Chapter Text
On the way home last night, Steve texted Robin and Nancy to help him with his plan. His talk with Eddie last night made him think about the ways they all built up these personas in high school as a way to protect themself. It’s why Eddie thinks no one likes him, but what if Steve could show everyone that Eddie, and the others, do this as protection.
Just like Tommy with his anger.
And Ashley the cheerleader with her make-up.
And Noah the math-lete with his intelligence.
Steve asked Robin and Nancy to pull things from their closets that they could use to ‘re-style’ Eddie, Gareth, and Jeff.
Robin: why do we need to change them?
Robin had texted. Nancy liked the comment, but that wasn’t Steve’s goal.
Steve: I don’t want to change them
Steve: I actually want to film them trying on different styles that are kinda them
Steve: like a commentary on cliques and fashion in high school
Nancy: I don’t get it
Steve: I’ll explain later
Steve: Are you guys free tomorrow after school?
Robin: yep 🤪
Steve: come over to my house with any interesting accessories you’ve got
Steve: let’s play dress up with CC to get them on the botb stage
At lunch on Monday, he explains his plan. Once they understand his vision, both Nancy and Robin are in. The girls agree to take Mike, El, and Will (Robin makes a comment about helping future queers recognize their queerness, though Steve ignores it) and Steve will take Lucas, Dustin, and Max so they can help him set up.
He told Eddie last night, once he got home and thought through his whole plan, to bring outfits he’d wear for shows. And that Gareth and Jeff should do the same.
The rest of the day Steve spends swinging between nerves of how Eddie, Jeff, and Gareth will react to his plan and excitement for his idea. His desire to help them create the best submission almost overshadows the reason this all started in the first place. Almost.
Last night as he and Eddie walked around and talked, Steve couldn’t help but think of the bet. Tommy was nowhere to be seen, but if he was, Steve was already devising comebacks to barbs he’d throw Steve’s way. Like how did game night with a bunch of freshman matter? Like what did coffee dates have to do with making Eddie more popular? He’d probably throw something in about Steve having a man crush on Eddie too.
This imaginary insult, something from his own mind, hurts even into Monday. Or maybe it doesn’t hurt exactly so much as linger. Like a wound that Steve keeps pressing at, there is something awful and enjoyable about it. But once the final bell rings for the day, Steve is no closer to understanding.
With Max, Lucas, and Dustin in the car, Steve heads for his house.
“So what’s this plan you need help with?” Dustin asks as he drums the dashboard.
“Hands off the car,” Steve chastises. “You’re fingers are probably sticky.”
Dustin looks at his hands, pressing each finger to thumb to check if they are in fact sticky. He shrugs.
“So, you know that CC is going to submit a video for Battle of the Bands?” The kids all nod like ‘no duh’. “Well, I’m helping them make the video. We’ve got film from the prank, and some from a practice they had here the other day.”
“You and Eddie hung out without me?” Dustin exclaims.
Steve sighs and tilts his head to Dustin. “Anyway. I think what we need is some footage of them being more casual, not playing instruments. So my idea is to do a fashion montage, of the guys trying on different outfits.”
“How does that fit with everything else?” Max asks. She crosses her arms and puts her feet up on the center console.
Steve knocks them off with his elbow before answering her question. “It’s about conformity and choosing to flip off the idea. I’m hoping the footage we take today will have some of them trying on more conventional clothes and then some super goofy combos and things that are more their style.”
“Cool,” Lucas says, nodding his head. Max smacks him. “I mean, I still don’t get it.”
“It’ll make more sense when I edit it together. If I’ve learned one thing using video social media platforms, you don’t have to say all the things, but with editing, your audience will make those leaps for you.”
“Gotcha,” Dustin says, beaming a toothy smile at Steve. In the rearview mirror, Lucas nods and Max rolls her eyes but it seems to be more about her own teenage angst than Steve’s ideas.
Soon enough, they pull up to his house and all of the kids go silent and wide eyed. “You live here?” Max hisses.
“Yeah,” he says pulling under the carport and turning off the car. “Hey, I need your help with snacks and stuff, but you can eat while we set it up.”
The kids pour out of the car and follow Steve. Inside, he gets them pops and directs them where to grab various snacks from. They have a running commentary on what they find in each drawer and pantry and cupboard of the kitchen, but it is nothing Steve can’t handle. They finish up in five minutes.
“Now what?” Max asks, having loosened up a bit as Steve plied her with pop and chips.
“We’ve gotta pull some clothes from my closet for the conformity bits.”
“You’ve gotta put Eddie in your letterman jacket,” Lucas says.
Steve snaps and points at him. “Good idea. This is why I brought you kids along. Let’s go upstairs and dig.”
After fifteen minutes of the kids tearing his closet and drawers to shreds, Nancy and Robin shout up from the front door. Steve goes down to meet them and sees that they only have Will. He sends Will to the kitchen for snacks. “Where’s the other two?”
Robin shrugs while Nancy says, “They had something they couldn’t miss.”
Will comes out with a pop and a handful of M&Ms. Steve tells the girls to put their stuff downstairs and brings Will up to help the other three.
Shortly after that, Robin calls up to him again, saying that Eddie, Jeff, and Gareth are here. Steve runs down the stairs, almost tripping on the second to last step, before cross the ‘fancy’ living room to welcome them. “The kids are upstairs helping rummage through my closet, but you guys can put your stuff downstairs.”
“Your stuff?” Jeff asks, looking down at himself.
Steve realizes that none of his stuff will fit Jeff’s bigger frame. He makes a note to check his dad’s closet for casual things.
“Are you gonna tell us what this about?” Gareth asks.
“Nope, not yet. Let’s get all the ingredients before I give you the recipe instructions.”
As they descend the stairs, Steve can hear Gareth complaining. “Cooking puns, he’s got cooking puns.”
“Could be baking,” Eddie adds.
“That’s not better,” Gareth retorts.
Before long, the kids have decided on items from Steve’s closet and brought them downstairs. Steve goes through his dad’s old clothes and found some suitable things for Jeff. Now, they all sit on the couches that Steve had moved to allow for the CC practice gear to be set up, waiting for Steve to explain.
He goes through the explanation he provided the freshman on their drive here, adding in a little more about his thinking and his conversation with Eddie. He references a song of theirs that they played at the Saturday practice that has themes of not conforming and how the prank was a sort of middle finger to the structure of school. By the looks on everyone’s faces, he realizes he is rambling.
“So yeah,” he finishes, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I get it now,” Nancy says, her eyes alight. “I think that’s a great idea, Steve. This will totally work.” Robin slips her hand into Nancy’s and smiles at Nancy like she had the idea herself.
Eddie has a frown on his face, his body slumped low on the couch and his arms across his chest. “Basically you brought us here to play dress up?”
“Not in so many words,” Steve mumbles.
Gareth slaps Eddie’s knee. “Think of getting to the Battle of the Bands stage and blowing our classmates minds. Do it for that moment!”
“Let’s get this over with,” Jeff adds standing up and heading to where they’ve laid out the options on a corner of the couch.
Max goes over and starts handing out the first outfit choices and Steve is so glad Eddie has competent freshman friends. Robin and Nancy join her to add their two cents which Steve is surprised to see works. For his part, Steve drops back and takes out his camera. He wants to capture as much footage as he can. It’s better to have too much that can just be deleted than not capturing the right moment.
Jeff and Gareth grab their things and head to the laundry room to change. Eddie is more hesitant and hangs back by Steve.
“I know this isn’t exactly your idea of a good time,” Steve starts.
Eddie scoffs and crosses his arm over his chest.
“But,” Steve continues, rolling his eyes, “it will be good for you.” Eddie glares at him, and he amends, “It will be good for the submission video.”
Eddie slumps against the wall and pouts. Part of Steve hesitates, doesn’t want to get involved and try to change Eddie’s mind. He spent years doing that with Tommy, fighting Tommy’s worst impulses and trying to make him be better. And look where that got him.
Except, there’s something different about Eddie. Tommy pushed and poked at Steve, wanting to move the boundaries, wanting to drag Steve with him. But Eddie’s feels less toxic, more teasing, like they are in on a joke together.
He takes a breath and leans into Eddie. “I won’t make you look dumb. I won’t embarrass you.” He pauses taking in Eddie’s body language to see if his words have had their intended impact. “I want the school to see just how cool you really are.”
Eddie’s crossed arms loosen, but he doesn’t fully relent. Steve continues, “And you can veto anything you don’t want people to see, of course.”
This gets him. He laughs and pushes Steve’s shoulder, before walking over to the girls and grabbing his outfit.
Jeff and Gareth exit as Eddie makes it to the door. Gareth is wearing a polo shirt of Steve’s and Jeff has on one of his dad’s sweatshirts, the name of some golf brand emblazoned across the chest. Max and Robin ooh when they see them. “We’ve gotta do something with Gareth’s hair,” Robin says as Max holds her chin to consider them.
Steve films as the girls try pushing Gareth’s hair back with a headband and a hat, before settling on sunglasses. Nancy gives Jeff a hat to wear and he selects another pair of sunglasses and puts them on. “It’s cool to wear sunglasses inside,” he says with a huge grin. That sets Max off, Robin and Nancy too.
Eddie exits the laundry room wearing a yellow sweater of Steve’s and his pair of blue jeans. He took off his Docs and holds them in his hand. When Robin points to them, confused, he explains, “These aren’t exactly popular jock coded.”
Nancy hands him a pair of Steve’s New Balances and he puts them on.
“So now what,” Gareth asks.
“You guys could play your instruments like you think Steve would play them,” Dustin shouts.
Steve gives him a look, but then his brain processes the idea. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. But not like I’d play them since I don’t know how to play.”
Eddie picks up his guitar and slings it over his shoulder. He fiddles with the strap so that it doesn’t hang so low, then he stands up straight. “Something like this?” Eddie affects the rigid behavior of early, white guitar players from the 50s, strumming out something cheery but simple.
Steve films him, zooming in before zooming out as Jeff and Gareth join Eddie. The kids shout out suggestions, critiquing their imitation of square musicians.
Nancy says, “Eddie, your hair isn’t exactly matching the attitude.”
He slips out of his guitar strap and goes to her. “Do something with it.”
As Nancy takes on that task, with Robins help, Steve turns to Jeff and Gareth. “Let’s try something else.”
He has them line up against the opposite wall and pose. “How are we supposed to pose?” Jeff asks.
“Like you think us jocks pose,” Lucas says.
Gareth frowns. “You’re barely a jock, Lucas.”
Lucas drops his mouth open and throws his arms out to the side. “I played basketball and I wasn’t on the freshman team.”
Steve pushes Lucas in the middle of his back. “Show them how to do it.”
Lucas does, leaning against the wall with one foot up on the wall. Steve starts filming again capturing Gareth’s smile as they stand back to back with Lucas. And Jeff’s “steel blue” look, his sunglasses lowered and his lips pushed out in a sexy pout. Eddie joins them, his hair pulled back in a messy bun, his bangs back from his forehead in a wave.
Steve takes a second to stare at him, how much more open his face seems like that. Nancy steps up to him and clears her throat and he goes back to filming, Eddie joining in with the cool posturing. He places his arm on Lucas’s head and leans on him, it causes them all to laugh.
Will comes over and offers them some of Nancy’s colorful scarfs. Jeff takes off his hat and wraps the scarf around his head like he is Audrey Hepburn or another 20s starlet. Gareth wraps it around their neck, dramatically flinging it over their shoulder. Will runs back over to the couch to grab Steve’s letterman jack and hands it over to Eddie. He slips it on without a second thought and starts strutting around not unlike a chicken. Jeff and Gareth cheer him on, while Lucas and Will pretend to bow down to him. Dustin runs in to throw imaginary flowers at his feet.
Even Steve is laughing behind the camera. He is hardly distracted by Eddie dressing in his clothes, wearing his letterman jacket. It does nothing to his heart rate. It doesn’t flush his skin or make him lick his lips. And when Eddie turns to the camera and stares directly at the lens, Steve doesn’t at all feel like Eddie is performing for him.
After a while, Max declares they need to change up the outfits. Steve goes back to his place on the wall so he is out of the way of the others, who are riffling through their options, holding them up to the CC boys before rejecting that option. Steve does film it, mainly close ups of the band members, cutting out the others faces (just in case they don’t want to be in the video submission). Max gives Eddie and Gareth both some of Steve’s old practice jerseys and basketball shorts. Jeff is given a button up shirt and sport jacket.
Jeff and Gareth go to change before Max is done with Eddie. She seems to be trying to decide on accessories, jewelry mainly. Lucas has come over and is making suggestions, which Max listens to with only a little eye roll. Eventually, Jeff and Gareth exit and come back to Nancy and Robin to finish their styling. Max shoves Eddie to go change—”Ok, ok, Red. No need for violence,” he says—before turning to the others.
Out of the corner of his eye, Steve notices that Eddie hasn’t completely shut the door to the laundry room. Eddie hasn’t clocked it and pulls the shirt off revealing his bare torso. Once again, Steve’s heart is not reacting to this. Nor is his breathing. Nor the amount of sweat on his palms. Eddie unbuttons his jeans—there is certainly not an increase in spit production in his mouth—but before he pulls them off, Steve is startled by Robin clearing her throat.
“You’re lucky only I noticed you spacing out,” she says peering over her shoulder to see what Steve was so focused on. When she sees Eddie bouncing out of view, trying to get his jeans off, she whips her head around.
Now Steve’s face does flush. “I…you see..” he sputters, trying to give her a reasonable explanation.
Robin mimics fingers zipping over her lips; Steve stops trying to explain. “Not right now,” she whispers. “Just keep your eyes in your own pants for now.”
Steve’s face heats up even more and he studies his shoes rather than meet her eye.
Eddie exits the laundry room full dressed in Steve’s old practice gear. Max hands him a sweatband that he places over his head, and a necklace that he slips over his head.
As they make their way to the wall, Lucas gives Eddie some quick pointers on basketball form. Nancy is saying something to Jeff about him pretending to be the bodyguard or their manager, Steve is only half listening. Gareth and Eddie are trying to mimic Lucas’s easy movements as he pretends to dribble a ball and then go up for a shot. It’s clear that Eddie hasn’t played sports recently, but there is a gracefulness to his moments, a showmanship maybe.
Steve zooms in on Eddie as he pretends to shoot a basket over and over again. Robin leans on his shoulder and whispers, “Don’t be obvious now or Nancy will also pick up on it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says back. She hums disbelievingly right back. “I thought we weren’t talking about it.”
“We aren’t, and I wasn’t. I was not not talking about it.”
Steve zooms out as the band members start interacting with each other. Their acting is more loose, more silly now that they’ve warmed up. Eddie jumps into Jeff’s arms, who surprisingly catches him, and flips off the camera, his tongue sticking out like he is in Kiss. Once Eddie is back on the ground, Gareth jumps on Eddie’s back for a piggy-back ride, pretending to shoot ball after ball as Eddie walks. Steve gets a good few seconds of Jeff laughing so hard he bends over.
After a few minutes of this, Nancy decides it’s time to put them in their own clothes. Though the girls have thoughts about what top goes with which bottom, this goes much faster. They come out dressed in all black—Eddie in a sleeveless tee, the large arm holes dipping low on his ribs, Gareth in a shirt with a skeleton using bones on a drum kit, and Gareth in a shirt that reads Hellfire Club—and the girls make final tweaks.
Robin takes down Eddie’s hair only to pull up the top half into a ponytail while he makes faces at Will standing in front of him. He keeps lifting his hands to change his face making his muscles move in interesting ways that Steve can see through the arm hole. Steve does his best not to ogle him, but he appreciates the view nonetheless.
The final scenes go quickly, the boys posturing more like themselves, pulling the kids in for some of the shots. Nancy and Robin change out a few of their accessories every few minutes, using pieces they used with other outfits—Nancy says, “It’s like a symbol or a theme,”—and Max directs them to do different things. Everyone is laughing and egging them on.
At one point, Eddie darts toward Steve who rushes out of the way as Eddie grabs for the mic and lip syncs into it, the camera rolling the whole time. Steve is impressed by how realistic it appears, especially as there is no music playing.
They wrap up as Dustin’s mom calls. “Mom, I told you I was at Steve’s house,” he grumbles into the phone as he goes upstairs to finish the conversation. “Yes, Steve Harrington from the newspaper.”
“Newspaper,” Steve asks.
Eddie answers. “His mom likes to read the local paper, to know what’s going on in town and she is a big fan of your sports exploits.”
Steve pulls a confused face. “I’ve been in the paper?”
Eddie squints at him. “You didn’t know?”
Dustin comes barreling down the stairs. “I’ve gotta get home before dinner.”
“I think we’re done here,” Nancy says. “Right, Steve?”
Steve holds up his camera and shakes it. “Great work everyone. That’s a wrap.”
Will and Lucas shout and high five, though Will misses and Lucas makes him do it again. Nancy turns to the kids. “I can give you guys a ride home.”
Max thumbs over at Eddie. “I’ll go with him. We’re neighbors.”
Steve sets his camera down. “Let’s get this stuff up to the cars.”
They make quick work of it, only needing two trips, even with all the music equipment. Eddie tries to help Steve take his stuff back up to his room, arguing that after Steve’s generous offer to use his house as a practice space and then only doing it once, Eddie owes him that much. But Steve stops him pointing out how illogical his reasoning is. Steve makes everyone take snacks with them, even if it’s only a handful of chips on a napkin. Nancy and Robin take off with Dustin, Lucas, and Will stuffed into the back seat. Max, Jeff, and Gareth load up into Eddie’s van. Eddie is still in the kitchen with Steve, trying to help him clean up.
“Thanks for doing this,” he says as Steve hip checks him away, again, from putting something away. “We didn’t even eat the snacks.”
“It’s no problem, honest.” Steve opens the fridge and loads the unopened pops back onto their designated shelf.
“When are you gonna be done with the video?” Eddie leans across the island toward Steve.
“I’ll probably go through today’s footage tonight, narrow down what might work for what I’ve got so far. But I need one thing from you.”
“What’s that?” Eddie asks.
Steve turns to him and places his hands on the island. “The song.”
“Right, of course.”
“The deadline is Thursday. I’d like to have it done by Wednesday so you guys can approve it.”
The front door opens and Max yells. “I may not have a mom to call me home for dinner but I’d like to get home eventually.”
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Eddie yells back.
“Stop flirting and let’s go.” She closes the door a little harder than necessary.
Steve’s face heats and he notices that Eddie has some pink in his cheeks to. “On that note,” Eddie says, tapping the counter, “I’m gonna head out.”
“Text me when you’ve got a song,” Steve says, walking Eddie to the door.
“Not for any other reasons.” Eddie slides his hands into the pockets of his vest.
Steve opens the door and leans against it. “I suppose you could text me some jokes.”
“I’m all out of those.” He shrugs. “But I can offer subtle reminders to stay humble.”
Steve gives Eddie a half smile and a laugh. “Yeah, I think I need some of those.”
Max honks the horn, leaning over from the back. Jeff in the passenger seat taps his wrist. “Right, see ya.” Eddie stomps to the car shooting glares at his friends. Once he is inside, Steve can see Jeff laughing and Gareth poking at Eddie. When they finally pull away, Jeff flutters his fingers at Steve in goodbye.
When Eddie makes it home Monday night, after dropping off Jeff and Gareth, and forcing Max to go home and stop teasing him, he thinks he’ll have a moment of peace.
Upon opening the trailer door, he sees that that won’t the case. The table light is on in the living room and a figure is sitting in the chair next to it.
“Hello, son,” Wayne says from his chair, iPad in his lap as he scrolls through news articles.
Eddie takes his shoes off at the door. “I forgot you weren’t working tonight. I would’ve told you where I was.”
Wayne holds up his phone from the arm rest of the chair. “Find your friend app. Though I am awfully curious what you were doing at the Harrington’s place.” Eddie wants to ask but Wayne interrupts him. “I did a stint as a pool cleaner when you first moved in and they haven’t moved houses.”
Eddie sits in the other chair and pulls the leg rest out so he doesn’t have to look at his uncle as they have this conversation.
Wayne doesn’t look up from scrolling, reaches out for his coffee mug—full caffeine, like Eddie it doesn’t really do much—from memory and takes a sip before setting it back on its coaster on the table. “I know I am getting old, but if my memory serves me right, that Harrington boy was involved in the event that didn’t happen but caused your hand to be broken.”
When Eddie had called Wayne to come get him, and Wayne had forced him to go to the ER, Eddie hadn’t wanted to talk about it, didn’t want to make a big deal of it for fear that would make things worse. Eventually Wayne, and the motherly nurses on duty, had convinced him to say something. Eddie didn’t give them much, but enough for Wayne to talk to the school admin and threaten lawsuits—he wouldn’t follow through of course, those are expensive, but the admin didn’t know that. That had been enough for Eddie to get out of his band class with the passing grade he had before his hand broke. To his knowledge, neither Tommy nor Steve received consequences for it though he did notice a few more teachers in the halls during passing periods and after school got out.
“Kinda,” Eddie says.
“Kind of.” Wayne enunciates the individual sound of the words. “I assume by the way you sauntered in here that you are whole and hale.”
“Not a hair out of place,” Eddie says with only a slight smirk. When the girls put his hair up, took it down, and put it back up in it’s current arrangement, they may have pulled a few hairs, but that seems irrelevant to Wayne’s line of questioning.
“Please, explain then what you were doing there.”
Eddie sighs and sits up in the chair so that the back is upright. “Steve is helping us with our video submission for the Battle of the Bands.”
“Steve?”
“The Harrington’s kid.”
“Go on.”
Eddie knows that Wayne wants more detail but as he is still working through processing the last few weeks, he doesn’t want to offer up much. “We had a conversation a few weeks ago, things were cool between us, and he offered to help. We took him up on it.”
Wayne glances at Eddie over his reading glasses. “Things were cool.” He draws out the word cool, telling Eddie that he doesn’t for one second believe the bullshit spilling from Eddie’s lips.
But Eddie needs time to deal with it himself. He’s almost an adult, older than all his peers since his parents moved so much when he was young and he repeated kindergarten. Wayne can’t help him through all of this, and his suspicion will only lead to Eddie not dealing with his own feelings.
He slaps his knees and presses the foot rest back into the chair. “Yep, totally cool. I’m gonna go listen to music in my room.”
Wayne watches him walk across the room into the kitchen. “Your dinner is in the microwave.”
Eddie doesn’t respond, just heads straight for his room. He spends the rest of the night going over the whole evening at Steve’s house. Mostly it was fine, fun even. But he caught Steve watching him a few times and he could swear he saw something in that look. Not hatred or fear, more like curiosity.
It is just his mind messing with him, he tells himself a million times as the minutes tick by. Wouldn’t it be so convenient for him to develop a crush on the popular jock, one that used to bully him, and then for that same popular jock to have a crush on him? A straight popular jock at that.
When Eddie wakes up, his outlook is no better and his head no clearer. All of Tuesday and Wednesday he walks through the halls of Hawkins High like a zombie. His mind elsewhere, running probabilities and scenarios that are far from possible. That or he is crafting texts to send to Steve, only to delete them, telling himself he sounds desperate and needy. A few make it through the self-hatred.
Tuesday, 9:13 am
Eddie: Remember, not everyone thinks you are the bee’s knees
Steve: Just in time
Steve: My head was just starting to fill up
Steve: But this stopped the process 🙏
Later that day, Steve reaches out again. Eddie never responded, all his possible comebacks being sacrificed to his nervous spiral.
Steve: Can you come by Wednesday to go over the final edit of the video?
Eddie holds off on responding, falling victim to the teenage adage of waiting to respond to make them want you more. Or as Uncle Wayne would probably say, “Absence makes the heart grow founder.” He does eventually cave because Steve’s question is simple and Eddie does want to see the video.
Eddie: I’m free after 7
The hours until then are agonizing. His friends are no help either. After Monday night, Jeff and Gareth are convinced that Eddie has a crush. Max having gotten a ride home from him, picked up on their suspicions and spread it to the freshman kids. Will and Dustin manage to stop any teasing Eddie in person, but he’s sure it’s a huge topic of conversation when they aren’t around him. And the way the freshman talk, Steve may already know.
And it’s not like he can deny it. He does, obviously, but there is no punch behind it. At lunch on Tuesday, Jeff and Gareth pull him aside, away from the freshman to check in.
“So we know this crush is real,” Gareth starts.
“And we aren’t gonna judge you for being gay,” Jeff continues. Eddie is stunned into silence.
“But does it have to be this guy?” Gareth holds back their hair as the wind blows it into their face.
Jeff moves to block Gareth with his body. “We remember freshman year. He broke your hand. You had to relearn how to play!”
Eddie shakes his head. “Tommy did the breaking. Steve was there, but I don’t think my memories of his part in it are accurate.”
“Now you’re making excuses for him,” Jeff exclaims. “That’s not good, bro.”
“It’s not an excuse,” Eddie says. “I’m admitting that my memory could be faulty.”
Gareth won’t look at him and Jeff crosses his arms over his chest, a frown creasing his face.
“Even if Steve had some part in it, he was fourteen. A kid. I’m not saying it’s ok, I’m saying that a lot can change in three years.”
“But did this change?” Jeff points down aggressively. “That’s what matters.”
Eddie looks at Gareth. “You’ve seen the change in him, haven’t you Gareth? He’s not the same guy. Could we have hung out with freshman Steve like we did last night?”
Gareth still won’t meet Eddie’s eye. Instead, they scuff their shoe against the asphalt. “I can’t say he’s fully changed, but he seems different. He is helping us.”
“See.” Eddie throws his hands up toward them, as though that clears up everything.
Jeff digs his heels in for one last point. “So what does all this mean for your revenge?”
Eddie has no response for that.
Wednesday finally arrives, his few hours with the freshman at the rec center keep his mind occupied until it is time to drive across town to the Harrington’s house. Before he takes off, he sends a text to Wayne to let him know where he will be. He won’t be home until morning when his shift is over, but after last time, Eddie feels it’s best to over-communicate. Especially about Steve.
It isn’t until he pulls up the drive and puts the car in park next to the carport, that Eddie realizes this will be the first time they are hanging out together, alone, at Steve’s house.
This shouldn’t be a thing, but suddenly his brain decides it is. Steve opens the door before Eddie even rings the doorbell.
“Hey,” he says, his chest rising and falling like he ran to the door. Or that he is nervous.
Eddie lifts a hand and waves limply. “Hi.”
“Come in.” Steve steps aside and let’s Eddie walk in. “Can I get you anything? Are you hungry? Pop?”
Eddie laughs. “Steve, I’m not a starving orphan. You don’t have to feed me.”
Steve rubs at the back of his neck. “Of course not. It’s only…” his voice fades out, unsure how to explain it.
“I’ll take an orange pop if you still have any,” Eddie offers into the awkward silence.
Steve turns to him, all genuine smile. “I should’ve known.”
He grabs Eddie the pop and then leads him to a staircase upstairs. “My editing set up is in my bedroom.”
“Are you telling me I’ll be seeing the infamous Harrington bedroom? Can I tell all the girlies the dirty details to get social cred?” As soon as the words leave his mouth, he wants to take them back. Luckily, Steve is ahead of him on the stairs and doesn’t notice the face palm that Eddie gives himself.
“I doubt there’s that much social cred available for it these days, but what’s mine is yours.” On the landing, Steve winks at him. Yet another thing to throw in the ‘maybe he isn’t imagining it’ evidence box.
Steve’s room is at the end of the hallway, in the back corner of the house overlooking the backyard and pool. Eddie’s first thought is that it is surprisingly bland. The walls are a tan color, the carpet only slightly darker. On his bed, the comforter and sheets are neatly arranged like he doesn’t actually sleep there. On the walls are a few posters, but nothing that screams Steve. He sits down at a desk and moves the mouse to wake up the desktop. Even the background here is nondescript. If Eddie hadn’t known of Steve for so long, he might think he was in witness protection or something. But, it does say something about who Steve is: someone afraid to be a person with strong opinions and interests. Or maybe someone who doesn’t know how to fully be themself.
Eddie sits in a chair next to Steve and offers him a usb drive. “Here’s the song.”
“Is it one I’ve heard?” Steve asks, his fingers grabbing the drive, but not pulling away immediately.
“We practiced it the day we practiced here, but you might not remember it.”
Steve plugs in the drive and clicks on the mp3 file. The song explodes from the speakers—really bad ones if Eddie could share his opinion—but Steve listens like they are a golden fiddle. Then, he opens up a program that Eddie is unfamiliar with. On the screen are clips where Eddie can recognize himself, Jeff and Gareth. Even one that looks like Dustin.
“What are you doing?” Eddie whispers, not wanting to disturb Steve while he works.
“I am adding the track to the editing program so I can see how long it is. See there? That is the song and it’ll play over the video clips I’ve arranged down here.” Steve points at parts of the screen, but Eddie’s mind is half focused on how Steve’s arm brushes his shoulder.
Steve continues talking. “The song is a little longer than I anticipated, but that means I can use some of the extra footage I have.”
“Did you get this program just for our video?” Eddie asks, suddenly afraid that Steve did.
“What?” Steve turns to Eddie. “No, not at all. I use it all the time to post stupid videos online. And sometimes Nancy wants me to help edit something for the school newspaper’s website.”
“The school has a newspaper website?”
“I know right?” Steve laughs. “It’s just something I fiddle with sometimes.”
Steve starts moving things around on the screen and opening new windows. Eddie is in awe of how casual he is about this. To Eddie, this is amazing. A skill that he never would’ve thought Steve would have and it’s not something he shares with the rest of the school. The product, sure, but not the process.
On the screen is a repeating clip of Eddie lip-syncing into the mic from the other day. Steve is doing something with the clip so that it starts and stops, the part of the song repeating. His brow folds inward as he works and Eddie’s heart stutters to watch it. The concentration and attention to details, all to help Eddie. His mind can’t help but turn to erotic daydreams.
Steve leans back and says, “You know, that outfit looks really good on you.”
Eddie sputters. “Yeah?”
Steve nods, not looking at Eddie, but studying the still of Eddie yelling into the mic, the shirt hanging off him and showing his chest and part of his stomach. “You should wear it at the Battle of the Bands.”
He can’t respond as Steve leans forward and goes back to work. The words are on repeat through Eddie’s mind. Really? Good? Steve had said that and now Eddie stares at the side of Steve’s face—the curve of his cheek, the flutter of his eyelashes, the way he chewed his lip—and thinks wanton things.
For a moment, Eddie feels like an intruder, an unwelcome voyeur. He isn’t worthy of seeing this side of Steve. For so many years, he’s been one of Steve’s harshest judges. Always so sure that Steve was one thing—a bully—and could be nothing else.
Yet, here he is, a creative soul, making something for Eddie, for the band, because he can. He hasn’t even asked for anything in return. Eddie feels like the worst kind of creep.
But then, Steve gazes at him and smiles. “Am I boring you?”
Eddie sighs, his shoulders lowering as he shakes off the negative thoughts from a moment before. “Not in the slightest. I had no idea you were so creative.”
“Hardly.” Steve brushes off the idea.
Eddie doesn’t push it. He knows that knowing how to do something and doing something with that feel separate before someone watches you do it. Being able to play guitar felt like mimicking, not art. Not until he started writing his own music and playing it for other people. It wasn’t until he did that that he could call himself, at least in his own mind, an artist. Before that, it was all just futzing around.
“Are you ready?” Steve asks, drawing Eddie out of his mind.
“It’s ready?”
“Well, a draft that is ok for you to see. If you don’t like it, we can tweak things. It’s your submission after all.”
“Ok, let’s watch it,” Eddie whispers.
Steve gets up and walks to the door. When Eddie gives him a look, just before he shuts off the lights, Steve replies, “We can’t effectively judge it with the lights on.”
Eddie swallows his nerves. His mind is absolutely not focused on being in the dark, alone, in Steve Harrington’s room. Not even a little bit.
Steve sits down next to him, fiddles with the program on the desktop so it goes full screen. Then he pushes play.
Steve pushes back from the desk to let Eddie have the space to take it in. Instead of watching the screen, he watches Eddie. The light from his desktop paints Eddie’s face in blues with an occasional highlight of red or purple. Eddie’s eyes are wide and his mouth is slightly open as he takes the video in.
Eddie’s texts must not be working, because Steve is feeling less than humble about what he’s put together. The quality of the footage may be poor, but the analog quality actually goes with the band’s feel. Corroded Coffin isn’t a big band, bought into the music production cycle. These musicians are real, they are authentic. And that’s the message that Steve wants to get across, especially to the kids at school. Metal may not be your music choice, but these are true musicians. You will find something to connect to here.
As the video continues, the corners of Eddie’s open mouth start to travel upward. It feels like winning to make Eddie smile, like shooting a basket with one second left, your heart racing as it travels to the hoop, the silence that descends upon the gym before the snap of the net. Steve can’t get enough.
The video ends leaving the screen black. Before Steve can move to escape from the full screen or turn a light on, Eddie grabs his wrist. “Steve,” he says like an exhale.
“Eddie?”
“That was,” he stops. Steve can’t pull his attention from Eddie’s hand on his wrist, skin to skin contact, in the dark. His stomach spins, he licks his lips as he waits for Eddie to finish his thought. “Thank you.”
“It’s no problem—”
“Don’t,” Eddie cuts him off. He squeezes Steve’s wrist. “This isn’t a small thing for me.”
Steve swallows. Eddie could mean a million things by that and Steve can’t begin to guess. “Ok, Eds. You’re welcome.”
Eddie releases his hand and Steve exits the full screen so that light falls on Eddie once again. Steve stands to flip the light on too. “I guess that means you like it?”
Eddie nods. “More than. I don’t know how to explain it, but you got it. Even without knowing the song, the video goes perfectly with it.”
Steve smiles. “Anything you want to tweak?”
“No,” Eddie shakes his head. “Can we post it now? I don’t want to chicken out later.”
Steve sits back down and navigates to the school website. He reads over the requirements for the file, just to be sure everything is right. A stupid mistake on his part will not get in the way of Corroded Coffin making it to the stage. Then the screen to upload a file is up on his screen. Steve chooses the file, clicks upload, and waits.
“Are you sure?” Steve stares at the side of Eddie’s face silently begging—though he would never admit to it—that Eddie would turn and look at him. “I promise it’s not a problem to change anything.”
“It’s gotta be this one.”
Steve slides the mouse toward Eddie. “Want to do the honors?”
Eddie takes the mouse and moves it to hover over the submit button and clicks it. The next screen asks them to fill out empty boxes about who is submitting the video.
“A bit anti-climatic,” Steve mumbles. He lets Eddie commandeer his keyboard to fill it out, watching over his shoulder as his fingers fly over the keys. In a short minute, he submits the form and the screen reads, “Thank you for submitting your entry for the Hawkins High School Battle of the Bands competition,” followed by a countdown to the start of voting.
“How do you feel?” Steve asks. He’d been pacing as Eddie filled out the form, letting his mind riffle through trivial memories and thoughts.
Eddie studies Steve over his shoulder. “Alive.”