FAMILIAR ↳ STEVE HARRINGTON

thirty-one.

Christine Wheeler had been invited by her dad to come to Colorado where he was working for spring break, the girl jumping at the opportunity to get out of Hawkins. It had been months since the mind flayer, since the Christmas party, and things had improved a bit at home. Christine and Nancy had formed an uneasy alliance, the two girls realizing that if they had to live together then they could at least be civil. Christine had gone out of her way a number of times now to spend time with Nancy, and she was even starting to get along with Jonathan. Their uneasy alliance had turned into a blooming friendship, and the Wheeler girls actually found themselves enjoying each other, both of them realizing that maybe the other wasn't as bad as they had thought. Christine spent some days hanging out with Max, trying to learn how to skateboard, hanging out with the boys at the arcade and even being invited to a weekly dinner at the Chiefs cabin with all the boys and Eleven. But her time with Steve was still the best time she had, the two of them spending every possible second together that they could and still never getting tired of each other. Christine and Steve had made an unspoken agreement to not bring up the Christmas party night, and to just pretend like nothing had ever happened and that they definitely 100% had no feelings for each other. But Steve knew that the more time they spent together, the more he felt for her and Christine was the same way, but there was something that held them both back, neither of them really entirely sure what it was.

Christine had invited Steve to go with her to see her dad, he had told her he wasn't doing anything for spring break. He gleefully accepted, and they had spoken excitedly about it  all the way up until it was actually time to go,  the two of them getting nervous about the drive. The first day was a 7 hour drive, the two of them getting a motel in the middle of nowhere. Steve drove the first day,  Christine sleeping for some of it, the two of them doing some impromptu karaoke and  road games for most of it. Christine and Steve talked about everything under the sun, they joked and laughed and enjoyed each other and by the time they got to the hotel they were beyond tired of being in the car.

"You know I've never  been on a road trip before." Steve said as they brought their bags into their room. Christine turned back to look at him, a small smile on her lips as he sat his bags on the bed closest to the door.

"Me and my dad used to drive coast to coast every July when I was growing up.  It was his way of apologizing for never getting to go on vacation during the rest of the  year because he was working. But it's not really like I ever was upset about it, that road trip was what got me through the year most of the time." Christine said, sitting on the edge of her bed and  giving Steve a nostalgic smile. He sat on his bed opposite to her, a smile on his face as he learned something else about her.

"That must be nice. My parents were more of a 'take a trip to the beach every few years' kind of family but we always flew." Steve said, feeling a small pain in his back from where he had been sitting all day  and deciding to lay down. There was a silence that followed, Christine finding the tv remote and turning the tv on. She rounded Steve's bed, sitting beside him and leaning her back against his headboard.  He looked up at her from his laying position, his eyes studying her as she looked for a channel. Her tongue went to the edge of her mouth as she concentrated, Steve feeling a smile cross his lips as he watched her.

"I hate motels though because I never know the channels. I mean back home I have all the good channels memorized but I don't really know what they are here." Christine said, looking down at Steve with a little bit of a frustrated look. He nodded to what she said, grabbing the remote from her hand and starting to turn the channel.

"What do you wanna watch?"

"I don't know. Anything interesting." Christine watched the tv as he flipped through the channels, her eyes glued to the screen as they tried to find something to watch. "Oh stop it! Family Ties is on."