STRANGEST THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU || steddie

chapter six: best hangover

Steve definitely drunk too much last night, the bitter taste of beer still on his tongue and memories of the events in the club fuzzy. The boy is sat downstairs on the stool by the kitchen countertop, holding his head, a glass of aspirin in front of him. He's rubbing his temples, the sound of a notification stinging his eardrums.

'For fuck's sake.' He swears under his breath and reaches for the phone, the light from the screen too bright in the room swallowed by the darkness. He squints his eyes and blindly tries to turn the brightness down, which doesn't go well for him. He takes a moment to get used to the light and reads the notification showing a message from Robin.

boss:
what happened last night?

The memories of the night at the club suddenly washing over him like a waterfall.

When Eddie started walking away from him, Steve followed suit and tried to stop the boy, attempting to convince him of the sincerity of his words. Eddie was very reluctant and accurately so, after all that Steve and his mates have done, but seeing Steve's expression had him thinking. His eyes were a bit more narrow, awaiting Eddie's next words. His hair ruffled, probably by the drunk strangers Steve had to walk past to get to the curly-head. His lips slightly open, as if he wanted to say something, hands slightly shaky on his sides. He was nervous.

Anything else past that requires Steve to do too much thinking, his head pounding, it was like a bomb ticking away, waiting to detonate. He gives up for now and messages Robin back.

steve:
idk, dont remember much
why? did something happen

A few seconds later he gets a reply, amazed with how quick the girl can type.

boss:
well, ik someone whos friends with him and they said that when trying to talk to him, he would only smile and say that hed keep it to himself

Steve's lips form a flat line, concerned with what he must have done. When he was popular he had drank a lot, and it'd take a lot to get him at least tipsy. But now he was out of touch, and mixing alcohol has been a bad choice.

Steve looked at the glass filled with whiskey and winced slightly. He looked back at Eddie, sat beside him, a wide, toothy smile was occupying his face.

'C'mon! The big Steve Harrington won't drink whiskey?' Eddie teased, knowing full well that Steve will do it. That's the kind of person he was, or at least that's what the metal head believed.

'Oh, get off my ass Munson.' Steve shook his head and downed the drink, alcohol was burning in his throat. 'That's awful.'

Eddie bursted out laughing, leaning back so far he almost fell off the stool. 'You've never drank whiskey? You disappoint me Steven.' A low giggle escaped him.

'Why do you call me Steven? You know it's Steve, you literally said my name earlier.'

Eddie stopped giggling. He looked Steve straight into eyes, and slowly smiled at him. 'I like to see you flustered. Call it payback.' And he took another sip of his drink.

Steve gets up from the chair, the memory so fresh in his mind, but so distant at the same time. It feels almost as if they have had been friends for a very long time, which couldn't be further from truth. Could he even call them friends now?

A knock at the door wakes Steve up from his contemplating, his head turns towards the little hallway. His eyebrows scrunch up and he walks over. Looking through the peephole he sees a courier, holding a box. Steve opens the door.

'Good morning. I got a package for Steve Harrington.' The man smiles at Steve.

'Uh, yeah that's me. But I didn't order anything.' Steve replies, more as a question than a statement.

'Oh. Uh, it says this is from Mr. Munson. Does that ring a bell?' Steve's eyes widen slightly. Eddie? What would he send? And how does he know Steve's address?

'Yeah, that's my- friend.' Steve takes the package from the man, bids him farewell and closes the door.

Back in the kitchen, Steve puts the box on the countertop and opens it with a pocket knife that was in a drawer. The opened box includes a CD and a couple tapes, as well as a piece of paper. He reaches for the paper and unravels it to reveal a letter.

Sorry dude, I'm old-fashioned. You wanted to listen to some stuff we talked about so I sent it to you. The CD is of my band and the tapes have a bit of Metallica, Iron Maiden and some Dio. I do expect to have them back, you got my address ;)

Eddie

Tapes? Music? Steve is beyond confused not able to register that part of the night. He takes the CD out, the picture at the front clearly self-printed, so the CD must have been burned by Eddie. The name 'Corroded Coffin' spaced out at the top of the cover, with bats surrounding a man below the name. Steve remembers the black van in front of the club yesterday.

'Of course that was your car.' Steve snickers at the thought and puts the CD back into the box to search through the rest of the 'gifts'. At the rock bottom, he finds a cassette player with a sticky note saying 'Cause I doubt you own one'. Steve shakes his head in amusement, taking the recorder and box with him back to his room.

Steve situates himself on the bed, the box carefully placed next to him, cassette player on his lap. He starts looking through the collection Eddie shared with him, but the singular CD in between the cassettes keeps catching his eye. Steve puts the cassette player on the bed table, grabs the laptop from the desk that's next to the bed and turns it on. After a moment of hesitation, Steve takes the Corroded Coffin CD and puts it into his laptop, a folder popping up on the screen with a couple songs burned into it. He presses a random one, not sure where to start and a sound of guitar echoes in his ear. Drums come in and at the same time Eddie's voice joins in. Steve feels his heart clench listening to Eddie singing, his voice sounding slightly different to what he was used to hearing at school, or even last night. The feeling goes away as quickly as it appears leaving Steve slightly on the edge as he continues to listen to the band's music. He could maybe get used to this genre. And maybe he'd get used to Eddie and his company.

Just maybe.