I'm fine, I promise.

older than I thought

The doorbells ringing increases, as if Beethoven, himself, is going at a fast tempo playing perfect sixteenth notes, making Steve walk even faster - technically being considered a jog, even a fast paced one - to shut up the horrid racket. Being the ass he is, Steve just knows that Dustin is purposely doing this, like a child acting out, creating a ruckus, just for the attention for whomever they yearned.

And Dustin is certainly a child, yearning for his attention, always for his attention. Being perfectly honest, Steve always admired that in Dustin: the way he looks up to him as if he hung the moon and the stars, and more of that poetic bullshit that he really didn't understand but still was a near perfect simile for what actually is. Even though Dustin looks up to him, like he can't do any real wrong, he still recognizes his mistakes and flaws, some that are easy and clear to see, that some people - past people - would ignore just to please him.

"Goddammit! Did you not just hear me to stop that shit? I swear one of these days..." Steve mutters as he opens the door and is pushed out of the way by a arm-filled Dustin, carrying covered bowls filling who knows what.

"Of course, I heard, Steve, who couldn't? I'm sure the Penhall's from down the street heard, you banshee." he says knocking his shoes off by the door with the rest of them, consisting of only Steve's and Billy's, and walking into the living room setting down his side dishes filled to the brim, due to his mother's thoughts of Steve being to "stringy" for a boy his age.

"Think of this as payback for keeping that secret from me, after you swore that you would tell me everything, I don't care if that pinkie promise was only made to shut me up; it was real to me. What promise you might be thinking? The reason you gave out the keys to Billy like a dirty little... secret keeper." hisses Dustin out giving Steve the wickedest of glares.

Steve ignores him, rolling his eyes, obviously exaggerating playing along with him, since Dustin's antics are something he's gotten used to a long time ago, before he even knew it. He notices Steve's actions and begins to scold him, as if his actions weren't uncalled for, but Steve bypasses him by grabbing the food and walking into the kitchen with it, making Dustin follow after him - still complaining. He puts the bowls on the open island, one of the only countertops that were free from dirty dishes, that he maneuvers into the sink to be put into the dishwasher later, after the dinner finished and everyone went home, or at least most everyone. 

Moving around the kitchen, he takes the plates from the cupboard handing them to Dustin, who continued following him after entering. The plates aren't the best, but they definitely aren't the worst; they have a gold outlining with a clear white background, plain, but formal enough that they would be spiffy for eating with company. Steve pushes Dustin a little bit in the direction of the table, which he didn't really think was important enough to actually put down a tablecloth.

If he wanted to get nitpicked and nagged, he would first get some random girl pregnant than have his mother on him for "ruining" her silk, precious, what she considers one of the most important things in the household, tablecloth. (Guess what's not on that list of important things? Sad.)

They move around the table putting plate after plate into place, along with smaller dinner plates and silverware, making sure not to knock off any of the main pieces or "pretty stuff to make it look important and nice".

"Billy's not even that bad anymore. Like... has he tried to run you over in the last couple of months. ... Ha! I thought so, plus aren't Nancy and Jonathan part of the party, why the fuck can't Billy? And if we're going by the, y'know, stalactites," Steve says while moving around Dustin cleaning up a little here and there.

"Statistic, Steve, statistics."

"Statistics, that's what I said. Yeah, if we're going by statistics shouldn't Billy be in the know since he's a sibling, step-sibling, whatever the fuck, of one of the nerdy party members. Like Nancy, Mike and Will, Jonathan, and... well I'm taking over as you and Lucas's older brother for this example. And, and El has Hopper, who so counts, and Joyce who counts by association to Will and Jonathan. So, Billy counts since he's... in association with me and Max, yeah." he sits down at the head of the table knowing he is going to get a talking to, the full nine yards.