LIKE I CAN ━ Steve Harrington ✓

12 - SQUIRM

SQUIRM

GRAYSON STROLLED INTO THE TWIN'S HOUSE, running up the stairs and falling down onto Elise's bed, causing her to jump. He had walked around town, stopping by the gas station to clean up his very bloody nose before coming there once school was out. There was so much to tell and he needed to make sure both of the girls were up to date.

"Boys..." he began, squinting his eyes as he thought, "...are confusing. And also the worst."

"What happened?" Emma peeked her head into the doorway before entering and closing the door behind her, "Also, your nose looks broken, did you wanna get that checked out?"

With a shrug, he poked his nose where he got punched. He didn't feel any extreme pain and he couldn't afford hospital bills, so he was just going to live with it. He felt more energized and revitalized than he had in a long time. He couldn't remember the last time he was this happy about something.

"It's probably fine, do you guys wanna know what happened?" Both girls nodded eagerly. "Okay, so, I'm just walkin' around town brooding, you know, as one does. I didn't feel like going to school because my life has been a hot mess lately. Anyway, I see Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers and I'm like, 'okay, weird couple, but that's not my business' and then I see some very sexist graffiti directed towards Ms. Wheeler and she sees it, too! So, she finds Tommy, Steve, Carol, and Nicole in an alley. Tommy is pressuring Steve into doing mean stuff because Steve saw Nancy with Jonathan the night before, I'm pretty sure. I don't know, I wasn't really listening, but the whole thing was really entertaining. Anyway, words are thrown and then Jonathan tries to walk away and I'm like 'oh, damn, this got boring," but then Tommy brought me into it and now they all know that Steve and I were, like, definitely a thing—"

"Hold on," Elise interrupted, "How can you say that so casually? Tommy's an asshole, he's gonna tell the whole school probably! How did he even find out?"

Grayson shrugged, "I don't know, but that doesn't matter because he knows. Carol was surprisingly calm about it, which was unexpected. Anyway, so they brought me into the mess even though I was just trying to spy on them and get some entertainment. So, Steve is like, totally egging Jonathan on, it's kinda hot when he's all tough like that—"

"Really, Gray? That's the one detail you're going to give us?" Emma raised her eyebrow disapprovingly.

"It's important!" he argued before continuing on, "Anyway, Jonathan whips around and punches Steve. It was really bad form, but I don't think that Byers kid has ever interacted with any human before, like ever, so I'll give 'em that. Steve fights back and a whole thing breaks out. I tried to get in the middle and get them apart, but I just got caught in the crossfire and Jonathan nailed me in the nose, hence the broken-looking nose and blood on my shirt. And then, the fight is in full motion and the cops come."

"Grayson!" Elise spoke in a chastising tone, "Why do you keep getting mixed up in bad shit?"

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, but I didn't get arrested, did I? I'm fine and I definitely will keep getting mixed up in bad shit. Stop interrupting me, you want the full story and then you don't let me finish."