What If Steve Were To Leave Hawkins? Part 7
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Ok so, I think the general consensus was for the angst to continue. I'm very sorry for the one person that asked for happiness. We're just not there yet, I guess. Anyways, here you guys go! As a warning, there is a poorly detailed panic attack towards the end. Enjoy!
~*~*~*~
For the next two weeks, Eddie and Steve would sit on the phone for hours a day talking to each other about both everything and nothing at all. Steve regaled Eddie with the horror stories of the coffee shop and its caffeine-addled patrons. Eddie provided him with tales of gruesome DnD deaths and the subsequent tantrums thrown by teenagers. They even start flirting through the phone calls, enough for each of the boys to blush and hiccup over their words.
It was on one of these phone calls that Eddie finally found out exactly why Steve left. It was towards the end of one of their calls and Eddie had asked the forbidden question.
“God, I miss having you around. Why’d you have to leave, Stevie?” Eddie realized his mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. He froze in place and waited for Steve to announce his desire to never talk to him again.
Thankfully for him, Steve just let out a sigh. He explained, “I just didn’t think anyone would care if I left. No one was around for weeks and then my parents came home. My dad didn’t want me there and no one else did either so I left.”
Eddie’s eyes widened with the new information. He thought about what we should say for a moment before speaking. “Steve, we never stopped caring about you. You started getting distant so we tried to give you some space. We were trying to help you but went about it in the wrong way. We’re sorry and we all regret it now.”
Steve let out a self deprecating laugh, “I started pulling away because I thought I made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry for that by the way. But then no one stopped me so I just… stopped trying.”
Eddie’s jaw dropped in shock. “No! You didn’t make me uncomfortable! I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable!”
“Why would I be uncomfortable?” Steve asked confusedly. “I really liked spending time with you.”
Well now Eddie felt even more guilty. But, he was already in too deep and had to land the final blow for Steve to understand. Even if it made him hate him.
“I’m gay.”
There was silence for a moment before Steve spoke. “Okay? Thank you for telling me. Why would you make me uncomfortable?”
Now it was Eddie’s turn for silence. “Um, most straight guys wouldn’t appreciate their gay friend having a crush on them.”
“You have a crush on me? And I’m not straight.”
“What? What do you mean you’re not straight? Stevie, have you been holding out on me?”
“I never said I was straight. I’ve known that I liked guys since Tommy kissed me in sixth grade. Why did you stop hanging out with me then?”
Eddie felt very confused. This conversation had spun out of control in a way he could have never anticipated. What the fuck was happening?
“Wait a second. You kissed Tommy? Hagan?”
“Yeah. If you had a crush on me, why would you stop hanging out with me?”
Eddie shook his head back and forth and tried to refocus. What was the matter at hand again? Oh yeah. “Because I was falling in love with you and I knew you wouldn’t feel the same.”
“I do feel the same! That’s why I thought you stopped wanting to hang out! Because I made you uncomfortable.”
“No! Why would I stop hanging out with you if I thought you felt the same? If I thought I had a chance in hell with Steve Harrington, I would’ve made a move!” Eddie passionately exclaimed.
“Don’t say my name like that,” Steve laughed in disbelief. “We really messed this up, huh?”
“Yeah, I’d say. I ran you out of town, man.”
Steve smiled a shy smile in his empty apartment. “I mean, Chicago’s not that far from Hawkins. Only a couple of hours.”
Eddie’s brain malfunctioned. “Chicago?”
“Yeah. Remember when we talked about cities that day when we were high? You were right, it is a clean slate.”
“Maybe, maybe I could come visit you sometime or something,” Eddie stammered hopefully. Holy shit, he knew where he was.
“Yeah, you should. We could get dinner and you could stay the night with me.”
Eddie guffawed in surprise, “a little forward, don’t you think?”
Steve laughed in response, “I just meant you could stay in my apartment for a few days instead of driving all the way back!”
“Sure Stevie, I would love to. But-”
The trailer’s door slammed open at his words. Eddie jumped a foot in the air and let out an undignified yelp, still holding the phone in a white knuckled grasp. Dustin, Max, Lucas, and Mike were standing on the elevated porch of the trailer with murder in their eyes. “What. The. Hell.” Dustin hissed when he heard Steve’s name.
Steve yanked the phone away from his ear and gave the receiver a confusedly concerned glance. It wasn’t the first time Eddie had screamed in his ear, the dude was impassioned, but it was the first shout not immediately followed by enraged squabbles. “Eddie, you there? Did you fall or something?”
“Fuck,” Eddie shook his head readied himself to deal with the upcoming argument. “Steve, call me back tomorrow, okay? The kids are here and they’re pissed. I gotta go.”
Steve didn’t get a chance to answer before the line disconnected. Shit, this was not going to be good.
~*~*~*~
Eddie had been neglectful to the Party for weeks now. He’d been showing up late to Hellfire, new name yet to be determined, meetings and canceling preexisting plans for unknown reasons. The last time someone in the Party did that, their babysitter took off without telling anyone. So, the kids were understandably worried about their beloved Dungeon Master.
Dustin was at the forefront of the worry and convinced the kids of The Party, bar Will and Eleven who were having dinner at home, to check on Eddie at his trailer. They thought he might be hiding something. Really, it was only a matter of time until the rest of the Party found out about his dirty little secret. That secret being him talking to their missing babysitter without their knowledge.
When he heard Eddie say Steve’s name into the phone, Dustin saw red. His anger only heightened when Eddie said it again when he hung up.
“You’ve been talking to Steve and didn’t tell us?!”
Eddie sighed and raised his hands placatingly, “Dustin, I know you’re upset but-”
“I can’t believe you! We trusted you! We let you into the Party and you betrayed us!” Dustin shrieked, tears of anger building in his eyes.
Eddie tried to defend himself but the enraged shouts of the other kids left his attempts muted in comparison. In a moment of silence, Mike took the chance to voice his dismay.
“You should’ve told us that you were talking to Steve. We thought he was missing, maybe dead, and you didn’t tell us that he was okay. You betrayed us, friends don’t lie!”
Eddie jumped in to try to defend himself once more, “I didn’t lie! Steve wasn’t ready for anyone to know where he was and I didn’t want to betray his trust so-”
“You’re a coward,” Dustin spat and Eddie flinched back. “You never do the right thing! You tried to die when we were fighting the demobats and you made Steve leave. Now you’re not telling us that Steve called you. We knew Steve first, you have no right to keep him to yourself! You’re a coward and you’re selfish!”
Eddie stares at the seething teens in horror, his ears ringing and vision tunneled. He was a coward. Fuck. Was Vecna back? Because this was a scene from some of his worst nightmares. He couldn’t speak as he tried to control his breathing, the anger in the room stifling his ability to take in any air.
Just then, Uncle Wayne opens the door to the trailer and steps in behind the gaggle of teens. He doesn’t know what he was expecting when arriving home from a long shift at the plant but it certainly wasn’t his boy on the verge of a panic attack being accosted by his group of his young friends. As Eddie’s body started to shake and his eyes began to water, the usually even-tempered man angrily turned to the kids.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on but y’all need to leave my house now. Eddie’ll call when he wants to talk to ya. Get out. Now.”
The kids grumble and without a backwards glance to Eddie, they all take their leave. As soon as the last heathen is out the door, Eddie bursts into tears. His breaths are gasping and his fingers move to his hair to pull painfully on the strands.
Wayne watches the kids ride off on their bikes before he takes his boy into his arms in a comforting embrace. He doesn’t know what happened but for now, he will be there for his nephew like he has been since the bald-headed and knobby-kneed kid showed up at his doorstep all those years ago. Eventually, Eddie will find the words to explain to his uncle about the situation he stumbled in on today. But until then, he’ll hug Eddie and calm him down in the way only he knows how to.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 19 Part 20: Epilogue
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