Don't You Want Me? ✵ Steve Harrington

Chapter 18

Kim's camera clicked as she took a picture of her brother in his ghostbusters costume. "Alright, you're gonna be late for school, so get going," she told Dustin.

"Did I tell you about this new girl?" Dustin asked, him walking to his bike, and Kim walking to her car.

"No," Kim smirked, her voice teasing. "Is she cute?"

Dustin blushed. "Oh, shut up," he mumbled. "I'm going to be late for school, remember?"

Kim laughed, ruffling her brother's hair as he got on his bike and started to ride to the middle school.

•••••

Kim felt incredibly awkward as she walked into the obnoxiously loud party. An already drunk Nancy spotted her and stumbled over. "I didn't think you would actually come," Nancy said, her words a bit slurred.

Steve, looking like an overprotective mom, appeared behind Nancy.

"How much has she had to drink?" Kim asked him.

"Too much," Steve sighed, trying to wrench the plastic cup out of Nancy's hand.

"Get off," Nancy yelled, trying to push him away from her and her alcohol.

"No, you've had enough," Steve said, still trying to take the red solo cup from her tight grip. "Nance, I'm serious, put it down."

"No!" she whined while taking another sip.

Kim's eyes grew wide as Steve accidentally spilled the contents of Nancy's drink down her white blouse.

"What the hell?" Nancy mumbled, looking down at the large red stain before stomping away.

Steve put his head in his hands. "I hope your night is going better than mine," he said to Kim before running off after his girlfriend.

In the bathroom, Nancy tried cleaning off her shirt, but the stain clearly wasn't going to budge.

"Nance, I'm sorry," Steve said. "That's not going to come off."

"It's coming," Nancy glarred, still working on the big red splotch.

"Come on, let me just take you home, okay?" Steve said, trying to lead her out of the bathroom.

"Y-Youwanted this," she said, her voice getting more slurred the angrier she became.

"No, I didn't want this, I told you to stop drinking," Steve said, trying to stay calm.

"It's bullshit," Nancy snapped.

"No, it's not bullshit, okay?" Steve said. "It's not bullshit, Nancy."

She turned to Steve, anger in her eyes. "No, you. You're bullshit. You're pretending like everything is okay. You know, like we didn't kill Barb. Like, it's great. Like, we're in love and we're partying.Yeah, let's party, huh? Pary. We're partying. This is bullshit."

"Like we're in love?" Steve asked, feeling his heart break.

"It's bullshit," Nancy repeated.

"You don't love me?" Steve asked.

"It's bullshit," Nancy said again, still glaring drunkenly up at him.

Steve sighed before storming out of the bathroom and out of the party, not even noticing that Kim sat talking with Billy Hargrove.

"You know, for being friends with King Steve, you're not as bad as I thought you'd be," he smirked after talking to her for a while.

"Jee, thanks," Kim scoffed, trying not to look concerned as she watched Steve run out of the party.

"No, I mean it," Billy laughed. "I thought you'd be all stuck up and bitchy like the rest of the girls at this school, but you're actually not terrible."

"Again, what a great compliment," she teased, taking a sip of her drink. "It's a miracle you can get a girl at all."

"I think it's more because of my looks and less because of my personality, don't you think?"

"Well, those people are pretty damn shallow," she said.

"Oh, so you're not shallow?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "You just like Harrington for his winning personality?"

"I don't- it's not like- I never said," Kim stuttered. "We're just friends."

"Yeah, okay," Billy rolled his eyes.

"I'm being serious," Kim lied. "We're just friends. And besides, even if I did like him, I couldn't do that to Nancy."

"Ah, yes, his bitchy girlfriend," Billy nodded.

"She's not a bitch," Kim snapped, suddenly becoming defensive over her friend. "You don't even know her. Have you ever actually had a conversation with her?"

"No, and I don't need to," Billy replied. "I already know I don't like her."

"Now look who's shallow," Kim mumbled, crossing her arms.

He smirked. "I guess you got me there."

Getting more frustrated about the way he talked about her two closest friends, Kim got up and walked away. She spotted Jonathan practically carrying Nancy out the door and rushed up to them. "Hey, is she okay?" Kim asked.

"Yeah, just really drunk," Jonathan replied, setting Nancy down in his car. "You want a ride home?"

"No, I think I'll be okay," she answered, wondering what had happened between Nancy and Steve. "I can just walk home. My house isn't too far from here."

Jonathan nodded, offering her a small smile as he slid into the driver's seat. "Well, see you tomorrow."

•••••

"So he asked you to take me home?" Nancy asked from the hood of Jonathan's car.

"Yeah," Jonathan lied, hoping Kim wouldn't say anything to contradict him. "Yeah, he was upset. I mean, he w-was really upset. But he was still worried about you."

Nancy looked at the ground in shame.

"Hey, you need to cut yourself some slack," Kim told her, throwing an arm around Nancy's shoulder. "People say stupid things when they're wasted, things that don't mean. If it makes you feel any better Billy Hargrove was hitting on me, so at least you were thinking more clearly than he was."

Nancy looked up at Kim with wide eyes. "The new kid?"

"Yeah," Kim scoffed. "Real ass hole. Thinks he's as cool as Rob Lowe but he definitely isn't."

Jonathan and Nancy laughed, always loving their friends comments.

"I should go, I have to met with Mr. Kramer about that Chemistry test I didn't do that well on," Kim said, hopping off the hood of the car and gathering up her things. "See you guys later?"

"Yeah, see you later," Jonathan smiled.

The three of them wouldn't all be together again for a little while, but they had no way of knowing what absolute 'bullshit' they were about to get wrapped up in.