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straight4joekeery · 2 years ago

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Teach Me How To Love In Your Own Lyrics

(Part eight)

Prev. Part one

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The next week went by slow. Without literally all of his friends he had nothing to do. It was sad and really lonely honestly. So Steve did what any reasonable lonely human would do: get a pet.

He couldn’t get a dog they were way too much work. He had a poodle growing up and it was the most annoying dog ever. He definitely didn’t want to deal with that again. He would get a fish, but they aren’t that entertaining. Reptiles were horrifying and he would easily lose a rodent. So that left him with one option.

On Tuesday he went shopping. He went to the local pet store and bought everything he needed, or rather the cat needed. He bought all of the basic necessities plus a gigantic cat tower, a few too many toys, a harness (because why not?), and a normal amount of cat outfits (only like 25). $200 dollars later the pet store said he’d be able to pick up the kitten on Thursday. The cat was only a month old and was currently named Archie. He knew he was going to change his name, but he didn’t know what to change it to. The cat was all black except for his white paws. Which yes black cats were are supposed to be unlucky, but considering what he’d been through, an unlucky cat was the least of his concerns.

That Wednesday was the longest day of his life. It felt even lonelier in his house. He eventually decided the best way to spend his day was painting random things in his house. Which was an extremely good Idea surprisingly. When he was on his 10th object it was 9 pm (and he’d happily go to bed at 9 pm). Those ten items included: two mugs, little doodles on his mirror, the cup he keeps his toothbrush in, a plant pot, the watering can, a mason jar, his hairspray can, a ring tray, and last but certainly not least a guitar pick. He wasn’t the best artist so most were just ombrés and splatters.

When he woke up the next morning he immediately got dressed and ready. He couldn’t stand one more second of being ‘Sad Sack Steve’. He ran straight out to his car… but immediately had to go back inside because he forgot his keys. But then he was actually on his way.

He finally made it to the store and oh. Oh my god that was the cutest kitten he’d ever seen. He quickly finished all the nonsense paperwork and went home with a cat in his passenger seat. That’s when it finally hit him that this was a living being, that he had to take care of. That was… weird. A lot of responsibility. And plus he was going up to Indy tomorrow. What was he going to do? He supposed he could talk to his neighbor Amy and ask her to check on him. Amy was weird (to put it in literally the nicest was possible) but it’s better than nothing.

When he pulled in his driveway he walked next door to Amy’s. Thankfully she agreed. He thanked her a thousand times then ran back to the house, cat in hand. The cat was loud. Like extremely loud. But that was a good thing. It wouldn’t be so quiet all the time. Just in that moment, the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Steve! Are you okay?”

“Eds? Yeah I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Robin called you like twenty times and when she gave up she called me so I could call you because apparently ‘Steve is way more likely to pick up the phone to you’. Did she tell you she makes me call her each time I get to a new hotel just so she can have each hotels number?” The cat was now meowing like crazy.

“Uhhh no she didn’t. Do you know why she called?”

“She said she just wants to make sure you’re going to Indy tomorrow. Steve… what’s that noise?

“I have a hypothetical.”

“Okay…? What is it?”

“Say I got a little black kitten. What would be a good name for it?”

…

“Hypothetically though.”

“I mean I’d personally name it Ozzy, but I know you personally wouldn’t name-“

“That’s perfect! Hypothetically.”

“Sure. Well I can’t wait to see this hypothetical cat!”

“Yeah yeah. Okay I should call Robin. Bye Eddie.”

“Bye Stevie. Tell Ozzy I said hello.”

“Will do.” He misses him. He misses him a lot. Blah blah blah this is a spiel we’ve all heard one too many times.

He called Robin back and told her that he was going to be there tomorrow. And about Ozzy.

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“Ready for round two?” He called out the window.

“Of course!” Vickie yelled as they hopped in the car, “looking good again Harrington!”

“Why, thank you.” They drove back to the bar. They didn’t have a tape in so they just talked. Talked about everything and nothing. When they arrived Vickie pulled him aside.

“Hey Steve?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry if this is weird, you don’t have to answer, but do you think you’re going to end up with Eddie?” She was right. That was weird.

“Uh honestly no. He’s not gay.” She frowned at that.

“Well I personally strongly disagree but if think that, why didn’t you dance with anyone last week?” Good question. He however didn’t know the answer to that.

“I don’t know Vick. I just felt like I had to,” why? Why did he think he had to, “maybe…maybe it was just in case he wasn’t. I didn’t want to chance not being able to be with him. Which I know is stupid because it will never happen.”

“Hey,” she placed he hand on his arm, “that’s not stupid. Again I do think you are wrong,” she sighed. How. How could she think that? What gave her a reason to? “But if you don’t think that, go have fun. Dance with people. Don’t waste you’re time chasing over someone who you believe you will never catch up to.” As much as he hated to admit it, she was right.

“Okay. Let’s go. I promise I’ll let loose a bit.” She smiled and linked their arms as they walked inside.

“There you are!” Robin called, “i thought I was going to file two missing person reports!” They walked back to the same barstools they sat at last time and there he was. Trent. He didn’t remember exactly what he did to Steve. But he remembered that he hated him. No clue why. Might have just been angry drunk Steve for all he knew.

“Hey guys!” He smiled at them. Especially Steve. For a weird amount of time, “what can I get for you guys?” Robin was already drinking her Dirty Shirley. She was addicted to those things. She said ‘they are like Shirley Temples but better!’ He was not going to tell her that was the point.

��Can I just get a beer? I don’t really care what kind,” Vickie said. Didn’t peg her as the beer type, but hey! Never judge a book by its cover right?

“Yeah, me too.” Steve said.

“Alrighty! Give me one second!”

“Look,” Vickie said, “I love Trent but he uses the weirdest words sometimes.” Oh! That’s why he hated him last time.

“I noticed that! Last week he said ‘yikes’ like audibly and I almost gagged! I didn’t know people actually said that!” Steve exclaimed (but quietly so he wouldn’t hear).

Robbin giggled, “one time he said my outfit was ‘tubular’,” they all laughed and twisted their faces in mock disgust. Just then he came back.

“Here y’a go!” They said thank you but he didn’t move. He just stayed there. Oh well at least Steve has a piece of eye candy now. God he was hot, “so Steve, what do you do for work?” Yay! More small talk. He knew just the way to this man’s heart. He tried everything to not hate him again.

“I’m a teacher. Junior history,” why’d he elaborate? He surely didn’t care.

“That’s so cool! My favorite class of all time was my junior history. It’s the only class I ever understood. My teacher was the only nice one in the building too.” Woah. He did care. Weird.

“Cool…” cool? Really? That was lame. (LAME??? STEVE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.)

Trent smiled at Steve for a second to long for it to be ‘bro like’, “well let me now if you guys need anything!” And he walked away. He wasn’t sure how to feel about him.

“Wow Steve!” Robin applauded, “look at you go. He was totally into you!”

“Yeah I could tell.” He looked at Vickie and blinked as a cry for help. She just shrugged. Just then the first man of the night walked up to Steve.

“Hey! My names Adam, I was uh wondering if you wanted to dance maybe? My boyfriend… ex-boyfriend just cheated on me and left.” Yikes (REALLY???). He looked towards Vickie and she mouthed, ‘you promised’.

“Yeah. Sure.” Adams face lit up. He held out a hand and he took it.

Now in Robins exact words, ‘you’re dance moves could kill! And by kill I mean make someone want to shoot their eyes out’ which only offended him to the point he cried later that night. But it was fine. Everything was fine.

“Uh Adam?” He looked up at Steve with questioning eyes. Adam was cute. Like adorable cute not I-want-to-rip-his-clothes-off cute. “I literally can’t dance. Like at all.”

He laughed, “me neither honestly. But if we hide in the crowd no one would ever see us!” He pulled Steve to the middle of Probably a good hundred people. He smiled. Like actually smiled. He liked this kid.

“How old are you Adam?” He immediately started blushing.

“I’m twenty-three.”

“Twenty-six”

“Cool. You like don’t have a boyfriend right?”

He snorted, “No, I’ve actually only officially dated one person, and that was about ten years ago.”

He laughed, “well that guy,” he nodded towards the door, “was my third. And obviously i have some special kind of charm because this same situation happened every. Single. Time.”

“Jeez. That really sucks. I’m sorry.”

He smiled, “nah it’s fine. Never actually liked that guy at least. He was just in a band that was popular at some point and died down,” he laughed, “if I’m being honest I thought I could use him for publicity. That did not turn out well though.” Huh. That’s strange.

He laughed, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s just kinda coincidental. This one guy that I’ve literally been pinning over for years just left to go on tour.”

“No it’s fine! That is kinda weird. And that really does suck… I don’t think I got you’re name?”

“It’s Steve.”

“Well Steve I’m sorry about that. Does he like you back?” He was convinced neither of them were actually in to each other. But that was okay. He was a super nice kid. (He was literally only three years younger but he was still going to call him kid.)

“Well I am sure he doesn’t but all of my friends think otherwise. Plus I only realized I liked him when he left.”

“Well I know I’m a complete stranger and have no right to say this, but they are probably right. All of my friends told me to stay away Tony because he was no good. And here we are,” Steve didn’t know why he was so calm about this, “hey uh Steve i better get going but,” he took a pen out of his back pocket and wrote on Steve’s arm, “call me. We should hang out. You’re cool.”

“I will. Thanks.” He nodded and walked back to the girls. They were literally jumping up and down.

“How’d it gooo?” Vickie said grabbing his hands.

“Good! He was nice! And we’re going to hang out soon,” he said waving his arm. They gave each other a weird look.

“Hang out?” Robin asked looking very disappointed.

“Yeah. We didn’t click like that. But it’s fine. At least I have more than four friends in the area now!”

“Who’s the fourth?”

“Ozzy, obviously.”

“Obviously,” she rolled her eyes.

“Okay, I had my time. Now it’s your turn, go. Go have fun! But not to much fun!” He called as they ran away. He took a swig of his beer that he’d left there.

“Young love strikes once again!” Trent called from behind him. This dude needed to stop sneaking up on him. But this time he smiled back at him. He just kept staring at him. Like a concerning amount. And he noticed, “penny for your thoughts?”

“Nothing it’s just..” screw it, “want to dance?” His face got even brighter than Adam’s

“I’d be honored. But I only have like five minutes because I do work here,” they grinned at each other. They made their way to the people again. He caught Vickie looking at him and giving him a thumbs up. He just rolled his eyes at her. “I got the impression last time that your weren’t too fond of me.”

“Sorry it’s just that I get really easily irritated when im drunk. But then I can just switch up and immediately become the giggly drunk that we all aspire to be.”

“I get it. My ex was like that. She was… interesting.” He thought it was so amazing how open people could be about their sexuality’s here. He also just now noticed that they were in fact not dancing but just standing there. Which he was not mad about because again: he could not dance. “I think you’re really neat Steve.” Neat?? Okay this dude was kind of, sort of, really really weird with his vocabulary. But as we established with Eddie: Steve liked weird. (He’s literally been with two dudes that have at least been a little interested, and he’s still Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, Edd-)

“You too.” They just stood there looking at each other for a long time. Before Trent leaned in a bit. Woah. This is weird. What is happening.

“Stevie, can I?”

Did he hear him correctly? Did he just call him Stevie? It sounded oddly romantic. The word were ringing in his ears. Oddly. Romantic. But it couldn’t be. That’s all Eddie ever called him. He guesses pet names were meant to be flirty. But no. There’s no way. Eddie could not like him. (THERE IS A MAN IN FRONT OF YOU!! SNAP OHT OF IT!)

He realized he hadn’t responded for a while, “I’m so sorry,” he said. And ran off. He ran outside. He needed air. There was no way. Why was he even thinking this? Did Eddie like him back. He suddenly remembered the phone call from last week.

Okay, love you Eddie. Goodnight.

Goodnight Stevie.

How could he be so stupid? Why did he say that. But he didn’t freak out when he did. He didn’t say it back. But he didn’t say it was weird. And he called him that stupid name again. He thinks back over Vickie’s, Robin’s, and even Adam’a words. There was no way this was happening. Eddie might actually like him. Was he? Wrong?

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FINALLY. this is the dream I had. This was what this whole fic was based around. I just reread this and realized how choppy and weird the ending was but oh well. I didn’t know how else to make it work. I also didnt at all plan to add Ozzy. I zone out when I write and before I knew it boom he was there. Every steddie fic needs some sort of animal named Ozzy tho. Also I will never stop apologizing for how short these are. It’s actually not that short but still. I’ve been super unmotivated and tired. Really tired. I also would like to make it clear that I hate Trent. He did nothing wrong I just don’t like him. This is a hill I will die on. Oh well. Love Adam tho. Also one of the funniest things to me is whatever trope you think this is, you’re wrong 😈. Anywayyssss. Comment or reblog if you want to be tagged in future parts! And thanks for reading

This will be on AO3 soon I just need to find a time to do it. It will also be extended there most likely.

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