[ 𝚃𝚠𝚒𝚐𝚜 & 𝙳𝚒𝚛𝚝 ] ~ 𝙳𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗 𝙷𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚡 𝙾𝚌

XXIII - Truly Necessary

The roof. Lucy was back on the roof, this time with just Dustin. That could only go. . .well. Dustin was looking at the Russian guards through his binoculars. And Lucy was just sat by him. . .not really doing much. Well- That's not true. She was doing something. . .she was glaring at the side of Dustin's head. Dustin had asked Lucy to come with him, said she was 'vital to the investigation'. But in reality, he just wanted an excuse to spend time with her and this seemed as good as any. So here they were, half an hour later, sitting in silence as Dustin stared across the way and Lucy picked at the threads on her jeans. 

"Why am I even here?" Lucy huffed, pushing herself to a stand and leaning on the half-wall beside Dustin. 

"I told you already, you're-" 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm 'vital to the investigation'. But what does that even mean, Dustin?" Lucy exasperated, throwing her arms up in annoyance.

"It means I need you-" Dustin yelled back, his eyes going wide as he turned away from her to look across at the guards again. He pulled Lucy down, their backs hitting the cold cement with a scraping noise. Lucy yelped in pain, Dustin's hand clamping down on her mouth as he hissed a 'shhhhhhh'. 

Lucy pulled her right hand to her left arm, scratching at her forearm. Dustin's hand that wasn't over Lucy's mouth dropped his binoculars, pulling her hand away from her arm with a firm shake of his head. After a moment, Dustin relieved his hand from her face, turning to peak over the half-wall. He found, with relief, that the guards were no longer looking up toward them. The sigh he released was one of pure solace as he nodded softly. "Okay, we're good now." 

Lucy pushed herself to a sit, glaring slightly at her best friend as she looked him over. Her eyes fell from his stupid hat all the way to his shoes before returning to his gaze. "What did you mean that you 'need' me?" 

"I- I- I-" Dustin shook his head, his face burning slight red as his eyes widened. "I mean that- that I need you here. Yeah, that's right, I uhm- I need you here, that's all I meant. That's all- Haha. That's all that it meant. . ." He faked a laugh, shaking his head as he stuttered his words. 

". . .Right." It was all Lucy could do to lean up next to him, the knees of her jeans scraping against the concrete roof as her crossed arms rested on the wall. Lucy's thoughts raced as she sat so close to Dustin. She couldn't help it when she spat the words out. Should she have? Probably not. Would she grow to regret the words? Probably. But in the moment she didn't care, she couldn't bring herself to. Cause all she cared about was answers. Well- Answers and yelling at Dustin for being an absolute jerk. So. . .In the moment, with no thoughts at all, she called the words out to him. "Why do you have a girlfriend?" Lucy's eyes widened as she asked the question, not even expecting it from herself.

"W- What?" Dustin turned back to looking at Lucy. 

"You heard me. W- Why do you have a girlfriend?" She sounded more unsure of herself this time, like her words were someone else's entirely. "Suzie. . .or whatever you said her name is."

"Yeah, Suzie. Uhm- I don't really-"

Lucy shakes her head, cutting him off. "No. I'm talking here. How could you do that to me?"

"What-"

"I said I'm talking." Lucy glares slightly. Though it was more of just a frown and her brows turned in confusion. "I lo- like you Dustin Henderson," she falsely corrected herself halfway through the word. But you could tell, just by the look on Dustin's face, that he had heard her perfectly fine. "And- And I thought you liked me too. I've liked you for years, Dustin! Two of them, and I- I-" She let out an annoyed sigh as she couldn't get the words to form properly. 

"I like you too." Dustin rushes out, looking at her with wide eyes and a red face.

"You do?" Lucy's head tilts confused, she shakes her head. "No, no- You-"

"I'm not dating Suzie, I lied. She's just my friend from camp. I don't like her like that, I like you like that."

"What?"

"Steve said pretending to not care was the best way to get a girl to like you and I thought well pretending to be dating someone else is a great way of ignoring someone and I wanted you to like me back and-"

"You listened to my idiot brother's advice!" She throws her hands up, huffing. "Dustin, you dimwit! He's an absolute dufus!"

"I- I know! But he got Ru so he must be doing something right!"

"Yeah? Do you know how he got Ru?" 

"N- No. . ?"

"Well I can tell you that he didn't listen to his own advice. He cared, like. . .a lot-" 

"Lucy, do you want to be my girlfriend?"

"What!" Lucy yelled. Her eyes went wide as she fell against the wall, smacking her chin against the top of it. "Ow-"

"Lucy! Are you okay?" Dustin's hand found her chin, tilting her head up to look at the scrape.

"Yeah, fine-"

"No you're not, you're bleeding!" Dustin grabbed Lucy's hand, pulling her toward the stairs.

"Wait, but we're still investigating-" Lucy protested.

"No we're not, I finished getting information like twenty minutes ago."

"Then why were we still up there!?" Lucy groaned in annoyance as they ran through the service corridor.

"Cause I wanted to spend time with you." 

Lucy couldn't help the smile that broke through her grumpy outlook on the situation. After a moment of near silence - the only exception being the sound of their sneakers on the squeaky tiles - Lucy spoke up. "Did you mean it?" 

"Mean what?" 

"When you asked me to be your girlfriend. Did you mean it?"

Dustin stopped the running, Lucy's nose pressing into his back at the sudden halt. He turned, looking her straight in the eyes. "Yes! Yes I meant it, of course I meant it!"

Lucy nodded, looking up as if she were thinking. "Okay." 

"Okay?"

She nodded again, smiling at him. "Okay."

Dustin chuckled, smiling back. "Okay."  And then they were back off down the corridor, as if the conversation never happened and they weren't officially a 'couple'. Or as much of a couple as a pair of 14 year olds could be. 

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Word Count - 1,100

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Published - October 13, 2023

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