Massive Loser (s.h. x reader)
steve harrington x fem!reader
SUMMARY: your friends think you're a loser because you don't have a boyfriend. good thing Steve is such a great friend, because now you're going to the fair together as a couple.
CONTENT: fake dating trope, some cussing (i know, horrible), toxic friend, like jealous kind of toxic, no fake-dating-kissing BUT kissing at the end, mutual long-term crush, yearning, reader has a fear of heights, reader gets into a fight (it's a slap and then one punch), reader sneaks out and steals her dad's car
WORD COUNT: 5K
A/N: fake dating trope my favorite in the world.. <3 Sorry if the ending seems a little rushed! :(
ミ★
Steve had a bad feeling about this.
A weird, tiny mite in his stomach, eating away at him as he knocked on your door.
And he felt the mite bite at his insides when you opened it, a nervous smile greeting him. When you asked him to come over, your grainy voice over the phone held a similar nervousness, which was obviously never good.
You pulled him inside, then down the hall to your room.
"Hi, Steve, how have you been?" The way you asked was rushed, like you were saying "let's get the pleasantries out of the way, I have much more important things to talk about."
"Uh, fine-" Steve barely had a chance to answer before you decided it was time to get to the point.
"Okay, listen- and I feel horrible asking this, but uh," you ran a hand through your hair, resting it on the back of your neck, "I kind of really need you to pretend to be my boyfriend tonight." Steve raised his eyebrows in shock, then pinched them together in confusion. You continued before he could ask anything.
"Because I'm going out with my friends tonight because they were talking about a double date with their boyfriends and I felt left out so I for some reason said that I had a boyfriend and that probably came from the fact that I feel like a loser for not having a boyfriend but that's not important- the point is they're expecting me in two hours and you're my only guy-friend so please pretend to be my boyfriend just for tonight. Please."
Steve stared at you, eyes narrowed and lips parted, trying to make sense of your ramble. God, could you talk fast.
"A loser?" he repeated, squinting at you. The sigh that left you was more than exasperated, it was more like a groan.
"That's not the point!" You threw your hands up. "But yes, my friends think I'm a loser because I haven't had a boyfriend in years, and if they find out I lied about it then I'll be a huge, massive, major loser, Steve!"
Steve sighed, running a hand over his face, muttering something under his breath.
"Okay, fine. You owe me majorly."
You broke out in a relieved smile, your shoulders dropping their tension.
"Thank you." You gave him a quick hug, throwing your arms around his neck, and then pushed him aside to start digging through your closet.
---
You only realized what an utterly horrible idea this was once you saw your friends in the parking lot.
Asking Steve to do this seemed fine in the moment. You could keep your crush at bay for a few hours, you had done it countless times before.
But seeing your friends with their boyfriends, small kisses and arms linked, put things into perspective. You imagined acting like that with Steve. Your cheeks flushed. You realized there is no way that you'll be able think of anything other than your crush. And there is no way you're going to survive tonight.
You should've just cancelled and accepted that you're a boyfriendless loser.
Steve put the car in park, looking over to you.
"Ready?" he asked, in his stupidly sweet voice. He looked stupidly good, with his stupid hair and his stupidly tight polo shirt. You sighed.
"No."
You opened the door anyway, walking around to the front of the car. Steve took your hand. You felt warmth climb up your arm, settling on your cheeks. Maybe you would be able to disappear later in the crowd of the fair. Hopefully you could stay lost forever.
You walked up to your friends. One, Nicole, waved, a sweet smile on her face, but the other, Sarah, was too busy gawking at Steve. You shifted your feet nervously, then thought to introduce him.
"Uh, this is Nicole," you gestured to the shorter girl with glasses and blonde hair, "and Sarah." You moved your hand towards her, now noticing the almost-smirk on her face. You moved your hand to rest on Steve's shoulder. "And this is-"
"Steve Harrington," Sarah finished for you. You let out a nervous laugh, subconsciously squeezing his hand.
Steve nodded. "Nice to meet you guys." He squeezed back.
Nicole's boyfriend, Josh, introduced himself first, then Sarah's, who was new to you as well. His name was Chris, and he looked like he was already in his third year of college.
The six of you made your way into the fair, chatting about what to do first.
---
"Do you guys want to go on any rides tonight?" Nicole asked, already pulling her boyfriend to get a ride wristband.
"We can go on the ferris wheel, but I am not going on that spinning death trap." Sarah followed, her boyfriend next to her with his hand in her back pocket.
You and Steve were behind the group, still holding hands. You had gotten sort of used to it, and your heart started to slow and your face cooled down. But then you thought about how it felt too normal, and how you wished that this was normal, and that you could do it every day. And you were sent right back to square one.
You glanced up at Steve. He seemed perfectly fine. Of course he did.
But, you noticed, his eyes were flicking around. Like he couldn't decide on what to look at, or he felt uncomfortable looking at one thing for too long. You figured he was just nervous about meeting your friends, especially because Sarah knew him immediately. And knowing him meant knowing his reputation from high school. Which was never good.
You squeezed his hand again. He blinked and his eyes darted to you. He was definitely nervous. You offered him a soft smile. He smiled back, softer, before he seemed to snap out of something and his eyes darted back away. Weird.
The two of you walked up to the wristband vendor. You started to pull some cash out of your handbag, but before you could count it, Steve had already paid for two. He stepped to the side to let the people behind you pay for theirs, you followed to the side of the booth and held out the cash to him. He glanced up at you while he was trying to peel the paper off of the sticky part of the wristband, then shook his head and glanced back down.
"Put that back in your purse."
"Steve, it was like fifteen dollars."
"What kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you pay for your own stuff?" He said it so casually, your stomach did a flip. You cleared your throat.
"My friends aren't looking."
He scoffed, reaching for your wrist that was still extended towards him. He slipped the wristband around you, securing it. Then, he took the money out of your hand, and you were relieved for a second, only a second, before he grabbed the handbag hanging off your shoulder and stuffed the money back inside it.
"Not the point." He gave you a smile, wrapping his arm around your shoulders and guiding you back to your friends before you could protest any more.
---
"Ohmygoshhh Chriiiissss!!!!" Sarah squealed, dragging her boyfriend to the ring-toss game. She excitedly pointed up to a huge Woody the Woodpecker plush hanging limp from the very top of the booth. "You have to win this for me!" Chris chuckled, sauntering up to the carny and handing him a dollar. He looked back to Sarah cockily before he was handed his rings, and then proceeded to miss every toss. He grumbled about the game being rigged and stomped back to Sarah, who also pouted.
"I'll just buy you one from Toys 'R' Us," you heard Chris mumble. Sarah sighed, very audibly, before locking her eyes onto you and Steve.
She watched the two of you while Nicole's boyfriend had a go, successfully winning her a small cat plush with button eyes. Nicole rewarded him with a big kiss on the cheek, and you would've thought it was cute if you could focus on anything other than Sarah staring at you.
"Well! I think Steve should try now!" Sarah suddenly spoke up, sharp enough to make everyone jump.
You and Steve glanced at each other, that was weird, and he stepped up to the carny to give him a dollar.
"I was going to..." he muttered under his breath, pulling a smile and a soft chuckle from you. You were too focused on Steve now to notice Sarah's eye twitch.
Steve was a little clumsy at first, but he managed to land the very last ring, and the carny presented you with a small sock monkey.
It was simple, something cheap that the carnival could buy and make a huge profit off of. But it was your favorite color, with white accents where the heel and toes of the sock would've been, with one button eye and one stitched, the same white yarn used to stitch its wide smile that almost matched yours. You moved your free hand to hold Steve's again, looking up at him with a fondness that couldn't be fake, and you could swear that you could see it in his eyes, too.
You didn't get too much time to ponder it before Sarah was dragging everyone to the next activity, though.
---
The rest of the night was full of stupid moments that were full of you wishing you and Steve were actually dating.
Everyone got photo booth strips, and you could only think of how Nicole and Sarah were probably able to be all cute and cheesy with their boyfriends, and how cute it would've been to be able to get one of you and Steve kissing each other's cheeks. How nice it would've been if you and Steve were actually dating.
But you weren't.
Your photo strip consisted of unserious faces, seated what felt like a foot away from each other. Because you were just friends, and this was fake.
The ferris wheel was similar, for the most part. When it started off, you imagined being able to get into a gondola with Steve alone, no triple-date, just the two of you. On a single, real date. But that's not what this was, nor would it ever be, because the six of you all crammed onto one gondola and you and Steve weren't dating.
Luckily, you couldn't think about it for as long as you did in the photo booth, because the moment you were raised more than twenty feet off the ground all your thoughts were replaced by-
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod we're so high off the ground-"
-and you could only focus on staring at the floor of the gondola like a hypnotized chicken while you gripped the edge of the bench.
Steve's hand sliding over yours momentarily brought you out of your trance, and your eyes shot up to his. He gave you a sympathetic look, subtly lacing his fingers in between yours and scooting a little closer to you.
He had known about your fear of heights since the night the two of you were hanging out on the roof of his house. You both had crawled through the window onto the slanted roof, and his suspicion of your fear had started with how hesitant you had been to climb any higher. It had grown with how hesitant you had been to stand up fully or let go of the edge of the window. When you finally reached the top of the roof, you just sat with your knees pulled to your chest, rigid. Once you started scolding him for being "reckless," ("Steve, get away from the edge!" even though he was about five feet away from the edge, or "Jesus, Steve, sit down or you'll slip!" because he got up to grab another drink from the six-pack he brought up, which you were also very concerned about because he wouldn't have both hands free to catch himself) his suspicions were confirmed, and he learned to keep you away from heights.
He knew the ferris wheel would be a bad idea for you, but he couldn't think of an excuse for the two of you to slip away from it without possibly embarrassing you. So he opted for comforting you as best as he could while you were on it.
You moved your hand so you could properly hold Steve's, lacing your fingers more securely between his and squeezing it while you concentrated back on the floor.
The ferris wheel stopped spinning again, and you knew you were at the top from your friends gasps of amazement. You squeezed Steve's hand tighter. You expected him to squeeze back, but instead he gently removed his hand from your grip, bringing it to rest hesitantly on your waist, scooting a little closer to whisper to you.
"You should look at the view, just for a second." His voice was too sweet, too caring and too considerate, there was no way you wouldn't do whatever he told you to. You looked at him once for reassurance. He nodded. You took a deep breath, looking over the side of the gondola.
It was breathtaking, partly because of how high up you were, instilling brief panic straight to your heart, but partly because of just how beautiful it was. There seemed to be a million lights, all different colors and all jumping in different patterns. Looking down at the crowds of people, some alone, some with a large group of friends, some with just one special someone, you could hear thousands of voices, each on a different subject, each experiencing their own version of tonight.
Steve returned his hand to yours, and you gave it a squeeze once more, looking back to him as soon as the height got to be too much. He was already looking at you, the lights reflected in his eyes, you reflected in his eyes, with that same look from the ring-toss booth. Your breath hitched, and it felt like exactly what you wished for when you got on the ferris wheel. It felt like just the two of you, no Nicole, or Sarah, or their boyfriends, no life-threatening drop outside the rickety cart, and no fake-boyfriend scheme. If only.
The ferris wheel motor kicked back on, jolting you out of your dream and back into reality, a hundred feet in the air and hopelessly in love with your best friend.
Your eyes darted back to the floor.
---
Chatter filled the local diner, not loud, just filling, and your table was no exception. Nicole led most of the conversation, bringing everybody into it. She was good at making people feel included.
Yet, it seemed that her amazing friendship powers could not pull Sarah out of her shitty mood.
She had been especially condescending after the ferris wheel, and her weird funk had not let up at all since then. She had always been a little mean, ever since you met her, but tonight felt different. Something must be seriously bothering her, but you didn't want to put her on the spot in front of everyone, and you couldn't talk to her alone. You didn't want to leave Steve alone, even if he had been getting along fine with mostly everyone so far. They were still strangers, and you roped him into this, giving him barely two hours to prepare. You decided you could put up with Sarah's attitude for the rest of the night, and you would ask over the phone tomorrow, or something.
The conversation had died down a little, and Nicole's boyfriend was about to start another story before Sarah suddenly spoke up.
"So, Steve," she began, and already you were anxious. "How did you and Y/N meet?" Her voice was thick with some type of venom, too thick to cover up with the innocent tone she tried to slap over it.
"Uh, school, I guess, but-" Steve started, but was promptly cut off.
"Wow, so you've known each other for a while? How come you started dating?" You stomach turned. Sarah must've picked up on something. You could've sworn you and Steve were convincing enough. Maybe it was the lack of kissing?
"I mean, it's hard to just pinpoint one reason. It would be hard not to fall in love, she's amazing." Steve looked at you with a smile, and was about to continue before Sarah took the opportunity once again.
"Really? I mean, I don't want to be rude, I just feel like she's, I don't know, out of your league." You swallowed, chewing on the inside of your bottom lip. Her sickening, condescending smile was still stuck to her pinched face, and her very obviously fake innocent tone was still stuck to her snide comments.
You couldn't bear to look at Steve as an uncomfortable silence stretched across the table.
"...Sorry?" He sounded genuinely confused, almost baffled.
"I just mean that you're King Steve, and she's... well, she's not 'Queen Y/N,' you know?" Her voice was really starting to annoy you, it was stupidly high and just so annoying.
Steve was quiet for another few seconds.
"Well, Sarah, if anything, I'm out of her league. My reputation wasn't... great... in school, but Y/N helped me. Even still, I'm only a quarter the saint she is." For the first time, Sarah didn't cut Steve off. She took a minute to process his words and think of the absolute most snarkiest thing she could say back.
She snorted. "Well, I wouldn't say Y/N's a saint. A massive loser, maybe." Her shrill giggles snapped something in you, and your head came back up to look her dead in the eye.
"How long have you and Chris been dating again?" Your tone was firm enough to cut off her annoying laugh, and she looked at you almost offended, as if saying you wouldn't dare.
"Two weeks. How come?" She tilted her head, innocently, annoyingly, again trying to intimidate you in the pathetic way she intimidated everybody else.
"Wondering how long it'll be before you break up with him. A week? Oh, but, you took him to the fair, so maybe by Wednesday." You started out feigning the same innocence as her before dropping into sarcasm, frowning as you held eye contact.
You could see her act immediately drop. Her eye twitched and she clenched her jaw. She didn't say anything for a while, nobody did, and you took the chance to get her back again. It seemed that Steve gave you the confidence, just by being there.
"Sorry, did I ruin the surprise?" You pretended to pout.
At that, Sarah stood up, pushing back her chair with a screech that sounded all to much like her voice.
"What is wrong with you?!" she screamed, her hands balled into fists. Half of the other customers in the diner went silent.
You couldn't push back your anger anymore, and you stood up too, still looking her in the eyes.
"What's wrong with you?!"
She rounded the table in short, furious steps, and stopped just short of you, slapping you clean across the face. You heard the other chairs scraping across the floor, and could see Steve stumbling forward towards you, but you paid no attention. Your mind blurred and before you could think about it you landed a swift right hook straight into her cheekbone. You weren't strong by any means, but neither was she, and she stumbled back, catching herself on the table. Before she could get back up, Steve was pushing you away and an employee was already at the table, kicking everybody out.
---
The car ride back to your house was dead quiet, other than the hum of the engine, which somehow made the silence even worse. You couldn't tell what Steve was thinking. You had been watching him out of the corner of your eye for most of the drive so far, but he was stone-faced, and he hadn't said a word since "get in the car."
You looked back to the dark road in front of you. Your cheek still stung a little, but not as bad as the ache in your knuckles. There was a soft purple blooming through your middle knuckle already, and you were sure that in the morning it would be worse. Some adrenaline was still swimming through your veins, kept alive by the anxiety the silence was causing. You ran your hand over the forming bruise, pressing on it gently, and pain sprouted back up. You sucked in a breath through your teeth.
Steve eased to a stop in front of your house. You thought that was good. If he was mad, he probably would've slammed on the breaks.
You went to open the door when Steve stopped you, grabbing your shoulder. Your stomach sank. He cleared his throat.
"Can we talk?" His voice was low and careful, and you couldn't tell what it meant. You thought you would be good at reading him by now, but evidently, you were not.
You sank back into the passenger seat, letting out a slow exhale to hopefully prepare yourself for whatever he would say.
"Tonight was really fun. I'm sorry that Sarah is a... well, for lack of a better word, a bitch. Whatever she said tonight, or apparently before tonight, she said because she's jealous of you. Even I was able to pick up on that, it was so obvious. So just, um, don't listen to her, she's wrong."
You looked at him with an unreadable expression, blank and slightly wide-eyed. He swallowed and took his hand off your shoulder.
"..What?"
"You- you're not gonna mention the... fight..?"
He looked at you for a second, then shook his head.
"No, no, she deserved that. I just wanted you to know that I think you're great."
"Oh." Your heart started to finally slow. Thank God. Why was he so quiet the whole drive? Just over him wanting to reassure you?
"And, I meant everything I said at the diner," he continued, looking at you intently.
You stared back, trying to figure out if there was something you were missing. Why did he seem so nervous about this? You tilted your head slightly. You just couldn't make sense of it.
"Okay," you nodded slowly. "Thanks, Steve. You're great, too. Especially great, for pretending to be my boyfriend, and standing up for me, and everything. Paying for my tickets. You know. Thank you," you awkwardly spewed out, Steve's evident nervousness rubbing off on you.
You both stared at each other for a while, until Steve finally looked away, down to his lap.
"Yeah," he seemed a little disappointed, which he realized and fixed his tone as he looked back to you. "Yeah, no problem." He fixed a smile to his face.
You took this as the end of the conversation, awkwardly opening the door and getting out of the car.
"Okay. Thanks again, I owe you big time. Goodnight, Steve," you said, walking backwards to your front door.
Steve nodded. "Night."
He made sure you made it inside before pulling away.
---
You couldn't sleep.
You tried, so hard, but you had thought about how weird Steve was acting while you were getting ready for bed, and still couldn't place your finger on it. And now, you were laying on your back, staring up at your dark ceiling like the answer would be spelled out in the shallow dips of the plaster. It felt like it should be obvious, but it just wouldn't come to you.
Frustrated, you rolled over, looking at the sock monkey he won you. You pulled it off of your nightstand, holding it between your arms.
You started the night over again in your head. Maybe you could remember something he said or did that stuck out. Or maybe you should be looking for something that didn't stick out.
You sighed, hugging the sock monkey tighter.
The diner must be important. That was really where everything happened. You went over every line of conversation you could remember, which wasn't a lot. Then you got to Sarah making backhanded comments about you. What had Steve said? We met in school. That was normal, nothing interesting about that. Then Sarah asked why the two of you were dating. He had said something like It was hard not to, she's so amazing. Then he had gone on about how you had made him a better person, something about saints-
It would be hard not to fall in love, she's amazing.
You shot up, the sock monkey falling to the side of you.
That's what he was talking about. How he meant everything he had said. You knew you weren't remembering incorrectly, because you remember exactly how your stomach turned as you wished it was real. But it was real. He did mean it. And he told you he meant it and you sat there staring at him like an idiot!
You pressed the heel of your palms into your eyes, swearing a string of curses at yourself, before realizing you had to do something about this, and you flung your bedsheets off of you, speed-walking down the hall to the phone.
You squeezed the handle as you pressed the receiver to your ear, your eyes squeezed shut as you prayed to whatever higher-power out there that Steve would pick up.
The phone finally stopped ringing, but instead of Steve's voice greeting you, the dial tone mocked you with it's flat laugh. You hung the phone back up, threading your fingers into your hair and pulling at it. You couldn't wait to call him back in the morning. Calling him was a bad idea anyway, your parents would definitely wake up and hear you.
Your eyes flicked to the keys hanging by the front door. Immediately, you reached for them, before you took a second to consider.
You had your license, you could drive, legally. But, you hadn't driven much, because your dad wouldn't let you drive his car without him. But you couldn't just wait until tomorrow.
You looked back to your parents bedroom. What would they do if they found out you took your dads car in the middle of the night? Ground you, definitely. Maybe for up to a month. But...
You cringed as the engine sputtered on. There was no way that didn't wake your parents up, so you had to be quick in getting out of there. You reversed onto the street, almost hitting the trash cans on the curb, then sped off.
---
You pounded on the door of the Harrington's house. Luckily, Steve's parents didn't decide this would be the one night they would be home. You knocked and knocked until you heard Steve shout out "Jesus, I'm coming!"
A second later the door swung open, Steve standing behind it in his pajamas, sleepy and annoyed.
"Y/N?" His annoyance shifted to confusion. "How did you..." he looked around until he found your dad's car, parked crooked against the curb, and his eyebrows raised.
"Steve," his eyes fell back on you, ready for an explanation. It was then you realized you didn't once think of what you were going to say when you got to his house and woke him up at one in the morning. "Uh..."
"Are you okay?" His eyes flicked over you.
"Yes, yes I'm fine, I just- um, when you said, earlier in the car, when you dropped me off, and you said that you meant what you said in the diner."
His eyes widened slightly and his mouth dropped open to explain himself, but you continued before he could, before you could lose your nerve.
"And, at first, I didn't get what you meant- well, I understood on a basic level but I didn't get what you were really, specifically talking about until, like, thirty minutes ago, which is why- no, nevermind, the point is, I realized that you were talking about that one thing you said to Sarah."
You stopped for just a second, Steve's mouth had closed during your ramble, but it didn't open again. Which you took as you misinterpreting the entire thing, which meant that you just stole your dad's car at one in the morning to drive all the way to Steve's house to wake him up and look crazy for no reason. So your mouth opened again instead and you kept rambling.
"Unless you really didn't mean anything by it and I'm really just overthinking the whole thing because I punched somebody and I'm going crazy-"
"Y/N," Steve cut you off, and you held your breath. "You're not crazy."
"Oh." You pressed your lips together. "Good. So you..."
Steve squeezed his eyes shut. Nodded once.
"Yeah."
There was silence for a second.
"Can you just say it? So I know we're really on the same page?"
Steve sighed.
"I... am in love with you."
You stayed silent, processing it, pinching yourself to make sure you weren't dreaming. You weren't.
Steve took your silence as rejection, and started trying to explain himself.
"I tried to stop it, I couldn't. I've got it bad. I'm sorry."
You shook your head frantically.
"No, don't apologize! Steve, I stole my dad's car just to hear you say that." You gestured to the poorly parked car behind you.
Everything very visibly clicked in Steve's mind at once, his mouth hanging open with a slow inhale. His eyes drifted across your face, trying to pick up on any hint of insincerity, but he couldn't find it. Then, he was very obviously staring at your lips, and his mouth closed so he could swallow.
"I love you too."
The sentence was barely out of your mouth when he kissed you, your lips meeting before he even remembered to move his hands, one sliding onto your jaw and the other settling for your hip. He didn't need to pull you closer, you did that yourself, pressing your hands onto his shoulders.
He pulled away for just a second, "Sorry- I couldn't-" planted another, messy kiss to your lips, "I've waited for too long." He didn't give you a chance to respond before he returned his desperate contact, not that you minded. There had been too much talking tonight, too much pretending, and you had also waited way too long for this.
When your legs started to get weak, and when the two of you had to breathe, you finally pulled away. The two of you stared at each other for a little, flushed and breathless.
"Do you want to spend the night?" Steve breathed, excited like this was the first love he'd ever experienced.
You laughed. "I can't. I have to take my dad's car back."
He glanced over to said car again, still holding you, before slowly shaking his head.
"...Yeah, I'm not letting you drive back by yourself."