STRANGEST THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU || steddie

chapter one: steve 'the loner' harrington

The light from the sky illuminates the building before him, giving it such a heart-warming glow. The way that image contrasts the events of this noon, are causing a sickening feeling to linger in his stomach. No one expected it would come to this. The dark blonde boy is standing with his friends at the courtyard of the Hawkins High, a crowd of people blocking the way towards the main building.

'What's going on here?' Steve asks his mate, who has been here before Harrington arrived with others.

'This dumbass is gonna jump!' Tommy exclaims, turning his head towards them, holding a phone in his hands, and recording the top of the building.

Steve looks up, visibly confused about Tommy's excitement, since his words contradicted his behaviour, and that's when he saw him. A boy, with Nikes white as if new, straight jeans, and a blank white top, standing on top of the main school building, way too close to the ledge. Steve couldn't decipher who the boy is, his silhouette too high up, too small to see any detail. Sweat covers the brown-haired boy's forehead and hands as panic sets in.

'Guys! C'mon do something. He's going to jump!' he screams on the top of his lungs, but no one reacts, everyone focuses on the boy at the ledge. 'Tommy, stop recording it. Help him!' he turns to his friend, hoping that he'll listen.

'Why don't you go help him, then? Don't just stand here.' Tommy replies not meeting Steve's eyes, still focused on recording the whole ordeal.

And that's when Harrington froze. Goosebumps on his back, he looks up once again and sees a body falling down. It's quiet. Too quiet. His eyes scan the crowds, seeing people's mouths open, and hands covering their faces, but to him, it is silent. He hasn't even realised when the body hit the ground, but suddenly his legs start guiding him towards the entrance to the building, the crowd moving out of his way and uncovering a person laying at the bottom of the stairs. He approaches the lifeless form, his heart speeding up. The person's head suddenly turns, revealing brown, sprayed into place hair, brown eyes, roman nose, and now greyish lips. It was like looking into a mirror. He just saw, himself.

'It should have been you.' said his self on the ground.

Steve felt like air was getting sucked out of his lungs. He placed his hand on his chest, trying to catch a breath.

'Mr. Harrington' a voice brings him back from his thoughts. He looks at where the voice came from and sees a tall man with glasses approaching him. It's the biology teacher. The boy looks back at where the body was laying, just to see it's not there anymore. 'Lessons have already started. Go to your class or go home if you're done for the day.' said the man, slowly looking over the boy. It's like he wants to say something, but he hesitates and looks away. 'Don't wander around the halls,' was the last thing the teacher said before he left him, entering the right wing of the school, where labs were.

Steve lingers at the courtyard for a bit longer, shocked with how much effect that event still has on him after all this time. 'Guilt's a bitch' he whispers to himself, before grabbing the bag strap on his shoulder and going towards the main entrance.

The lunch break is usually the time for Steve Harrington to go behind the school, where he can think, alone. It's already a third day in a row where he doesn't grab food from the cafeteria and goes straight to his place. On the way, he doesn't look around him and accidentally bumps into someone.

'Oh, Steve Harrington! Just the person I was looking for.' said a female voice cheerfully.

Steve looks up to see quite a tall girl, with short, wavy light brown hair, big blue eyes and the biggest smile anyone has shown him, ever. She was wearing the school's band uniform and struggled to stay still.

'You were looking for me?' to say Steve is shocked, is the biggest understatement. After he stopped being friends with Tommy and their group, people stayed away from him like he was contagious. Of course Steve knows it's all his ex-friend's doing, but it's not like he's going to stand up to Tommy, he actually enjoys being alone. It lets him contemplate on how big of a dick he was, and what he would do differently if he could go back.

'No, another Steve Harrington. Of course, I meant you. I'm Robin Buckley.' she stretches her hand out towards him, and he shakes it gently. 'Oh, c'mon. Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean you need to be so gentle with me. I'm not made from glass.' she complains and starts shaking the boy's hand more violently.
'Why were you looking for me?' he asked the girl, her reaction makes it clear that her thoughts were already somewhere else, but Steve's voice reminded her why she's even talking to him in the first place.

'Ah, yes! I got a proposition for you.' she says, expecting some kind of response from the boy, but he gives her the look that encourages her to continue, 'I will pay you hundred-fifty bucks to hang out with Eddie.'

If Steve's eyes were not connected to his head, they would have fallen out.

'Eddie Munson?' the name barely went through his throat. He remembers the guy, how could he not, when he was one of the victims of his group's little 'pranks'. His face is one of the many that appear in his nightmares, and so the thought of trying to befriend him now, seems a bit ridiculous to him.

'Yeah. You know him already?'

'No' he replies immediately, a little too fast to make it believable. But Robin knew better than to question it, they were not friends, she literally just met the guy.

'Okay... Um, so are you in?' she asks the question he now dreaded. Is he in? Is this a good idea? He doesn't think so, but he desperately needs the money.

He has moved out of his parents' house at the start of last year, couple months after the incident. He could not handle how his parents tried to make him seem innocent and insistent he acts like he has been so far, be someone he's not. Since then, he is struggling a little bit with money, already working at Scoops Ahoy, and doing some side jobs every now and then, but it's never enough. This is the only reason he says...

'Yes.'