"Hi Tews!" Max says going straight to pet Dustin's cat who's perched on the table in the center of Dustin's living room.
"Come along, we have other more important things to do then play with the cat!" Dustin insists, clearly on a mission.
"I'm just showing him some love—geez!" Max rolls her eyes at Dustin being bossy.
"Keep it moving," he shuffles her away. "Now I need some things from my room and also from the storm shelter. You guys can do that," he says grabbing a set of keys off the wall and handing it to Eleven.
"Where's your mom, Dustin?" Lucas asks.
"I don't know? Probably sleeping, just don't make a lot of noise—we get in and get out, got it? I told Mike and Will to leave the car running." They split up. Dustin heads to his room while the other three head out the back door.
"Hey, so um," Mike starts, but he doesn't know what he's going to say.
"What is it?" Will asks. They're both leaning on the side of the car parked out on the street in front of Dustin's house. It's really quiet and they can follow the path of their friends as the lights turn on and off in his house.
"How have you been?"
"Good, I guess," Will shrugs confused by how Mike is acting and what he isn't saying.
"We haven't, you know, talked in a while."
"You're busy. You have Eleven," Will says kindly as way of explanation. Mike makes a face in the air.
"Yeah, I just feel like it's my fault we don't talk," he waits for a response, but Will takes a long time. "Crap, it is my fault, isn't it?" Mike groans again.
"It's not that big of a deal! I'm really not bothered by it, seriously," Will tries his best not to make anyone to feel bad.
"No, it's so, so bad. I'm sorry I've been a lousy friend. I just realized with El, like she knows how to talk to you better than I do, and she's probably your best friend now and I'm just—"
"Mike, look with El and I—she's like my sister. And I'm really happy that she's my sister," he says with a grin. "After everything that happened, we just became close."
"I'm happy about that. I'm not—I'm not jealous of anything."
"You're jealous?!" Will picks up on the last thing.
"No! It's good! I don't think it's weird—I know that," Mike becomes more awkward as he attempts to find words. They take a moment to process everything.
"You're still my best friend Mike. I'm glad to be home," Will smirks, and after a moment, they give each other an awkward hug.
"He said what was in here?" Max looks around the creepy dark room.
"Wading gear, fire extinguisher, non-perish-able food items, emergency first aid kit, tool box, booster cables…" El said reading off the long list.
"How many people does he think we are?" Max wonders out loud.
"Why did we need two people to stay with the car? It could have been one person—it's a beat-up piece of junk anyway—no offense," Lucas offers to El since it is her boyfriend's car.
"It's junk," she absentmindedly agrees while looking at the contents on the shelves. She finds the box titled 'Emergency Preparedness for SERIOUS Emergencies: Fires and Earthquakes'."This looks important," she points to the box. They give each other looks.
~A.N. I can totally see Dustin wanting everyone to stay focused on his plan and really taking charge about something he cares about. He has grown so much. He was a "dingus" in Season 1-2. Season 3 he really grew so much and it's fun to write a character who gets into so many interesting situations. Of course he's the guy studying earthquakes and is the one who has boxes of Emergency gear. Leave a comment on favorite moments with Dustin throughout the show. One-liners too! TY :)