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"You know, I figured you'd be tired of ice cream by now." I commented watching as the taller boy eagerly sipped on the milkshake before him. He rolled his eyes and smirked as he held the straw in between his teeth. Please don't do that again unless you'd like to have my ovaries explode. He maneuvered his head in front of mine with raised eyebrows. How long was I thinking for?
"Sorry, zoned out for a second." I let out a small laugh as I took a sip of the sugary drink in my hands. Steve shrugged a hint of worry in his tone as he spoke.
"We can go back to the party if you want." He suggested and I shook my head.
"No way, you're a lot more entertaining than a crowd of drunk teenagers Harrington."
"Yeah well competition isn't that hard." He joked and I softly laughed at his answer. He seemed amused by my cheerful reaction, but blinked hard seemingly reminding himself not to stare. I stirred the straw of my drink as I spoke.
"So, what made you change so much?"
"What do you mean?" He cocked his head a bit to the side and I continued staring at my drink.
"You were so different in high school, but you just changed all the sudden. Changed in a good way for sure, but I'm just wondering what made you...I don't know...Mature?" Steve let out a breath at the end of my sentence and I worried I had stepped too far.
"Honestly, it's a pretty long story. But to put it into short terms I guess I just figured there was so much more to life than what I thought was important. Maybe it was Jonathan Byers kicking my ass...I think that's when it hit me. Quite literally." We both chuckled at this and he continued.
"It's like I said before, I'd be so much better off if I had realized earlier. But I'm happy I got the chance to wake up." I nodded at this and met his eyes, his were trained on me I had realized the entire time he spoke.
"I'm happy you did too, Dustin really looks up to you." I assured and Steve scoffed.
"He shouldn't."
"Of course he should, whats not to look up to? Sure you've had a rocky past. But what really matters is how you grew from it. Nobody should judge you for the person for who you once were, because that's not who you are now." I bit my lip in hopes I hadn't rambled too much.
"Wow." Steve mutters quietly his eyes still trained on me.
"What?"
"It's just, this is really the only conversation I've ever had with you. And I feel like you already know me better than I know myself?" I shrugged with a smile at his answer before he went on.
"How do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"You just met me, and I already want to talk to you about everything. I feel like I can tell you my entire life story, the good, the bad, and you'll just...Understand." He ran a hand through his hair and sat back in his seat seemingly relieved he got those words off of his chest. I ignored the butterflies swirling in my stomach at his compliment. Likely blushing madly from his words.
