trigger warning: mentions of disordered eating, bullying and death
when you know about alternate dimensions that sit under your seemingly normal town, it changes you. or at least it changed steve harrington. there were multiple things that the harrington boy couldn't do after his first introduction to the monsters that lurked in hawkins.
he couldn't stomach red meats, he couldn't stomach much food, actually. his body seemed to reject it in the form of vomiting.
he couldn't sleep a good nights rest. not knowing that there could be something in his backyard waiting to kill him. it happened once and it could happen again
he couldn't look at jonathan in the eyes. not because of what happened with nancy, he deserved her more than steve did. but because of what his insistent bullying during his reign as king steve.
he couldn't sit through endless hours of school knowing this was all pointless. because so what if he couldn't do math? he could fight a demon straight from hell.
and so steve never really was himself again after the upside down. he didn't think he would be the same. he couldn't go back to the regularly scheduled king steve bullshit when he couldn't sleep at night.
