Varsity - Tumblr Posts

Cheerleader

Summary: Steve’s feeling neglected by his parents, but his girlfriend’s always right there to cheer him up.

Steve Harrington x female OC pairing

warnings: angst, allusions to sexual activity, mushy fluff

a/n: requested by the lovely @casaharrington . This took me forever and a day to finish, but I hope it was worth the wait!

Steve didn’t know why he expected anything from his father or where that tiny sliver of faith he had in him came from. His father had never given Steve much. Any small promise Mr. Harrington tossed at his son fell empty. In hindsight, Steve should have known that his father couldn’t be bothered to get involved in his life a long time before he actually did learn. Probably should have learned his lesson the day his Dad shirked his third grade Career Day and left Steve feeling embarrassed and unimportant. Then, his eight-year-old mind couldn’t fathom that, maybe, he really was unimportant in his father’s mind.

Now, although on the cusp of adulthood, Steve clung still onto that little shard of ignorance like a stubborn child might refuse to sleep without their safety blanket. Not once- not even when he outplayed several upperclassman for his spot on the varsity team as a freshman- had either of his parents bothered to actually watch their son in action. It had only ever mildly disappointed him before, so why did he care so much now? Why had he allowed himself to think that tonight would be any different?

Steve was used to Dad disappointing him. He eventually came to the bitter conclusion that until he no longer served as a disappointment to him, he would be disappointed in return.

Half-heartedly tossing a ball back and forth with Todd Ackerman, Steve tried his best to keep his pregame spirits high. The surrounding bleachers slowly filled with his peers and people from across Hawkins who came to cheer on one player or another. Although surrounded by people, Steve had never felt lonelier as he realized that his parents were nowhere in sight.

Steve only partly listened to Todd’s attempts at small talk. His mangled mind mistook the concern in his friend’s brow as an echo of the disappointed scowl he received from across the dinner table the night before. For someone who he saw so little of, his father sure took up some prime real estate in Steve’s insecurities.

He thought over the previous night’s dinner conversation. Steve replayed the scene in his mind while going through the motions of warmup.

“So, Dad. We’re playing Northern tomorrow,” he had said casually.

Steve forked absently at his peas, craving some form of praise. With Billy Hargrove benched after an altercation on the court, he finally felt like he was back at the top of something.

Between his lackluster transcript and last year’s fall from social grace after his falling out with Tommy and Carol, Steve Harrington felt like an entirely different person from the King Steve he once was. The new Steve didn’t command attention from those around him, and often didn’t get any in turn. Secretly, though, he had hoped that generalization excluded what he did on the court.

After all, Steve didn’t think he was good at much. He accepted that his essays were subpar at best and that his jealousy often interfered with his relationships, but he counted on sports as the one thing that he was really good at.

From across the mahogany table, his Father merely huffed in acknowledgement. Nervous, Steve pressed the matter further.

“Are you coming, uh, to the game? It’s tomorrow”

His father paused momentarily, cocked an eyebrow, and promptly returned to his dinner plate:

“We’ll see, Steven.”

The words rang around Steve’s head like a prayer. It wasn’t much, but it wasn’t a no. He just really wanted to prove himself. What better way than to score the winning shot against Hawkins’ biggest rival?

“Harrington!”

“Hm, yeah?”

“C’mon! Let’s get out there and kick some Titan ass!”

As the cheerleaders assembled on the sidelines, tossing around green and white pom-poms, Bethany found herself distracted by the sullen demeanor of her boyfriend. She frowned. Steve always seemed in his element at games. Something was off today, though.

He scanned the crowd as a last ditch effort to find his father. Instead, Beth, standing in the center of it all, caught his eye and broke into a grin sweet enough to warm Steve’s cold spirits, if only a little. She looked adorable in her cheerleading uniform; he liked her in green. Her blonde locks were curled and pulled half-up into a dark jade bow. Altogether, that pretty little skirt and that smile he loved so much which always tasted like strawberry, it sent a spark of white heat up Steve’s spine with the notion of what he wanted to do to her- with her- later, when he got her alone.

Momentarily, Steve forgot all about the new promise his father had broken. He started the game with a smile, comforted in part by the knowledge that Beth would cheer him on just a little bit louder than the other cheerleaders.

Despite the heavy pump of adrenaline dispersing through his veins, Steve fell from his excitement pretty soon after sinking the final, victorious shot of the game. It took one glance over the bleachers to confirm his fears. His heart sank. Dad never showed. Wiping sweat from his brow, Steve wanted little more than to retreat to the locker room for a pity party in the showers.

The warm reception he received from his teammates and friends, instead of fulfilling that gap of loneliness he felt like it usually did, only made him feel even more miserable. The Pope himself could congratulate Steve on yet another win and it wouldn’t mean a damn thing unless it was coming from his old man, too.

He made his way through the wave of gratitude with only half a heart. Part of him knew he should have been just as excited as the rest of the team, - maybe even more so- and yet Steve wasn’t looking any more forward to the Playoffs he had just guaranteed them a spot in than he might like one of his mother’s stuffy dinner parties.

Steve dragged his feet to the locker room, stalling before the inevitability cold return home. He could already picture his father perched on his living chair, unphased by his entrance, not caring or not knowing how his son felt, or perhaps swept away from Hawkins on another last-minute business trip. His bruised ego tempted him with the half-used bottle of tequila he kept under his bed and a night in with his sorrow.

No sooner had Steve revamped his beeline for the showers than Todd flagged him down in the hall. Amy, the redhead he recognized as one of Beth’s girl friends hung off of him, giggling softly.

“Hey, man. Reed is throwing a party to celebrate. You in?”

“Maybe I’ll drop by later.”

“Oh, all right. Great game, Harrington!”

“Thanks. You too”

He watched his friend disappear down the hallway with a sigh. A party sounded like the last thing he needed. Steve didn’t feel much like celebrating tonight. He’d rather just drink alone in his room. No matter how many winning shots or passes Steve pulled off, it was never enough. He didn’t feel good enough for his own father. How pathetic was that?

“Steve!”

The familiar voice lifted his spirits some. Steve turned his head to find Beth, her golden hair reflecting off the cheap fluorescent lighting like an angel’s halo, standing with her arms wrapped around herself. She exhaled slowly.

“What’s wrong? Is it your Dad again?”

She hadn't needed an answer. One of the many things Beth loved so much about Steve was his deep sense of loyalty, of faith. His father and, in her complacency, his mother, too, were the  anomaly that made Steve’s greatest asset also his Achilles heel. Beth already knew the answer.

“I just,” he exhaled. Steve tugged at his sticky-sweat hair, kicking his feet against the wall for good measure. He knew he likely looked like a toddler midway through a temper tantrum, but Steve couldn’t be bothered to care.

Hell, he thought bitterly. Maybe I really should just start breaking shit. That’ll get his attention!

Steve, however, had already tried acting out to grab his Dad’s attention. It failed when he punched Johnny Cross right in the nose for no real reason, when a five-person party turned his backyard into a possible crime scene, and again when he took the blame for Tommy H and Carol’s obscene spray paint job on the Hawk.

When the police started asking questions about Barbara Holland a year ago, most of Steve felt a deep fear of his father’s punishment. The vulnerable parts of him, on the other hand, felt a demented delight in the attention it earned him- even if it was for all the wrong reasons.

“‘My father is-“

“An asshole. I know. So you’ve said.”

Beth approached him slowly. She glanced up at him, her eyes soft with concern. Despite the height difference, Steve slouched easily into her touch.

“What did he do now, Steve?”

She grabbed at his hands, squeezing them in reassurance. Just her presence made Steve feel touched by angel. Bits of heaven dripped from her fingertips, her lips, and in her embrace Steve finally felt worthy of something ethereal. In the simple shine of love in her eyes, he finally saw a boy worthy of something as holy as her golden heart. She might not have been perfect, either, but Steve really thought she was an angel sent for him. It didn’t matter what his father, or anyone else for that matter, thought of Steve Harrington as long as Bethany Sullivan looked at him in that way that made him feel invincible. Steve swore that was why Beth was his saving grace.

“He promised… um, I thought he was coming to the game. He lied to me. Jesus, I mean, I bet he doesn’t even remember there is a game tonight! Am I really so unloveable that my even my own Father doesn’t want to be seen with me? I wasn’t good enough for Nancy-“

“How can you say that?”

Beth’s heart dropped down to the floor, beaten and deflated by the sight of her goofy boy so downtrodden. She always understood that Steve and his parents had a cold, complicated relationship, but she never imagined that it hurt him so badly.

“Come on, Beth. It has to be me, right? Everyone’s always leaving me. Nancy, Mom and Dad, my old friends… This feels like one hell of a coincidence”

Steve tried to swallow past the gumball lump in his throat. He didn’t want to cry in front of Beth. Not because he saw it as a sign of weakness, but in compliance with the tiny voice in the back of his mind- his Father’s voice- that told him that she would only find it pathetic and leave him, too.

Rubbing stray tears into the pad of her thumbs, Beth cupped her hands to his cheeks and held his gaze firmly on her. She had to lift up on the balls of her feet to reach his eye level, but Beth didn’t waver one bit.

“That’s not true, Steve. Nancy just didn’t know what she wanted. I do think she should have handled it a little differently, but I know she didn’t intend for any of that to happen. You did the right thing by telling Tommy and Carol to shove it. I never liked them. Not since 1972, when Carol ruined my favorite dress and Tommy told the whole class I kissed him behind the swing sets-“

“I remember that,” he says. Steve’s eyes lit up slightly at the memory.

If being abandoned was a series of coincidences in Steve's life, then his run-ins with Beth as kids was another. The pair were friends in preschool; Beth was pretty sure her Mother still had that framed photo of them squished cheek-to-cheek hanging in the hallway. Steve remembered perhaps more than Beth did. Years later, when asked, he might cheekily remark that he gave her his heart as a gap toothed six-year-old and he never truly needed it back.

“Ms. Gardner gave me a time out for cutting off Carol’s ponytail. And I swear Tommy was sneezing sand for weeks after you pushed him-!”

She calmed her laughter, rolling her lips nervously inward. Beth stroked his cheek in soothing circles. Her emotions teetered somewhere between a cry and a laugh.

“You’ve always wanted your Dad to be someone he isn’t, Steve. Even back then, as kids…

She sighed.

In his mind's eye, Steve saw Beth again as the bright-eyed girl who, back in grade school, silently wiped his tears and offered up her last cookie just to see him smile. His heart swelled with undeniable love for her just as it had then.

“Look, I’m not defending him. In fact, I think he needs a reality check himself, but I just want you to look at this in a different way. Your father, his actions- they don’t reflect on you. You are a good person, Steve. The fact that your Father didn’t want to be here tonight doesn’t mean that you’ve done something wrong or that you aren’t enough. It means that he doesn’t even realize what an amazing son he’s got. And I feel sorry for him.

“Your Dad being gone doesn’t have anything to do with you. It says a whole lot more about him than it does about you. You know that, don’t you?”

He hadn't considered the possibility, but Beth made it sound clear as day. Thinking, he rested his chin atop her head, arms scooping her closer. His bottom lip trembled. He didn’t deserve her.

“Do you really mean all that?”

“Of course I do, Steve”

She flattened her chin against his chest and held his gaze with doe eyes full of sincerity and raw love. He looked hopeful, enamored with her. Steve ran his fingers through her silky hair, a sad smile on his lips.

“I don’t deserve you, Bethany Sullivan.”

“I love you, Steve Harrington, so that’s just too bad. You’re stuck with me now. I can be your own personal cheerleader”

He hummed from deep within his chest, smiling devilishly, and pulled her into into a kiss that said everything Steve didn’t know how to. The kiss was mostly soft whimpers and gnashing teeth, hands much too grabby for a public place. Steve pulled away, hands balling up the hem of her skirt.

Beth pulled from his embrace and sauntered down the corridor towards the showers before he even registered the loss of touch. Grinning, he called out to her:

“So, does that mean you’ll keep the uniform on tonight?”

“Oh, shut up!”

He jogged to keep up, his parents the last thing on his mind.

“That’s not a no!”

Steve quipped in return. She thrust her middle finger upwards, but offered a cheeky wink as she led him into the nearly abandoned locker room.

“C’mon, lover boy. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Steve scrambled to follow her. For the first time all night, he finally felt like a winner. His father might not have believed in him, but Beth sure did.

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