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"ARE YOU sure that your mom is okay with this?" Lexie asked Dustin as he handed her several types of meat from his freezer. She had just finished calling her own mother and telling her that she was spending the night at a friend's (to which she was met with many questions) and wouldn't be back for a day or so.
"She's asleep — what she doesn't know won't hurt her!" Dustin affirmed, Lexie about to protest that she would find out anyway but decided that it wasn't worth the discussion.
"Then I guess let's do this," she conceded, cutting open a few of the packages while Dustin dashed out to the backyard to collect buckets to hold the meat in. Looking through a few of the cabinets, she grabbed a few pairs of dish gloves and threw one at Steve and set a pair aside for Dustin.
Silently, they began to cut the meat into smaller chunks on the counter, juice running all over the packages and single cutting board that they had to work with. "Not exactly what you imagined doing with your weekend, huh?" she said, breaking the silence shakily with a small, airy laugh. It still had her a bit on edge that monsters were real and right outside the door.
Steve laughed and then shrugged. "You know, it could be worse," he responded. "And I kinda like the kid."
"I just really hope we don't die or anything," Lexie sighed, the level of danger in this situation completely foreign to her. She was only half joking when she said this. "I hope my sister, Mike, and Will are okay."
"We won't die," Steve assured as he cut another piece of meat. "In fact, when —"
His sentence was swiftly interrupted by Dustin clanging through the doorway with three buckets in his hands. Loudly, he shut the door behind him and held up the buckets in triumph. "I found three! Let's get this show on the road!" he exclaimed.
__________
"Alright, so lemme get this straight," Steve clarified, tossing a handful of meat onto the forest path they walked through. Dustin lived oh so conveniently near the woods and judging by the large hole in his cellar, they figured that was their best bet. "You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl, who you just met?"
Lexie grabbed a few pieces of meat and scattered them just ahead of Dustin, trying to get a few off of the path in case the lizard or whatever it was had wandered a little further out. They had been spreading this bait all day, from night into the morning. "Okay, that is grossly oversimplifying things," Dustin rebuked, holding his hand up in protest as he reached down to grab some more of their bait.
"Why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?" Steve went on, still genuinely confused as to why this had led them out there to begin with.
"An interdimensional slug? Because it's awesome," Dustin told him as if that was the clear answer and Steve was obviously stupid for not knowing.
