LIKE I CAN ━ Steve Harrington ✓

04 - THE HAUNTING

THE HAUNTING

"I THINK YOU SHOULD JUST GO," Matthew's voice had a sense of intrigue, probably curious as to what a Steve Harrington get together would be like. His voice was a little fuzzy over the phone, but not bad enough that Grayson couldn't understand him. "I don't know why you hate Steve so much, he doesn't seem that bad besides being a typical, high school, douche."

Grayson wanted to tell him that if he went to that party, the one in an hour that Grayson still had no idea whether or not he wanted to go to, he would be spending his evening with his notorious ex-boyfriend. He hated, absolutely hated, lying to Matthew, but he knew no matter what, that wasn't his secret to tell. He could hate Steve, he did hate Steve, but he knew how shitty it felt to be outed (especially since he had been outed just this morning) and he didn't wanna do that to Steve. He couldn't.

After probably too much hesitation, he finally responded with, "I don't know. I'd rather be spending my night with you." When in doubt, be flirty.

This earned a small laugh from the boy on the other line, which was always a welcome sound, "Nice try, but I've got a chem test tomorrow and no matter how much "studying" you'll claim to help me with, you'll just distract me. Just go to the party, Gray, live a little. Besides, aren't the girls gonna go with you?"

"I'm not sure, I'll have to call them," It was kind of a miracle that Matthew even kind of convinced Grayson to go. Spending the night at a party with your ex? Didn't sound ideal, like not in the slightest. The fact that a part of him wanted to go was telling him something he really didn't want to hear; not when he had a perfectly sweet boy on the other end of the line.

"Okay, you call them, go to this party, have fun, I'm gonna have the most boring night ever," Matthew joked, both boys laughing into the phone. "I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah, later."

"All right," Matthew muttered, "Bye, love you."

Grayson's eyes widened. He hung up the phone without another word. Had he imagined that? Did Matthew actually just the say the L word to him? He had to have imagined that, there's no way Mathew could feel that strongly about him, they had only been dating for a few months, they were only coming up on three and a half. Surely, no one could love someone in that short of a time period, right? He had to have imagined that. Immediately, he dialed up the phone again.

"Elise, some shit just happened. Is Emma with you?" he spoke into the phone as soon as it was answered, before the girl on the other line even had the chance to say "hello."

After a moment of registering what was happening, Elise finally responded with, "No? Do you want her to be?"

"No, no!" Grayson shouted, probably alerting his family members downstairs. In response to his yelling, he could already hear the soft pitter patter of Huckleberry trotting up the stairs. "This, this is about our uh, conversation this afternoon."