𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 • Steve Harrington

Chapter 4

So, he told her everything from top to bottom.

There were a few details he was sure to leave out, but otherwise the real gist of it he laid out onto the table. Tommy H said inappropriate things about the split between him and Nancy. He had been for a while. The first time was in the shower after basketball practice; Tommy H and Billy Hargrove cornered him almost and told him about Johnathan and Nancy ditching school.

At the start it grind his gears, got him a little hotheaded, nothing serious, but they didn't know when to stop and he could only take so much. His knuckles turned white, he worked up a sweat. He refused to be made a fool of.

He wasn't sure why he was being so open, but once he started, he couldn't stop. She didn't judge him, she didn't make him feel like even more of an idiot than he did already. She just sat there and listened.

By the time he hashed out the details of the punches he snuck in, they were laughing and the heat in him dissipated. At most he was a little red at the tips of his ears, but not in his face.

Soon enough, noon came around and Julie took out her lunch.

"You brought food?"

Julie looked over her shoulder to see Steve leant forward on his crossed elbows. They had both forfeited their assignments for a while, only for the time being to go through the motions of Steve's grandiose high school drama.

"It's a ham and cheese bagel I made before I left." She held it up, the saran wrap hanging off.

Steve frowned, feigning nonchalance, but she saw right through it.

"Do you want half?"

"Please."

In no time at all, he was up from his seat and pulling a chair by Julie's table. He faced it backwards, sitting on it so that his front was pressed against the back of the chair. He accepted the half she pulled apart for him as she raised her own to her lips.

"And you can have one corn chip. But just one, I'm not kidding," she warned.

"At this point, I'm grateful either way."

She swallowed her first bite. "You didn't have breakfast?"

"I never go without it. I'm just a pig." He took an obnoxious bite of his own that earned him a faint laugh.

Steve's eyes rolled into the back of his head, moaning deeply.

Julie's eyebrow raised. "Should I give you two a moment alone?"

"This is the best damn bagel I've ever had."

"Maybe culinary school is my calling after all," Julie remarked sarcastically and continued eating.

"What is it really? Dropping the sarcasm and all the jokes aside. What comes after high school for you?" They were both still chomping on the halves of their bagels that slowly became quarters, chatting in between bites.

"College like everyone else."

"Not necessarily everyone else, but sure," Steve mumbles. "What are you studying?"

Her eyes widen slightly. "What is this? Twenty questions?"

"I'm just making conversation. Getting to know you with all this time we seem to have."