felt the urge to wrap him in her arms again. Lydia understood his motivations surrounding the basketball team and his attempts at some level of popularity – in fact, not even popularity. Acceptance.

A similar situation had happened to her when she started high school. Like Lucas, she never wanted to pull away from her friends, she just wanted to experience the other things out there too. And Lydia was lucky that Robin was supportive of all her endeavours, spare one or two small spats that were quickly resolved.

"Well, we're proud of you, bud," Steve assured him. Lucas looked up with a soft smile.

Lydia's heart warmed at the exchange. One of her favourite (and perhaps the most surprising) parts of learning more about Steve Harrington were his friendships with the kids. Watching their interactions, she often caught herself thinking that he would've been a great big brother. Though, those thoughts occasionally gradually descended into to wow, he's going to be a such great dad someday. Lydia tried not to think about that too much.