IT'S EMBARRASSING BECAUSE
SHE'S MY BEST FRIEND !
☀︎
THE VERY NEXT MORNING, THE THREE HAD PLANNED FOR AN ADVENTURE TO KILL DART. Buckets of meat and their bats had seemed like the perfect tools to get the job done, except Dustin had still been working on finding any of his friends to help with something so big.
Inside, Alex had went to go grab her bag when the phone had gone off. Heading over to answers, she pulled the phone off the receiver and held it to her ear. "Hello?"
"Did I wake you up?"
Confused by the random caller, she had moved the phone to her other ear as she furrowed her brows. "Uh, no. Who is this?"
"You really forgot about me already, Henderson?" The voice on the end sounded kind of familiar to Alex but she had felt herself blanking. Shaking her head, she had wanted to make an attempt, but nothing came to mind.
"Sorry, but I'm sort of busy, so you gotta tell me or I'm hanging up."
On the other end, a disappointed huff had came before an answer followed. "Billy Hargrove." As he went to continue, Steve had walked through the door, letting her know they were ready to leave. But when she had stuck up a finger for another moment, he had tossed a chunk of meat in her direction to get her moving along. On the other end, Billy had assumed her to be listening. "I wanted to see if you could hang out today."
"Today?" She questioned him in surprise as she motioned for Steve to leave. "Uh, yeah, I don't really know if I can. Maybe I can give you a call later..."
"Or we could always..."
Billy's nervous words were cut off as Alex had pulled the phone away from her ear to tell Steve to wait a moment for her to finish her call. Pulling the phone back up to her ear, she knew it was best to end it there and worry about him later. "Hey, listen, I'm sorry but I really have to go now.
"Whoa, how about tonight?" he asked quickly before she could hang up on him.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," she spoke quickly, already checking out of the conversation far before Billy had. Her mind had been elsewhere and with Steve's distraction, she had no idea what her accidental agreement would lead to tonight.
"Henderson, seriously, your brother will kick my ass if we don't go now," Steve said as she made her way over. Heading outside, just as he said, Dustin was beyond frustrated with the lack of urgency between the two.
As soon as Alex approached, Dustin had stuck out a bucket of meat her way as he lifted his very own. "Aren't you gonna put on a jacket or something?"
Alex glanced down to herself and frowned at the jeans and tank top— clothing that was not very appropriate for the autumn weather they had. "I'm still hot," she said quietly.
Dustin turned away from her, hiding his disappointment as he started off towards the woods. He didn't want Alex to know how it hurt him to see his sister in such a condition. However, it did make him feel better when Steve had offered up his own jacket for whenever she felt the slightest bit chilly.
『••☀︎••』
THE THREE HAD BEEN FOLLOWING THE TRACKS AS THEY MADE A TRAIL OF MEAT FOR DART TO FOLLOW. Alex had started to walk ahead of the boys as she begun to get lost in her own mind. A bit behind, Steve and Dustin had tried to make conversation with one another— it had involved Dustin finally opening up about his crush and Steve handing out terrible advice.
"All right, so let me get this straight. You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who... who you just met?" Steve asked, despite having being put in a somewhat similar situation— instead of dangerous, more stupid. After meeting Alex when they were younger, he had risked sneaking out in the middle of the night to pay her a visit— one that was not as welcoming from her point of view. Impressing her never did seem to work given they had only ever remained friends, but he was at least glad for that.
"All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things," Dustin fought back.
"I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?"
Dustin couldn't help by roll his eyes at such a question. To him, anyone cool would've liked the slug and he was certain Max Mayfield was cool. Beyond cool. "An inter dimensional slug? Because it's awesome."
"Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, I.. I just.. I don't know. I just feel like you're trying way too hard."
"Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair," Dustin commented. Taking a look up to him, his frown deepened that even in a life threatening adventure, Steve had still managed to make his hair the best it could possibly be.
"It's not about the hair, man," Steve sighed, but even he knew his hair was better than most, which helped him a bit. "The key with girls is just acting like you don't care. It drives them nuts."
Scrunching his face up in confusion, Dustin had looked up to Alex before turning to Steve with a raised brow. "You seriously want me to believe that when you tell Alex how much you care about her."
"I don't..." Steve hesitated as he looked over to Alex. He cared even more than he wanted to admit. And just as he did now, he felt he cared about Alex more than he has ever cared about another person. Despite them drifting apart this last year, he never stopped, but he was too scared of rejection to admit it to anyone, especially her brother. "I don't like Alex. We're just friends, man."
"Right," Dustin shot back sarcastically. He may have been younger, but he was the smartest of the three of them and he certainly wasn't blind. Even if Steve claimed to know Alex the best, Dustin knew much more about her than he could. "So, let's pretend you don't like my sister, and this girl you told her about in your car is some random person you pretend not to care about... Then what? What happens after you show her you don't care?"
Steve had briefly glanced down to Dustin, seeing he was more desperate for help than proving Steve wrong which happened to be very rare. Focusing forward, he allowed his eyes to settle on Alex's back as a small frown tugged on his lips. "You just wait until..." He words trailed off as he tried to find the words to perfectly explain how he felt even in this moment. "Uh, until you feel it," he finished quickly.
"Feel what?"
"It's like before it's gonna storm, you know? You can't see it, but you can feel it, like this, uh, electricity, you know?"
Nodding his head, Dustin felt he had a grasp on the understanding. "Oh, like the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere..."
Cutting his off quickly, Steve shook his head immediately. It was clear how much Dustin had lacked in the girl knowledge now. "No, no, no. Like a... like a sexual electricity. You feel that and then you make your move."
"So that's when you kiss her?"
Startled by such a jump, Steve held out an arm to Dustin to calm him down a bit. "Whoa, slow down, Romeo. Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a... I don't know, like a lion. But others, you gotta he stealthy, like a ninja."
"What type is Nancy?"
Dustin's question had Steve pause as his eyes followed the tracks they had walked on. Earlier this year, he would've known perfectly how to describe her, and now he wasn't so sure. "Nancy's different. She's, well, yeah, man, she's confusing." Sighing, he shook his head as he had lost himself in his own thoughts. "Yeah, she's not like your sister. Alex is more special, you know? It's something you don't wanna screw up, because if you do, then you lose out. And if you lose out, then you're screwed."
Dustin was silent listening to Steve. It had been the first time he felt that maybe this was the most genuine that Steve had been. Then he began to realize that Steve was going out of his way to even be here, whether Alex came or not, he was willing. And for now, Dustin wanted to be there for him all because when he needed his friends, they weren't there. "You're screwed if you keep denying that you like my sister."
Steve couldn't help but roll his eyes. "All right, man, you gotta cut this out. Besides, it-it doesn't matter if I do like her, she's not into me like that, okay? Can we just focus on your love life here? I can handle myself fine."
Dustin hesitated, but knew it was a losing battle when Steve was stubborn. "But this girl's special, too, you know. It's just, like, something about her."
Coming to a stop, Steve had placed his arm out in front of Dustin to stop him in his tracks. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, you're not falling in love with this girl, are you?"
"No, no," Dustin spoke quickly. However, he began to narrow his eyes at Steve as he grew suspicious. "You called my sister special, are you falling in love with her?"
"What, no," he said just as quick. "No, man. Listen, don't start falling for this girl. She's only going to break your heart, and you're way too young for that shit." His own heartbreak had wanted him shield Dustin from a pain like this. It was something he never wanted to feel again, and to know he could protect someone from it too made him feel the smallest bit better.
However, Dustin was silent and kept his head low. All he wanted was a girlfriend and from the sound of it, he felt it was no use. And Steve did not want him to feel as he felt right now with Alex. Completely hopeless and scared to be hurt all over again by someone he cared so deeply for. Because he would rather stay friends than to feel the same pain that Nancy Wheeler had put him through. And even so, he was sure this time around it would only hurt worse because it was Alex. "Okay, maybe," he said quietly as he gave in.
Dustin's eyes shot over to him, unsure what he had meant. Steve had kept his eyes focused out on Alex before giving a small shrug. "All right, so, maybe I might like Alex, okay? And it's embarrassing, you know, because she's my best friend and- and I shouldn't think of her that way. And I can't go through the crap Nancy put me through with her."
"I won't say anything," Dustin offered. It had felt a bond had been made between the two boys the moment that Steve had looked to him and gave him a small smile. He had his doubts, but he knew Dustin was a good kid. It's why he came to help after all.
"Fabergé," he sighed. Pointing up to his hair, he let Dustin in on one more secret. "It's Fabergé Organics. Use the shampoo and conditioner, and when your hair's damp— not wet, okay? When it's damp, you do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray."
Dustin had failed to hide his smile completely. "Farrah Fawcett spray?"
"Yeah, Farrah Fawcett. You tell anyone I just told you any of this and your ass is grass. You're dead, Henderson. Do you understand?" Narrowing his eyes at him, he raised a single finger at Dustin, he wanted to be sure he had completely understood. "Not anyone. Not your little party, not Alex."
"Alex is in the party," Dustin whispered, but the look of annoyance had him wave it off. "Doesn't matter. I won't say anything."
Lowering his hand, Steve gave a nod before they continued to follow the tracks. Alex had been making her way back to them when she had noticed that they had fallen further behind than she expected. When she had smiled at them, Dustin had sharply stuck his elbow into Steve's side. "You should tell her."
"Shut up," Steve warned. When Alex had stopped before them, she raised her brows up, "Are you two purposely going slow?"
"We were talking about important shit, Henderson," Steve said, only getting her to scoff in response and lightly shove him back.
Sighing loudly, Dustin had been sure to put back on his annoying little brother attitude as he shoved passed them to continue on ahead. "I'm walking alone now. Don't want to disturb the electricity." Walking off, he had stuck up the middle finger at the two but felt more accomplished that he was able to give Steve a nudge in the right direction.
"Electricity? Like in an electromagentic field—"
"No, jeez, you and your brother are impossible, you know that?" Turning over to her, he couldn't help but smile as she rolled her eyes. Alex was special to him, and now he wasn't the only one that knew how he felt about her which only made him more nervous than he cared to admit.