𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍 [𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗]

VII

┓

he knows

┗

𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 10𝚝𝚑 1983
𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚎'𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎
𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐

the next morning valentine gets woken up by her phone ringing, she barely slept a wink last night, everytime she closed her eyes, her night replayed, everything with joseph, her talk with steve, everything that hurt her last night kept replaying and replaying.

it took her a minute to register the fact she had to actually pick up the phone, she wouldn't have noticed if it wasnt for a near enough asleep steve harrington groaning, his grip on her waist tightening which, as it would with any girl, gave valentine walker butterflies.

she fights those butterflies and picks the phone up from the holder.

"hello?" she says into her phone, barely even awake to muster any sentence together, "valentine oh my! i thought you were dead! i have been calling all morning! anyways that doesbt matter, what does is... me and jonathan may have discovered something." she says, "yeah" valentine replies, still not awake enough to really reply.

nancy quickly explains where to meet her and what the rough idea of the plan is before hanging up. valentine placed her phone on the holder and nudges steve awake, "im gonna go shower then i have to pop out for my mom" she whispers, "you can sleep until then though, i know i kept you up for some time"she says, chuckling slightly, "your bandage will need changing" he says.

she thinks for a moment. "i can wake you up when i need it wrapped again?" she suggests and he agrees, getting comfy again to sleep. "uh steve.." she says, "mhm?" he says although it's muffled due to the pillow. "i need to get up" she replies, "so get up then" he says, she giggles, the giggle steve loved to hear, he smiles slightly. "your arms are kind of preventing that" she replies, "shit sorry" he says, moving his arms.

valentine almost sighs at the loss of warmth and contact but reminds herself they're both in relationships. she thanks him before sitting up to get out of bed.

valentine then had an hour to shower, do her hair and makeup so she didnt look as dead, find an outfit and have steve harrington change her bandage.

she eventually finished in the shower before drying herself off and brushing her teeth.

she wore a light blue cropped rib knit tank top and an oversized grey jacket. she called steve into her ensuite bathroom and sits on the counter.

he rewraps her thigh. "listen val, i hate to be the one to bring this up.. but please take care of yourself, you don't need to harm yourself, i'm here" he says, she realised what he had noticed and her heart drops. she forgot they were there.

"please promise you'll come to me if you ever feel like that, you can have my number" he says, she just hugs him, not knowing what to say.

he soon enough leaves the bathroom after about ten minutes of just hugging. she puts a pair or lightwash baggy jeans on and a pair of plain "white" nike shoes she's worn about a million times.

she does her makeup and hair as she usually has it, knowing she'd look less dead by the end of it.

then she offers steve a change of clothes or some breakfast. he lets her do both things and she looks to see her parents cars not in the driveway and her little brother cycling off.