Burn it after midnight.

Chapter 2: Up All Night, Sleep All Day.

Steve had been to many parties throughout high school, he'd hosted quite a few of them himself too. He hadn't been to one for a few years, choosing to dissociate from the people he had spent most of his time with then. But the familiarity of the pumping music, sweaty bodies piled together into many different rooms, the smell of smoke and weed mixing in the humid air. It was all very familiar to him and the memories of high school came flooding back to him.

But this party seemed different, the music was different, the people there looked... well they looked more like the guy sitting next to him in his passenger seat.

"Thanks" Eddie tilted his head, smiling over at Steve who was looking warily up at the house. "You wanna come in?"

"I dunno man" He gnawed his lip nervously "Doesn't really look like I fit in"

Eddie laughed.

"You think I, or most of the guys in here, haven't spent most of their lives feeling that way?"

"I guess but uh... maybe next time"

"Oh come on, one beer? If you hate it you can leave" Why was he pushing this?

Steve glanced back up at the house again, loud angry music spilled out of the open windows and open front door, there were guys doing a keg stand in the front yard. Steve smiled fondly at the memory.

"I guess I can for a little while" He shrugged, killing the engine. Eddie grinned at him like he'd just won a prize, it felt like the air had been knocked out of Steve's lungs for a second.

The yelling from the front yard continued as the guy doing the keg stand was lowered to the floor. Steve chuckled.

"Used to be really good at those"

"Oh yeah? You don't strike me as someone that would have enjoyed doing a keg stand"

"Held the title of keg king for a while, I was uh... a lot different in high school"

"Steve Harrington, keg king" Eddie mused aloud, a small smile playing on his lips before he pushed his way through the crowd of people by the front door, Steve following closely behind.

Much like Steve would have, Eddie headed straight for the kitchen. The place where the alcohol was. He rummaged around in the fridge and pulled out two beers, handing one to Steve who was looking around, taking in his surroundings.

It was a pretty standard house party, he decided. Just that the music and party goers were a little different than he was used to. He didn't know anyone here, but it was kind of...nice. No one to bother him, none of that awkward small talk or people pretending to actually care about anything he had to say. The facade of high school long gone, Steve was just another guy at a house party.

"I uh... got some business to attend to" Eddie waved at someone on the other side of the room "You'll be alright on your own for a bit?" Steve's stomach dropped, would he? "Don't worry, none of them bite... well some of them do" He chuckled to himself. Had he brought Steve to some kind of swingers party?

Steve shrugged.

"One beer, if I hate it I can leave right?"

"Right" Eddie threw him an impish grin and disappeared off into the crowd.

It's just another party. Steve thought to himself. You were good at this, it's not hard.

But the settings whilst feeling oddly familiar to him, also felt totally alien. He didn't feel like he could dance to the music, it wasn't anything he'd ever heard before, although it had slowed a little now, it wasn't as angry as before.