Chapter Text
(Sunday 2nd November 1986)
Steve woke up with a start.
He was in the back of his car staring up at the ceiling, he glanced around with a frown. What the hell happened to me? He sat up, which turned out to be a mistake because that’s when the pain hit him and he lay back down with a groan. Everything hurt...and he meant everything. He reached up to press the heel of his hands into his eyes, his head was pounding. God, what the hell was he drinking last night?....Wait, what was he even doing last night?
Steve squinted up at the roof of his car as he tried to remember the night before, but he was drawing a blank. The last thing he could remember was dropping Max off at her new (and improved thanks to secret government hush money) trailer, next door to Eddie’s. It was Halloween, the kids had all been trick-or-treating and Steve was the obligatory chauffeur, dropping them all off at home.
Steve parked the car in front of Eddie’s trailer and Max flipped him off with a smirk, as he yell after her for slamming the car door. Eddie shouted after her “Listen to your Mom!” And cackled when Steve rolled his eyes at the nickname. He couldn’t really be mad at her, not after everything she had been through with Billie and Vecna. He was honestly just happy she was feeling well enough to sass him. He could have done without being called the ‘Mom’ of the group though. “Eddie, dude, c’mon your supposed to be on my side when it comes to the Gremlins!”
"Ha, no way Harrington! I am but a mere servant to our young charges! Whatever titles they deem us with, shall be gratefully received!” The other boy smirked and commented in his usual dramatic fashion, complete with hand movements to match.
Steve couldn’t help but chuckle in response. Who would have thought that ‘King Steve’ would end up being friends with Eddie ‘The Freak’ Munson? Let alone best friends. After Vecna, Eddie had quickly made his way up the list to join Dustin & Robin as Steve’s most important people. Whilst he knew he would die to protect anyone of the group, those three were like separate parts of his soul.
Eddie stood up from his trailer’s stoop and made his way over to the car with a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth. He leaned down to talk to Steve through the driver’s side window about the latest campaign he was planning for Hellfire, “..and then, they’re going to collectively lose their shit as I reveal who the big bad is!”
The pause in his speech made Steve feel compelled to ask, “And who is the big bad?”
“Ha! It will be….Ashardon!”
“….I’ve literally no idea what you just said.”
Eddie threw back his head and laughed, “I know you don’t. But there is nothing more entertaining than telling Henderson that you know what’s going to happen in campaigns and then watching him try to quiz you. I thought I was going to get a hernia from laughing that time I just told you a bunch of nonsense words.”
Steve gave Eddie a flat look, “Yeah, I remember that too. I though Dustin was going to have an aneurism he got so worked up!” He couldn’t help but smile though, in retrospect it had been pretty funny, even if Steve was an unwitting participant in the prank, "I had better head out, I’ll see you on Wednesday at the Wheelers?”
“Not if I see you first Stevie Boy,” he said back with a wink.
Steve turned the car around and waved to the Eddie as he left the trailer park. He was driving back into town down Madison Street and he turned left onto Maple…. and then… there’s nothing.
His memory was blank.
He sat up slowly this time and took in his surroundings. He was at Lovers Lake. What the hell? He thought to himself. After the events of last spring they had all taken to avoiding Lovers Lake, even during the hot summer months, they would usually go to the Quarry or to Steve’s pool for swimming. Too many memories and nightmare associated with this place.
Also, the fact that he was parked in one of Hawkins’ top ‘makeout spots’ was bizarre. Steve hadn’t been on a date since before Spring Break. After Vecna, he had reassessed how he wanted his life to go. He had spoken to Nancy and apologised if he had said anything misleading - he didn’t want her in a romantic way.
He did love her, but as a best friend, he was not in love with her. And Nancy had smiled and said the exact same thing. Besides, there was someone else who was catching his eye. A certain someone with long dark hair, a love of questionable music and an absolute nerd who created epic fantasy battles for their apparent ‘kids’. They were also distinctly not-a-girl which was something Steve did not want to analyse at this moment.
He lifted his arm to look at his watch which was when he first noticed the bruises. They were everywhere. Wrapping up and around his arms, red sore skin to match, as if ropes had been tied around him. Steve was still dressed in his Marty Mcfly costume from Halloween the night before, he lifted his T-shirt to see bruises on his stomach and on his hips, peeking out from the top of his pants. At that moment he realised just how dishevelled his clothes were and how they didn’t feel like they had been put on right. He also realised he was sore, sore in a place he hadn’t been sore before.
Did he? ….had he had sex last night? Had he had sex with a man and not remembered? No, there was no way. He had never slept with a man before. It was only recently, with thoughts of Eddie (and with Robin’s encouragement) that he had even thought about having sex with a man. He may have experimented a little at home on his own when having some ‘alone time’, where he would reach down with his fingers and push into himself. And he can’t deny that the discomfort he was feeling at the moment was similar to that, but like a much more extreme and painful version of the aftermath.
Steve started to feel an icy pool of dread in his gut. He wasn’t stupid. He could see what all of the signs were pointing too. He couldn’t remember last night, he had woken up with unexplained bruises and he felt…violated. Had he been rap-NO.
Steve shut that thought down before it had even fully formed. He didn’t want to even think that word. He would know. He would know if that had happened to him. Right?
Steve took in a deep breath and shakily blew it out before looking at his digital watch. 17.03 02/11 SUN was blinking on the display. Wait, Sunday?
Halloween had been on Friday night. The last thing he can remember happened on Friday night. He’s lost two days. Nearly 40 hours of time where he doesn’t know what happened. Steve suddenly lurched to open the car door and vomited into the grass. Not much came up, mostly bile, but he continued heaving several times. It did nothing for the headache he had. When his body stopped trying to expel his empty stomach he couldn’t stop the sobs that escaped. What the fuck happened to me?
He took a few deep breaths to get himself under control and got back into the front of the car, resting his head on the steering wheel. He raised a shaking hand and wiped it over his face and mouth. He turned on the radio to hear something other that his own heartbeat and panicked breathing. Since Vecna the whole group had taken to carrying their favourite tapes around and someone usually had a Walkman handy. It reassured them.
A Metallica song started playing out of the speakers, left by Eddie on a previous car ride. He often left his tapes in Steve’s car and Walkman as he was “Trying to educate you Stevie, on the wonders of metal”. In all honesty Steve didn’t care what noise was coming from the speakers right now he just needed something to focus on.
He lent back in the seat and let the sounds of the music wash over him as he took deep breaths to try to calm his racing heart. He still couldn’t remember anything. It was like a black hole had swallowed his memories of the last forty something hours. He sat there until his breathing was back under control and his heart didn’t feel like it was going to burst out of his chest. He started the car and began to drive back to his empty house.
What the hell happened to me?