Wonderful

After Stevie’s epiphany of sorts, she goes through her time with Hugh with a fine toothed comb. She checks her words, her gestures, her proximity to Hugh; it’s fucking exhausting. The fear of Hugh discovering this - this thing makes her pick at her nails, something she hasn’t done since elementary school. Stevie’s contemplating going to therapy again.

Except, these fears, these irrational thoughts only come to Stevie when she’s not with Hugh. When they’re together, she’s, well, she’s worry-free. It’s only when Hugh has left for the book store or an interview or home that the anxiety creeps back up and she’s picking at her perfectly painted nails.

So she tries spend as much time with Hugh as she can, and when she can’t she tries to busy herself with school and prom and every other thing that isn’t her psyche. Thankfully, all this exhausts her enough that all she has to do is fall down into bed and fall asleep instead of waiting for it to come, time she would otherwise spend worrying.

And so it goes.

~~~

meet me at mel’s

Stevie opens and closes the text message at least thirty times during Chemistry, hearing only about thirty percent of the lecture Mr. Hartwell is giving about redox equations.

Hugh’d had another job interview that morning, and, as usual, Stevie had been a little antsy to know how it’d gone. Usually he’d send her a quick “went well” or “not sure about this one” and it would calm her down, but requesting her to meet him at Mel’s to tell her about it? This is new,and it’s making Stevie more than a little nervous.

Stevie is distracted going through the worst case scenarios in her head as she walks down the hall and out to the street, so she doesn’t notice Natalia and Freddie catching up to her until they jump ahead of her yell “MONSTER!”

“What are you guys doing?” Stevie asks, completely nonplussed.

“Nothin’,” Natalia says, composing herself.

“We’re taking you to lunch, silly,” Freddie says,

Well, that is not happening.

“Don’t you have a GSA meeting or something?” Stevie asks, walking toward the diner, trying desperately to lose them.

“Nope. We’re here for you,” Freddie says, hooking her arm with Stevie’s.

“Friendship is like a garden. You have to water it, you have to tend it, you have to care about it, or you lose it,” Natalia says very matter-of-fact.

“Did you just quote Sondheim to me?” Stevie asks, not helping the amusement in her voice.

Natalia smirks. “I was trying something. And it worked.”

Stevie rolls her eyes. It’s been almost a month, and she’s beginning to get used to Natalia and Freddie’s constant presence. Clearly, hostile behavior doesn’t work on them - they’re too persistent. It’s easier to let them do whatever they want for now. Besides, she has more pressing matters at hand anyway.

“I can’t have lunch with you today. I have something to do,” Stevie says. The light turns green, and she crosses the street, Natalia and Freddie still in tow.

“Business meeting?” Freddie laughs.

“No,” Stevie snaps. “And it’s none of your business, by the way.”

“Everything you do is our business, S,” Natalia says, nudging a bit with her shoulder.

“Did you just refer to me with one letter?” Stevie raises an skeptical eyebrow. “What is this, Gossip Girl?”

“No, thank God,” Freddie laughs.

“Could you imagine?” Natalia giggles.

“We don’t need some anonymous entity giving out all our secrets,” Stevie says, wryly. “We do it voluntarily.”

“Not you,” they say in unison. Natalia raises an eyebrow and Stevie can’t help but look away.

“Look, there’s an Italian place a block to the left. I’ll meet you there in fifteen.”

“Fiiine,” Natalia groans, flinging herself on top of Freddie. “Darling, please carry me. I can go no further.”

“Of course, my love. I wouldn’t want you to wear out your beautiful feet.

“Get a room,” Stevie mutters, checking her phone to see if Hugh had sent her any more texts.

“Ew,” they say, making the same disgusted, scrunched up face.

Stevie lets out an amused snort when a familiar voice calls her name out from behind her. She freezes.

“Hey,” Hugh says, slowing down his bike beside their group. He smiles at Stevie and it’s full and his dimples are showing and Stevie cannot believe she was ever worried about anything in her entire life. “I have good news.”

“That’s good,” Stevie says inanely. “Good news is good.”

Natalia clears her throat loudly beside her and crap it’s too late to blow them off now without having to explain all of this later in embarrassing detail.

“Uh, Hugh, these are Natalia and Freddie. From school,” she says, gesturing toward them. “Guys, this is Hugh.”

“Nice to meet you,” Hugh says, extending his hand to shake theirs. “I’ve heard so much about you.” And he has, except none of it has been any good - Stevie has made sure of it. The only things she says about them is how annoying they are or how stupid they are to want to be her friend or how she wants to find a way to silence them forever that won’t get her arrested.

“Really? We haven’t heard a thing about you,” Natalia says pleasantly through the smile on her face.

The smile on Hugh’s face falters a bit, and Stevie has the urge to punch Natalia until she’s not alive anymore.

“We were just going to get lunch,” Freddie interjects before Stevie gets her hands on Natalia’s neck. “You should join us,” he tells Hugh, and things are somehow worse than they were ten seconds ago.

“Yeah, that would be fun,” Natalia says, her smile turning a bit shark-like. “Whataya say, Hugh?”

Stevie gives Hugh a look that hopefully says For the love of God, please say no. Be an asshole this one time and tell her to fuck off.

“Why not?” Hugh says instead.

~~~

Their lunch is painfully un-awkward.

Natalia, Freddie, and Hugh get along swimmingly, and they’re swapping stories like they’re old friends in no time.

Stevie hates it.

The thing is: Stevie doesn’t share. It’s been a problem since kindergarten when she began commandeering the magic markers. Every time one of the other children tried to take one from her, she’d bite them, which prompted a call home. She’d started bringing her own magic markers after that. As an only child, she’s never had to share - was never taught how - and it’s still hard. Hugh is a magic marker, except not, because he has thoughts and feelings, and she can’t bite everyone that gets near him. It’s annoying, especially since Stevie is getting anxious about the “news” Hugh has for her.

“Hugh,” Stevie says, pushing her plate away from her. “You had something to tell me?”

“Oh, crap, yeah, I...” He laughs self-depracatingly and says in a voice that is meant only for her, “I thought we could talk about it when we’re alone.”

And this takes her off guard, yes, but she has the clarity of mind to start planning a way to get Natalia and Freddie off to school as soon as possible.

Eventually, Natalia stands up and says, “This has been awesome, Hugh, but as we are still mere high school students, we must leave.”

“Oh, no, totally,” Hugh says, standing up. “It was nice to meet you.” He extends his hand to shake her hand. She grabs it and pulls him to him to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Nice to meet you too,” she says and winks. Freddie is giggling beside her and Stevie can see a blush creeping up Hugh’s neck. Stevie clenches her hand into a fist, but she doesn’t stand up.

Freddie and Natalia have giggled their way to the door until they notice that Stevie is still sitting. They both raise a questioning eyebrow.

“You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up,” Stevie says, trying to give them her best “Don’t ask any questions” look.

Thankfully (or not), Natalia seems to get it, because she gives Stevie a knowing smirk and says “See you later, then,” while dragging a confused Freddie out the door.

Slowly, Stevie looks up at Hugh, who looks like he’s trying to figure her out.

“What are you doing?” he asks, his smile slowly lifting in a smile.

“I don’t know,” she says, standing up and draping her bag over her shoulder. “What are we doing?”