Skull rock (Steddie)

Swim galla

The door of Steves house slammed behind him the only noise in the absolute silence.Flicking on some switches He didn't bother to shout for his parents he knew they weren't there.It was a big hollow house and he hated it a little guiltily.Growing up in it leant it an absurd and twisted loyalty.He grabbed a bowl of cerial estimating his parents would be gone about a week by the note they'd left neatly on the empty counter and the amount of groceries in the fridge.Sinking into an armchair with his hoard he rejected any attempts at shuttering his mothers flowery curtains against the darkness outside.
She'd probably nag him if she'd been there .Her obsession with keeping the darkness out had always left Steve with a dry taste of irony in his mouth.

He sighed muscles aching and brain fogged up with a bone deep tiredness.3hours of regional swimming competition and then take or give a couple of hours of school organised mandatory,for the hawkins high swim squad anyway,fun ,had taken there toll on his body.He couldn't even lift his arms above his head and everytime he moved his whole leg cramped causing him to hiss.For what. they hadn't even won or beaten his personnel best which he had been stuck on for months now.

blood sugars and mood spiraling despite having already eaten two cheeseburgers for dinner and shoved another spoonful of cerial into his mouth.It didn't help that mich kept looking at him wierd.At first he'd ignored it and until now he hadn't had a moment to himself to think about it too hard but now he was alone with his thoughts it struck him.How did he think anyone would react seeing him talk to Eddie the freak munson.That set of a whirlpool of thoughts dragging him further and further into panic.What if some of his friends already saw him staring at Eddie and were now sure he was.Steve bolted up feeling itchy and dirty all over.A jab of pain struck his head and suddenly he felt nauseous just looking at his cereal.There were plenty of people who hated him each capable of spinning rumours from the smallest scrap of anything.
He remembered the kid that had had to leave the school because of the ceasless harassment they got because some kid had found compelling enough evidence he was queer .remebered the bruises all over him.Hed only been a freshmen and that hadn't stopped the seniors from having their turn with him.
Steve felt the pit in his stomach expand.
What If Eddie hated him and had been planning to get everyone to think Steve was queer as some twisted revenge for something he'd done.Steve felt a jab of betrayal and pain at that thought.

Steve brushed a stray peice of his hair from his eyes,stiff with chlorine and the hairspray he'd frantically used to neaten it up after swimming.
Steve may have shit friends but they were the only ones he had and he needed them a lot more than he wanted to admit.

Steve imagined the look of disgust on his parents face .The unbearable dissapointment in his fathers flinty eyes.He was too old for his father to physically do anything about it anymore but they'd probably kick him out.
Steve stared into the soggy cereal.
He imagined the disgust in Nancy's doe blue eyes.His heart sank sunk so deep he could barely feel it beat.

Steve let go of the ball letting it shatter across the marble of the kitchen.His mom was not going to be pleased.

He knelt down pottery biting into his fumbling hands as he collected the remains of the bowl.As he stood up his stomach tumbled.Steve slumped into his mind auto pilot taking over .He gently scraped the ceramic into the bin hand aching dully.The thought of stairs made his legs feel like jelly so he slumped into the sofas perfectly arranged pillows after turning out the light.The darkness seemed to be sitting on his chest crushing him.He tried to think of Nancy laughing with him but all he could picture was disgust dancing in her eyes.It wasn't the same as the dull pain when he thought of his parents revolt,they hadn't seen anything worthy of love in him for a long time.It was a sharp stab like someone was gutting him.

Steve woke up at 1:30 in the afternoon sun rays feeling like hot pokers to his head.He was disoriented ,with a pounding headache ,mouth feeling like sandpaper.With the small consciousness he had curled up in some tight corner at the back of his mind he questioned why his hand was wet the rest did it's best to retreat back into sleep.After about 15 minuets of trying to get back to sleep only to be stopped with a spike of pain in his head he decided the best option was to get up and find painkillers.Groaning he squinted his eyes open only to find he was laying on the sofa .He did his best to shuffle of the sofa, body creaking and protesting .A sharp pain stabbed into his palm as he accidentally sat on it causing him to flinch.He brought it up to his slowly acclimatizing eyes and saw a gash that had mostly scabbed over apart from a recent tear that was trickling blood.as well as a speckled of smaller cuts and a piece of cerial