Behind Closed Doors

November 8th, 1984

After school that Thursday, Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy went to the Byers' house to do homework together. They had their own study group every Tuesday and Thursday, and every once in a while, they'd even have a bit of weed to go along with it. That wasn't the case today, Nancy always wanted a clear head whenever she was studying for a test, so Steve and Jonathan followed suit.

They were all sat in the living room doing their respective homework, and Steve was caught off guard by Jonathan's question,

"So are you and that Hargrove guy dating?"

Steve's head snapped up and he looked at Jonathan in disbelief. "How do you know about Hargrove?"

"Nancy told me."

Steve groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Nancy!" He whined.

"I didn't think it was a big deal." Nancy defended. "Jonathan wouldn't say anything to anyone, right?"

Jonathan nodded. "Not exactly my place to say anything."

It wasn't Nancy's either Steve thought to himself. He had a feeling that Nancy told Jonathan because they were interested in each other (which was obvious to everyone), and he was lucky that Jonathan was such a good guy. Still, that didn't stave off the embarrassment Steve was feeling, but maybe it would be a good thing to talk about this with people he trusted. So Steve straightened up and looked between his two friends.

"We're not exactly, um..." He cleared his throat. "Dating, more of... fooling around, I guess?"

"Oh." Nancy looked surprised when she said it. "I thought... you'd be dating?"

Steve shrugged. "I still don't know how to feel about me liking the things we're doing, and Hargrove said he didn't want anything like that."

"Do you want to date him?"

"I barely know anything about him, I dunno if it'd work out."

"Wait," Jonathan cut in. "You're meeting up with this guy, and you don't know anything about him?"

He... hadn't exactly thought of it like that. Steve had just kind of jumped head first into this thing with Hargrove, he didn't think to ask about his favorite bands or what brought him to Hawkins from California. All he could think about was that kiss on Halloween, and how mind-blowing and amazing and hot it was.

"I... I guess I am." He said it in a tone as if it was a casual realization.

Maybe he could try to get to know Hargrove more this weekend. With his parents being out of town and Hargrove coming over, he had more of an opportunity to actually hang out with the guy. It didn't have to just be full of foreplay and sex, they could watch movies, listen to music, order pizza.

Yeah, he could do that.