FAMILIAR ↳ STEVE HARRINGTON

thirty-seven

The next morning had been a frenzy of packing their things and getting  in the car, the two wanting to make it home before it was too late. For a majority of the ride the two talked like nothing had happened, Christine in a seemingly great mood  and Steve joining her. It was only when they settled into silence that the thoughts crept back into their heads, leaving the both of them as bundles of nerves.

They were rather close to home when the sun began to set, Steve  letting out a sigh as he realized they had to talk about it. Christine had her knees pulled up to her chest in the seat, her head dropped between them so he couldn't see her. He reached across the middle, grabbing her knee and her attention, the girl looking up at him with a nervous smile. He returned it, his eyebrows twitching together as he gave her a nod, letting her know it was time.

"Alright Steve. Where do we go from here?"

"I don't know." Steve said, genuinely meaning his words. He had no clue, and that was the part he was dreading talking about.

"Listen...what we did—it wasn't a mistake. I meant it Steve. I really did." Christine said, deciding to just proceed with honesty. She didn't want to lead him astray in any way, she knew he would benefit more from the truth instead of her beating around the bush. Nancy had hurt him bad, and she didn't want to act like her.

"No it wasn't-it wasn't a mistake." He said, nodding to her words. He thought about if he meant it though, if he truly 100% meant it.

"Then what's next?" Christine stared straight ahead, Steves silence starting to make her feel like maybe something wasn't just all right here. Her mood seemed to shift, the girl furrowing her eyebrows as she looked over at him. He glanced over at her, Christine feeling a surge of hurt go through her as she caught the guilty gleam in his eyes.  She could tell that it was off now, and she started to worry more for her own feelings than for his. "Is there a next step Steve?"

"I don't know." He answered warily, making sure to look away from her. He hated confrontations such as these, he had had talks like  these with other girls before, girls wanting something more. But this one was serious. And she actually mattered to him.

"You don't know. You don't know?  You gotta give me something better than that. We fucked our whole friendship for this." Christine was starting to get defensive, because the silent change had given her enough motive to believe that she was about to get her heart broken.

"I didn't ask you to kiss me last night." He said, instantly regretting it as soon as  he heard the tone of her next sentence.

"What the fuck?" He knew he had made a mistake now, judging by the way she turned her body in his direction. "Yes you did. You quite literallt asked me. Did you seriously just say that?"

"I'm just saying that it wouldn't have happened if you wouldn't have kissed me."

"So you didn't want it to happen?" Christine asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as she thought back to the night before.

"No I- I did it's just that-" Christine cut him off, her face full of shock and disbelief as she shook her head in absolute astonishment.

"Are you seriously going to act like I came onto you first? You- the movies! You tried to kiss me at the movies and I told you that we were better off friends and-"

"But at the Christmas party you were the one who tried to kiss me! Don't act like it was all me!" Steve raised his voice, defending himself against her judgmental face. She gasped at that, lifting her hands and starting to.