A Rockstars Motto (the brain on love) | Steddie

A Rockstars Motto

- 2 months later -

"Hello, is this Steve Harrington?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"Hi, Mr. Harrington, my name is Kiara Santos, I'm calling from the Columbus Medical Center. I have you down as the emergency contact for Edward Munson."

Car crash.

Plane crash.

Explosion.

Fall.

Freak accident.

Drowning.

Steve shoots up in his bed, a million scenarios playing out in his head as his heart started to beat in his throat.

"What happened?"

"Edward was brought in tonight after a cocaine overdose."

On the list of things that Steve was expecting, cocaine overdose did not cross it. He hung up the phone feeling too many emotions all at once. He was terrified at the prospect of Eddie being hurt. He was angry that Eddie was doing drugs, that Eddie was ignoring him while breaking their promise. His imagination had been doing cartwheels the past three months wondering where Eddie was, who he was with, and what he was doing. Steve was positive that Eddie would never do anything to hurt him, that Eddie would never betray his trust for a good time. But being on the receiving end of nothing but radio silence, there tends to be nothing left but what ifs about terrible scenarios.

Robin was confused and mildly terrified when Steve called her at 5 am as he sat in a taxi on his way to the airport for a red-eye flight to Ohio. He made her promise not to tell the kids what happened, to tell them that he was hospitalized for exhaustion or a car crash, anything that wouldn't ruin their image of Eddie. Not yet.

As it was, for the first time in four years, Steve didn't recognize Eddie himself. His image of him is skewed the second he opens the door to his hospital room.

He was agitated and his hair was greasy and matted, his skin pale and his eyes red-rimmed. Steve stayed glued to the door for a second, after aggressively shoving past his bodyguards. This wasn't the Eddie he knew. Steve felt sick and angry and hurt.

"Fuck off!" Eddie shoved the nurse's hands again and Steve stepped fully into the room.

"Let her put the fucking iv in, Eddie," he bit, eyes tired. Eddie's eyes found him immediately and the agitation and anger he had been expressing melted into something docile. His shoulders fell and his eyes dropped down to his lap. He let his arm drop and when the nurse tried to put the iv in, he let her. There was a handful of other people in the room, including Eddie's manager Kaiden, one of the record label reps, two nurses, Gareth and Jeff, and the band's publicist. They all stared at him as he stood by the foot of Eddie's bed, his hands on his hips and an unreadable, pinched expression on his face. Eddie wouldn't look at him, and that was more telling than anything. Eddie doesn't look at him when he's genuinely ashamed of something. All of those terrible scenarios race through his head and he's starting to think that maybe some of them aren't as impossible as he's been convincing himself they are.

When the nurses finish their assessment, they leave the room.

"Can we have a minute, please?" Steve asks without looking away from Eddie.

"Actually we-"

"I need a minute!" He snapped, Kaiden's mouth closing with a click of his teeth. He nods stiffly, gesturing for everyone to stand. The label rep looks less than pleased but Steve couldn't give a shit with the anger and the confusion racing through him. Once the door clicks shut, Steve rounds the bed so he's standing beside him.