This gets even better if the Corroded Coffin boys notice how jealous Eddie is and start seeking Steve’s attention on purpose, just to piss Eddie off.
They are leaving the school after another session and Steve is there to pick up the kids. Jeff and Gareth run towards him to chat and joke and Eddie is silently fuming behind them, face so red Dustin asks him if he has a fever.
Then, they run into Robin and Steve at the diner and the boys light the hell up; throw themselves all over Steve, hug him, ask him and Robin to join them. Eddie bites his own tongue so hard that he tastes blood.
Jeff and Steve find out both of them love baking and bond over it. Gareth comes to practice one day and says he ran into Steve at the grocery store and the guy told him he used to play the piano when he was a kid. Freak, Steve and Robin go to the movie theatre every week to watch rom-coms and bad horror movies.
It’s Steve this, and Steve that, and did you know that Steve can hold his breath underwater for over two minutes?
“Fine! I get it, Harrington is fucking incredible, now can we stop wasting our times talking about him and focus on practicing?” Eddie snaps after a few weeks.
“Are you jealous because you’re the only one who isn’t friends with Steve?” Jeff taunts.
Eddie packs his guitar and leaves without saying a word.
It’s all fun and giggles until Steve notices something is going on.
He starts noticing Eddie’s sour expression whenever he shows up, the thick tension in the room when Steve is talking to one of the guys.
And of course that, being who he is, Steve starts to get self-conscious about his friendship with the boys. He starts feeling bad, thinking that he’s overstepping some boundary he wasn’t aware of and that his presence is unwanted.
One night, Steve doesn’t show to pick the kids up.
“He said he had some kind of date, I think,” Mike shrugs.
He also doesn’t show when their next session comes, or the next.
“I guess his folks are in town,” Dustin says.
“Maybe he’s sick?” Lucas suggests.
When Jeff, Gareth and Freak go all the way to Family Video the following day, Steve is polite and entertains them for a few minutes before making up some bullshit excuse and disappearing into the backroom.
They can’t help but be disappointed.
“What did you think would happen?” Eddie retorts when he hears his friends discussing the matter. “It’s King Steve. It was just a matter of time before he got bored of playing the nice guy and moved on to whatever the fuck he does to entertain himself.”
“I don’t think that’s the case,” Freak disagrees. “He looked really happy to see us yesterday, but he was also kinda nervous. It was weird.”
“Yeah, he was nervous because someone could walk in and catch him talking to a bunch of losers.”
“Man, this tsundere shit was cute when it first started, but now it’s just pissing me off,” Gareth snaps. “If you’re angry at yourself because you can’t accept the fact that you like Steve Harrington, of all people, that’s your problem. But you’re not gonna talk shit about the guy when he’s been nothing but cool and very fucking considerate to all of us since the kids joined Hellfire.”
“Whatever your problem is, you gotta get over it, man,” Jeff nods. “This attitude got old really fast.”
Needless to say, they don’t practice that day either.
Steve stays absent for the rest of the week, and every time they’re leaving the school after yet another session and the man is not there waiting for the kids, Eddie can feel his friends’ eyes on him; judging and accusing.
As if Harrington’s disappearance is his fault somehow.
Two weeks later, Eddie runs into Harrington at the convenience store. Eddie sees the moment the guy notices his presence and tries to sneak out without talking to him, but he’s not having that.
“Hey, Harrington, stop right fucking there,” Eddie calls after him.
He looks like a deer caught in headlights.
“Where the hell have you been, huh? Did you decide that Jeff, Gareth and Freak aren’t worth your time anymore and forgot to inform them? Is that it? My friends aren’t cool enough for you?”
“What are you talking about?” Harrington asks, confused.
“You spent weeks being all kind and friendly, made my friends like you and get attached and then vanished as if it had never happened! What’s your problem, dude?”
“My prob—I don’t have a problem. You have a problem. With me. I saw how mad you got every time I was around your friends’, Munson, what did you expect me to do? They were your friends first, I didn’t want to overstep, so of course I disappeared. I know when my presence is unwanted.”
Eddie definitely wasn’t expecting that. He also wasn’t expecting to feel guilty about it. But as Harrington stands there, surrounded by instant ramen cups and other noodles, that’s exactly how Eddie feels. He also feels his heart tug a little when he notices Harrington’s eyes look too shiny.
“You know what, I really gotta go. It was nice seeing you, Munson.”
Eddie’s so shocked that it takes him a moment to realize Harrington is going away.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” he sprints after the guy, panicked, and grabs his arm.
“I’m sorry, okay? I let my jealousy get the best of me and acted like a dick.” Harrington doesn’t utter a single word, and Eddie sighs in defeat. “I wasn’t mad at you for befriending the boys, I was kinda jealous because they became your friends so easily when I couldn’t find a way to approach you at all, even though I really wanted to.”
Harrington’s surprised face is kinda stupid, but also cute. “You mean—”
“That I got angry because I wanted to be your friend and didn’t know how, not because you we’re bonding with my other friends.”
They’re both quiet for a while; Harrington watching him with this thoughtful expression that makes his lips do this cute little pout, while Eddie doesn’t know what to do with his arms, so he crosses them in front of his chest and wonders if he should just leave now that he’s already explained things.
“Do you still want to?” Harrington asks after a minute or two.
“Be friends, yes. Do you still want to be friends with me?”
The guy beams at Eddie. “Cool! We can be friends.”
Eddie dutifully ignores the fluttering in his chest, but he smiles back just as big.
The next Hellfire meeting, Jeff, Gareth and Freak literally cry when they see Steve there, and they’re all over him before he can even greet them.
