Stranger Things Works

Middle Child ; Steve Harrington

"He doesn't even look at me, Eds." I huff, flopping down onto Eddie's bed with an over-exaggerated sigh, a playful pout on my lips as he plucks at the strings of his guitar. He just shakes his head with a laugh, bangs falling in his eyes as he slips the pick from between his lips before pointing it at me.

"Then he's blind. Have you seen your rack?" He scoffs, rolling his eyes and laughing at my offended gasp, my hands grabbing the nearest pillow, tossing it in his direction but missing him completely. "Stellar, dude, ten out of ten." His tongue clicks as I sigh, resting my hands on my stomach as I stare up at the cracks lining the ceiling.

"I don't look like Nancy, I don't act like Nancy but I'm nothing like Mike so what would there even be for Steve to like about me?" I ask genuinely, feeling the joking attitude leaving the room as he sighs, abandoning his guitar to crawl his way onto the bed, laying facing me.

"You gotta stop thinkin' like that sweetheart." He whispers, watching me with furrowed brows as I sigh, my stomach twisting in painful knots.

He's the only one who knows about my feelings for Steve, the only one I'd ever trust with such fragile information. I couldn't tell Nancy, even though she's one of my best friends and my older sister, mainly because she's Steve's ex and first love. It would ruin our relationship to learn that I have had feelings for him longer than they've even known each other, just sitting back in the shadows and watching, crying.

Eddie had been there for me through everything, watching me watch him, a supportive hand on my back for me to fall into, letting him engulf me in hugs and marijuana. He knows more than anyone what it's like to have feelings for someone you just shouldn't but in my case it's different with the fact that he dated my sister, practically babysits my younger brother, and the most important detail, that I'm a year and a half younger than him.

He's graduated from high school, free and happy in his first year without needing to show up and be someone he's not. Him and Robin have their gig at Family Video and he has time to be himself outside of the cattiness and cliques that high school comes with.

But me?

Dating a soon-to-be high school senior just wasn't on the list of things that older guys found attractive. I'm not a cheerleader, I don't have any secret talents and I'm not intellectually at Eddie's or any of the Hellfire clubs level. I'm just plain and average, with (apparently) a good rack.

Nowhere in the realm of Steve 'the hair' Harrington's type.

Maybe it's because he's known me almost my whole life. He watched me grow up from two grades ahead of me, he saw me through braces and the awkwardly shaped glasses I had for years. He saw me through every phase, every cycle, every crush before him; he saw me. But he never saw me in the way that present me wishes he had.

Instead he saw Nance. And who could blame him.

"You wanna go to the video store? Make him jealous?" Eddie teases, pulling a smile out of me as I roll onto my side to face him and his wide, bright puppy dog eyes. "I mean, I could take you straight back to the porn section and tell him it's movie night." A cringed smile appears on my lips as he rolls around laughing, smacking my thigh as he sits up. "C'mon, I'm not going to let you sit around here and mope." He claps his hands and stands between my thighs, giving me a testing, motivational look as I whine.

"But Eddie-"

"No bitching! Chop, chop, woman!" He pulls me off of the bed without warning, tugging me through his trailer as I fight to put my shoes on.

By the time he's pulling up to the video store, it's safe to say that neither of us have any sort of plan in mind. We couldn't just walk in there with no intent, right? Him and Steve are friends, I guess, since the things that happened with Vecna but there would be no reason for me to be there. Steve wasn't even aware Eddie and I were that close to begin with.