"Max?"
Max turned around to see Lucas, who was awkwardly fidgeting around in his suit. He sheepishly smiled and stuttered a few words out while Max raised an eyebrow and grinned at him.
"Hey. Um, it's nice, right?" He pointed to the decorations hanging on the walls that seemed to be falling off. "You want to, um..."
The ruckus of their conversation spiked the group's interest, and they all looked behind them, Dustin included. He was grinning extremely wide even though a few seconds ago everyone was making fun of his hair, which he did work hard on, but overall he was just glad to be with everyone. No complications or demodogs to ruin their good time. He had even made a perfect plan to ask a certain girl to dance, which courtesy of Steve, made him feel extra confident. His smile instantly vanished as he took a look of Lucas and Max, both smiling shyly at one another. He kept quiet and let the scene play out.
"You want to, like..you know? Like, just you and me?" Lucas stuttered out, rubbing his neck.
"Are you trying to ask me to dance, stalker?" She replied, spreading an even wider grin as she tried to keep her cool demeanor.
"No, of course not. Unless you want to." He scooted closer to her.
"So smooth. Come on." Max grabbed Lucas's sleeve and yanked him onto the dancefloor. She positioned herself closer to Lucas and draped her arms across his shoulders. He cautiously put his hands on her waist and blushed, looking up at her and grinning goofily. She returned the grin and started dominating the lead in the dance. Lucas carefully followed.
Dustin's frown stayed as he watched both of them slowly move around in a circular motion, laughing as Lucas accidently stepped on Max's foot. He watched Will get pulled aside by a girl calling, "Zombie Boy." and asking to dance with him. Will looked at both Dustin and Mike for advice but it was too late as she forcefully pulled him to the dance floor. Will shyly looked up at the girl and started dancing with her. Will also seemed incapable of dancing, but the girl didn't really mind since she knew she was taller than him.
Dustin sighed and glanced over to a group of girls chatting besides the snack table. He recognized the girl surrounded by the clique and started psyching himself up. It was now or never.
Mike was also standing there with him, watching all of their friends dance with other people. He looked as depressed as him, but in his mind he knew that he did have someone, if she was going to come, so he wasn't exactly lonely. He looked over at him and patted him on the shoulder.
"Wish me luck, Mike. I'm going in." He clicked his tongue and winked, strutting over to the table. Mike obviously wanted to protest but let him be. There wasn't anything he could do anyways.
When Dustin reached the group of girls, he looked over and focused his attention on the one girl he was really after. "Stacy!" He called out, jumping over the girls but was drowned out by the sounds of them gossiping and giggling. Dustin yelled her name a couple more times, each louder than the rest, but couldn't get her attention. After a lot more tries, she finally looked at him and scoffed.
"What?" She snapped, eyeing him and giving him a disgusted look when she looked at his hair. Dustin chuckled and cleared his throat, holding out his hand and raising his eyebrow.
"Shall we?"
"Um, no thanks" She giggled, motioning towards her posse to move somewhere else. They all snickered and followed Stacy to another part of the room, giving Dustin glares as they left. He sighed and shook it off, spying another couple of girls hanging out in the corner of his eye. He puffed out his jacket and started walking towards them.
"Oh, my god." They both whispered, walking as fast as they could away from him. Dustin's grin instantly fell as he looked around at everyone else who was having fun. Even if they didn't have a date, a lot of people were still laughing, chatting, and giggling. Everyone was having a great time.
Dustin searched around the gym and finally spotted a place where he belongs: on the bleachers, with the other kids who didn't have friends or a date. He sat down and sighed, knowing the rest of the night was going to be very long for him.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Dustin jumped out of his dream-like state and looked down, quickly wiping the tears away from his face which he didn't even notice had formed in the first place. Thanks to his hair, again coming from the courtesy of Steve's advice, everyone could easily see up front that he was crying, and that he now had baggy eyes and tear-streaked cheeks to pile on evidence of that fact. He took a deep breath, preparing himself, and looked up at the disembodied voice.
He almost choked. It was a girl.
He didn't know exactly what he expected when he looked up at the person, especially because the voice itself was very light and energetic compared to a typical teenage boy's voice, but to be fair he has heard Lucas scream before, so he could never be too careful. In any case, a girl had never initiated a conversation with him unless she had to or it was necessary.
And I mean, she was pretty.
"Were you.. crying?" She asked, sitting down next to him on the bleachers and scooting close to him so she could look at his face and make sure he was okay. He coughed from the sudden closeness of her position and stumbled back on his seat.
"N-No?" He stuttered out, scooting away from her as his heart race increased. He clenched his shirt dramatically and gulped.
She didn't seem completely satisfied with his answer and continued to scoot closer while putting her hand down dangerously close to his. She leaned on her hand for support and got closer to Dustin. The closer she became, the more brain-dead he seemed to get. The only pro of the situation was he could look at her more detailed features, and not in a super-creepy-guy sort of way.
Her hair was relatively short, obviously not as short as Eleven's hair was at the moment, but somewhat close. It was a plain bobbed hairstyle that somehow had peaked his interest. The edges of her locks were cut unevenly and were extremely rough, almost as if she did it on her own. It was a lightish brunette color which complimented her eyes that seemed to switch from blue to green depending on what angle you looked them. He had heard once that people who had eyes like hers were rare, and that it was classified as hazel. Her face was somewhat rounded and he could tell she had tiny dimples hiding in the corners of her mouth. It was weird how much he wanted to see her smile so he could test this theory.
Dustin leaned back and shook his head, looking away from the girl. What was he thinking? Did she notice him staring? He didn't want to check to see just in case she was disturbed by it, but he had to know, and he would have to look back sometime. He slowly moved his head back towards her gaze and stopped when he realized she was also just sitting there and staring. At him.
He waved his hand in front of her face as she broke her concentration and blinked her eyes. Her face became red and she looked away from him.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't know I was staring!" She yelled, not daring to make eye-contact with him again. He chuckled awkwardly and rubbed his neck.
"N-No it's okay. I was kinda staring too." He admitted, putting a hand on her shoulder for comfort and smiling awkwardly.
She flinched by his contact and slowly turned back around while they both shook away the awkwardness with a soft laugh. Dustin was right, she does have dimples. And a really cute smile. And an adorable laugh. Oh crap, he thought, what was happening to him?
When they stopped laughing, which honestly took forever, she hesitantly raised her hand and pointed at his hair in amazement. Her eyes started sparkling, and by sparkling, they were legit sparkling. Like, twinkles and everything. Dustin was surprised on how that was physically impossible that was.
"I like your hair. How do you get it like that? Most of the girls here have really cool hair, and I can barely cut mine." She giggled, proving yet another one of Dustin's theories: she cuts her own hair. He wanted to comment on how her hair was perfectly fine, and honestly better than everyone else's, but instead he confidently leaned close to her and gave her a jokingly flirty expression.
"Well I'm not allowed to say. It's a secret." He purred at her but instantly stopped, realizing what he did. He covered his mouth and shook his head back and forth, almost regretting everything he's done up until now. The girl's face turned bright red. They both sat quietly for a few seconds before the girl started laughing. Dustin looked at her like she was crazy.
"Wait, so you're not totally appalled by that?" He questioned as the girl's laughter eventually died down and she was wiping away little tears from the corners of her eyes. She looked at him and cleared her throat.
"No no, I wasn't disturbed at all. It was actually pretty funny. Please, the next time that we talk, do that. Just, greet me like that everyday!" She softly giggled and Dustin almost felt like fainting. This girl, who he'd never seen before, was willing to talk to him and possibly talk to him more? It almost felt like a dream.
"Y-You want to talk more? Like tomorrow?" He asked, still shocked by her words. She looked over at him and nodded happily, tilting her head to the side and smiling. Dustin's cheeks started burning up as he buried his face in his hands, hoping she didn't notice.
"Oh, wait! I don't even know your name! Silly me. I always forget that part. That's probably why I don't have many friends. Or maybe it's because I'm too much of an introvert that I don't go out and talk to people. Or it could be because I'm just unlikable." She hit her head gently with her fist and giggled, not even comprehending the words she was saying. It hurt Dustin a little that she had no self-confidence.
"Well, you're talking to me just fine. Must be because I'm special, right?" He joked, nudging her with his elbow and chuckling unconfidently. She tapped her head and nodded.
"Must be. I mean, since I had gotten here I've felt like we would get along easily. Like.. an electricity you could say. I can't exactly explain it, but it somehow makes me less stuttery when I'm talking to you. Though, sometimes when you're being cute it's kinda hard not to stutter."
Electricity. Him: Cute.
This time, it was her turn to slap her mouth shut. Both of their faces turned red, and it was a miracle that none of them were diagnosed with a fever from all of their blushing. The girl chuckled nervously.
"Just forget that last part."
Dustin leaned back. "I don't know how you could."
The girl slapped him and giggled, burying her face in her hands. "I'm such an idiot. People told me telling the truth was going to get me in trouble some day. I wish I didn't say you were cute, not that you aren't, it's just I don't even know your name and you don't know mine and it's extremely embarrassing so I don't know what to do, and my parents didn't exactly EXPLAIN what to do in this situation and-"
"M-My name's Dustin" He mumbled out, cutting her rant that would've gone on forever had he not stopped her. The girl looked over at him.
"I'm Hazel!" She shouted. Dustin opened his mouth to make a comment about her eyes matching her name, but he heard a strong yell towards him from a familiar voice.
"Yo Dustin, it's time to go!" Lucas yelled, motioning towards the door and to his other friends who were all red in the face for some reason. Dustin looked at the gym, which was almost completely empty, and he cursed. How did time pass so fast?
He glanced over at Max who was extremely red, but for some reason he only wanted to laugh. He felt nothing along the lines of angry or jealous. Actually, he felt happy that she was happy, and for that matter, embarrassed. Now he could make fun of them.
"Okay, okay I'm coming." He mumbled, waving goodbye sadly to Hazel as he jumped off of the bleachers and onto the ground. Lucas stringed his arm around Dustin's neck and asked who the girl was, jabbing at his shoulder in a teasing manner, but Dustin just smiled and said nothing. Before the group completely left the gym, he took one last glance at Hazel as he caught her staring back at him. She broke out of her gaze and waved furiously at him with a blushed face. He waved back.
They both jumped when they felt it electricity, again. They looked at each other and chuckled silently, waving off again as Dustin left the gym.
A/N: I legit watched the Season 2 finale ending again to get the exact dialogue they used when Lucas was asking Max to dance/ what Dustin said when leaving his position. Worth it for my baby boy.
