Grand Adventure

Chapter 15

 "Hello?"

"Dustin? It's Dani."

"Holy shit! Dani! It's about time you two remembered that I exist," he huffed jokingly. "How are you guys? Are you having the most epic time ever?"

"If you count Eddie using his penis to save my life from a bear, then yes, it has been absolutely epic."

"Jesus Christ," Eddie muttered, bumping his elbow into her. "Did you have to lead with that? And with Henderson? Everybody's gonna know now."

"What?" shrieked Dustin with a snort. "I have to know this story!"

"We were on a hike and we had just finished..." Dani trailed off, realizing she didn't want to tell Dustin, who she still considered a child, about what they had just finished doing. "We'd just finished lunch. Anyway, a bear showed up out of nowhere. Eddie raised his arms up and began yelling at it and roaring and shaking all around. His pants were down so everything was shaking and the sight of it must have scared the bear because he left."

"And why were Eddie's pants down if you were eating lunch?" asked Dustin in confusion.

"Yeah, didn't think that one through, did you?" whispered Eddie with a told you so smirk on his face. "How are you going to explain that? Why were my pants down, Dani?"

Okay, to be fair, she hadn't thought it through. When she'd filled Robin in just a bit ago, she hadn't thought twice about sharing the whole story. But this was Dustin. She knew he was almost fifteen. She knew he knew what it was and he knew that her and Eddie did it. It had been addressed on more than one occasion, but never so blatantly. She could not bring herself to come right out and say that to the curly headed cutie.

"He'd just had to take a leak," she said quickly, letting out a breath of relief.

"I have to give it to you," Eddie commented, crossing his arms and leaning his shoulder against the phone booth. "That was pretty quick thinking."

"Thank you."

"What?" Dustin asked.

"Nothing," she replied. "Eddie claimed he'd seen some documentary and knew how to scare the bear off. I don't know what the hell kind of documentary he watched..."

"Look, I may have been a bit high when I was watching it," Eddie reasoned, holding his hands out. "I'm not sure how clear I was on what was happening, but it worked!"

"It did," she admitted, laughing. "Anyway, we've seen some amazing stuff. We saw a waterfall and mountains, we went horseback riding, and Eddie ate a seven pound steak."

"He what?" shrieked Dustin. "Jesus, that's a huge hunk of meat."

"Yeah, my stomach wasn't really happy with me," Eddie added, leaning his mouth to the receiver.

"Eddie!" yelled Dustin, so loudly that Dani had to pull the phone back a bit. She held it between their ears so they could both hear and talk.

"Hey Henderson, how's Hawkins doing?"

"Boring as hell without you guys," he muttered, "but don't tell Steve I said that. He'll get his feelings hurt that I'm not satisfied with just him. He's been cool. I love Steve. He's driven us all around, to the arcade and the movies and the pool. We just miss you guys a lot."

"We miss you too," Dani stated, meaning it so much. She was having such a good time with Eddie on this trip, but there was a definite ache in her chest for all their friends and family back home. She would be more than ready to see them when the time came.

"Speaking of King Steve, tell him we found a house that belonged to one of his super rich relatives. It's called Harrington House and we took a picture with the sign. We did this tour and these people had some serious money, man. I was not fancy enough for that place. The tour guide couldn't wait to get rid of us."