Hard to Handle

Why him not me??

These were but a few of the thoughts that constantly plagued Steve's mind. Regardless of how many times he attempted to assure himself that you were his friend because you wanted to be, that you would never have stayed friends with him for this long if you didn't actually care about him – he couldn't shake the paranoia that you secretly despised him, and you were only still sticking around because you didn't know anyone else here. The second you made some new friends, Steve would never hear from you again. You'd just toss him away, and the next time he'd see you would be at your high school reunion, on the arm of some douche bag who didn't love you half as much as Steve did.

All of this only made Steve more apprehensive about his blossoming feelings for you.

And all of this only made him a thousand times more distraught when you started dating someone – someone who wasn't him.

The guy's name was Chad, and he was a bit of a prick, but he seemed to treat you pretty well. Chad himself wasn't necessarily Steve's problem – it was how you felt about Chad. It was how your entire face would light up when Chad would come up behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist and kissing the top of your head. It was the smile that would spread across your face when he'd bring you take-out on a night he knew you were cramming for an exam. It was the way you'd laugh at his jokes, and the way he'd just smile at you as you laughed, as if you were the most beautiful thing in the entire world.

But since Steve couldn't possibly bring himself to be upset with you, he generally took his frustration out on Chad.

Steve felt his entire body cringe when someone clapped his shoulder and sat down next to him at the picnic table outside the library. Chad gave him a friendly grin, as you took a seat across the table.

"How's it going, man? Studying hard or hardly studying?" Chad questioned lightheartedly, and Steve managed to force out a brief laugh.

"Bit of both, I guess."

"We're going to the game tonight, do you wanna come?" you asked, and Steve felt almost embarrassed by how delighted he was by your offer. You'd both been extremely busy with homework lately, being that the end of the semester was fast approaching, so you hadn't spent much time together. He was more than happy for any excuse to hang out with you – until he realised that that meant Chad would be there.

Oh well, Steve would just have to take what he could get.

"Yeah, sounds... sounds fun," he said, and the smile that lit up your face made his mouth go dry.

"Great! I'll swing by your dorm around six and we can walk to the game from there," you said, and Steve just nodded, returning your vibrant smile.

That night, for the first time in a long time, Steve actually got ready. Not just the "do his hair and throw on some clothes" type of getting ready. No, Steve changed his outfit three times, spent twice as long on his hair than usual, sprayed on some of his seldom-used expensive cologne, and admired himself in the mirror for ten minutes, before he felt pleased with his appearance.