Family Line - Dustin Henderson

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"All right, so let me get this straight." Steve spoke from where he was walking besides Dustin, along the old train tracks chucking meat across the path, hoping that Dart would later follow it, "You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl... who you just met?"

Dustin glanced up at River who was walking infront of them making sure he was far enough infront that he wouldn't be able to hear their conversation, "All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things."

"I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?"

"An inter dimensional slug? Because it's awesome." Dustin replied.

"Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, I... I just..." Steve stopped trying to think of the right thing to say, "I don't know. I just feel like you're trying way too hard."

"Well not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?"

"It's not about the hair, man." Steve shook his head, "The key with girls is just... just acting like you don't care."

"Even if you do?"

"Yeah, exactly." Steve smiled at the younger Henderson boy, "it drives them nuts."

They both suddenly stopped their conversation when River fell to the floor ahead of them. The boy smiled back sheepishly at the two rubbing his hands on his jeans pulling himself to his feet, "I'm o-okay."

River turned back around walking ahead of them. He didn't feel okay. He'd lied. He'd lied to Max and he felt horrible about it. He told her that he was going to spend the day at the arcade with Dustin.

How was he meant to tell her that he was going to hunt down a giant slimy slug, which had possibly gotten a lot bigger since he'd last seen it, and there was a good chance it might eat him alive.

Yeah, Max had known about Dart, but she didn't know all about what had happened last year. And to be honest, River wasn't exactly sure what had happened. Dustin had tried to explain but there wasn't much time.

He knew a bits, like that Will had actually gone missing in this place called the upside down where he was being hunted by a creature called the Demogorgan which was eventually killed by this girl called Eleven who he think might have had superpowers but in killing the creature she disappeared.

And somehow, Will has been having visions of the upside down, and he'd heard Dart in the there. It was all a bit confusing for River but he pretended he'd understood for Dustin's sake.

"Oh yeah. Yeah, this will do." Steve spoke looking around the old junk yard that Dustin had brought them to, "This will do just fine. Good call, dude."

Dustin smiled looking towards River before following after Steve. All three of them stopped in the middle of the junk yard pouring the last of their meat out onto the ground.

"I said medium-well!" Lucas yelled from the top of the hill. River frowned when he looked up only to find Max stood with him. 

"Who's that?" Steve questioned.

"Max." River replied when Dustin didn't say anything, "My s-s-step sister."

River sat at the back of an old bus looking out the window at the stars. They'd spent over an hour grabbing as much scrap metal they could find to block of the entrance to the bus and any windows. The sun had now set, and a thin layer of fog covered the ground.

"So you really fought one of these things before?" Max broke the silence. Steve looked towards her nodding his head, "And you're like, totally, one hundred percent sure it wasn't a bear?"