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Steve’s ideal Saturday night wasn’t exactly spent in a bar with far too sticky floor and with a girl who definitely won’t be going home with him.
“Hey Steve!” Robin calls over to him from where she was sat at the bar. Steve smiles and waves, regretfully walking over to her.
“I already hate it.” Robin groans.
“You haven’t given it a chance, not everything needs to be completely spotless. Have I told you I think you have OCD?” Steve rolls his eyes.
“You have a new diagnoses of me every day, I’m sure OCD has come up before.” He leans against the counter and Robin rolls her eyes.
“Whatever, let’s have a drink and just watch the band.”
“What are they called again?”
“Corroded Coffin, they’re giants in the heavy metal game right now. You don’t know how lucky I am to be able to interview them.”
Steve turns towards the bar and orders himself a drink, only half paying attention to the band now coming onto the stage. The audience is in immediate up roar upon seeing the band, even Robin throwing in a woo in midst of the noise. Steve really couldn’t give a shit. He turns back round with his drink in hand, the first of many. All the band members look like they were ripped straight out of a poster his dad has on his wall of a band he loved in the eighties which causes a little laugh to escape his mouth. At that moment the guitarist makes eye contact and he looks angry. Only then does he realise that considering he wasn’t exactly dressed to fit this crowd and he was standing there with his arms crossed, that laugh probably looked condescending and he looked judgemental. However Steve in this moment can only change his posture and nothing really seems to express ‘I’m not judgemental, I swear I just look like it’ his mind. So he downs his drink and turns round to get another one. Doing this all night may result in alcohol poisoning but he was willing to take that chance.
By the time the band finishes their set, Steve is wasted. He takes his phone out ready to call himself an uber when Robin grabs his arm and starts dragging him off somewhere.
“Where are we going?” Steve slurs, stumbling after Robin.
“I didn’t ask to come here to drink and listen to music, your sitting in on the interview.”
“Wait…what?”
“Steve we talked about this, as a woman I’m not exactly comfortable being alone late at night with a bunch of men and especially considering the history of sexual harassment in this music genre.” Shit, he forgot about that. He really hopes they are good guys otherwise Steve will get his inebriated ass beat.
“Hi! I’m Robin Buckley from the Hawkins Independent.” She introduces herself and shakes the hands of each band member before getting her phone out and pressing start on the audio recorder. She places her phone on the coffee table and they all sit round it, though Steve more of falls into his seat. After the band introduces themselves, the guitarist who has now been identified as Eddie Munson, notices Steve who is bopping his head to music that no one else in the room is hearing.
“Your boyfriend alright?” Robin cackles, Steve swings his head towards her with an offended look.
“God no, I mean he’s not my boyfriend. In terms of if he’s alright then yeah probably. Right Steve?” She turns to look at him. The music has now continued in his head as he starts nodding which leads back into the head bop and he shoots Robin a thumbs up. Eddie laughs at him and Steve really loves the way his long hair bounces with the laughter. Robin continues with the interview ignoring Steve as do the rest of the band. Steve’s not sure what questions she was asking but she seemed pretty proud of herself with how it was going. At some point there’s a lull in the conversation which Steve assumes means the interview has ended and in his not at all sober state he decides to let Eddie know that,
“My dad has a poster of a guy in his bedroom with hair just like yours.” Robin slowly turns to look at Steve, completely horrified. Eddie is looking at him, completely confused. And the rest of the band are completely amused. The band burst into laughter and one of them, he vaguely remembers his name being Gareth, slaps and shakes Eddie’s shoulder.
“This guys dad had a gay awakening cause of you!” Gareth jokes.
“No, my dad isn’t gay. The poster was MY bisexual awakening.” Steve corrects, for some reason. Robin’s head falls into her heads as Eddie finally joins in with the laughter.
Steve wakes up the next morning with zero memory of how last night went. The last thing gracing his mind was trying to fix his posture and then having a few drinks. He sits up, rubbing at his eyes before leading them into his hair and sighing. He lets his hands fall and opens his eyes. This isn’t his bed. He looks up and notes the posters decorating the walls. More interesting though, the guitars on proud display. Sure Jonathon plays an old beat up guitar every now and then but surely Steve would know if he owned more than one. But who else does he know that plays?
Just as begins his list of musicians he knows, the doorknob turns and a memory comes rushing back.
Steve is pressed against the wall outside the bar and Eddie is kissing him harshly. His hands start off gripping Steve’s jacket but moves to touch every inch of Steve. He tastes like cigarettes and beer which was disgusting but Eddie does this thing with his tongue which makes Steve forget the taste.
Eddie waltzes into the room in a tight pair of black jeans and shirt referencing something called a Hellfire Club. He goes to his desk and picks up his phone, wallet, keys and a spare key. He turns and tosses the spare key to Steve. He’s barely able to get his mind to catch up in time so he could catch the key.
“Lock the door behind you when you leave King Steve.” Eddie teases, waltzing back out of the room. Steve sits there completely stunned when Eddie rushes back in.
“Almost forgot.” He laughs and bends down to press a kiss to Steve’s lips. This time he tastes like a weird mix of toothpaste and coffee. Steve kind of likes it and his mouth seems eager to communicate that as he slightly groans against Eddie’s lips which causes him to laugh lightly.
“Maybe later sweetheart.” Eddie whispers and winks before leaving again. What the fuck happened last night.