seventeen₂ [s. harrington]

i i i

Thursday, 1 November, 1984

"Mandy! Mandy, we're going to be late."

I open my eyes and roll over. Steve is shaking my shoulder. He's already dressed for school. "Since when do you care about being on time for school?" I mumble.

"I normally don't, but you do, and besides, it'll look weird if we both show up at the same time," says Steve.

Shit. I sit up, narrowly avoiding knocking heads with Steve. "Shit, Nancy's gonna kill me if she finds out. I shouldn't have slept over."

"Mandy," says Steve gently. "It's alright. Nothing happened, and besides, she won't find out. Here, I got you some clothes from my mom's room. I hope they're okay, they look like something you'd wear."

He hands me a stack of clothing. I unfolded them, revealing a pale purple sweater and jeans. "These are great, thanks."

"You change, I'll fix up some breakfast, we'll eat on the way," says Steve.

He leaves the room while I change into Mrs. Harrington's clothes. They don't quite fit, but they'd do for one day.

I'm sitting on Steve's bed, waiting for him to come back when he knocks lightly on the door. He comes in and shuts the door behind him.

"Change of plans, my mom's here. She doesn't know about last night, and it's best that things stay that way. I'm going to head outside and you'll climb out the window," he whispers.

"Climb out the window?" I exclaim.

Steve clamps a hand over my mouth. "Quiet! Do you want her to hear you?"

If Mrs. Harrington knew I was here, she'd definitely tell my mom, and I'd be grounded for eternity. I shake my head, and he lets go.

"It'll be fine, the roof's at a slant, just climb to the edge and jump down. It's not a high drop, but I'll catch you anyway," says Steve.

"Sounds good," I say nervously.

A few minutes later, I am perched on the edge of Steve's roof, having climbed out of his window a moment ago. Steve is standing on the ground below me.

"It's okay Mandy, I won't let you fall," he says.

I take a deep breath, sit so my legs dangle off the side, and push off of the roof. I fall for a few feet before landing on the grass. My knees start to buckle, but Steve's arms go to my waist before I can fall.

"Thanks," I breathe.

Steve holds on to me for a second too long, realizes, and steps back quickly.

"Sorry," he stammers. "I've got bagels in the car. Yours is peanut butter and banana. Your favorite."

"My favorite," I say as he says the last two words.

He grins at me before walking over to the car.

When we get to school, we discover Steve's usual parking spot is already occupied, so we pull into the one next to us.

We're getting out of the car just as Jonathan Byers gets out of his, which is parked in Steve's usual place. I automatically know why he was here- he needs to talk to Steve.

"Harrington," he says angrily. "We need to talk."

I start to walk away but Jonathan stops me. "Amanda, stay."

"What did she do?" asks Steve.

"What did you do?" asks Jonathan. "You left Nancy alone, drunk off her ass, at the party. And don't even try to deny it. I saw you leave with Little Miss Perfect over here."

"It's not what it looks like," I say, but I know he won't listen.

"I know it looks bad, Jonathan, I really fucked up," says Steve. "But is she alright? Nancy?"

"Yeah, she's fine," says Jonathan. "I took her home."

"It's a really long story," says Steve. "But-"

"I don't even want to hear it," says Jonathan. "No excuses."

"If you won't hear him out, then don't say anything," I say. "I know it looks bad, but I was trying to help. Nothing happened. I swear."

I can tell Jonathan doesn't believe me, but he nods his head in agreement anyway.

"Come on, Mandy," says Steve.

I know I shouldn't go with him, but I do anyway.

"You've got government this morning, right?" asks Steve.

"Yes, but I have an appointment with Ms. Kelley today," I say.

I've been seeing our school psychologist since the beginning of the year. She's been helping me cope with Barb's disappearance.

"Do you want me to walk you there?" asks Steve.

"No, you should probably find your girlfriend," I say, a bit too harshly.

Steve looks a bit hurt, but turns and walks away. I told him to find Nancy, but I know he won't. Steve Harrington's a lot of things, a coward included.

...

I sit at my usual table at lunch, waiting for Nancy and Steve, but only the former shows up, the latter nowhere to be found.

"Hey, Nance," I say as she sits down. "Where's Steve?"

Her face falls a little. "He dumped me last period."

My eyes widen in shock. "Shit, Nancy. I'm sorry."

She shrugs her shoulders. "I'm actually kind of alright with it. Things haven't been the same recently."

"What happened?" I ask, unable to hide my curiosity.

"We had an argument. He didn't pick me up for school this morning."

I feel guilty, remembering how Steve drove me this morning instead.

"And apparently I told him I didn't love him at the party last night and I called him 'bullshit," continues Nancy. "Then he called me 'bullshit' and left."

"I'm sorry," I say again.

"It's probably for the best."

an: sorry i haven't written anything in a while. i haven't been feeling super motivated recently and i've had to pack up my things bc i'm moving. but here's a fun little update for the heat waves series: i'm writing a book from steve's point of view! it'll be called disaster and it'll be a kind of anthology type book, so it won't follow all of the scenes, just some that people want to see his thoughts on. it'll be mostly based on reader requests. it's named after disaster by conan gray bc that fits so well with chapter 2 of seventeen, with the party and stuff.