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THINGS WERE AWKWARD between the three members of the car ride. Valentina hadn't spoken since before the last time Steve spoke, but, thankfully, Dustin was there to fill the silence. For once, his incessant rambling was actually useful.
After an awkward admission from Steve that him and Valentina no longer went by their associated childhood nicknames, which resulted in Dustin asking horrendously nosy questions about why, the three finally circled back to the topic of why Dustin had dragged them into Steve's car.
"Wait a second," Steve interrupted the other boy, "How big?"
Valentina spared a cautious glance in his direction. He seemed less tense than he did about ten minutes ago, when he spewed the words that he'd heard from Valentina's mouth so many times before. Don't call me that, she was seconds away from saying until he got there first. A pit of guilt tore open at the bottom of her gut, a feeling that she'd come to familiarize in her otherwise empty stomach. She'd been sheepishly avoiding all conversation and eye contact with either of the boys after how strangely she responded to Steve's words, and the fact that she, herself, didn't even say them.
Dustin popped his head in the gap between the older teenagers' seats, a head of fluffy curls filling the narrow space that suddenly felt suffocatingly small. "First it was like this," he held his hands up to replicate the size of the 'baby Demogorgon' he captured. That was why he needed their help. "Now, it's like this," he spread his hands quickly, thence smacking Valentina in the side of her stony face. She swatted his hand away, to which he glared and replaced it just an inch from her blue eyes.
Valentina went quiet once she realized what Dustin was talking about. Quieter than when Steve took the words right out of her mouth. Although she seemed calm on the outside, her body was a raging fire inside. She wanted out of this car. Out of this plan. Out of Hawkins and its stupid dimensions forever.
Steve's eyes, that looked over to watch the little boy, happened to meet the glance of the blonde's whose looked to his on instinct. They faced each other for the first time since the beginning of the journey, then separated once again. He continued like normal.
"I swear to God, man, it's just some little lizard-"
"It's not a lizard!" Dustin defended himself.
Valentina leaned her head against the window, hoping the coolness of it would soothe her oncoming headache. Oh, how she wished it was just a lizard. But somewhere deep in that pool of emotions bubbling in her stomach was one that told her it definitely wasn't a lizard.
"How do you know?" The argument began—the fifth one since they left the Wheeler's.
"How do I know it's not a lizard?"
"Yeah! How do you know it's not just a lizard?"
"It's probably not a lizard..." Valentina grumbled, closing her eyes. She just wanted the noise to stop.
