Chapter Two - Hanging Out

TW! Swearing

- Words: 2445

Steve's POV -

AFTER WORK

I get a text shortly after I get home after a long day at work. I kept thinking of when Jonathan stared at me, and when they walked away holding hands. The text said:

"Hey Stevie!! I was wondering if you maybe wanted to come over? My mom is out for a while, and everyone in the party is busy.. So what do you think?"

It was from Will. He loved to call me Stevie, and occasionally "Momma" or "Mom". I never knew why, but maybe it was comforting in a way. I quickly place my fingers on my keyboard, texting a short, simple text.

"Sure! I'd love to come over. When?"

That was what I said. Immediately, I get a text from Will, saying:

"In five minutes?" I take a minute to think, and type an "ok. Be there soon!" Before putting down my phone on the table, getting out of my uniform. I change into a white turtle neck with black overalls. My pants are jeans, and some old shoes. As soon as I get dressed, I go outside, to get into my car.

I start the engine, and head towards the Byers house.

After parking my car, and heading towards the house, I knock gently on the door, instantly getting an answer. It was a very exited Will. I smile, and open my arms wide, gaining a happy hug/strangle from Will. I hug back, seeing a glimpse of snacks on the table. "Okay buddy, you're choking me-" I manage to get out, making Will release me, muttering a 'sorry'. I chuckle, and walk into the house, taking off my shoes and leaving them at the door.

"So what do you want to do first?" Will asks me, gesturing with his hands that there are a lot of options. He starts listing them, and I listen carefully. After he finishes listing the options, I place a hand on my chin. "Hmm.. We can start by eating some snacks and watching TV?" I suggest. Will nods, and grabs my arm, pulling me towards the couch. "I have some blankets as well!" He says, picking up some soft blankets, throwing them at me.

After we're covered in blankets, and have snacks between us, Will looks at me. "What do you want to watch first? A movie, a show, series?" "Hmm.. Lets watch a scary movie." Will nods, grabbing the control from my hand, and switching through the channels.

Jonathan's POV -

I hear muffled talking outside from my room. It sounds like two people, and the TV channels switching back and forth. I get out of my bed, walking up to my doors and twisting the knob. I step out of my room, seeing the TV light flash. I walk towards the living room, seeing Will and some guy wrapped in blankets and snacks in the middle.

As I get closer, I see that the other person is no other, than Steve Harrington. Why him!? "Will? Why is he here?" I say, both of their heads jerking towards me. Steve looks away instantly, for some odd reason. Will makes a disgusted face, "Eww! Jonathan, put some pants on!" He yells, making me look down, seeing only boxers on me. Oh, so that's why. "Sorry, but what is he doing here?" I continue pushing my question. "He's hanging out with me, because the others are busy doing something." He says, as I walk further into the living room. "Why don't you just call them up on the walkie talkie or whatever?" I ask, staring at Steve's flushed face. "I tried, but they won't respond. I think they turned it off." He responds simply. "So you decided to invite this asshole?" I scoff. "Shut the hell up, Byers. You should be lucky I'm not beating your ass right now-" "You? Beat my ass! You can't even look straight at me." I argue. Will rolls his eyes, "ughh. Can you guys stop fighting?" He groans.

"Tell him to put some fucking pants on!" Steve mumbles. I roll my eyes, "You can't even handle me in my boxers, we're all guys, so what's the problem?" I say. Steve mumbles something that I can't make out, before saying "I don't want to see the person I despise in boxers, dumbass." I roll my eyes, and walk off to my room to put on some sweat pants.

Steve's POV -

"sorry about that, want to continue?" I say to Will. He nods, and looks towards the TV, switching channels until he gets on a horror movie.

About 2 minutes in, Jonathan comes out of his room again. Will groans silently, as Jonathan sits on the couch. "I don't trust you with my brother, so I'm staying here." He says directly to me, staring through my eyes into my soul. My cheeks flush up, though its not noticeable, thankfully, (Or so I thought). I roll my eyes to shrug it off. He grabs one of the blankets, and covers up.

A few jumpscares come in, and I shriek at each one of them. It makes Will laugh loudly, even though its not funny. One of the scariest jumpscares were probably 53 minutes in. It scared me so bad, I clinged to Jonathan's arm. That was the scariest, essentially. "Jeez Harrington, didn't know it scared you that bad." He said sarcastically, making me scoff and get off of his arm as quickly as I clinged to it. "Oh shut up. I just didn't expect it!" I say, making Jonathan fold his arms. "Yeah, I didn't expect it either, but I didn't jump on you." He says. I ignore him, and finish the movie in silence, and occasionally some more jumps from me, which made them both laugh. When the movie finished, Will looks at me, and laughs. "Yknow, you were the one who recommended a scary movie, and you jumped the whole time!" He says, laughing some more.

I scoff and state the obvious. "Not the whole time.." "Duh! You jumped on the jumpscares." He says, making me roll my eyes, "yeah, cuz they're called jumpscares!!" Jonathan joins in, chuckling. "The thing is, Harrington, neither me, or Will jumped, except you." He says. I turn to look at him, and scoff. "Well, uhm- that's because- uh- I just get scared easily!!" I say quickly. He randomly places a hand on my thigh, which makes my eyes widen and make my cheeks flush up with dark red. I jump slightly by the unexpected feel. "Oh, so you don't just get scared by jumpscares, but also by touch?" He says, as I shove his hand off of my thigh. "No- what?! You just put your hand on my thigh randomly! I wasn't scared, you just caught me off guard!" "yeah, sure." He says. Will groans, and grabs some snacks. "Guyssss! Stop arguing!! We are supposed to have fun." He says. I sigh, and glare at Jonathan. "Dont look at me like that, asshat." He says. I scoff, and I grab a handful of snacks. "So what do you want to do now, Will?" I ask. Will scratches his head, and shrugs.

I look back at Jonathan who's glaring at me, again. A lump forms in my throat. Will gasps, which makes us both jerk our heads to look at him. "I know I know!!" He exclaims. I lean my head in, as a gesture of interest. He smiles, and says "we could play Truth or Dare with a bottle!" Jonathan looks at him, and has a confused face. "How are we going to do that?" Will sighs, and starts to explain. "So bascially, we're gonna sit in a circle, and there's gonna be a bottle in the middle. Someone spins the bottle, and whoever it lands on, has to be asked truth or dare by the person who spun the bottle." We both nod in acceptance.

Jonathan's POV -

We start to get in a circle, me and Steve sit across from each other, while Will sits in the middle of us. He sits on my right, while on Steve's side, he sits on the left. I grab the bottle, and spin it.

After a few seconds of it spinning, it lands on my brother. Will looks at me. "Truth or Dare?" I ask. He thinks for a second, before saying Truth. I groan quietly, and think.

- a few rounds later -

Steve spins the bottle, and it lands on me. He grins, and asks me "Truth or Dare?" I say "Dare." with no hesitation.

Steve nods, and says "let me punch the fuck out of your stupid little face." My face scrunches, and I scoff. "that's against the rules, right Will?" I say, and Will shakes his head. "A dare is a dare, don't be a puss!" I groan, and get up. Steve gets up, and walks towards me.

Before he punches me, I pull his collar towards me, and whisper in his ear, "You'll pay for this, asshole." I can feel his cheeks get hot, for some reason. I pull away, getting ready to embrace, letting him punch me.

"Okay that's enough!" Will says, when my lip is bruised and bleeding, and I cough out a little blood. Steve walks back to his spot, as I sit back down. "I hate you, Harrington." I say.

"Glad to know that we're on the same page." He replys, with a fake smile.

I roll my eyes, and stand back up. "Im going to go clean up, and I'm done playing this game." It was already 1 AM. "You should go too, Steve." I say. Will nods, adding a simple "sadly." I roll my eyes, and start walking ahead to the bathroom to clean my face up. "Ugh. That son of a bitch got me good, I have to say." I say to myself, getting a paper towel, and ripping a piece off. I wet it, and place it on my lower lip, where he punched it. I dab it a few times, before throwing away the bloody, wet paper. I look into the mirror, and lean against the sink. "Ill get that motherfucker." I say, before washing my whole face.

Steve's POV -

"Well, its been.. Fun?" I say, unsure if it was actually fun or not. Will giggles slightly, and nods. "Ill see you tomorrow?" He asks, and I nod. "Well, ill be out buddy!" I say, smiling. Will mumbles something, which brings my attention to him once more. "What?" "Could you give me a hug before you go?" He asks more clearly. I smile and nod, hugging him. After a minute, we both let go, and I walk towards the front door, putting on my shoes.

Before I open the door, I see Jonathan walking out of the bathroom. He has a gash on his bottom lip. "Yikes." I think to myself. He looks straight at me with a death glare. Yup, he's definitely gonna kill me when Will isn't here.. Will waves before going to clean up the blankets and the snack crumbs. Which left me and Jonathan alone. He looks like he wants to say something, so I glare at him, before saying "What do you want? I'm about to go, so make it quick." He looks at me with the same death glare. I gulp, already feeling nervous. "Just wanted to say bye. Oh, thanks for giving me a fucking scar, asshole." He hissed, I grab onto the knob, before rolling my eyes. "Youre welcome, you weird, grumpy cat." I say, before turning around and turning the door knob.

Before I open the door, Jonathan grips my arm, squeezing it a little too hard. It makes me whimper quietly, "Dont call me that, you bastard." He says in a low voice. It makes me shiver, and he gets close to me, his body brushing against mine slightly, which makes my cheeks get hot. "You'll pay for this, soon." He whispers, in a husky voice. I have a slight feeling he felt my cheeks get hot, because he pulled away as soon as they did. He shoves me out of the house, and flips me off before slamming the door in my face. I was left in shock, and a little embarrassment. I gulp, and turn around, heading to my car.

I get in my car, and start driving back to my house, in which I get back to after around 20 minutes.

Jonathan's POV -

After Harrington left, me and Will had finished picking up the mess we had made. "Are you guys always gonna hate each other?" Will said to me. I shrugged. "Probably. He's an asshole, pretty sure nothing can change that." I say. "Well, that's what he is to you. To me, he's like a mom, or like a friend I've never had." He responds, looking at me. I look down. "Well he is a scaredy-cat. That's something we can both agree on." I chuckle. Will smiles and giggles. "Yup, we can definitely agree on that." He says, laughing. We both burst into laughter.

- A few minutes later -

Now that I think more about it, when I got close to him, to whisper a threat in his ear, I felt his cheeks get hot. Was he.. Blushing?

I keep thinking about him. The way he reacted, when I touched his thigh, when I shot death glares at him, he just blushed. Does he.. Like me? No. He couldnt. He's possibly the straightest guy in Hawkins. Plus, im dating Nancy, I shouldn't be thinking about him anyways. I hate him, and he hates me. We are on the same page for all I know.

Im probably just overthinking. He doesn't like me.

But what if he did.. No! Stop thinking about it, Jonathan. Jesus, im so done for.

To get the dirty thoughts out of my mind, I think more about what I'm going to do tomorrow to get revenge on him. I know he has work tomorrow, so I can stop by, and tell him I want to talk. Then when we get outside, behind the building, we can... Kiss.. No!! Why the hell would I think that- no. Ill beat his ass. Much better, why would I kiss him after he busted my lip open? He made a scar on my lip for fucks sake.

I finish thinking, and turn my body over, putting my hand under my pillow, and slowly go to sleep.

Narrator's POV -

The two boys drift off to sleep thinking about the same thing.

What exactly they were going to do the next day.