there was nothing for the first two to do other than to wait. "okay. she's in." steve said as they all watched max walked inside the woman's house.

"i'm missing collarbones, not eyes." dustin replied sarcastically, making his sister nearly double over with laughter. after a couple minutes of silence, he cleared his throat. "so, are we gonna.. talk about.. it?"

meadow looked at him through the rearview mirror. "talk about what? and if it's that diary thing again, then absolutely not."

"no, i was gonna say.. earlier. with eddie. when he was looking at meadow like some sort of dungeons and dragons goddess?" her brother clarified.

she rolled her eyes. "oh, my gosh, are you serious right now?"

"yeah, i'm completely serious. there were witnesses. tons."

"no, steve and i already had a conversation about this like adults, okay, and i'd really appreciate it if you'd stop acting like there's something more to this than there is." meadow turned in her seat so that she could look at him.

dustin shrugged. "i'm just saying, like, i saw it. i'm not trying to suggest anything, i'm just saying.."

her brows furrowed. "what, are you suggesting some kind of three-way-"

"no! what, no, i just.. i mean-"

meadow ran a hand through her hair, frustrated. "dustin, we've been over this! you are not the dictator of our relationship, and if you think you can try to bring your friend between us then you're wrong." she said, looking at him. "we really care about each other, and i don't understand why you don't-"

"wait did you think i was trying to break you guys up?" dustin asked, oblivious.

steve then turned so he was also facing him. "uh.. yeah?"

"what! of course not!! i love you two being together, i would never try to-"

"then why do you keep trying to make steve jealous?"

dustin's eyes fell to the floor. "i guess i just.. i was hoping it would make him.. i don't know. propose or something."

"what. the actual. fuck." his sister groaned, her face dropping into her hands.

"i already proposed, technically, and she said yes."

meadow looked to steve. "uh, no, steve, you were drugged and high out of your mind, so was i, and it was a life or death scenario in which we thought we would die. so, yeah, i said yes, but it wasn't.. literal. it was like. 'yes. i want to marry you. in the future. but the future won't exist if we die right now so yes i would marry you right now if right now was when we died.'"

"but i mean technically-"

"calm down, get me a promise ring or something first, romeo."

"that's why i wanted him to propose for real!" dustin explained.

his sister turned back to him. "okay, i appreciate you playing matchmaker, or whatever's happening here, and i'm glad you don't want to break us up. but.. why do you want us to get married so badly? right now?"

"because i thought if you got married then you wouldn't want to leave hawkins anymore."

meadow frowned, shaking her head. "dustin, that was.. that was just an idea. a hypothetical that i'd had about us leaving. i thought it would keep us safe, to break our ties from this place. but it.. it would be a decision that we would have to make together, dustin. i'm not planning to just uproot you from our home, the only real home we've ever known, and force you to leave."

he shook his head. "i know. i just.. i was hoping that if you two were together then you'd stay and i'd stay with you, too."

she reached into the back seat to grab his hand. "hey. look at me. we're staying together, okay? no matter what. all three of us."

steve looked over at her. "so is that.. a maybe.. on the proposal?"

"that was not a proposal." she argued, but a smile spread on her face that became contagious.

"i mean.."

"but if it was.."

"if it was..?"

"show me a ring first." she laughed.

"hey, if it makes you feel better," dustin said, "i have some stuff of steve's, too."

"what do you mean?"

"meadow's gorgeous hair and her perfect smile and her-"

steve turned in his seat again. "no, enough, that was confidential. that was between you and me."

dustin threw his head back with laughter. "you're bright red in the face right now!" he said, pointing at steve.

"no, i am not." he argued. "i don't want to talk about this- i'll punch you so hard your teeth will fall back out."

the laughing ceased as both henderson siblings turned to look at steve wordlessly. "woah. too far."

steve stared at dustin for a moment. "not cool. sorry."

"not cool." he agreed. "it's okay." they both nodded at each other in some sort of silent understanding before fist bumping.

when max got out of the house, she immediately ordered them to drive. she'd stolen the counselor's keys, and the group was now headed back to the school to search through her files on the dead students. "dustin, do you copy?" lucas' voice sounded.

dustin picked up his walkie talkie. "lucas. where the hell have you been?"

"just listen." he pleaded. "are you guys looking for eddie?"

"yeah, we found him, no thanks to you."

"you found him?" lucas asked.

"he's at a boathouse on coal mill road, don't worry, he's safe." dustin replied.

"you guys know he killed chrissy, right?"

dustin shook his head. "that's bullshit. eddie tried to save chrissy."

"then why do all the cops say he did it?"

max then stole the device in dustin's hands. "lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? just meet us at the school, we'll explain later."

"i can't." he replied. "i think some bad shit's about to go down."

meadow turned, pressing the button on the walkie talkie that was now in max's hands. "what do you mean, 'some bad shit'?" before they could get any sort of response from him, they could only hear static.