𝚂𝚞𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚋𝚘𝚢 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙸𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝙶𝚒𝚛𝚕 | Steve Harrington

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚊𝚝𝚎 (𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝟸)

Almost a month had passed since the mind flayer fiasco and El had closed the gate. A lot has happened since then too. We finally got a funeral for Barb. It was small and quiet, but it was really nice. They had to make up a cover story for what happened to her, but it was nice to see her get the recognition she deserved, it was still hard to believe she was really gone.

El was also officially adopted into the family. Her birth name is Jane Ives, but she'll always be El to us. She's officially my sister and she was officially Dad's daughter, just how it was. Dad also surprised her a few days ago, telling her she was allowed to go to the snowball dance, which she had been talking about going to with Mike since she started living with us. I've never seen her so excited before and I got to help her get ready for it too. I picked out her dress for her and did her hair and makeup and I gotta say, she looked incredible.

My ankle is still broken. I have around four more weeks with the cast but soon, it'll be good as new. Dad's dropping her off at the gym, but he said I could tag along to drop her off. We'd been talking about this moment for months, so it was nice to see it happen.

"We'll be waiting out here if you need us to pick you up early and the kids, Nancy, and Jonathan are all inside in case you need anything," Dad explains as El unbuckles her seatbelt to go inside.

"Okay," she says.

"Have the best time," I say.

"I will,"

"Bye!" She closes the door and walks into the dance. "Oh El!" I shout out, grabbing money from my pocket. I grab a few dollars, open the door, get my crutches and walk over to her with the money. She takes it and gives me a hug before turning around and walking in. It was almost bittersweet knowing she was growing up so much, but she was finally experiencing a normal life, even if it was just for tonight. I walked back to Dad's car and peeked through the window.
"I'm gonna go park over there," he says, pointing to a little spot around the corner.

"Okay," I look around and see a familiar car pulling out of the drop off line, so I call out to it.

"Steve!" I yell out as the car stop.

"Jo?" He asks. I limp as quickly as I can over to his car to go say hi. After everything that we've been through together, Steve and I have become actual friends. He really used to be 'my best friend's boyfriend, douchebag, asshole' but now I really know him. He's really nothing like how I and everyone in the school perceived him as too. He was goofy, and sweet, and one of the bravest people I had ever met.

"What're you doing here?" I ask him as he unlocks his passenger's door for me to hop in.

"Oh, I'm dropping off Dustin,"

"Yeah? How's he doing?"

"He seemed alright. A little nervous but I gave him a good pep talk before and I think he'll be fine,"

"Must be pretty nice for him having The Steve Harrington as a mentor,"

"You know, The Steve Harringtons kind of dead now. It's just Steve,"

"Well, I much prefer 'just Steve' any day,"

"Me too,"

"Do you remember your snowballs?" The school put on this dance every year, and it was a big deal.

"Yeah. My eighth grade year I danced with seven girls in one night. I must've broken some sort of record, right?"

"Definitely. My seventh grade year I sat at our table with Nancy and Barb too scared to move, let alone dance with someone,"

"I remember seeing you guys. That is, until Jerry Richards barfed all of the dance floor. Remember that?"

"Oh yeah! The dance ended like two hours earlier than usual because of it,"

"If I knew you back then, I would've dance with you,"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah,"

"I could've helped break the record, add an eighth girl to that list,"

"I could've started your list,"

"Just imagine the street cred I would've gotten to dance with an eighth grader let alone Steve Harrington of all people,"

"Do you wanna get some street cred now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, Jo, do you wanna dance or what?"

"Steve, I can't. My ankle. And my dad's over there and-"

"Just trust me. It'll be fun," He then opens the car door and walks over to my side to open it for me.

"Jesus," I whisper. My stomach was in knots thinking about people walking by and seeing this. I put my arm around his shoulder and put his arm my waist as he helped me walk from the car, into the gym. We snuck past Mr. Clarke, who was selling tickets, and made our way into the hallway next to the gym so we could hear the music as clear as if we were inside without having to pay for a ticket or go inside a middle school dance.

"Steve, we're gonna get in trouble," I complain as I look around.

"No we're not. The worst thing that'll happen is we get kicked out,"

I peer through a small window through a door and look at all the awkward middle schoolers, most of them, having their first dance. I look back at Steve and he joins me at the window.

"Look at them. They're so awkward," I say. I pause and reach up to put my arms around Steve shoulders and extend my arms as far as they'll go, creating as much space between us as I could to represent how they dance. I looked up at him and we both laughed before his hands went onto my waist, equally as far a part. "We should give these kids a couple of pointers,"

"Well, you gotta get real close and move to the music," he says as we both laugh and he pulls me closer to him. A much slower song then comes on. "Every breath you take" by the police. We get much quieter, but it's a very peaceful silence. We sway to the music and I lay my head down on his chest. My arms move from his shoulders to be around his torso and he rests his head on top of mine. After two hectic years, this was what I needed. Peace and quiet.