𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐬

THIRTY-THREE: i did love you.

    

     OUTSIDE, THE PAIR stood facing one another as Eddie asked him what was up with that kissing with Rhys and the smile he had when James saw the bottle landed on Steve. "You always do this! Literally all the fucking time! I'm getting sick of it!" James exclaimed at him and Eddie scoffed. "You looked so happy to realize you can kiss Steve! Well, go ahead, you can, he's a really good kisser!" He said and James just rolls his eyes.

"Oh, my God, this is so fucking irritating! I love you!" He shouted as he gestured at him. "You don't love me!" Eddie shouted back and then the door shut quietly suddenly. "Hey, what's going on?" Steve asked and the two looked over to see Rhys and Steve had stepped out now, the blond had a beer in hand and Steve had his arms crossed and brows furrowed in worry at the pair. "Told you they're together, Harrington, why else would they have a screaming match after making out with other people?" Rhys said, leaning on a pillar.

"Is... that true?" Steve glanced between them and Eddie just looked away, not wanting to meet his eye gaze as James sighs, looking at Steve. "Yeah... we've been back together for maybe three weeks now. We just, uh, were hiding it." He said and Eddie looks up at him. "Because some people are ashamed and love someone else." He says and James quickly looks back at him. "Or scared and insecure over stupid reasons." He said quietly.

Eddie let out a shaky breath, "not stupid reasons, James. You're--you're just, it's like you're not there when we're together, and I know, you've gone through something fucking terrible and I hate that you did and I hate the people who did it to you, but... sometimes I wonder if you feel better around this other person." He said and James felt his heart break because as much as he tried to reassure Eddie it wasn't at all like that, it perfectly explained how he felt for Eddie and Steve.

He'll feel weird, or out of his body, or something when he's with Eddie, but everything somehow felt natural with hugging Steve, laying with him, laying on his lap, touching him, even though he knows he shouldn't because of how jealous Eddie gets over the two of them.

"I--I don't know what you want me to say, Eddie. You're the one who came to me in a spur of wanting to be with me and saying you love me so suddenly... did you even really think of it? Did you even think if you meant romantically or platonically? Because you do this all the time, you get my hopes up for nothing. Nothing." He says and Eddie looks over at Steve and Rhys. "What do you want me to say? I thought you were my friend..." Steve says and Eddie's eyes flash with hurt, because he knew this would happen if Steve ever found out. He feels like shit and it's clear that he does. "Rhys?" He says quietly.

"Sorry, darling, but he has a point... you did it with me." He said and James looks at the blond then back at Eddie. The Munson quickly looked at James. "I did love you. I really did." He says quietly and James softly nods. "Did." He says, emphasizing and Eddie tears up even more, looking away. He even turns his body away as he hugs his arms around himself. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He quietly weeps.

James sighed, looking to the other two. "I'm going back inside..." He says and brushed past both Steve and Rhys. One of the two went to Eddie's side, softly touching his back and the Munson just let out a soft gasp as Steve just glanced between Rhys and Eddie before heading back inside as well.

Rhys softly rubs Eddie's back, sighing before he began to walk away. "Where are you going?" He asked quietly and the blond turns around. "I--I just wanna be alone for now. You're kind of a mess at the moment and I don't wanna be around something like that." He said and Eddie's heart practically shattered.

"Okay..." He said quietly anyway so the blond continued on towards his vehicle parked by the road and Eddie just gave up at that point, he didn't wanna go back inside, he didn't wanna be around other people, shit, he didn't even wanna be at home, so he went where he thought of was the best option. The Hideout.

Meanwhile, James was sipping a beer at the dining room table, staring out the window as the others were in the livingroom and quietly discussing amongst themselves. "Guys, please," Steve spoke up suddenly, looking at them. "Stop acting like you guys know what's best for James and Eddie. They're grown adults who made their decisions. Who cares if they wanted to be together again?" He says and it made the other four go all quiet.

"You're right... I'm sorry." Nancy said quietly but she really did believe that Eddie and James deserved better, more than each other, so did Robin and the other couple. "It just makes everything super awkward for the group." Argyle says suddenly and Jonathan agrees with a little hum, sipping some more beer. "But like, who cares? As long as we deal with it like the adults we are, we really shouldn't care..." Steve says and Robin sighs quietly.

"Stevie has a point." She said and then Steve got up, going over to where James was, toying with a lighter at the table. "Hey, you okay?" He asked quietly and James glanced up at him. "Yeah... do I not look okay?" He asked and Steve just sits down beside him. "It's just... it makes sense now," he says, now setting his chin onto the palm of his hand.

"What does?" James asked, looking at him as he takes another sip. "The fact you'd blow me off multiple times with shitty excuses... you know you could've told me, right? I wouldn't have said anything bad." He says and James just slowly turns to face the shorter. "Can I show you something?" He asked and Steve furrows his brows, turning his head away a bit. "Like what?" He had to ask the taller.

"Just trust me."

In James' room, the Hopper digs into his desk drawers, rummaging through them. "I swear it was just here..." He says quietly as Steve walks around his room as he did the first time he ever saw James' room. He smiles at the photo hanging of the entire Byers-Hopper family, Jim and Joyce are standing behind two chairs where Jonathan and James are seated, the two having their siblings on their laps, Sara on one of James' thighs, El on both of James' and Jonathan's between them and Will on the other side of Jonathan's lap.

He smiles because Jonathan and James look so young in it, maybe 14 or 15, with the kids being 10 or 11 at the time. He finds a photo booth strip of photos with James and Eddie near it on the corkboard. James has his face squished to Eddie's in the first photo then they're doing a devil horns pose, the third beind them laughing then the fourth is them staring at each other. He quickly looks away, at a photo now with Robin and James ready for the Snowball, James has his arms around Robin's waist in a prom-like photo pose and they're smiling but clearly look so uncomfortable.

The next photo, he's taken back by it because it's Jonathan and him. He remembers that day, James had been messing around with Jonathan's camera, saying he wanted to see if he "could be as great as his brother at photogrpahy", quite honestly, no, because the photo is shit and blurry. But it warms Steve's heart he's apart of this family-loved ones-friends collage on the other's wall.

"Oh! Here it is!"

authors note
james romance writer hopper jr 😍
anyways i'm done with jeddie now 😕 so we can finally move back onto hoppington and dirty munson <3