road to somewhere

This friendship is pretty new.

Steve's not really sure why it even exists but he likes this loud opinionated kid. He likes that Dustin is too smart for his own good and a little rude sometimes, but - "You don't cook? Like at all. And you're twelve?"

"Why would I cook?"" He asks. "My mom cooks. It's kinda her job to feed me."

"You just said that she's been working more hours to send you to summer camp and," He gestures to the money on the table. "You're sick of pizza. You've got a stocked kitchen. You can make your own food."

Dustin is just like, "Yeah, no thanks."

Smartest kid in America and he can't cook. He's completely uninterested in learning and - "You don't even have a microwave!"

"Uh, yeah??? You ever hear of radiation?? People go blind looking through the little window, you know."

Steve leaves that night with a wave to Mrs Henderson as she gets off work and a frown on his face. He pushes the thought down with all the other anxieties he ignores and never thinks of it again.

Until a couple days later when he's bullied into helping fix the Byers' place back up and they don't have a microwave either!

He doesn't realize that he's bitching about it or how long he's been bitching until Jonathan snaps at him that not everyone has money like him to buy appliances they don't need.

Steve kinda just...

"It'd be convenient," Hopper says offhandedly before Steve can think to reply. He turns to Joyce, "I think I have an old one somewhere you could use."