Legendary | s. harrington (18+)

chapter four

AS THEY sit in Jonathan's car, waiting for the courage to step out, Evelyn watches a boy she doesn't know dressed in a table cloth as a Cupid costume run to the grass and puke in front of the bonnet. Her eyes lift to see one of Charles' Angel's kissing James Bond and moves her eyes back to the man throwing up on her side of the car. She looks over to Jonathan, less enthusiastic and shrugs.

"...No time like the present?" Jonathan opens his door, climbing out of the car. Eve follows, stepping around the man hunched over on the garden and runs up to Jonathan's side. She offers him a nervous smile and laughs a little at how crazy this all was for them. They both felt so out-of-place at a party.

"You have the best ideas." Jonathan mutters, shaking his head and Evelyn blurts a laugh.

"Yeah." And with their eyes stuck warily on different people dotting the drive, they make their way in.

The door is already open by the time they got to it. A girl falls out of the party with a cigarette between her lips, scowling at the lighter as she wobbles around on the gravel. Eve watches her try and coordinate the flame to the end of her cigarette, but never saw success in the small amount of time it took to pass her. Jonathan and Eve squeeze around people, trying to walk in sideways through the current coming in and out to the garden. There were more people than Eve had imagined, more people than she knew to be in their year, and having lost Jonathan as they entered, she sucked the sweaty air through her teeth and looked around for something to do. She wasn't sure she recognised anyone, so she walked over to where the drinks were and eyed them suspiciously as she tried to occupy herself.

Eve found the drinks corner to be slightly comforting. Not many people came over and if they did it wasn't to talk to her, they just scooped up some punch messily, cheered, and ran back to the dance floor that was once someone's lounge. Evelyn ran her nail against the glass of the bottles lined up against the wall in the kitchen, eyebrows furrowed as she reads their names. She had no idea which to pick. She hoped to recognise something, she was looking for one her dad used to drink, but she soon realised that must've been an English thing, because she couldn't see it anywhere. She looked over to the table with the punch bowl on it. Pinkish red liquid was dripping on to the floor and had been spilled over the table. In defeat, she sighed, and leant against where the beers were. Watching those who scooped up their drinks probably already having consumed more than they should.

Eve turned her attention back to the plastic blaster her and her aunt had painted a few nights before, scraping her nail against the flaking paint with a subconscious sigh.

"Hey. Hey!" Eve looked up at a strangely familiar voice. She saw Nancy Wheeler as the new consumer of the punch bowl, her dainty hands wrapped tightly round one of those red plastic cups as she scooped angrily at the contents of the bowl. "Whoa! Take it easy." She watched as a homemade Joel Goodson grabbed at Lana's hands, but she resisted. Steve Harrington wiped his forehead, knocking his Tom Cruise sunglasses out of place. "Take it easy! Nance, Nance-"

"We're just being stupid teenagers for the night. Wasn't that the deal?" Nancy sneers and Eve's head tips at the sound she didn't expect to fall from her mouth. She feels like too many drinks was not the root of her upset and frowns. Before Steve can answer, Lana squeezes her way past the people round the bowl and disappears back into the crowd. Steve places his palms on the sticky punch table, hanging his head. Feeling uncomfortable and out of place, Eve thinks she couldn't feel more stupid if she made a fool of herself anyway, so she pushes off the wall and takes the two steps forward that leave her stood at Steve's side.

"You could at least try and look like you're having a good time." Eve whispers, smiling. Steve looks to the sound, tilting his head. With a sigh, he straightens up.

"Yeah." He breathes, unconvincingly. But Evelyn hadn't sounded rude, she sounded almost endearing; supportive, so it didn't repel him to leave. His eyes were searching the crowd still, looking for Nancy.

"I like your outfit." Eve then says, and she can see his brows furrow beneath his glasses. "Risky Business?" Eve nods towards the crowd, "Joel and Lana?" Steve looks down at his outfit and sighs but he is almost smiling.

"Yeah." Eve's hair has started to unravel, and she tucks a loose strand behind her ear. Steve can see the clearness in her eyes and how alert her voice is. He watched her eyes flicker around the room and then fall to the punch bowl. She scrunches her nose and wiped her hands on her dress. "You're not drinking?" His voice is soft and friendly, and Eve remembers their stupid talks a year ago and feels less awkward. Eve shrugs her shoulders, rolling her lips.

"I have no idea where to start and I think I may have missed the memo." Eve lets out a breath of anxiety, nodding to the boy now guzzling alcohol at the punch bowl. He burps, cheers and then takes another cup of the liquid. They watch as it trickles undignified down both sides of his face. It looks like Bob's Dracula make up. Steve laughs and then Eve turns slightly, so she can gesture at the bottles and cans on the other table, "I don't even recognise anything, anyway." So Steve chuckles and turns with her, picking up two red labelled bottles and placing one in her small hands.

"Budweiser." He says, reading the label himself, "Nothing too crazy." Eve smiles up to him and places the rim in her palm. Steve can't help but watch, scowling in confusion, and looks back up to her face. He leans for the bottle opener discarded on the punch table, but then he hears the fizz of the beer leaving the glass and snaps his eyes back to her hands.

"Where's the bin?" Steve's mouth gapes like a fish which Evelyn only sees when she doesn't hear his reply, and looks to him instead. "What?"

"How did you-"

"Can't you do that?" She asked it as if it was completely normal to open a beer with the palm of your hand and Steve looks around to see if anyone else had seen it, astounded.

"No!" He is grinning now and Evelyn rolls her eyes. She places the lid onto the table where everybody else had left theirs, and pushes out her palm for Steve to pass him hers. "How?"

"My dad taught me how to do it." She laughs, and he watched in awe as she removes the bottle lid with her bare hands as easily as it had been to pick the bottles up. He shakes his head as she passed it back to him, and he brings the glass to his lips.

"I've not seen you in a while." He says after a few moments of silence and Evelyn hums, nodding. He noticed that he'd never seen her look unhappy, or undeterred. Even now with people rushing past her and shouting in their drunkness and though she swerved out of their way, cringing, she was smiling politely. He was about to apologise for ditching her and never explaining why, but then he saw Nancy stumbling back to the punch bowl and he placed his drink down and ran towards her. "No, no, no."

Eve turned and placed down her own drink. "You've had enough, okay?" He was fighting to take the cup out her hand and on succeeding, Eve takes a step forward and moves the crumbled plastic to one side. But then Nancy just grabs another and starts scooping the punch again. "Hey, hey - stop." Nancy pushes him sloppily.

"No!"

"Nance, put it down."

"Steve! Stop." Eve nibbled her lip, leaning forward. In a soft voice, she speaks towards Nancy. She seems overly intoxicated and it couldn't have been an hour since they'd last seen her here.

"Hey, maybe you should-"

"Who're you?" She slurs, scowling up at the blonde girl leaning towards her while she still pushes Steve away, her attention turning back to him. Eve bits her lip and takes a step back. It is clear she isn't helping.

"Stop." Steve is saying and he tries again to pry the full cup out of her hands. Nancy proceeds to pull the cup back from Steve, her frustration and the alcohol blushing her cheeks. "Stop."

And then Nancy wins, and the force she'd pulled the cup with tips it down her shirt. "...what the hell?" Nancy drops the cup, blurry eyes locked on to Steve as the crowd erupts in a gasp that Eve grimaces at.

"Nance!" Steve follows Nancy in to the crowd and Evelyn soon looses sight of them. Alone, Eve looks back to where her drink had been but someone must have taken it because it is gone. She tries to look for Jonathan then but her efforts are useless, so she leans against the wood of the table and purses her lips. She chuckles as a drunk girl comes for another drink, complimenting Eve's outfit in the process. and Evelyn grabs her arm to steady her as she falls into the table.