𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐬

FIFTEEN: have a good night.

ON FRIDAY NIGHT for James and Steve, the pair were sitting with Robin, Nancy, Jonathan and Argyle at a large booth at Benny's. It was so fucking awkward. Normally Steve would blow off anything that had to do with his ex-boyfriend and his ex-boyfriend's new boyfriend, but he couldn't resist. Why? Because James had asked him.

He had that look in his eyes too as he stared deeply into Steve's and got the shorter flustered, suddenly avoiding eye contact. The Harrington couldn't really say no, that'd be rude. That's what he said when he nodded and agreed to join them after their shift that night. But it was mostly just Robin and Nancy flirting and talking a lot about Scoops, Jonathan listening to his stoned boyfriend rambling as James glanced between the couple, amused at the blank stare on Jonathan's face.

The waiter now approached them with a full tray, setting down two root beer floats for Steve and James, a strawberry milkshake for Robin and Nancy because the Wheeler asked the Buckley to share it with her and then two cherry soda's for Argyle and Jonathan. Steve took his root beer float and pulled it closer to take a sip as the waiter then said their meals shouldn't take too long, his gaze lingering on James before he walked away.

"Oh, wow, would you look at that? James still has it." Robin says and James snorts. "Still has it?" He asked and she nods. "Making any other gay guys' heads turn your way." She said as she took a sip of the milkshake at the same time as Nancy who nods at James.

"It--it's-- no." James denied and Jonathan laughs. "Even Argyle said you were hot-- ow!" He exclaimed when Argyle elbowed him harshly. "No, I didn't." The Hispanic denies and James looks at him. "I also find you hot." He says making the long haired man chuckle and play with the ends of his hair making Jonathan look at him with confusion.

"See? Every gay guy." Robin says and James rolls his eyes. "Oh, my God, Robin, I get it, we're all hot. Everyone at this table is very equally hot." He nods and Steve scrunched up his face. "Even your brother--" "shut up." James pointed a finger towards him. "Besides the waiter was probably being nice." He said but for the rest of the night, everytime the waiter brought something or asked them a question, his eyes would mostly be on him.

"Come to think of it, he's kind of cute." James says, nodding softly and Robin grins widely then glanced at Steve, noticing the dejected stare in his stupid puppy dog eyes as if someone just kicked a little dog.

That basically was how Steve felt because he only came here to hopefully get some alone time with James and smooch the fuck out of him, just as Eddie had advised him to do earlier that day. Then comes along this small cute waiter blushing and making googly eyes with James, and it's apparently working?

Steve absentmindedly pushed around his fries on his plate as James kept glancing over to the front where the waiter was grabbing a few things. "He's really cute." Robin insisted, nodding as Steve looks at her right away. "Totally cute. You should go and talk to him." Nancy says and James shook his head. "Nah." He looked down at his food.

Steve instantly felt grateful at that but then the stupid waiter came over, bringing the bill for everyone's meals, and noticed a phone number written on the back of James' so Steve quickly sat up. "I'll pay for everyone." He said and surprisingly no one resisted and thought it was so nice of him as he grabbed all of their bills then got up quickly, heading to the front where Benny was working the register, bidding customers a goodnight as they leave.

Steve hands over the papers with their meals on them, sighing as Benny smiled faintly at him. "Harrington..." He says and Steve just grimaced. "Add it to my tab for now? I'll pay you back on my next payday." He says and Benny raised a paper with the number on it. "Is he your boyfriend?" He chuckles as he did so, adding the bills to Steve Harrington's tab that's always been open long before Steve even left, probably since he was sixteen and Benny knows to trust him to always pay it off.

"No..." Steve says rather quickly and Benny nods. "Hm, right, sorry about Joey, it's like he doesn't know how to behave now that he's recently turned 18, he says all the older guys are no longer unavailable to him." He says and Steve snorts despite not finding it amusing whatsoever seeing James and a recently turned 18 year old flirting it up.

"Jesus." He said then glanced over to where this Joey kid was standing and looking towards James a lot with a small smile. "You like him." Benny is smiling widely and Steve looks at him. "Shut up, Benny." He frowns and Benny just laughed. "Have a good night, Harrington. Don't stress about the tab, but remember I know where you you live." He said and Steve just nods, chuckling. "Yeah, goodnight." He walked back to their booth.

"We... we can head out now." He said almost a bit too quietly as the others all got up, Robin's hand instantly connecting with Nancy's, Argyle tugging Jonathan into his side with his arm around the smaller as Steve quickly glanced at James, fidgeting with his hands. James however, is smiling back at Joey in a polite manner as they leave the restaurant. Hopefully this is the part we get alone and we get to smooch like Eddie said, Steve thinks to himself but then Argyle turns to them, "hey, guys. There's a party tonight. Wanna join us?" He asked and Nancy beams.

"It's at Tina's, remember how fun her parties use to be?" She asked and James chuckled, glancing around at them. "I'm kinda tired..." He rubs his arm, glancing away and Jonathan hits his arm. "Come on! Maybe you'll meet someone." He's smiling widely as Steve glanced at James right away. "I--I'd like to go." He spoke up so James looks at him.

"Oh? Yeah, sure, let's go then..."

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

  

  

  

   

authors note
party scenes are my favourite tbh

+ i'm cold tired and hungry at work so to cope and suck it up i'll just update