YOUR SONG | steve harrington

023

After Dustin finished emptying out the fridge, he said, "All right. It should fit now." He looked back at Steve, who was holding the dead Demodog in a blanket.

"Is this really necessary?" Steve asked the boy.

"Yes, it is, okay? This is a ground-breaking scientific discovery. We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog," Dustin told him sternly.

"I thought you were the one calling it Demodog, though?" Beverly pointed out from behind Steve, Alicia giggling quietly next to her.

"Bev, I usually like to hear your voice, but not right now," Dustin sassed.

Beverly scoffed and Alicia's mouth dropped, laughing even more at Dustin's response. "Wow, Dustin. That hurt. A lot," she said, holding a hand up to her heart dramatically.

"Just the truth," he said and Alicia snorted while Beverly rolled her eyes playfully. "Now come on, Harrington, pick up the pace!" he shouted.

"All right, all right, all right," Steve breathed out before he walked over towards the fridge. "But you're explaining this to Mrs. Byers, all right?"

He started to shove the Demodog inside the fridge, making lots of noise. Alicia took that time to ask Beverly, "What did you talk about with Steve?"

"What? Oh, I just told him that I broke up with Chris," she answered, leaving the first part of the conversation out of it.

"Why?" Alicia asked slowly, not knowing why either of them would care about that.

"Because they're best friends and I just wanted to let him know before Chris did. You know, just in Chris decided to make something up," she explained.

"Right," Alicia said, although she was a tiny bit suspicious for some reason. The girls looked back at the boys, seeing that Steve had successfully shoved the Demodog in the fridge and that he was patting the top of Dustin's head. "Okay, and what is Mrs. Byers supposed to do with the thing after all this?" Alicia questioned.

"Uhhh, I didn't think about that," Dustin admitted, his eyes wide.

"Clearly," Alicia said, shaking head while Beverly let out a laugh.

"Mike, would you just stop already?" Lucas demanded from the other room, causing the four's eyebrows to shoot up.

"You weren't in there, okay, Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs," Mike spoke.

"Demodogs!" Dustin called out and Mike gave him an annoyed look.

"The chief will take care of her," Lucas assured him.

"Like she needs protection," Max commented quietly.

The four of them then walked into the same room as Lucas, Max, and Mike. "Listen, dude, the coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?" Steve said to the Wheeler boy.

"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench," Mike pointed out.

"Right, so my point is..." Steve trailed off, making them all look at him expectantly. "Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do."

"Nice job," Beverly said, patting him on the back. Alicia tilted her head, skeptical yet again.

"That's not entirely true," Dustin said. "I mean, these Demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."

"So if we get their attention..."

"Maybe we can draw them away from the lab," Max finished for Lucas.