Chapter Text
You guess you could say this story started with a party at the end of your eighth grade year, your first real, unsupervised party of boys and girls. It would be the first of many parties that would be thrown in the coming High School years, and it’s also the party that really defined the events that would happen in your Junior year of high school.
An hour before the party started, you got ready with the person who was throwing this party and one of your best friend’s at the time, Tina Cline. You were styling each other’s hair and Tina was throwing you a bunch of clothes for you to wear, but also taking back some clothes that she wanted to wear instead.
“I’ll just wear the first skirt you threw at me,” you told her after the third time she took a shirt from you. You took a look at yourself in the mirror admiring the black mini-skirt your parents would’ve told you to change out of if you left the house in it. It wasn’t yours, nor was it Tina’s, it was her sister’s skirt who luckily would be gone for the night. You fixed your pink and white horizontal striped shirt, nodding approvingly at your own outfit.
“Oh- you look- wait, I have something that’ll match,” Tina tossed the clothes she also pulled out of her sister’s closet onto the bed with the others, and went to her vanity, digging through a white box. She pulled out a light pink small hair clip, and handed it to you, “I’m wearing the matching purple one! See!” she pointed to the purple clip in her hair, and you grinned. You used the clip to bump up your hair a little more and nodded- happy with your party outfit.
It was silly thinking back on how much you tried to look more grown-up for that party, helping Tina raid her sister’s closet, and make up box. You both even attempted to get alcohol but deciding against it last minute- “There will be future parties, anyway,” Tina had said, stashing the bottle back underneath the kitchen sink where her parents hid it. There was really nothing you were expecting to happen at this particular party, except maybe finally getting seen as more than a friend by the person you really liked .
That person was your real best friend, someone you’ve known since you first moved to Hawkins all those years ago, Jonathan Byers. Your friendship bloomed on your very first day at Hawkins Elementary during lunch. You had seen him sitting all alone underneath a tree eating a sandwich, and something told you to sit there with him. It took quite a bit of time, but soon you two became friends, then to best friends, and then...well you sort of fell for him not too long after. So yeah- maybe what you were expecting is for Jonathan to see you like this, and to realize how much he actually loves you back- then maybe he would sweep you off your feet where then you two would go on to be one of the best and cutest couples all throughout high school.
It was a crazy fantasy, but a girl could dream.
“Look!” Tina held up a top hat that she had stolen from her younger brother’s magic kit, “Perfect for Seven Minutes in Heaven!” You felt your cheeks heat up at the thought of that game, do you really need to explain the rules? A generic party game where two people go into the closet and do whatever they want for seven full minutes, “You just- I don’t know kiss and stuff,” you recalled Tina explaining during lunch the day before, longingly looking at another person in your friend group- Steve Harrington. If you had it bad for Jonathan Byers, Tina had it worse for Steve Harrington. And everyone knew it. Luckily, no one knew about your crush on Jonathan- but they only knew Tina’s crush because she had practically announced it.
Steve Harrington was a good-looking kid, and would grow into any even more good-looking teenager, he was stupid cute. If you weren’t hung up Jonathan, you might’ve also crushed on him like Tina and so many other girls did. You met him first when he moved to Hawkins the middle of seventh grade, and was the reason he was apart of your small group. Tina started crushing on him the day you introduced her to him, and word around school was Steve liked her back. You wonder what that was like. Anyway, Tina's miraculous plan was to rig the game of Seven Minutes in Heaven so she and Steve could go into the closet together to solidify their relationship, and being a good friend- you were hoping it would work.
“So what I’m going to do is put my hair clip into the hat right in front of him, and maybe...wink? Oh- would that be too forward?” Tina was going on as she held up clothes to her body and then tossing them when she didn’t like it. You didn’t really hear her- but that was because the doorbell rang, “Wait! People can’t come yet!” Tina called as you slammed her bedroom door open.
“No it’s just Jonathan- I told him to come a little earlier,” you said, and Tina hummed in response, going back to finding the perfect outfit. With your heart beating out of your chest you zoomed down the stairs towards the front door. You stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath, and looking down at your outfit once more. You then pat down your hair, and opened the door, a large grin on your lips when you saw him. He smiled sheepishly at you.
“Hey (y/n),” he said, you blushed as you stepped forward to give him a hug and tried to discreetly pose, which was literally just standing up more straight and sucking in your stomach a little tighter. To your dismay Jonathan didn’t comment or even acknowledge your look, and simply walked by you as he asked when the others would arrive.
Your heart dropped slightly. It’s okay, you thought optimistically, there’s still time.
***
“Okay girls! Game time! Put something of yours into this hat!” Tina announced midway through the party, waving the empty hat in the air. All the girl’s participating began to remove something of theirs, such as earrings, bracelets, scrunchies- whatever they wanted. You were sitting on the couch with Jonathan, and asked him, “Are you going to play?” He looked up, then shook his head, you frowned in disappointment, but you guessed it was for the best- there’s a chance he would have to go in with another girl and not you.
“Are you?” he asked, you pressed your lips together in thought- a part of you really wanted to play, but another part of you didn’t want to because Jonathan wasn’t going to play, but then Tina put the hat in your face.
“Come on (y/n), you said you’d play remember? And we need one more girl, including me, so it’ll be even, come on,” she shook the hat impatiently, and you shot Jonathan a look. You then removed the pink clip from your hair and dropped it into the hat. Tina thanked you, and walked away. Right when she was a good few feet away getting items from another party goer, Jonathan had a very negative reaction to your choice to play.
“Are you really going to play this game (y/n)?” he asked, turning his entire body towards you. You shrunk in your spot, and shrugged as you replied, “Yeah! I want to have fun! It’s a harmless game.” Jonathan disagreed, and told you it was in fact an incredibly stupid game which caused a whisper argument between you and him. You thought he was stupid because he made you sit with him all alone on the couch while everyone danced and mingled- so you’ll be damned if you were going to let him talk you out of it! And also - here you were all dressed up in hopes he'd compliment you, and he didn’t even acknowledge it when he first arrived! So you were already annoyed with him when he first even arrived at the party.
In retrospect, you weren't dating so you shouldn't have expected him to compliment you, but at the time it was the worst thing he could do. Your argument had continued, but had ceased when you both noticed the entire room got quiet except for The Romantics Talking in Your Sleep playing on the stereo. You saw everyone looking at the both of you, and you almost choked on your own spit when you saw why.
Steve had been the first to choose, something you knew would happen so Tina wouldn’t have to worry about someone else choosing hers, but neither of you had expected he wouldn’t choose hers. Between his fingers, he held instead of Tina’s purple clip- your pink clip. (technically Tina’s, but it was still your item) and everyone knew it was you!
You quickly got to your feet, and stuttered out, “Wait- let him choose again!” at Tina, an aching feeling in your stomach from the nerves. Tina looked at Steve to see what he would think- but he simply shrugged, closing his fingers around it.
“No- it’s okay,” Steve said as he approached you, you quickly shook your head, looking between him and then Tina, whose jaw was dropped, “Come on- we can’t cheat fate can we (y/n)?” He held out his hand for you to take. You looked at him again, a small smile on his face, and then to his hand- and for some reason you took it. Everyone in the room became tense as Steve led you into the closet, and you gave Tina one last look- she was glaring horribly at you and you didn’t know what to do or even say.
The closet shut behind you, and you were thankful you were no longer in sight of prying eyes or Tina’s death glare. The closet was dark, and you found that you didn’t want to let go of Steve’s hand- afraid that if you did you’d somehow lose him in the small space and be all alone. Steve squeezed your hand as if to reassure you that he wouldn’t let go.
“You were supposed to choose Tina’s hair clip, not mine,” you mumbled as the both of you found the back of the closet, you could feel Steve shrug.
“I thought I did,” he replied, you looked down at where your feet were in the darkness as you remembered that Tina had said something about putting her clip into the hat. You cursed softly, realizing your stupid mistake, "I wouldn't worry, it's just a game." He shrugged in a lame attempt to make you feel less stupid. You groaned, and hit your head gently on the wall behind you. Well- at least you could hear the music still, you could manage sitting for seven minutes with Steve listening to the music. It was awfully quiet for a supposed party going on though, you imagined that you couldn’t hear talking because everyone was crowded around the door, middle schoolers turning high schoolers could be so nosy. You sighed, leaning down the wall slightly- and Steve did the same. You both sunk to the ground, hands still loosely connected.
The last way you expected this party to go was to get into a argument with Jonathan, end up in the closet with Steve Harrington, and possibly losing Tina as a friend. You expected something better, more exciting, and less...well this. And as if the night couldn’t get any more strange, Steve suddenly asked you a question.
“Should we...should we kiss?” he asked in a soft, low questioning tone you’d never heard him talk in before.
“What?”
“Isn’t it apart of the rules? That we have to?” he asked, you looked where you believed his face was in the darkness, “That’s what Tina says anyway.” Your eyes adjusted slightly and you could make out the shape of his head and hair. He was right, it was apart of the rules, but…
“I’ve never kissed anyone before,” you said with your cheeks heating up, lowkey happy he couldn’t see your face, but then he said, “Yeah me either.” Which surprised you! You knew a lot of girls who have claimed to have kissed him- every girl harbored a crush on this kid and it didn’t occur to you they’d be lying. You assumed, though, that he would’ve kissed someone by now.
“This wouldn’t count as a first kiss because it’s just apart of the game, right?” he asked, you shook your head. Maybe it was something in the air because for some reason you found his reasoning completely logical.
“Yeah...I don’t think it does.” You agreed because Tina wouldn’t absolutely hate you for kissing Steve in a game that she wanted to play...right? (Years in the future you’d call yourself a poor, naive, stupid 13 year old). Steve suddenly let go of your hand, and you instantly froze up, because now your fear of him disappearing and leaving you in the dark was real, instead of speaking up- you only listened for him. All you could hear was the beginning of Thompson Twin’s song, Hold Me Now, muffled by the walls.
Then, you felt the soft touch of his fingers just underneath your left eye, your breath hitched, and he said in a low voice, “I’m right here,” incredibly close to your face that you could smell his minty breath. Your heart was caught in your throat, unable to nod or even speak because was he really going to kiss you?
Seconds past, then you felt his nose gently touching your own, “Okay...I’m coming in.” There was some hesitation, a nerve-wrecking second before you finally felt his lips press against yours. The truth was, you hadn’t ever thought of Steve as more than a friend, not until this very moment. Butterflies bursted into your stomach, and you felt a small spark of electricity on your lips. Hell, you even let your eyes flutter shut and leaned in ever so slightly to him that his hand trailed down your face to cup your left cheek.
If you ever kissed anyone after that, you might’ve held them up to this kind of first kiss standard. Because it was just...wow.
The kiss ended in the way all kisses inside of a closet in a party should, with Tina slamming the door open and announcing that your seven minutes were up. Light poured into the dark space, and Hold Me Now was no longer muffled but blasting. You and Steve didn’t lean away from each other, not right away, but when you did it was clear that a kiss had occurred, his hand still cupping your cheek and your eyes slowly fluttering open as you looked into his brown eyes.
Steve cleared his throat, dropping his hand to his side and standing up, holding his hand for you to take. You ended up getting up on your own, realizing the dumb thing you had just done to your best friend. You offered Steve a forced smile before pushing pass him, and then Tina, and then the party crowd. Steve watched your retreating figure, and then exited too- people clapped and cheered when he did, and Tina- she was fuming with anger.
Jonathan was sitting on the couch still, arms crossed and still clearly annoyed that you actually went through with it.
“Can you walk me home?” you asked, and even though he was annoyed with you, he still nodded as he got to his feet. You couldn’t bring yourself to even look at Tina, or be at the same party- feeling like total bitch. She wasn’t going to talk to you again tonight, or...well ever again.
The obvious kiss between you and Steve was no longer the center of attention by the time you were leaving, all the kids gathered by the door to spy on the net players. You looked over at them, then let your eyes wander to where Steve and Tina stood. He was talking to you, and she was crossing her arms, then talked over him. Steve’s mouth shut, and you could see he was visibly annoyed. Then though, his eyes suddenly met yours and you quickly turned around. Oh god what did I do?
Now you were walking alongside Jonathan, feeling regretful of your actions. Jonathan was rolling his bike next to you as you both walked on in silence to your house that was only a block away. You could tell he was still annoyed.
“I’m sorry,” you spoke up finally, and he looked at you.
“For what?”
“For you know- playing the game…” you trailed off, fearing that you’d actually hurt his feelings. But he just shrugged.
“You don’t have to apologize, you got to go in with...Steve Harrington,” Jonathan said his name as if the name tasted like dirt. You cringed and said, “I don’t like him like that you know! It was just a game!” Even though your lips were still tingling and the mention of his name made your stomach tie up in knots. Jonathan looked forward again, and shook his head.
“I don’t care if you like him or not.” And okay- you didn’t know what else to expect from him, but you could feel that that was not the case. You continued to walk, inching near your house and as you went on the driveway- you stopped and looked down.
“Oh- I’m wearing Tina’s sister’s skirt,” you said, patting down on the skirt, feeling your cheeks heat up with embarrassment. Jonathan glanced down at your skirt and then away before you saw him, “I’m such an idiot!” Jonathan suddenly looked very uncomfortable, and once again, he shrugged his shoulders weakly.
“It’s late (y/n), go inside,” and you looked at him, furrowing your eyebrows slightly then slowly nodding.
“I will...I’m sorry again-”
“Stop apologizing- I’ll see you next Monday for school,” Jonathan turned away, hopping onto his bike and beginning to ride down your driveway and then on the street. He rode away in the middle of the empty street, and you watched him.
This night, while it may not seem significant enough to throw your life 3 years later into a loop, ended up defining nearly everything that would occur between you, your best friend, and Steve Harrington. And if you could go back- you would’ve done things differently because now you are standing here on your driveway no longer a 13 year old but a 16 going on 17 year old watching Jonathan’s car disappear down the street. Except now, there were tears threatening to fall from your eyes.
This is all your fault Steve. You thought bitterly. This stupid plan of yours was doomed from the start.