title: please don’t call me pretty.
alt universe- ‘king’ steve harrington is pretty much not the king here.
CW: negative self-talk, slight mention of self harm, self esteem issues, mentions of bullying, mentions of child abuse, and restrictive eating.
‘pretty’ was a word steve would absolutely not use to describe himself.
in fact, he’d never been called pretty before. not once. he was called the opposite, quite often.
of course he knew he wasn’t great looking; wasn’t outstanding or worthy of mentioning, but he didn’t think he was so bad he needed to be made fun of for it.
no one does. but he was.
ugly was a word he heard every day in middle school, and then home wasn’t any better. fat was a common word there.
“cut your hair, ugly,” people would sneer in his face. shove him into lockers, corner him in the library, single him out in p.e.; anything they could do to get their hands on him, they would.
numerous times he showed up at his home with a black eye, marks on his face, cut lips, bruised ribs; limping his way home.
“maybe you should see a doctor about your weight, steven. lose some weight?”
“that shirt seems to be fitting too tight, doesn’t it, steven?”
“yes mother,” he would respond. and so he slowly began to work out more, began lying about eating at school and saying he ate a big lunch. skipping meals became a bad habit, but at least he was seeing results.
and after years and years of being told he was ugly, unattractive, fat; he kept believing it. he didn’t think he would ever stop since in the mirror it was all he saw.
now at eighteen, a senior in his second semester of high school, he still thought he was ugly even though he’d gotten notes slipped into his locker a few times. thought he was fat although his cheeks were sunken in, and his ribs could be seen. he was tall enough now that the bullying stopped. he was finally big enough to intimidate and to get people to back off.
so he kept to himself. he wasn’t being cornered in the library anymore, and it became a safe place for him to sit during his free time.
that is where he met his boyfriend, eddie. and eddie was the first one ever to call him attractive. to point out how he never ate. to ask about his days, his home life, his grades, his everything.
of course he liked it. but it felt too good to be true. how could a boy like eddie love someone like him? it didn’t make sense.
“you’re so pretty,” eddie murmured to him the first time he’d spent the night at his trailer. it was 11am on a saturday morning, and the boys had slept in late. steve laid in his arms and looked into his brown eyes then down to the soft smile on his lips. but he himself was not smiling.
getting a compliment for the first time ever felt off. it didn’t feel right. he didn’t deserve one. he was too big, took up too much space, his hair was too frizzy, his acne was too bad, he was too-
“steve?” he called softly. he pulled steve out of his thoughts.
“please don’t call me pretty.” and he slowly crawled out of his arms, laying down but facing away from him.
“i’m sorry, i didn’t mean to make you upset. i- what do-“ he was cut off.
“it’s not you, i don’t think,” he said, curling in a tight ball, “i’ve just never been called that before. it feels weird.” 
“you’ve never been called pretty? steve, you’re gorgeous,”
he was in disbelief. not only was he pretty, but he was gorgeous?
“what?” he sat up, turning to him.
“i think you’re like one of the prettiest people i’ve seen. you’re so beautiful, steve. inside and out,”
“but- what? i-i’m ugly. i need to lose weight. my scars-“
“-do not change how pretty you are. and you do not need to lose weight. you’re so skinny, honey. and you’re not ugly,”
“w-what?” he weakly stuttered out. he was shocked.
“you don’t believe me?”
“i… no,” he told him.
“i’m so sorry,” he said back, grabbing his hands and giving a gentle squeeze, “you deserve to be told nice things. i want to tell them to you,”
steve gave a squeeze back, his eyes filling with tears. this was the first time he was ever given a sincere apology.
“i love you,” steve said. and it was the first time he genuinely meant it.
“i love you too,” eddie replied. and steve finally believed something he was told. he was pulled into a hug, and he cried on his bare shoulder for about twenty minutes before calming down.
“i’m going to tell you nice things every day until you believe them, okay?”
he nodded. not like he could stop eddie from doing that, anyway.
“starting with this,” he said, cupping his cheeks, “you are so, so pretty.”
and for once in his life, he finally believed it.
steve harrington was pretty.
100 notes
·
View notes