you had hooked up with steve harrington.

not quite the flex it would have been in your high school years- but, in your humble opinion, pretty damn cool.

you'd been in a weird limbo with him for about six months now- you'd come into family video, robin would punch him in the shoulder, and you'd flirt for the better part of an hour- but he'd finally, finally asked you out for real.

even if 'out' was his place, and the activity was- ahem.

you were both rather proud of yourselves.

this had happened a little over a week ago, all said, and nothing had really...happened since. if anything, steve was a bit more hesitant around you- he'd done The Thing. that had been his goal. he did not know what to do to further this.

his school-age whoring had not prepared him for an actual relationship- especially not of the serious, 'realistically i will be married in the next seven years' sort of relationship.

god, being an adult was stressful!

"we should go out," he said lightly, leaning over the counter to converse with you one annoyingly bright thursday, the mid july heat kept comfortably outside, part of the reason you'd lingered longer than usual today.

"not- not like last time," he quickly backtracked, laughing almost awkwardly, "that was cool, though- not, not cool, i mean, good-"

jesus fucking christ, you wouldn't have been surprised if he burst into tears on the spot. it was attractive. or maybe you were just fucked up in the head- that was a possibility.

he gave up on fixing his bumbling innuendo, collecting himself and putting on a smile- rather weak, something tommy h would have likely called him a slur for.

"d'you want to get, like, coffee?"