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Steve
Steve squinted at the shape growling at him from inside the fog. Oh shit.
Dustin was definitely not lying about his pet slug turning into a baby demogorgon. It was like a weird four-legged version of the monster that he’d helped fight off in the Byers' house last year. Well, the joke was on it: he never cleaned off the nail bat, so there was probably interdimensional tetanus all over it by now. Steve let out a few practice swings while the demon dog-thing stalked forward. Unlike its ginormous, 7-foot tall faceless monster brother, this one was a lot smaller. Maybe it would get scared off or crushed by one swing if he was lucky.
“Three o’clock! Three o’clock!”
Steve, as the universe was apparently happy to tell him, was not lucky. As if breaking things off with his girlfriend, who, turned out, had never been in love with him (and might have been in love with Jonathan Byers the whole time they were dating, but...you know what? Nope. Steve was not going to think about that right now), wasn’t enough of a blow. Because baby demo-whatevers hunted in packs.
"November is cursed," he thought as he thwacked the first dog in its not-face and barely missed getting bitten by the other two. Next year, whatever college he was at, he wasn’t going to do anything the whole month. He’d go to class, head back to his dorm room, sadly jerk off like the girlfriend-less loser he currently was, and-oh shit he pulled off a cool barrel roll across a car, awesome!-never have to see another creepy flower-faced monster ever again.
Dustin was screaming at him to abort and run back inside the bus and yeah, Steve should probably do that.
He booked it towards the kids. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the remaining monsters launch itself at him from a broken car. Oh no, this was really going to suck.
Steve skidded to a stop and prepared to get bowled over. Just as he was about to swing, a much darker, growling blur leapt out of nowhere and started going to town on the dog...thing.
Oh shit, that was an actual dog rolling around and holding off the demo-babies.
His furry rescuer yelped and fell backwards onto its ass when the demon dog managed to swipe at it with its claws, but Steve followed up by landing enough of a blow that it stayed down. More weird, not-quite-right, creepy howls came from the fog.
“Looks like they brought backup. Come on!”
Steve pointed to the bus and hoped the dog would follow instead of trying to go out in a blaze of glory. He dove inside and a second later, the real dog jumped in behind him. Steve grabbed a piece of sheet metal, shoved it against the doors, and pushed back while the demogorgon babies bashed themselves against it, over and over again. A warm fuzzy body brushed his side. Good thing this dog was smart, 'cause it mounting its ginormous paws against their makeshift barrier was the only thing keeping them from joining Dustin’s cat in some stomaches right now.
Thump
Crap, that was the roof. The random girl one of Dustin's friends brought along screamed, as a baby demogorgon poked its head in through the hatch they stupidly left open.
Steve shoved her behind him and held out his bat.
“You want some? Come get this!”
Well, this was it. He was gonna die pinned down in a bus in the junkyard. Hopefully the dog could finish off the last of the monsters before any of the kids got hurt. They didn’t deserve that just because he didn’t prep right.
Except, Steve didn’t die. Another terrifying howl echoed from the woods, and the baby demogorgons ran off.
“Did Steve and the dog scare them off?” Dustin asked as they all carefully poked their heads out of the bus.
“No, no way.” Steve shot back. If they hunted in packs, there were probably more of those things running around. “Didn’t you hear that weird howling? Their friends called them. They’re going somewhere else.” The dog woofed. Steve pointed at it. “See, the dog agrees with me.”
“Yeah, hang on, where did the dog come from, exactly?” Dustin’s friend asked. Luke or something. Luke or something was still holding hands with his baby girlfriend. Steve was definitely not jealous of a middle schooler right now.
“I dunno, man, he’s not mine.” Wherever it came from, it had definitely saved their asses. Steve crouched down. The dog, busy licking some gunk off its back leg, paused when it noticed Steve watching. It looked almost...embarrassed about that, weird.
“Uhhh...thanks for coming in as backup back there.” As stupid as it was to talk to a dog like it could understand him, it had helped fight off the baby demogorgons, so, you know. Even if the dog wanted to run off after this, he should probably thank it. “You’re not expecting a meal out of this or something as a reward, are you? We dumped gas on all the hamburger meat so stay away from it.”
If Steve didn’t know any better, he’d say the dog rolled its eyes at him. Maybe that was a normal dog thing though. His mom was allergic, so it’s not like he’d ever been all that close to any, except for Carol’s family’s ancient terrier.
Unlike Noodles, who had done nothing but fart in her sleep every time Steve saw her, this dog must have been a lot younger. It kind of looked like a wolf, but smaller and way fluffier. Whatever it was, he bet it was a lot more badass than Noodles ever had been her entire life.
He reached out a hand to let the dog sniff. It stared at him like he had two heads, but wasn’t growling or anything, so Steve risked a pat on the dog’s head. Oh man, that fur was super soft, even if it was kind of covered in demonic monster goop from another dimension right now.
“Who’s a good...boy? Or maybe girl. Who’s a good dog?”
The random girl who might be dating Luke groaned and pointed at the dog’s butt.
“He’s obviously a boy, duh. He’s got balls and a dick.”
Steve craned his neck and-oh yeah, definitely a boy dog underneath all that fluff.
Boy Dog (hmmm, he should come up with something else to call him, shouldn’t he) must not have liked everyone staring at his private bits, because he yipped and backed up into a corner.
Eddie
Well this was a new low in Eddie’s already incredibly pathetic life: a ten-year old girl pointed out his dick and balls to Steve Harrington, the king of Hawkins High.
As if being a super-senior and trapped for another yearin the Palace of Pain and Terrible Yet Sometimes Interesting Nevertheless Always Distracting Smells wasn’t enough of a punishment after werewolf puberty hit him like a truck. He’d like to see O’Donnell try and focus on calculus with burnt-out nostrils. Hairspray and cologne didn’t really succeed in covering up sweaty horny anxiety, but they did succeed in making his grades take a swan dive come winter.
At least his human hair finally had grown out to the right length for head-banging, even if it meant his wolf’s coat was now ridiculously thick whenever he transformed, to the point where Wayne had to brush him out every night if they didn’t want fur flying around everywhere in the trailer. Oh the indignity! Talk about a real Catch-22. (See he did read sometimes thank you muchly, unlike half the kids in his English class who could barely get past picture books much less whatever they were supposed to be studying at the moment.)
“Max, you freaked him out!” one of the pipsqueaks Harrington was hanging around with for some reason squealed at the Girl Who Had Humiliated Eddie.
Said girl, Max (also known as his newest mortal enemy), rolled her eyes.
“Lucas, it’s a dog. He probably was eating garbage and humping the ground before we got here, trying to mark his territory or whatever.”
Eddie barked his outrage. Sure he could stand to eat more veggies, but in his defense, they were mushy and gross. And he had never stooped so low as to hump the ground! Maybe if he went to the trouble of digging a hole to stick his dick into, but it was November, so why would he be digging into the frozen ground; anyway, it wouldn’t feel good and—wait no, focus. The point was, tonight he’d been on important, noble, werewolf-y business of investigating the mysterious thing stalking their town.
Last year, Wayne had come back from a hunt spooked. He swore something had been tracking him, something bigger than a bear. Something not-quite-right. It didn’t help that a middle-schooler and one of the sophomores who worked crew for the musicals had gone missing at the same time. But the Munsons knew what to do when something unknowable called out to ya in the night: keep your head down and don’t howl back. It worked out in the end. Well, not so much for Barb Holland or her parents, but for them and Will Byers at least.
The rest of the year passed without any fanfare. Now a senior twice over, Eddie left behind his other after-school activities to focus on running Hellfire by himself. The shows the drama department put on would go on without him as the saying went, but they’d lost a good half of their dungeon-faring crew to the graduating class of ‘84. So it was on him to keep things up for the younger generations. And if he happened to follow along from a distance while the freshmen biked home, that was between him and the flower beds he trampled over.
And that’s all he planned to do really. Keep his head down, actually do his math homework this time around, watch out for the newest sheepies (Gareth had a mouth that really got him into trouble sometimes), and then finally get out of Hawkins and see more of the world. Really feel the wind through his fur, play his guitar in front of, say, twenty drunkards, instead of the two at the Hideout.
Until the Wright and McCorkle farms lost their pumpkins to some sort of rot, an awful moldy smell permeated the woods surrounding the town, and one night Jeff's yard had some not-quite-right pawprints all over the place.
Something was haunting Hawkins again. And this time, Eddie wasn't going to idly stand by and let one of his friends become some supernatural creature's dinner.
Finding the weird thing...errr...things, was harder than it should have been. They weren’t subtle, leaving mangled deer carcasses in their wake. But they’d so far managed to give him the slip. Until tonight. Tonight, Eddie had tracked them to the junkyard. He’d been prepared to find multiple eldritch beings full of sharp teeth. What he hadn’t expected to find was Steve “The Hair” Harrington, of all people, fending off mutated dog creatures with a bat full of rusted nails, while a bus full of kids screamed at him.
As far as Eddie knew, Harrington was nothing more than a part of the upper echelons of Hawkins High jock-based royalty. He’d sit surrounded by varsity-team lackeys, giving out orders with barely a glance at anyone outside of his purview. But if you caught the guy’s attention? If gossip was to be believed, those special girls had a night they were not going to forget soon, even if Harrington usually moved on after one or two dates.
Little Miss Nancy Wheeler was the gal who’d stuck around the longest though, at least since last year. Eddie had been a witness many times over to Harrington picking her up in the hallways with a stupid, pretty, dopey grin all over his stupid, pretty, dopey face.
“Max, cool it, I’m working on something here!”
And woah, wasn’t that a sight: Steve Harrington on his knees inching his way over to Eddie’s corner of the bus with his arms outstretched. “Sorry buddy, didn’t want to freak you out. Nobody’s gonna look at your balls, promise. Just wanna get some of this goop off of you, see?”
Steve lifted up a towel, and you know what, sure. Not like this day could get any weirder. Eddie lay down and let the guy start wiping off the monster dog blood. Oh no, Steve’s hands were heavenly. He practically melted into the guy’s arms while his tail started thumping against the bus floor, the little traitor that it was. Worse, Steve noticed and grinned.
“There you go, good boy. You’ve got such nice hair, uh, I mean fur. Bet the lady dogs go wild when you’re all cleaned up and trying to impress, huh?” Fuck, the levels of jealousy Eddie didn’t feel towards Nancy would have reached astronomical heights by now. If they existed, of course. Which they definitely didn’t. And yeah, the guy was taken already, but surely a little petting of the non-heavy kind didn’t count as cheating, right? Not like Steve knew he was rubbing down a werewolf.
Plus they weren’t exactly alone right now. Eddie definitely couldn’t risk getting a boner in front of a bunch of kids. Casting around for a super unsexy topic to distract his brain with, his eyes landed on Steve’s weapon of choice for the evening. Based on the state of the nails, this wasn’t the first time the guy had used it. Come to think of it, Nancy Wheeler had always walked home from school with Barb Holland after rehearsals let out. So maybe Steve had been mixed up in whatever weirdness happened last year, currently re-rearing its gooey rotten head.
Speaking of which, right on cue, more ghostly, albeit distant, howls started up again. The so-far-unnamed pipsqueak with the hat snapped his head in that direction.
“They’re headed towards the lab, that’s where Will is! We have to go warn Hopper and Mrs. Byers!” he shouted while he waved his hands around. Huh, the chief of police was wrapped up in whatever this was too? “What’s the fastest way there?”
The kid apparently named Lucas pointed east.
“It’s just through those woods. Anyone got a flashlight?”
Steve groaned. “Yeah, in my car. Which is on the other side of town, because we’ve been chasing Dustin’s monster dog all day on foot! Whatever, the moon’s full tonight.” He started walking away, so Eddie scrabbled up to follow.
He wasn’t about to let another teenager go mysteriously missing in this town. And, you know, maaayybbeee Eddie wanted some more scritches from one of the prettier boys in this corner of the Midwest, who apparently fought monsters in his spare time, so could fantasize about those big strong hands wrapped around something else, like his—the pipsqueak named Dustin shoved his way in between the two of them, rudely interrupting Eddie’s daydreams.
“Lucky I’m prepared for anything then, here!”
Great, now one of Steve’s hands was occupied by a flashlight! Eddie whuffed in frustration and swapped over to Harrington’s free side.
“Oh hey, you coming too? Okay, uh...Aramis, sure. Come on boy, let’s go hunt some monsters!” Huh, Harrington had hidden depths heretofore unknown to the larger Hawkins High population. Sure he butchered the pronunciation, but since when did jocks care about things like French romances?
“You know about the Three Musketeers?” Christmas must have come early for this Dustin kid, he stared at Steve like the guy had hung the moon or something.
“Yeah?” Steve replied, the ‘duh’ obviously implied. “Loved that movie, the sword fighting is cool and the guys are funny. And unlike D’artigan, this dog isn’t a weird slug monster thing, he’s actually on our team. Right boy?”
Eddie’s tail started wagging again immediately. What was he gonna do when faced with Steve grinning down at him like that, let the guy down?
“Guess you like the name, great! Okay Aramis, let’s make sure these kids don’t kill themselves running into more trouble.”
He really didn’t mean to, but a tiny howl escaped Eddie’s mouth. The adventure wasn’t quite over with yet, and that meant more time to uncover new things about Steve.
Steve
Okay, having a dog was kind of great. Aramis was glued to his side no matter what, happy to be pet, and also didn’t know what bullshit meant. When Steve grabbed a stick and threw it, his dog—wait no, the dog—wriggled around with his whole body before chasing after it. It was funny, the way Aramis trotted back with his head high and a swagger in his step? It kinda looked familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on who it reminded him of.
“You’re awesome, you know that?”
Aramis wagged his tail and did that wriggle again. It was just really cute. Before he could throw the stick again, Dustin stepped in between Steve and the dog holding out his backpack.
“You know I packed a bunch of stuff like snacks, right? Fighting on an empty stomach isn’t fun.”
Steve laughed to himself. Not that he’d tell a kid he’d met two days ago, but he was having so much fun playing older brother too. When they were kids he’d always been jealous that Tommy got to have three to boss around. And Dustin was a lot more interesting than the goldfish his mom had gotten him as a seventh birthday and “this is the only pet we can give you that won't make me break out into a rash so please stop asking your father and I for a baby because I don’t want to explain to a seven year old that we've decided to not have any more kids” gift.
He ruffled the kid’s hat into his hair.
“Thanks, Dustin. If I get hungry I’ll raid your backpack for a Snickers, okay?”
“But I only have Three Musketeers.”
“Sweet, nougat, even better.”
There we go, back to happy. Man, kids were so easy!
Aramis woofed and shoved his head into Steve’s hand. Steve laughed and gave his dog—the dog—some more scritches.
“Okay okay you big baby, you can get attention too.”
“STEVE?” two voices shouted.
Steve whipped his flashlight in the direction of the voices and, oh. Great. Byers was standing with one stupid protective noodle arm in front of Nancy. He’d sent them away so he wouldn’t have to see them acting like a couple around him.
Even better, the power was off at the lab, and the only gate was solidly closed. Steve was not about to coordinate herding a bunch of nerdy kids over a fence topped with barbed wire or leave them outside, so awkwardly standing with his ex and her new boyfriend it was.
There were only so many guilty-angry-smug looks from Byers he could stand, though. When Dustin pulled Jon off to the side to ‘compare notes’, Steve took his chance and marched up to Nancy with his shoulders squared.
“There a reason I had to find out from Tommy you were with Byers now? It was all over school.”
Steve pat himself on the back for not adding a ‘Guess you really didn’t waste much time, did ya?’ or ‘Bet he can’t even do that thing with his tongue you like’ in there. He was not going to be the kind of asshole anymore, even if he really wanted to right now.
Nancy had the guts to glare at him.
“We’re not together like that.”
“Oh, great, my bad. Guess I’m just spreading around more Steve Harrington bullshit then for assuming.”
Aramis made some sort of choking noise, so Steve dropped to one knee and checked him over. Whatever it was passed quickly though. His—the—dog seemed fine. He didn’t bother looking back up at Nancy again.
“I still want my tapes back. Give them to your mom if you don’t wanna talk to me.”
Whatever his ex-girlfriend was going to say was interrupted by the lab’s power coming back on, and then the whole group was in crisis mode again.
Eddie
A couple hours, the tragic death of the guy at Radio Shack who always helped him fix his amp, and a strategic retreat back to the home of the Byers later, Eddie watched Steve throw a punch at Billy Hargrove. He launched at the guy right behind him. Like hell was he gonna let this Californian asshole try and choke out a freaking kid. Between Steve getting a couple more jabs in and Eddie not bothering to be careful about whether his claws tore clothing or skin, the two of them managed to get Billy pinned to the ground.
He snapped his teeth pointedly in the guy’s face when Max forced him to promise to stay away from her friends. And then the little redhead begrudgingly earned Eddie's respect when she stabbed Billy with a syringe to knock him out after she got what she wanted. Really metal, that one.
Steve dropped his nail bat as soon as Billy's head hit the floor.
"Shit. Lucas, you okay?"
Eddie tried not to let the butterflies in his stomach riot over Steve's concern. Sure, the guy had apparently turned a new leaf after taking up monster hunting, protected the innocent like a knight in squeaky clean sneakers, and definitely loved dogs. But he might feel a lot differently if the dog he liked so much turned into a dude who wanted to kiss and lick him all over and do unspeakable things together. While naked.
Once Lucas got his breath back, the kids put their heads together and started talking about some intricate plan. Blah blah blah, something about tunnels, sure whatever, he’d make sure the kids stayed safe. Eddie kinda tuned out the rest while staring at Steve posing with his hands cocked on his hips. The guy was surprising him left and right today. Who knew Steve Harrington was a weirdo at heart, right? Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst to keep hanging out with him as a wolf. Team up to patrol the woods on the weekend, maybe play a game or two of fetch while they were out there. He was single now, so it’s not like Eddie would take away from girlfriend time. But wait, why was Steve shaking his head?
“...Steve, please? You promised Nancy you’d keep us safe. What if Max crashes and we all die in a ditch?”
“Hey!” Max stopped rummaging around in Billy’s pocked to glare at Dustin. “I’ve driven in a parking lot twice, I would so not crash.”
Steve pinched his nose.
“Are you shitheads seriously gonna go there no matter what?”
Everyone nodded. Eddie barked his agreement too for good measure. He needed to burn off some of the energy the fight had brought anyway, and what better way than a walk?
“See even Aramis wants to come!”
“Okay, fine.” Steve swiped Billy's keys from Max. “But I want it on record I’m only doing this to drive your brother’s Camaro, got it? Everyone get in.”
Steve
Steve ran full speed down another moldy tunnel. Screw this stupid alternate dimension and every single last slimy thing in it. Including Dustin’s cat-eating monster, even if it could be bribed with candy. He turned a corner and thanked his lucky stars that the rope was still there.
He pushed Max, Lucas, and Mike up while the dogs got louder and louder. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw shadows moving. Crap, they were out of time. While he grabbed his nail bat, Aramis picked up Dustin by the collar with his mouth and somehow threw him screaming up onto the rope. The part of Steve that wasn’t laser focused on getting ready to swing was impressed Dustin managed to grab the rope. Maybe there was hope he could teach him how to shoot baskets after all.
His dog growled and moved in front but Steve wasn't about to have that happen.
“Get behind me!”
He shoved Aramis into a side of the wall and got ready to die for a second time that night.
Except again, Steve didn’t die.
Too many baby demogorgons to count ran past them. One of them snapped and severed the rope, but none of them paid him or Aramis any attention.
“Eleven did it!” Mike shouted from above them. “Hurry, let’s get Steve and the dog out already.”
Dustin poked his head into the tunnel to say “We’ll get more rope, don’t move!” before disappearing again.
Steve dropped his bat and let out a breath. Which would have been fine, if Aramis hadn’t immediately tackled him to the tunnel ground and knocked all the air out of his lungs.
He wheezed, ready to complain, but Steve blinked and the fluffy dog that had been following them around all day was gone. Instead, some naked dude grinned wildly above him.
“Holy shit man, We’re not dead, ha! And in the end you were gonna throw yourself at the teeming hordes so a dog wouldn’t die? That was a downright heroic feat, right up there with like, Hercules or something!”
And oh okay, guess he was making out with a werewolf now? Naked Werewolf Dude had pretty badly chapped lips and was super sloppy, but he made up for it with enthusiasm. And the tongue doing its best to memorize his tonsils didn’t hurt either. Honestly it was kind of nice to be wanted like this. He couldn’t remember the last time Nancy had tried.
“You are amazing, that was so. Freaking. Hot,” Naked Werewolf Dude muttered in between kissing and biting his way down Steve’s neck. “And you’re so freaking hot, it’s infuriating watching you run around in the tightest jeans known to man. Seriously, how are you not cutting off circulation to your dick in those things when you’re that big?”
Steve noticed Naked Werewolf Dude had bats tattooed onto his arm. Huh, wait. This wasn’t any random werewolf. Mundy had gotten so distracted ranting about how tattoos were for dead-beats and criminals that he forgot to teach them algebra for two days straight. All because Eddie Munson came back for his second senior year wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off to show off his ‘sweet new tatty.’
What the hell?
Eddie
Steve was staring in shock, and it was at that moment that Eddie realized he was 1. currently a naked human, 2. thanks to #1, easily identifiable to his classmate who sat behind him in Math, Spanish, and English, and 3. had just kissed said classmate, who was a guy. On the mouth. While slipping in a little bit of his very long lupine tongue.
Eddie panicked and transformed back into a wolf. He'd been so caught up in the euphoria of not dying that he forgot his whole plan of never revealing his wolfy nature to one Steve Harrington, crap. Maybe if he was lucky, Steve would chalk this up to brain damage or a hallucination from the tunnel air or—”
“Okay, coolcoolcool. Sure, why not, it's a full moon anyway. Werewolves are real, and Eddie Munson is one.” Steve nodded his head slowly while he got back to his feet. There went any chance of saving this. Fuck.
Well, he’d had a great run, but what did a werewolf need with a high school diploma anyways? He could move into the woods and live among the forest creatures. Tap into his uh, primal nature and shit, like his meemaw always insisted they do at family reunions. Bring Wayne a deer every now and then, hide a stereo in the trees so he could listen to his music. Howling along to Black Sabbath was the most metal way to experience their music if you thought about it, after all.
Eddie realized halfway through making his plans that instead of trying to light the queer werewolf on fire, Steve had kept talking to himself: “Am I gay now if I’m attracted to guy wolves? Or maybe, half gay? Boobs are…” Steve squeezed the air in front of him. “Yup, boobs are great but do dicks also…and how does that even work with the fur...You know what nope. I’m dealing with this later. You.”
He paused his rambling to point an accusing finger right at Eddie, though the movement sort of lost a little of its intended effect what with those rubber dish gloves he had on.
“What the hell man, why didn’t you say anything earlier? I was going to take my new dog to college with me.” As if that wasn’t enough to fully boggle Eddie’s already broken brain, he also added on: “And there is no way I am carrying you out of here if you have posable thumbs.”
“Heads up!”
An even longer rope than the last one thumped into the tunnel.
Eddie whined, hoping his big ol’ begging eyes would spare him from having to climb back up. He skipped gym most of the time for a reason!
Looking up at the four kids motioning for him to get a move on, Steve sighed and then opened his arms. Eddie leapt into them without hesitation. His bulk barely winded the guy, holy shit that was impressive. He had to restrain himself from tearing off Steve's preppy jacket just to get a peek at those surely straining biceps.
“Jesus Eddie, you’re heavy,” Steve whispered. “And the only reason I’m doing this is so we don’t have to explain anything else to the kids. We’re definitely talking about what just happened after this is over. In private.”
Steve Harrington winked at him, and the butterflies in Eddie's stomach started throwing a goddamn ticker-tape parade. Maybe his crazy fantasies of licking the guy all over weren’t so crazy after all.
Two months later
Steve
Steve pulled up to the middle school a fashionable twenty minutes after the Snowball dance started. Dustin, who’d been busy chattering away the whole ride there about some science project with radios that Steve understood maybe three words of if you included radio shrank down in his seat when he saw how crowded the gym was. He nudged the kid encouragingly when Dustin reached for the rearview.
“Hey, come on. You look great.” Sure, Steve was out half a can of hairspray because apparently naturally curly hair played by completely different rules. But between him and a tiny bit of help from Mrs Henderson, they’d managed to make Dustin look maybe thirty percent less nerdy. “Like a million bucks.”
This slightly-improved version of Dustin nodded.
“Yeah.”
“And you’re gonna slay ‘em dead,” he added for good measurement.
“Like a lion.” Oh no, Dustin did the awful purring thing he thought was hot that just sounded like he was failing Spanish. Worse, the kid was looking at him like he was waiting for approval.
“Yeah. Don’t do that, okay? Remember, once you get in there and you see a girl…”
“Pretend like I don’t care,” Dustin parroted back at him. Steve pinched his nose.
“No, we—I told you, forget about that crap. Never take dating advice from a guy who broke up with his girlfriend a day ago. Eye contact Henderson, the trick is eye contact and making her laugh! Now get in there and smile.”
Dustin nodded then ran into the gym. Steve hoped the kid would get lucky. Maybe some random nerdy girl from the next town over would see him and immediately fall in love.
As Dustin slipped away into the crowd, another familiar head of hair caught his eye: Nancy setting up stuff at the punch table. If his life were a movie, seeing her framed by the doors all dressed up while he was out in the cold would be Steve’s lowest point. He’d probably vow to prove he was the guy for her and win back her love no matter how long it took. Lucky for Steve then that his life wasn’t a movie.
He reached into his glove box and grabbed the cassette on top. In the dark he couldn’t see it, but the thought of the wolf and half-naked barbarian dude doodled on the label made him smile. Black Sabbath playing (at a level that didn't make his ears bleed), Steve turned around and headed straight for Forest Hills.
He had a date to get to.