Chapter Text
"I hate this game."
Dustin slapped another mosquito that had been feasting on his neck and sighed. He really shouldn't complain, he was the one to suggest it after all. It was too hot in the Byers’ house, and the humidity held a tension in the air that was stifling, oppressive even, and made everyone just lay around looking tired and strained.
So he had opened his big mouth and said, Hey guys, let’s play hide and seek! He hoped it would remind him of his childhood, when things were simpler but instead he just felt alone, sweaty and itchy. Moron.
He had so been looking forward to today – the first day the party had all been together in weeks. Even though they were fiercely dedicated to spending as much time together as possible during the summer, things came up that took them away from each other. Dustin was feeling this distance the most, having been visiting his aunt and cousins in the city for the last week, and was at science camp with Lucas the week before that.
Ugh. Science camp. Dustin didn’t even want to think about it. He loved camp, he really did, and he looked forward to it every year. Not only because it was a week-long curiosity voyage, but because he got to spend the week with Lucas – doing science experiments, geeking out over the equipment in the tech lab, and whooping the younger campers’ asses in ping pong every evening.
But this year was different. Lucas had been so weird the whole week, and had spent most of their evenings on the phone with Max when normally he would be hanging out in the lounge. Dustin had to play singles ping pong, and it just wasn’t as fun (nor was he as good alone, it seemed). Between the weird week at camp and the extra week away with family, Dustin felt more isolated from the group and desperate to connect than ever before.
And yet, here he was in the woods, alone, his friends scattered who knows where in the forest behind the Byers’ house.
Dustin slapped at another mosquito before removing his hat to wipe the sweat off his brow. Why was it so hot? The humidity was positively stifling, making his hike through the forest even more oppressive and discouraging than he could have imagined.
Where was everybody? Playing hide and seek seemed like an even stupider idea every minute. This forest was huge, and everyone had run off before he was done establishing boundaries. Mike and El were likely hiding together, and with the way those two were always looking gooey eyed at each other, did he even want to find them? They were probably hiding together and doing I don’t even wanna know what else. And Lucas was likely with Max.
Was Will alone? Will had been quieter and more withdrawn today than he had in a while. Maybe something had happened while he was away that set Will off. Did he have a panic attack again? Dustin had wanted to ask him about it, but he knew Will hated being babied more than anything else so he had kept his mouth shut. Now he was wondering if Will was having as much fun as he was in this stupid forest playing this stupid children’s game.
Oh, shit. I hope Will is okay. Man, I really am a moron.
Dustin froze as a branch snapped somewhere up ahead to his left.
“Will?” he called out, hesitantly.
He made his way closer to the bush where the sound had come from. “Will?” he asked again, feeling his heart pound, unable to stop himself from picturing how his friend had looked the last time he had a panic attack – pale, terrified, and small, so small.
He quickened his pace and broadened his strides when suddenly something flew out of the bush, causing him to stumble backwards and trip over a tree root. The mocking laugh of a crow called out above him as Dustin twisted on his way down and slammed his knees and forearms into the ground.
“Ow! Damn it!” he yelped, his heart still pounding from the adrenaline.
Too sore and hot to move, he stayed splayed out on the grass, knees and elbows stinging. Something crawled over his leg, tickling the back of his knee in the worst way. I’ve probably got poison ivy all over by now, he thought pitifully.
"This is where I die," he declared dramatically. "Alone, unseen, and unloved."
"That's a little dramatic even for you, Henderson," said a voice from somewhere. Dustin lazily turned his head to the side to spot a pair of binoculars and a camo bandana in the tree above.
Dustin rolled onto his back. "You're in the tree?! What the hell?! Lucas, how am I supposed to see you up there?"
"You're not," Lucas quipped, "that's why the game is called HIDE and seek. Hide. And seek. I hide, you seek..."
"Yeah, okay I get it," Dustin cut in, wincing slightly and pushing himself up to a sitting position. "Ooh, is Max up there too? Max and Lucas sitting in a tree, k-i-s ouch!"
A small rock clocked him on the head, ending his song, before two sneakered feet dropped onto the ground beside him.
"It's just me, dumbass. Max and I don't do everything together."
"You coulda fooled me," Dustin muttered under his breath.
Lucas sighed and sat down beside Dustin, leaning his back against the tree. "Come on man. What's up?"
Dustin turned and looked away. "Nothing.”
Lucas sighed again, deeper this time. “Seriously, man, I have more rocks. Don’t make me beat it out of you – I doubt your brain could handle any more damage.”
Dustin didn’t give in to the taunt, his tone biting. “I’m fine.”
“Not even,” Lucas huffed.
“Even!” Dustin retorted.
“Not. Even.”
Lucas took Dustin’s hat off his head and slipped it onto his own, looking at Dustin smugly, his arms crossed over his chest. Something about seeing his friend looking cool, un-mosquito bitten and content pushed Dustin over the edge, as irrational as it was.
“Fine! You wanna know what’s wrong, Lucas? You wanna know what’s up?” Dustin yanked the hat off Lucas’ head and threw it at the ground in disgust. “This stupid forest! These stupid mosquitoes! That damn crow! And while we’re at it, you ditching me! Mike ditching me! Steve ditching - everyone ditching me, this whole stupid summer!”
Lucas sat in a semi-stunned silence. He opened his mouth to speak and then reconsidered, taking a deep breath first. “Dustin…”
“Whatever man, I should just get used to it. This the new normal, right? Steve will go off to college. School will start and then I'm going to be the only one getting laughed at by girls while you and Mike suck face with your girlfriends all day." Dustin deflated then, hugging his knees to his chest, still not looking at his friend.
A moment passed between them before Lucas exhaled, leaning his head back against the tree, eyes trained to the sky above them. “Look man, I’ve been waiting for you to get back since camp ended so I could tell you – so I could say…look, man, I’m sorry. What I did was not cool. I, well I blew you off and that wasn’t cool.”
Dustin let out something between a huff and a sniffle and hurriedly smashed an ungentle hand across his eyes, blinking quickly. Finally he turned to look at Lucas, his eyes slightly bleary.
“It wasn’t cool. I thought we’d have fun, you know, the two of us. But instead I just felt like a loser.”
“I’m sorry,” Lucas said again, his voice and face sincere. “I was distracted and, well, you were always surrounded by people so I thought you were fine.”
“Pfft,” Dustin scoffed. “By who, the baby nerds?”
“Yeah, that little posse of kids who surrounded you day and night.” Lucas clasped his hands together and trilled in a sing song voice, “Dustin, tell us more about portals to other dimensions! Dustin, show us a picture of your girlfriend!”
Dustin blanched. “Man, you can not tell Mike about that…”
“Why did you have a picture of Nancy in your wallet anyway?”
“Shut up!”
Dustin punched his friend in the arm before straightening his shoulders and attempting to eye Lucas coolly. “I’m still mad at you, by the way. Quit distracting me with flattery.”
“Flattery?!”
“Yes, flattery. To those kids I was like their god!” Dustin smiled despite himself.
The air was heavy between them, but this time from humidity more than tension. The sunlight that had peeked through the trees only moments earlier had started to disappear, and the darkened atmosphere made Dustin feel brave enough to say what he said next.
“Everything is changing. Next year we’re at the bottom of the food chain – new teachers, new classes, new AV club. No AV club? I don’t know,” he played with the brim of his hat distractedly. “And like, Steve won’t be there anymore, so I feel like our only chance at protection from the same fate that we had all through middle school is gone.”
Lucas frowned at the grass in front of them slightly, his forearms resting on his knees.
“I just feel like its all coming so fast – summer will be done before we know it, and then…BAM. Life as we know it, over,” Dustin concluded.
Lucas was silent for a moment, thinking over his words before he said them.
“Dustin, everything is not changing.”
“…did you seriously not hear anything I just said? EVERYTHING is changing!”
“No, its not.”
“Seriously Lucas? Oh my God, you’re so dumb, its like talking to a tree. Maybe I should talk to this tree, it probably has more common sense…”
“Okay, okay, OKAY! Will you just shut up for a minute?” Lucas said loudly, exasperated. Dustin slumped back towards the tree and rolled his eyes.
“Okay, yes, everything is changing. Too many things have already changed,” Lucas reasoned. “Everything except what's important. The party is still a party. And party members are here for each other. Always.”
It was Dustin’s turn to sigh heavily.
Lucas tried again. “Listen, man. I’m sorry. I let a party member down, and I feel really awful. I ditched you, and I’m sorry, and I wanna own up to it and make it right.”
Lucas stuck his hand out toward Dustin, his eyes hopeful. Dustin kept his arms across his chest and eyed Lucas warily.
“I promise I’ll explain, I owe you that, I just…could you just shake my hand, please?”
Dustin’s resolve was already wavering. He hated fighting with his friends. Bickering, well, that was a natural occurrence and honestly a sign of affection between them, but real fighting? It just wasn’t in him. He was just relieved that Lucas was actually apologizing. Before he knew it, he reached out to shake Lucas’ hand firmly, nodding as he did so.
Relief flooded Lucas’ face. As their handshake ended, he kicked his long legs out in front of him on the grass, his expression suddenly turning morose.
Without looking at Dustin, he quietly spoke. “The weekend before we left for camp, Max’s stepdad saw us saying goodbye for the week. He was mad – really mad – and even though Max said he’s never hurt her, her eyes looked so scared.”
Dustin looked at his friend, his mouth opening in shock at what he was saying. Lucas still hadn’t looked up from the ground.
“I just wanted to call her because I was worried. I wanted to know she was okay and she kept saying she was but I think she was lying. She didn’t even talk to me very long when I called, so I had to keep calling Hopper and beg him to find out from El whether or not Max was actually okay. That’s why I was on the phone so long every time.”
Dustin swallowed, processing this information. “Is she okay? Did her dad, did he-?”
Lucas shook his head. “I don’t think so. El told me she was okay, and I believe her. She’s a stickler for the truth.” He bit his lip. “I don’t know. Max looks fine, but she’s been acting really weird since I got back. I think she might,” he swallowed hard and looked defeated. “I think she might break up with me.”
“Because of her stepdad?” Dustin asked. “Because he doesn’t like you because you’re…”
“Black?”
“I was going to say roguishly handsome,” Dustin offered with an impish grin.
Lucas threw a handful of grass at him, but still looked serious.
Dustin considered what he knew of his friend Max. She was brave, clever, and untameable, with a rebel streak as fiery as her red hair. “There’s no way Max would dump you because of that. She’s not like that,” he reasoned.
"I don't know man. I don’t know what to think. I mean, the other day at the movies she wouldn't even hold my hand until it went dark in the theatre. Like she was embarrassed or nervous or…” Lucas shrugged his shoulders. “I don't know what's going on. Sometimes I wonder how long she'll even like me, or if she still does."
Dustin didn’t know that to do, so he put his hand on Lucas’ shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting gesture, giving his shoulder a quick squeeze. “Have you talked to Max about all this?”
Lucas shook his head, and Dustin quickly smacked his arm, hard. “Ow! Dustin! What the hell?”
“Talk to her, you idiot!” Dustin boomed incredulously. “Seriously, dude, you pulled a Mike and called her every day of the best week of your summer. You care about her. So talk to her!” Dustin thought fondly to some advice he overheard Nancy giving Steve about the new lifeguard at the pool. “She’s not a mind reader!” (in many ways, Nancy was better at advice than Steve, bless him.)
Thunder boomed in the distance, punctuating Dustin’s point and causing Lucas to look up from the pile of grass he had absentmindedly been making. “I know. I know. I’ve just been putting it off because what if she, you know, dumps me? Then what?”
“Then, we figure it out.” Dustin scratched at his shin, the most recent body part to be a victim of a mosquito attack. “It might be suuuuuper awkward but, the party stays together. I mean, if we figured out how to include a telekinetic ‘weirdo’ into the group, we can navigate this. I got your back, man.”
Lucas sighed with resolve, and smiled as a memory came to mind.
“We stick together, no matter what,” he said, catching Dustin’s eye.
Dustin smiled at hearing his own words from long ago echoed back to him. He knew that even though everything was changing, even though he sometimes felt like he was getting left behind, even though Lucas and Max were uncertain, even as high school loomed closer and he was destined to be a loser and a nerd the rest of his life, he knew that he would be okay. That they would all be okay. Because they would get through it like they always did – together.
Suddenly, Lucas slapped Dustin hard on the back, nearly knocking the wind out of him.
“Lucas! Son of a BITCH…”
“Sorry,” Lucas grinned. “Mosquito.”
Dustin dove at him, tackling him to the ground and immediately regretting it as Lucas smoothly wiggled out of his grasp and put him in some kind of choke hold, rendering him useless.
“Uncle! Uncle!” Dustin gasped even though it didn’t hurt, flailing his arms until Lucas laughed and released him.
Thunder cracked loudly across the sky and suddenly, it began to rain. Dustin looked up at the sky and let the rain wash over him, reveling in its coolness.
“We’d better get back,” Lucas said, dusting his palms on his shorts before holding them open in front of him as if to inspect how hard it was raining. After taking a few steps he elbowed Dustin and said, “Hey, wanna go to the arcade tomorrow? Just us?”
A massive smile split Dustin’s face. “You paying? Cause I think you owe me...”
“Oh my God. You’re going to milk this forever, aren’t you?”
“Just until tomorrow after you pay for me to kick your ass in Dig Dug.”
Lucas threw his hands up in exasperation. “Why am I friends with you again?”
Dustin smiled, and for the first time in weeks he felt truly happy. Things were changing, and were about to change even more. But walking in the rain in the woods, bickering with his best friend - that felt as familiar as home. Some things never change, and he hoped they never would.