head over heels, steve harrington

prologue

CHAPTER 0:
prologue

( June 1985 )

THE DAY WAS JUNE TWENTIETH WHEN STEVE HARRINGTON ASKED BEATRICE MARTIN TO BE HIS GIRLFRIEND. In a way.

With the heat radiating everywhere in Hawkins that day, the air conditioner in the Starcourt Mall had been working overtime to keep its customers cool and was failing miserably at its one job. So, naturally, Bea did what any rational Starcourt worker would do on her break. Get ice cream.

So, as soon as the clock struck two o'clock, she made a direct line from her lovely Spencers establishment to the Scoops Ahoy ice cream shop that was in direct eyesight from the cash register.

      She waited patiently in line, then when the group of girls in front of her had stepped up to the cash register and at that moment had she wished she would've gotten a slushie instead.

      "Ahoy ladies!" Steve Harrington shouted. "Ready to sail away on this ocean of flavor? I'm your captain, it's Steve Harrington." Bea could practically feel her breakfast begging to be released onto the floor of the place while she listened. "Anyone up for a banana split? Anyone? Three spoons, three people?" The girls both shook their heads no.

Eventually, the girls escaped the presence of the desperate boy and Beatrice was next. Steve had opened his mouth to recite his entire memorized speech but Bea beat him to it. "Please don't say it again, it was already enough to hear it once." She heard a snort from behind the counter from someone else. "Hi, Robin," Bea greeted the girl who hadn't been seen.

"Hi, Bea," Robin said while opening a set of shutters to make her presence known.

Steve rolled his eyes at the thought of meeting someone similar to Robin. "Alright, alright, what can I get you?"

"Two scoops of cookie dough in a cup, Steven," she said with a bright smile.

"Steve," he corrected.

"That's what I said," Bea assured knowing she said his name wrong. Sighing and deciding not to banter with her, Steve gave her what she ordered. "Honestly, Harrington, at this point you might as well pay some idiot to pretend to be your girlfriend to put you out of your misery," she jokingly suggested while paying. "But that's just me," she finally said shrugging and turning away with her sweet treat.

Rolling his eyes again, Steve turned away from the counter to sigh, but then a brilliant idea that he would soon claim that he came up with had popped into his head.

Rushing around the counter, leaving Robin questioning where on Earth he was going, he caught up with Beatrice who was happily eating her ice cream on her way back to work.

      "What, Steven?" she asked while he cut her off.

      "I have a proposal," he said ignoring the wrong name. She then walked around him and continued to walk to work. He sighed and began walking backwards to talk, "I have a proposal."

Bea held her hand out to direct him away from running into a woman, "yeah, you said that."

"I want you to be my girlfriend," he outright said as they entered the darker store.

Beatrice stopped in her tracks furrowing her eyebrows to find a hint of Steve being joking but then she remembered what she had said to him. "You want me to be the idiot," she grimaced.

"More or less."

"Not happening, Harrington," she went around the cash register.

"Oh, come on-"

"No, I'm not going to pretend to date you so you feel better about yourself," the girl stated.

      "Maybe not so that I can feel better about myself, but maybe so that I can get an actual girlfriend?" he spoke while continuing to follow her around.

      She stopped, "absolutely not," she said while continuing to eat her ice cream.

      "What if I give you free ice cream?" Now he had her attention.

"You have two minutes," she pointed at him with her spoon, "convince me."

      Steve's face lit up like a child in a candy store, "really?"

      Trying to get past his charming Harrington grin, Bea rolled her eyes, "fifty-nine, fifty-eight..."

      "Okay, okay, if you pretend to be my girlfriend, that will automatically take me off the market and suddenly make the girls go nuts," he explained.

      "So being in a relationship with someone automatically makes girls think that guy is irresistible because he has the ability to get into a relationship?" she questioned. "Honestly, if you think that's how girls function then I think you need to tighten every screw loose in your head."

"Don't hate the player, hate the game," he said while putting his hands up in surrender.

"No, no, I hate the game and the player," she bluntly admitted. "But I'll do it."

Not hearing her properly, Steve's shoulders deflated in disappointment before his eyebrows furrowed watching her walk to a trash bin to throw away her cup. "Wait, you said yes?"

      "Not gonna say it again," Bea said. "But there are going to be ground rules."

      "Ground rules?" he repeated.

      "Yes, ground rules so that we both get what we want and are both okay with things that are being done," she explained.

      "Wow, you really know how to zap the fun out of things," he shook his head lightly while leaning against the counter crossing his arms.

      Beatrice squinted her eyes at him while taking slow steps back to where he was. "This is non-negotiable, Steven." She continued to walk closer to him, "I don't want you to just kiss me out of nowhere, like some prostitute."

"How are we supposed to convince people we're dating if I can't even kiss you?" Steve asked. As desperately as he needed a girlfriend, he did know how to question his only shot at it.

Bea thought about it for a moment, still getting closer to Steve who was getting fidgety the closer she was getting. "You can put your hand in my back pocket."

"What the hell is that going to do?"

She looked at him dumbfounded, "Sixteen Candles?" It didn't ring any bells in the poor boy's head. "Jesus H Christ, Steven. It's the opening image?" Still nothing. "Okay, get out of my sight, we'll talk about this tonight."

      "Tonight?"

      Bea nodded, "yeah, after work. What, do you have a hot date with someone?"

      Steve shook his head moving away from the counter towards the entrance of the Spencers, "nope, just you."

      She cringed as he walked out, "yeah, don't ever say that again."

      "Too late."