movies; steve harrington

three

"So you’re just going to deny it? All of it.”

“Yes, Jasmine, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” Steve’s grip on the black steering wheel tightened, his other hand in his hair out of stress. She had just brought up how when she’d stayed over the night prior, his landline had practically rung itself off the wall.

At 3:06 Jasmine finally sighed to herself, peered over at the clock, and eventually made the way to the phone herself. No, it wasn’t her house or her phone, but it was three o’clock in the morning and Steve wasn’t doing it. When she picked up the phone, she forgot to speak for the first couple of moments, and thank god she did. The voice of who Jasmine could only recognize as Nancy Wheeler was on the other end, her voice calmer than usual.

It was only confirmed when Jasmine spoke into the phone. “Nancy?” The phone on the other end hung up faster than it took Jasmine to answer it. The implication behind the random call didn’t mean anything to Jasmine - she just avoided it and crawled back into Steve’s bed.

The call came again. An hour and four minutes later at 4:10 and Jasmine questioned ignoring it, but once more, answered the phone. This time the voice on the other line hesitated, and Jasmine didn’t speak. “Steve?”

“He’s asleep.” The call was ended right then.

“Does Nancy fucking Wheeler often call you at three o’clock in the morning?” She was trying not to raise her voice in frustration. She was trying not to cry in hurt at the thought that Steve and Nancy often talked at those hours. Really, that they talked at all. Jasmine was there when Steve was broken at Nancy’s hand and the thought that he’d still go back and have some sort of conversation with her stung Jasmine. It was stupid.

“Nancy has never called me.” Steve stated, his voice slow and steady.

“Steve, I know the truth. Just tell me the truth. Please.”

“I am telling you the truth! It’s over.” Steve’s hand flew out to emphasize his point and he let out a heavy breath, refocusing on the road before them.

“Then why do you dream about her! Why do you cancel on me to hang out with her! Why do you tell her you love her!”

“What?” Steve asked in complete exasperation. Did he know what she spoke of? Yes. Did he know how she knew? No.

Dustin Henderson’s heart was always in the right place. He always made the choice to do what was best, whether picking out a birthday present for a friend or making a decision that could make or break Hawkins, Indiana as he knew it. He idolized Steve Harrington like he was god and would never, ever do anything that could potentially harm Steve physically or emotionally.

However, if someone had to come extremely close to Steve in his eyes, it would have had to be Jasmine Jones. The two had made an extremely good power couple, Dustin would say even more so than Steve and Nancy. They were strong and he saw them going a long way. Never would he have wanted to harm the relationship between his two favorite people.

Yet, when he talked to Jasmine about her plans for the week and her answers usually resulted in “Steve canceled on me. Again,” he was starting to get wary of the relationship. And especially when he’d found that Steve had more often than not made the decision to cancel on Jasmine any time Nancy needed him, he didn’t know where his moral compass lied.

Yes, Steve was allowed to talk to his ex if he truly wanted to and Dustin stood by that, but it just felt wrong. He felt partly obligated to tell Jasmine - he knew Steve hadn’t yet and she had a right to know. But - would Steve see that as a betrayal? So he went to the only older companion he could talk to (not Nancy or Jasmine or Steve, obviously) and she gave the most brutally honest words she could.

“Steve needs to be called out on his shit.” So the plan was enabled. Robin was just going to see what was going on between Steve and Nancy and if it even slightly strayed from pure platonic interactions, she’d be jumping down his throat and Dustin would be informing Jasmine.

Both Dustin and Robin hoped Steve was better than this. They had faith in him. So on the extremely delightful morning the two had decided they’d tell Jasmine together, they were both disappointed.

She hadn’t reacted exactly the way the two anticipated. She sat on her living room couch, her hands folded in her lap as she stared at them. When she looked back up, there was a singular tear that slipped down her cheek. “I figured,” and just as fast as it came, she had swiped it away. “Thank you for telling me.”

“You say her name in your sleep! When she needs you, you cancel on me! I found the letter, Steve!” Damn that letter.

The letter that had, apparently, come back to bite him in the ass. The letter that Jasmine could recite perfectly and based entirely off of memory from the thousand times her eyes skimmed the pages.

Nance,

I never thought that we would be here now, fighting a dark wizard or some shit. But we’ve come a long way since we dated. I think about it a lot.

I think about how different things could’ve been if Dustin let me apologize and give you flowers when I’d wanted to. Instead I got stuck being the goddamn babysitter and helping get rid of his mini demogorgon.

But it’s not all the past. I think about the future. I want the wife, the kids, ya know when all this bullshit is over. I think about you.

I know we’ve grown into different people. Hell, I know I have more than you may think. But I still want what we used to have, ya know. I miss it. I miss you.

I know I shouldn’t be doing this right now. I know that it's not fair to Jasmine. I know it’s going to hurt her.  I remember how it felt to find you with Jonathan - but I don’t know what to do. I care about her. I don’t want her to hate me.

I thought, when we broke up, I thought she was what I wanted. But what I want is you. I don’t know how else to say it.

Steve hesitated. His grip on the steering wheel loosened. His fingers fell from his hair. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but she saw it all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Fuck you,” she let out a bitter laugh, turning to face her own reflection in the window to her right. “I waited almost four years for this.” He could hear the heart in her voice, see it in the way she turned away from him, the way her knees were no longer close to him. She was curled up to the door, fighting off her emotions. Fighting the tears threatening to fall down her cheeks, the clench in her chest, the ice in her veins.

“I’m sorry.”

**

No other words were spoken the rest of the drive to Derek’s. And when they got there, they plastered smiles that didn’t quite reach their eyes onto their faces. People had started to notice the sparkle slowly dying in their eyes, but now it was completely gone. Now, they were different.

Occasionally Steve’s hand strayed from its place in Jasmine’s coming up to her shoulder. And occasionally Jasmine was not leaned as close to Steve as she usually would be. They hoped the others didn’t see the clenches in their smiles or the hesitation before touching the other.

Just like they hoped the others didn’t realize that Steve and Jasmine had spoken maybe once a day that week. In school and out of. They didn’t walk the other to class like they used to or eagerly converse while eating lunch like they used to.

Maybe, hopefully, they could keep up the facade just a little bit longer.