Chapter Text
You were never close with Steve Harrington, I mean, of course you have talked to him, same town, same class and you are neighbors, but nothing apart from that. That's what you think right when you get paired with him to do a math project. Who even does math projects, you think as you walk towards his desk, since that will be your seat while you do the project. But you two have exchanged glances, especially, when you are sneaking out and he's coming home from practice, luckily, he never said anything to your parents, so you don't think it'll be a problem. Anyway, while you listened to the teacher's explanation with a bored face, you can see out of the corner of your eye how Steve's looking at you. After a lot of explanations and the teacher clarifying that we'll probably stay in these seats for the rest of the year, the bell rings and you start picking up your things.
"Don't complain about the pairs because I did it on purpose so some of you can improve your grades, I don't care if you don't like your pair" The teacher says looking at some of the pairs. Right after picking up your things, you look at Steve unconsciously, thinking that he might not be happy with his pair, you. But before you can think about it, Robin drags you out of the class and then out of the school, since it was the last class that day.
"Oh my fucking god y/n, I'm literally dying" Robin says while you're walking home. "This is the best day of my life, I could literally die right now"
You look at her, confused, but then you remember that she's paired with Nancy Wheeler. "Oh, you're with Nancy, right"
"What do you mean "right"?! She is Nancy Wheeler y/n, I'm dying" She screams and whispers at the same time, while turning red.
"What, are you nervous?" You mock her.
"Don't laugh at me! And of course I am, what if she hates me? You know I'm not good at math, what if I make her fail the project?" She starts to rant so you decide to stop her.
"Robin, stop, it's going to be okay, I can help you if you want, with math I mean, I don't think I can help you with that crush situation"
"Okay, thank you, and, no offense, but I know that you can't" She says, looking at me with a suspicious look on her face.
"Not this again please" You say while rolling your eyes, you've had this conversation before, about everyone you had interacted with.
"Come on, you've been neighbors since you were born, now you're doing a project with him, and you told me he has seen you sneaking out! What more do you want?" She basically shouts in a very intense way.
"Wait, you're talking about Steve? What is wrong with you?" You say while looking at her like she has three heads.
"Just think about it, you really need a boyfriend, or girlfriend, all you do is homework, and studying, and all of those things that no one cares about"
"What do you want me to think about?"
"Ugh, nothing, let's just eat" She grabs you again inside of a fast food restaurant, there, you eat and talk about a movie that Robin watched last night. When you finish, you say goodbye to Robin and walk to your house.
Once you enter, you see your mom talking on the telephone, she greets you with a wave as you walk upstairs to your room, there you do your homework and you are reading when your mom walks in.
"Hello darling, how was your day? Did you get any grades today?" That was the question she usually asked
"No I didn't" You answer her trying to not sound mean.
"Oh honey, you know we hate this but we are going on a business trip again" She says while she folds some of her clothes. "We're leaving in an hour and we'll stay there for one week, but I promise that I'll call you every night" She always said that and didn't do it, but it's not like you care anymore.
"Again? On a wednesday?" You ask her with a confused face.
"Yes, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."
"It's okay"
"We won't have dinner here, but have this and go buy something so you can eat, okay? And you have money in the kitchen for the week" She says while getting up.
"Thank you" You grab the money and you put it in your backpack.
"I need to finish packing my things, I love you" She says while she gets out of the room, so you don't have time to say I love you back.
You spend that hour reading a weird book about a paranormal town, but before you can finish it, your mom tells you that they are leaving so you get up and go to say goodbye to them. It's always the same, you don't really know why you have to do it every time they leave, but you hug them both and when the car is out of sight, you start walking to the grocery store with the money your mom gave you. You buy some food for you, obviously, but also buy food for a dog that is usually around your house.
You spend the evening watching movies in the living room, thing that you only do when you're home alone. Then you eat dinner and when you're eating an eggo, you hear a dog barking. You prepare the food in a plate that you keep specifically for the dog and get out of the house. The dog, whose name you don't know but you call Bill, greets you happily and waits patiently for his food. You put his plate on the floor and sit by it while petting him. You stay there for a while, playing with Bill when you see Steve's car parking in front of his house. When he gets out of the car he waves at you and smiles, you wave at him back, but when he enters his house you panic while Bill looks at you like you are crazy. "What the fuck? What was that? I don't think he has ever smiled at me before, I mean, I know it's because we're paired for the project, but what the fuck" You mumble while you get up and pick up Billy's plate. "Oh my god, I'm turning into Robin'' You say while you enter your house, not before leaving a blanket on the porch for Bill.
After that you just go to sleep and try to not think about how awkward you were gonna be tomorrow, not because of Steve, but because of you, that's why you didn't like group projects, why do you have to work with someone, you just don't get it. But before you can complain about the education system, you fall asleep.
When you wake up the next day, you get ready and walk to school. Nothing interesting happens during the day, except Robin freaking out about how she'll act with Nancy, which led to you freaking out about how you'll act with Steve. You didn't want things to be awkward, but god, you always did. Anyway, before you can think about it, it's already the last class of the day, math. While the teacher gives some indications about how to do the project, you sit next to Steve and start taking notes. "You can start now, remember that you have to hand it over next week" Right when the teacher stops explaining, all your classmates start talking, so you look at Steve, waiting for one of you to start talking.
"So, how do we start?" He breaks the silence and you take that as a sign to start talking and you basically say what your teacher just explained and suggest that you start by looking up the information. There's 10 minutes left of the class and you feel like things are going well, I mean, it wasn't that uncomfortable, you talked with each other, about math obviously, but it was better than you expected.
The next day, it was the same, but the atmosphere was more friendly, it was easier to communicate. You were both confused, looking at an equation that you didn't know how to solve.
"Who even does a math project? It's not the same as english or science, I just don't get it" He says and sighs.
"That's what I thought, it's not like doing a project will help me solve an equation" You say while looking for the solution in the book.
"The only good thing about it is that I got paired with you" He answers, now also looking for the solution.
"Really?" You look at him, surprised.
"Are you kidding? You're like the smartest person in the class, you know about everything" He says with a serious look.
You aren't used to this things so you just keep looking at the book "Thank you, I just read a lot"
"I know, but don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it like it's the only good thing about you, it's just that I don't know that much about you"
You can't help but smile "It's okay, I didn't thought of it like that, but thank you though"
After that, you can't say anything more because the bells ring, so you pick up your things and get out of the class.
While you're waiting for Robin at the exit, Steve approaches you "Sorry to bother, but do you think that we'll end this before next week?" You can see his friends' surprised faces, you assume that it's because he's talking to you.
You think about it for a moment before answering "I think so, I mean we just have to do that equation and just add some things. I think I finally understand that equation so I can just do it in my house and bring it done on Monday, then we'll end it" You were surprised that you'd end it so fast but it was easy to work with Steve.
"What? No, that's like half of the project, it's not fair that you do it alone" He says.
"It's not a big deal, I don't really care" You say, because you don't really care about it.
"But I'll feel bad, I don't want you to think that I want you to do all the work" He says, and he looks sincere about it. "Can't we just met at the library and do it together"
"Okay, when?" You ask him.
"Tomorrow at 5 pm is good for you?"
"Yes, that's good for me" You get distracted by Robin running to you. "Hm, I'll see you there, I need to make sure my friend's not dying, bye" You wave at him and walk towards Robin, that's hyperventilating.
"Robin, are you okay?" You ask her even though she doesn't look okay.
"Really? You look at me and think that that's the question you should ask?" She says while you two start walking to your house. She is going to sleep over because, well, it's Friday and she's your friend.
You roll your eyes "What happened with Nancy?" You finally ask her.
"She wants to meet at the library! With me!"
"How is that weird? Steve also asked me that"
"Really?" She asks with that suspicious face of hers. It wasn’t what you expected, but at least she’s not panicking over Nancy again.
"Not this again" You say as you enter the milkshake shop.
"Hear me out, you really need a partner, I mean, I think you'd feel more relaxed" She's cautious as she says the last word. You ignore her while you order both your milkshakes.
"I'm already relaxed" You obviously don't think that, but you don't think that having a partner would help you. "And even if that helped, I already have you, I don't need anyone" You see her looking at you with a face of disgust, but you just ignore her and start drinking your milkshake.
"Y/n, you know I love you, but I'm gonna act like that didn't happen for our friendship's safety" You hold back your laugh as she says that with a serious face.
"Anyway, why would Steve be that person?" You genuinely ask that, because everyone knew that Steve was good-looking, but you didn't really know him, so you couldn't tell if you liked him. But he never snitched on you, so he already had a point.
"You might think that I only focus on Nancy during math, but I've seen the way you laugh at his jokes, and the way he laughs at yours, and the way you both look at each other..." You look at her like she's joking, 'cause I looked like she was.
"Are you being serious right now?"
"Of course I am! Don't tell me that you haven't felt anything for him"
"No that I remember"
"Wait, really? I always thought he was like, your childhood crush" And she looks really confused as she talks.
"What, why?"
"I don't know, but look who's here" And she points to the door with her eyes. When you look over at the door you see Steve walking in, following his friends. You roll your eyes and look back at Robin but when you're going to say something, Steve walks by your table and says hello, you greet him back and overhear how Tommy, his friend, laughs at him for saying hello to both of you. Anyway, you look at Robin with a warning expresion, because you know how intense she can be sometimes.
"Please Robin, don't-" But before you can finish, she's already shouting and whispering at the same time, but more shouting than whispering.
"See, I told you, I fucking told you. He just fucking waved at you, and you fucking know what that means. Oh my god, you're finally getting a boyfriend" And that's it, that's enough embarrassment for today. So you just get up, walk out of the store and head home, hoping that Robin follows you and she doesn't stay there conspiring about your nonexistent love life. You stopped at the supermarket to buy ice cream, and when you two arrived home, you two got everything ready for your plan, that was watching movies until you fell asleep.
While Robin chose the first movie, you decided that it was the perfect moment to warn her. "Robin, if Steve of any of his friends mention anything that happened, I'm gonna kill you"
"It's okay, it won't happen, trust me" She says with indifference.
"And I won't let you watch movies here anymore" You say while eating popcorn. Knowing that she'll take you seriously now.
"What?!, you've got the big tv, it's not fair!" She complains.
"Then you should have thought about if before saying that"
She sights "Come on, even if he heard it, and decided to mention it to you, what's the worst that could happen?"
"Really, how'd you feel if Nancy asked you what I meant when I said that you're finally getting a girlfriend just when she said hello to you?"
"Well, I'm sorry, I know that's a flaw, I'm working on it, I'm sorry" When she says I'm sorry for the second time, you feel that it's enough so you do a movement with your hand downplaying the problem, but you see how she gets serious "I just think that it would help you, not because of Steve, but because you need more friends. I used to think that when you sneaked out, you met with some friends or something like that, but no, you just go alone"
"It's better than being here" You really thought that, even sitting on the roof was better than staying in your room all day just to avoid your parents.
"Also, yes it is because of Steve because he lives next to you so you won’t feel that lazy to go to his house" After that she just started the movie so you couldn't say anything.