Say Anything | Steve Harrington |

Ch. 11 An Opening

November 11th, 1983
The Wheeler House

   "Please tell me you know how to use this." I mumbled jokingly to Nancy as she awkwardly grabbed the old baseball bat from my hands. "I- I've been to a few baseball games." She said quietly, adjusting her grip on the handle of the bat. "Okay, then... Give it a swing." I nodded for her to take a practice swing before slowly backing away to give her some space.  Hesitantly raising the bat in the air,  Nancy swung down at the invisible target.

   Turning to me for approval, I grimaced slightly before moving to help her. "That was good, let's just fix your placement... You don't wanna put your hands on top of each other like that." I informed her softly before grabbing the bat and placing my right hand higher on the bat and my left lower. "And don't grip it so hard or else you'll hurt your knuckles."

   Chuckling lightly at my coaching, Nancy nodded in agreement before reaching a hand out for the bat. "Since when did you play softball?" She mumbled as she grabbed the bat and copied my hand placement. "Dad-- Lonnie taught me when I was like ten... Jonathan didn't wanna play so I was the unlucky target."

   Nodding, Nancy gave me a tight-lipped smile before swinging again. "Are you focusing your swing at one fixed point?" I questioned, noticing that her focus was on the force of the swing and not a target. "Am I supposed to?" Rolling my eyes jokingly at the girl, I held my hand to the side of me before nodding towards it. "Aim for my hand." I instructed.

   "I am not hitting you." She called out as if I was crazy. "Not an actual hit Nance, just tap it with the bat until you get used to it." I gestured with my opposite to tap in the center of my palm until she understood what I was getting at, slowly raising the bat again and swinging it back and forth slowly at my palm.

   "Good, that was good... Now, swing there without my hand." I said and pulled my hand back towards me as she did the same movement. "That was good! Alright now put some power behind it." I stated and backed away from her to give her some room.

   Pulling the bat all the way back, Nance quickly swung the bat back toward the target but with so much force that she practically spun around and almost hit the boy that came walking up behind us.

    "Whoa!" Steve exclaimed, jumping away from the bat as Nancy quickly pulled it into her chest. "Hope that isn't for me..." He joked, throwing an awkward smile toward Nancy. "W-What are you doing here?" Nancy asked, quickly shoving the bat into my chest. "What are you doing?" He asked with a grin moving to focus his eyes in my direction for an answer. "Softball practice? She's got a great arm." I joked as Nancy followed his gaze.

    "Yeah, umm... Byers, could Nance and I talk? Alone, for a second?" Steve asked with a small smile, though his eyes seemed to hide something. Was he nervous? "Yeah, I guess. I'll be inside, Nance." Turning away from the two I opened the door and quickly shut it behind me, breathing in deeply to ignore the slight pain that ran through me. Why am I bothered by them needing to talk without me? I mean they are in a relationship.

   Shaking away the feelings that I didn't even understand, I pressed my ear against the door to listen in on what the two were talking about. "Why don't we get out of here? Catch a movie, and pretend like everything's normal for a few hours. All The Right Moves is still playing." Steve started to badly sing 'Old Time Rock 'n Roll', a small smile grew on my face at how innocently dumb he could be, but he was quickly cut off by Nancy. "I shouldn't, I mean I can't. I've been really busy with this whole funeral thing. And you know it's been hard on Eleanor..."