CHAPTER NINETEEN:
HOME SWEET HOME

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

   DUSTIN WAS SET to get home that morning and Liz couldn't be happier. He had only been gone for a month but that was a month too long. Because of how excited she was for Dustin to come home, she pitched an idea to the group. She knew the minute Dustin got into town he would be calling them over the radios, so, she had a plan that they all ignore his calls and surprise him in his house when he got home. The gang loved the idea and checked it over with his mom who thought it was a cute idea.

   They were currently waiting for him to get home, which Liz guessed would be in the next couple of minutes. They had the banner and noisemakers ready for surprising him. El would use her powers to power up all the robots he had in his room and they would lead him into the living room where they would surprise him.

   They were all talking amongst themselves, waiting for Dustin to get home, but Liz shushed them all the second she heard the car pulling into the driveway. They quickly hid behind a wall as Dustin walked into the house. He went straight to his room and that's when Mike nodded at El, who closed her eyes. The noises of the robots whirring and making sounds sounded from his bedroom. Max glanced over at Liz and gave her a small smile, happy that the plan was going well.

   The sounds started to get closer, indicating the robots were moving in towards the living room. Dustin was clearly following them as Liz heard him mumble, "This is just a dream. You're dreaming." Liz suppressed a giggle, knowing Dustin was probably freaked out.

   "Now," Mike whispered to El once Dustin was in the living room. She opened her eyes, blood falling from her nose as the noises stopped.

   The gang follows Lucas into the living room and surround him as he holds up the sign that reads, Welcome Home Dustin. Dustin was kneeling on the ground, examining one of the robots, trying to figure out what happened.  He stood up as Max counted down with her fingers. Liz smiled largely and all at once, they blew their noisemakers. Dustin screams and immediately turns around, holding up a can of Farrah Fawcett spray before spraying it directly into Lucas's eyes as Dustin screamed.

   Liz backed away immediately, pushing Max with her. Lucas and Dustin both screamed as the spray collected in Lucas's eyes. Liz put a hand over her mouth and prayed that Lucas would just use his hand to block the spray but that didn't happen until a few seconds later. Dustin eventually came to his senses and lowered the can, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Holy shit!"

   "Oh my god, are you okay?" Max asks, rushing over to Lucas who was clearly in a lot of pain.

   "No!" Lucas answers, covering his eyes with his hands. "What the hell?"

   "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" Dustin apologizes. Max ushers Lucas out of the room to help clean his eyes out. "Thanks for the banner, though! It's nice!"

   Liz steps forward slowly as she holds her hands up in surrender. Dustin finally looks at her and he smiles, stepping forward to hug her. Liz takes a step back, "I will only hug you if you put the can down."

   Dustin looks down at the can that was still in his hand. He chuckled lightly and set the can down onto the coffee table. As soon as he did so, Liz rushed towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck while his arms rested around her abdomen, "I missed you!"

    "I missed you, too," Dustin smiles, pressing his face into her shoulder as he held her tight.

   "How was camp?" Liz asks once they pull apart from the hug.

   Dustin's face lit up at the question, "Amazing! I made so many cool things, I have to show you guys." He glances at Mike, El, and Will. "Come on!"

   The four of them followed Dustin into his room. He had two duffle bags sitting on his bed. He unzipped one of them and pulled out two weird objects. Liz furrowed her brows as Dustin held up something that looked like a miniature windmill, "I call it... the Forever Clock. All right? Powered by wind. Very useful in the apocalypse."

   He handed off the object to Will who examined it and smiled. Liz thought it was cool that Dustin was able to make that since she would never be able to make something like that with just scraps, "Can I see it?" Will handed it off to Liz who looked at it from all angles. She turned the handle, making the windmill looking part move.

   "Then, I give you... the Slammer," Dustin announces, holding up what just looked like a hammer with something extra on the end. He clicked a button which made the hammer start to vibrate. Liz giggled at how it had such an ominous name but could barely do anything. "Pretty neat, huh? But this... this is my masterpiece."

   Dustin picked up the other duffel bag and set it at their feet. They all kneeled down as Dustin unzipped the bag, revealing what was inside. Liz furrowed her brows as she stared at the contents, not able to figure out what exactly it was. It looked like a bag of random pieces of metal and cords, "I would like you to meet... Cerebro."

   "What exactly are we looking at?" Mike asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

   "An unassembled one-of-a-kind battery-powered radio tower," Dustin explains, a large smile on his face the entire time. He was clearly very happy about it and Liz flashed him a smile but she really didn't think it was that impressive.

   "So, it's a... a ham radio," Will states.

   "The Cadillac of ham radios!" Dustin corrects. "This baby carries a crystal-clear connection over vast distances. I'm talking North Pole to South. I can talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I choose."

   At the word, girlfriend, the group of four all exchanged similar looks of shock, "Girlfriend?"

   "Yeah, her name's Suzie," Dustin smiles. Liz raised her eyebrows, still surprised. "I met her at camp and I am going to use Cerebro to talk to her. Come on."

   Dustin zips up the bag and throws it over his shoulder as he gets up. The group all follow him as he walks out of his room, "Wait, so her name is Suzie?"

   "Suzie with a 'z'," Dustin nods, making his way through his house, heading towards the front door. "She's from Utah."

   "Girls go to science camp?" Will asks.

   "Suzie does. She's a genius," Dustin explains, which makes Liz smile at how he talked about his girlfriend.

   "Is she cute?" Mike asks.

   "Looks don't matter, Mike," Liz tells him.

   "Think Phoebe Cates, only hotter," Dustin describes.

   Liz pictures Phoebe Cates in her head and she smiles slightly. Phoebe Cates was a very attractive woman and if Dustin wasn't exaggerating, then his girlfriend was extremely attractive. Liz smirks and before she even had the chance to think about it, the words tumbled out of her mouth, "That hot, huh? Wow." Liz's eyes widened and she felt Mike staring at her. She looked over her shoulder, seeing him giving her a confused look. "Uh... I mean... Wow, she must be really pretty."

   Dustin smiles at her, "Oh, she is and not only that, like I said, she's a genius! She is the perfect woman!"

   "What's going on?" Max asks as Dustin opens the front door and the group starts filing out. Liz looked over, seeing Lucas putting his face under the faucet.

   "Going to talk to Dustin's girlfriend," Will answers with a smile.

   Just like the others had done, Max and Lucas had surprised looks on their faces as they asked, "Girlfriend?"

◌ ◌ ◌

   The hot sun was beating down onto Liz as she climbed up the hill. Dustin had insisted they come all the way out near the Nelson farm to set up his radio. Everyone was carrying something which made them sweat even more as the things they were carrying were heavy, except for Mike and El. Mike and El were holding hands and strolling along the field while the rest of them were panting and sweating.

   Liz had stopped halfway and tied her hair up but parts of it were starting to stick to her face. She could feel her heart beating in her ears the more she walked. Her striped tank top was starting to stick to her skin and the poles she was carrying were weighing down on her, making her strides smaller and her lungs work harder.

   "Aren't we high enough?" Lucas asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

   "Cerebro works best at a hundred meters," Dustin explains. He didn't seem to be tired at all but Liz could tell from the sweat stains that he was hot.

   "You know, I'm pretty sure people in Utah have telephones," Max states as she pants with every couple of words. She was carrying some sort of suitcase that the electronics in it to be able to communicate with Suzie.

   "Yeah, but Suzie's Mormon."

   "Oh shit," Lucas's eyes widen. "She doesn't have electricity?"

   "You're thinking of the Amish," Liz informs Lucas.

   "What are Mormons?" Will asks.

   "Super religious white people," Dustin starts. "They have electricity and cars and stuff, but... since I'm not Mormon, her parents would never approve. It's all a bit... Shakesperean."

   "Shakesperean?"

   "Yeah, like Romeo and Juliet," Dustin smiled.

   "Right," Max nods.

   "Star crossed lovers," Dustin continues.

   "I got it," Max nods, clearly not amused.

   "I bet she's nice," Liz smiles, trying to be positive since the rest of the group was clearly annoyed at doing this. "I can't wait to meet her."

   "Thank you, Liz," Dustin looks over his shoulder and smiles at her.

   "Hey, guys!" Mike calls out. The group all stop and turn around. Liz furrowed her brows when she saw that Mike and El were still towards the bottom of the hill was the rest of them were halfway up. "This is fun and all, but, uh..."

   Mike taps his watch as El says, "I have to go home."

   "We're almost there," Dustin argues.

   "Sorry, man," Mike apologizes. "Curfew."

   "Good luck," El smiles before she and Mike walk off back through the field.

   Dustin checks the time, "Curfew at four?"

   "They're lying," Lucas states as Liz nods, although she wasn't surprised they had lied.

   "It's been like this all summer," Will explains.

   "It's romantic," Max shrugs, but Liz could see on her face that it was starting to annoy her as well.

   Liz sighs, "It was romantic for a little while but now it's just annoying."

   "It's gross."

   "It's bullshit. I just got home," Dustin states. Liz frowns and looks back at Dustin who looked disappointed. Liz felt bad for him. It seemed like she was the only one who actually missed him. Dustin then put a smile on his face. "Well, their loss, right? Onwards and upwards! Suzie awaits!"

   Dustin turns around with a smile and continues heading up the mountain. Liz lets out a small sigh before following him while Max and Lucas both groan in annoyance before following him. Liz continued up the hill, her feet aching with each step but the closer they got to the top, the more she pushed herself since she was almost there. Liz glanced over her shoulder, seeing Max and Lucas both following but Will was still towards the bottom and he looked to be watching Mike and El frolicking away, "Will, you coming?"

   Dustin turned around at Liz's question and spotted Will. He furrowed his brows before yelling, "Will, come on!"

   Will turned around and ran up the rest of the hill, catching up with the group. Liz didn't want to assume anything, but she knew that if it was Max and Lucas running off together, Liz would've been in the same place as Will and Will would've been the one calling out to her.

   "Made it," Dustin states as he sets down the bag he was carrying.

   "Yeah, only took five hours," Max nods.

   "Why couldn't we just play D&D?" Will sighs.

   Liz sets her bag on the ground and stretches out her shoulder. The weight of the bag against one half of her body had made that half sore. She then took deep breaths, trying to get her heart rate back to normal. She finally realized she needed water and turned to Lucas, "Hey, you have that water, right?"

   Lucas's eyes widen and he nods, "Yeah. I'm so thirsty."

   "Me too," Liz agrees, nodding. "Can I—"

   Before Liz even had the chance to ask, Lucas had unscrewed the cap and was taking large gulps of the water. Liz's mouth dropped open and she watched as Lucas downed all the water in the canteen. Her body was practically begging for water and watching Lucas drink all of it was like torture. Max glared at him as well, "Did you seriously just drink the rest of our water?"

   Lucas glanced at both Max and Liz before spitting out some of the water that was still in his mouth. He smiled and handed it over to Liz. Liz glanced down at the water bottle before looking back at Lucas, "I'm good."

   Dustin made them get started right away. They all dumped out the materials they would be using to build Cerebro and Dustin assigned each of them an area to put together. Liz knew it was probably going to be big but she didn't realize how big until she was putting it together. She and Max exchanged equal expressions of shock and impressive looks. Liz thought at first it was all just random scraps of metal but in the end, each item had a purpose and Liz was very impressed.

   "Pretty impressive, right?" Dustin asks once the group finally finishes putting it all together and stands it up. "Now, you ready to meet my love?"

   "Okay, sure."

   "Yeah."

   Dustin sits down on the grass and speaks into the microphone, "Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over." Static was the only thing that answered back. The group watched him with their arms crossed and eyebrows raised, hoping they didn't come all the way out to some random field for nothing. "One sec. She's probably... she's still there." He clicks the button again. "Suzie... this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."

   "Are you sure she's—"

   "Yes, yes, I'm sure she's there. It's just—" Dustin starts, answering Liz. Lucas nods. "You know, maybe, she's, like, busy or—" Lucas nods once more. "It's around dinnertime... here." The rest of the group nods, trying very hard not to get angry. "Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over. Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."

   Over the course of the next hour, Liz had heard the phrase, "Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over," at least a hundred times. She was laying on the ground next to Will while Max and Lucas laid a few feet away from her. The sun had gone down and it was now dark, the moon was out and the stars were shining above them. It had gotten cooler and she finally didn't feel sweaty anymore.

   "Dustin, come on! She's not there!" Max finally yells, getting tired of hearing the same phrase over and over and just wanting to go home.

   "She's there, all right?" Dustin disagrees. "She'll pick up."

   "Maybe Cerebro doesn't work," Will guesses.

   "Or maybe Suzie doesn't exist," Lucas suggests.

   "She exists!" Dustin argues.

   "She's a genius and she's hotter than Phoebe Cates?" Lucas repeats what Dustin had said about her earlier. Dustin nodded. "No girl is that perfect."

   Liz sits up, as does Max, "Is that so?"

   "No girl is that perfect, really?" Liz scoffs. She then gestures to Max. "What about your actual girlfriend sitting next to you? In my opinion, she's the perfect girl."

   Lucas sits up, his eyes wide as he looks from Liz to Max. Max was smiling softly at Liz and Liz swore she had a hint of blush on her cheeks but due to the night sky, she couldn't quite tell, "I mean... you're perfect. I mean, like, per—perfect in your own way. In your special—in your own special way."

   "More like every way if you ask me," Liz blurts out.

   Max stands up, slowly walking over to Liz, "Wow, Lucas, it seems that my best friend cares more about me than you do. Maybe I should just date Liz." Max holds out her hand and Liz grabs it, Max pulling her up to her feet. She entwines her fingers with Liz before kissing her on the cheek. Liz thought her stomach might explode from the butterflies.

   "No, I just meant that you are perfect in your own way, you know—"

   Max giggled before letting go of Liz's hand, "Relax, I was teasing. I'm obviously perfect and Dustin is obviously lying. Oh, and Liz, I know you would be a great girlfriend, so maybe someday, but sadly, I care about this dufus too much."

   Max then walks away from Liz, leaving Liz with a frown on her face and a saddened heart. Max holds out her hand before pulling Lucas to her feet, "Come on, Don Juan."

   The two start walking off as Dustin yells out, "Where are you going?"

   "Home!" Max yells.

   "Well... guess it's just us three," Dustin starts as Will starts to stand up.

   Liz sighs, "Actually, Dustin, it's getting pretty late. I should get home. I'm sure Steve will want to complain all about his day to me."

   Will nods, "Uh, yeah, it's... late. Sorry. Maybe tomorrow we can play D&D. Or something fun. Like we used to?"

   "Yeah, sure," Dustin nods, but Liz could tell he was upset. "Welcome home."

   Liz smiles before hugging Dustin, "I'm glad you're home. I missed you."

   Dustin smiles, hugging her back, "I missed you, too."

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

[ 3025 WORDS ]

this was such a long chapter omg
i didn't realize it was gonna be
that long