SATELLITE [STEVE HARRINGTON]

the pact

warning: brief mentions of domestic violence !

"WHAT? OH, STEVE— DUMP HER ASS."

Across from Steve, Ginny picked at what remained of the cheeseburger Steve bought her. She'd said she'd pay if he drove, but Steve was way too drunk— so she stole Roger's ugly pick up truck.

Ginny knew he never locked the cab, and that he kept his key jammed under the steering wheel. So Ginny drove them to the nearest diner and Steve bought her a burger.

"It's... it's not that simple, though." He sighed and took a bite of his. "Why would she entertain it this long if she didn't— you know, feel... something for me."

"She's blaming you for Barb's disappearance," Ginny clarified, frowning. "No one knows what happened to Barb, but she's blaming you? You're gonna put up with that shit?"

To be clear, Ginny liked Nancy, she always had. She had this fire to her that Ginny thought was the cherry on top of her awesome, girl-power personality. However, she didn't like what Nancy did to Steve. 

Only, Ginny didn't know the full story. That's what nudged Steve into silence as he chewed. Ginny didn't know what actually happened to Barb, and how it happened at his house, right under his nose.

She didn't know that Barb wasn't just gone— she was dead.

"Were you friends with Barb?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Ginny shrugged and drew a smiley face with her fries and ketchup. "Not really... I mean, I'm kinda friends with Nance, because of our brothers and we're neighbors..." She scratched out the smiley face with the tip of her fry. "I knew Barb, but not well. We did an art project together once freshman year... She's one of the only genuinely nice people to ever exist."

Steve watched her carefully as she took a sip of her coke. "You're one of those people."

Ginny lifted her gaze to meet his and she laughed. "That's sweet, but... I was minutes from impaling Roger with the lightning bolt from Hank's Zeus costume." She raised her burger gleefully. "If not for you, Harrington, and this glorious cheeseburger, I'd probably be in jail right now."

Steve snorted, looking down at his own food. He wondered, though, why she was here with him. Why she stuck around at all. They weren't friends, they'd made that clear. Maybe she wanted a free burger and fries, maybe she was a little drunk, too. Maybe she did care.

Either way, he was glad she was here. Nancy's words ringing in his head would've hurt a lot more without Ginny there.

"Okay, so... Why're you upset? Why do you care if Lily goes with that douchebag? It's her loss, right?" he asked, taking a bite of his food and watching her as she tried to respond.

She sighed. "I... It's like, betrayal in the highest form, right? It's one thing to sleep with your best friend's ex—" she raised one red nailed finger. "It's a whole other thing because she knows Roger was the way he was... It feels like she's on his side, now. Like... she never actually cared about what he did to me."

Steve lowered his cup. "What... did he do to you, exactly?"

It was toe-ing the line of stupid question. She'd already told him Roger was manipulative and mentally abused her almost every day. And, frankly, it was none of Steve's business. But, even with the risk of pressuring her too much to share, he knew there was something else to it.

Ginny sighed and shed the leather jacket covering her shoulders. All she wore underneath, a blood red tube top.

Steve tried not to stare at her collar bone and the smooth skin of her neck (god, he's so drunk), as Ginny turned over her arm.

The skin on the underside of her forearm was smooth and a lighter sepia than the skin on the tops of her arms. She reached for his hand and dragged his fingers to a spot just below her elbow, where a jagged silver scar marred the skin.

"I only let him get physical one time, before I kicked his ass to the street," Ginny said softly. "I might have deserved some of the yelling, some of the blame game... But I know I didn't deserve this. So I drew the line, and I made him obey it."

Steve pulled his hand away. His problems seemed inconsequential, then. He knew that's not the effect she wanted to give him— he did ask what Roger did, to be fair— but it hurt to know what she'd gone through, how she was brave enough to dump the asshole who hurt her physically.

Steve wasn't even brave enough to dump the girl who called him bullshit in the bathroom of Tina's house.

"It's the principle of it," she said with a scarily nonchalant shrug. "My best friend fucking my abusive ex... Now that's bullshit."

Steve laughed and shook his head.

Ginny grinned. "Aw, there's that famous Harrington smile... Wow, Tina was right— I  can totally see my reflection in those teeth."

He tried to ignore her teasing, but her laugh drew a wider smile onto his face, until he was laughing too.

When they finally settled, Ginny sat forward. "Look... Let's make a pact."

Steve raised an interested eyebrow.

Ginny didn't care if she was being weird. She smiled at him. "Our pact— I don't crawl back to Lily or Roger, you don't crawl back to Nancy. We can forgive them if we want, since we're obviously superior— but, we keep each other in check."

She nods her head. "Make sure the other doesn't go begging. We start fresh, Harrington." She raised an eyebrow, and extended her pinky finger. "Deal?"

Eyes focused on the red nail of her finger, Steve's soft smile slowly formed. He clasped his own finger around hers, and nodded.

"Deal."

a/n:

really short chapter but here's sort of the premise of what starts steve and ginny's relationship ; ) 

I just really think that steve is a simp for powerful women 

so this will be filled of simp-y steve bc ginny's a badass who stole her ex's car and he thinks that's cool 

leave a comment and let me know what you think so far!