Byler- The Unwanted Return of Everything (And How It Finally Ends)

Good Advice

"Another fucking Demogorgon, can you believe it?" Dustin sighed as he threw a small bouncy ball at his ceiling and caught it again when it came down. "Seriously, I thought we were done with all this. Right, Mike?"

Mike wasn't really paying too much attention. He was sitting on the end of Dustin's bed and staring at the wall. He was in a bad mood. He shook his head when Dustin called to him again. "What? Yeah, it's pretty bad."

"That's what I'm saying. First a gate, then the Mind Flayer, and now this. The universe hates us, Mike! I think that's it. The universe just hates us for no good reason."

Mike laughed. "Oh yeah, I've thought of that one before."

"And what did we even do?" The ball flew up to the ceiling and back down into Dustin's palm again. "I mean, I've been a great person so far. Good grades, nice friends. I've only ever read a single one of those Playboy magazines and I don't think that's enough to make me deserve all this. It was one magazine, Mike."

"Yep, I get it," said Mike. "You sound pretty innocent to me."

" Exactly. So I don't get it. It's like a big plot hole. None of us did anything to deserve this! I mean, Lucas is awesome. You're cool, as far as I know. Will's got it the worst and he definitely didn't do anything. Max is great, kinda mean sometimes. Jane's pretty cool, except she's killed people, but I'm not counting that."

"I don't think it really has to do with any of th-"

"And out of the billions of people on earth, why us? Why Hawkins? It's just such a low probability and here we are!" Dustin caught the ball again, this time chucking it at a wall. It didn't bounce back to him. "It's just so... stupid."

Mike sighed, scooting over on the right edge of the bed so he could look down at Dustin. "At least we're all in it together though, right? Imagine if it was, like, just you. And nobody else even knew what you were talking about."

Dustin shook his head. "No thank you. I'd go crazy, I think. Or I'd die. Who would defend me from the great variety of demo-creatures? I'm not that capable."

"Yeah, so at least we've got everyone here. We've got an advantage then."

"Now we just have to figure out how to defeat the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer and close the gate." Dustin sighed. "Easy enough, I say."

"Well, at least someone's positive."

"Hardly."

Mike stared out at the wall, quiet for a moment. Hanging out with Dustin again made him sad that he'd lost contact with everyone at Harvard. He missed conversations like this. Maybe Harvard would've been better if he had actually kept in contact with everyone while he was there. It seemed so obvious now.

Dustin sat up and looked at Mike. "Did you and Will make up with each other?" He paused. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. I just... you two are so close usually."

I should tell Dustin. Dustin would listen to me, right? I bet he doesn't like Brad either. Dustin's good at first impressions. Dustin had always got the real nature of people before his friends. He liked Max first, he liked Steve first, and he was always starting stuff with Mike's dad for no reason. He had good taste in people. That was it.

"We... aren't. I mean, it's only been a day and we haven't really talked since last night. Maybe it'll work out."

Dustin looked concerned now. "You didn't talk at all this morning? He was at the house, didn't you see?" 'The house' was the Hopper-Beyers house, it was deemed the secret base.