YOUR SONG | steve harrington

028

Beverly glanced up from the cash register, spotting Steve with...Dustin?! The young boy had gone away to camp for a few weeks, so seeing him in the mall surprised the girl. "Holy shit, Alicia," Beverly said, making the girl look at her. "Dustin's back." She pointed over at Scoops Ahoy.

Alicia looked over at the ice cream parlor, where Steve and Dustin seemed to be fake lightsaber fighting. "Oh, my God," Alicia whispered, a smile growing onto her face. After last year's events, the girls, and Steve, had grown close to Dustin since they were practically with him the whole time. Beverly saw him as the younger brother she never had and she loved the kid.

Even though Lucas didn't seem to thrilled to see Alicia talking with Dustin like they were friends, Alicia was also fond of the Henderson boy. He was just so smart compared to all of the other kids.

"Come on," Beverly said excitedly, taking Alicia's wrist and pulling her away from the register and towards the ice cream parlor.

"Hey, where are you two going?!" Dylan shouted after them since they had left the cash register unattended.

"No where!" Beverly called back, earning a loud groan from the boy. The two girls giggled as they quickly made their way over, bright smiles on their faces. "Dustin!" the Crawford girl exclaimed, rushing over to the boy.

"Beverly!" he responded in the same tone, pulling the girl into a hug. Robin and Chris watched, both giving each other a look since the younger boy had also greeted Steve the same way. Although Mike was friends with all these kids, Chris never really formed a connection with all of them. Especially after he kind of distanced himself from everyone for the past few months.

"Hey!" Alicia greeted, also pulling Dustin into a hug. "Wow, you've gotten so tall. First Lucas and now you," she said and Dustin smiled. "Don't tell me you have a girlfriend now."

"Well..." Dustin trailed off, making the three teens give each other an excited, and shocked, look. "I'll tell you all over some ice cream?"

"Deal!" Steve quickly said, rushing over to make Dustin some ice cream.

"What about Dylan?" Alicia whispered to Beverly.

The girl shrugged. "He can handle it."

After Steve had given some Dustin ice cream, the four of them sat down at a booth. Beverly had sat next to Steve on the end, trying to be discrete about her choice. However, Alicia had noticed it and arched a brow, earning a shake of the head from the Crawford girl.

But, Alicia didn't want to say anything in front of Steve or Dustin, so she chose to sit next to the latter on the other end. When Steve had seen that Beverly had chosen to sit next to him, his stomach had dropped and he immediately fixed his hair.

Dustin then told them about his super hot and super smart girlfriend. Beverly didn't want to say anything, but her shared glanced with Alicia spoke enough: She didn't know if she actually believed him or not by his description.

"No, no. No way. Hotter than Phoebe Cates?" Steve questioned, also not buying some of it.

"Mm-hmm," Dustin hummed.

"No."

"Brilliant, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth," Dustin told them.

The three teens gave each other a wide eyed look at that statement, not knowing how to respond to that. "Good to know," Beverly said slowly, forcing herself not to laugh.

Steve began to nod, looking back at Dustin. "Wow. Yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man. That's ro — That's kinda romantic. That's like...Wow."

"So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" Dustin asked, pointing to his Banana Boat ice cream.