concealing ➸ tomlinson

Liv

"what the fuck was that?" he demanded, sitting himself back up.

the driver, kris guessed eli, turned his head to check the rear-view mirror. a car, not quite as violently, turned onto their street behind them. kris recognized it.

"we're being followed." he concluded, exhaling and readjusting his grip on the wheel. "what do you want to do?"

visibly angered, jacob closed his eyes and exhaled. "just...head up towards the mountains, we'll lose them up there."

kris settled back into her seat, her heart pounding again. that was the car that had been parked in the neighborhood. they'd seen them get into the car, and, god, who else would have a reason to pursue them but someone who knew them? who'd been diligent enough to know when they'd be leaving?

growing more and more fearful, kris turned to try and see the driver's face. considering the distance between cars and the tint of the windows, it was a relief she could pick out any details at all. the driver was a girl, shoulder length hair and a very tense grip on the wheel, judging from her shoulders. really, kris couldn't narrow it down to one identity.

but it was the boy riding shotgun that gave it away.

again, despite the visual obstacles, the brightly colored hair was unmistakable. kris turned back around and stared at the back of the seat in front of her. michael of all people. she felt sick to her stomach with anxiety. no doubt he could hear everything she was thinking, everything everyone was thinking.

eventually, kris forced herself to close her eyes and tried to shut down her thoughts. or to at least focus on something mundane. anything but the current moment.

-

michael was thankful for his powers for the first time in a long while.

they'd been following kris and jacob for maybe twenty minutes, slowly driving further and further from the center of town. there was a small rise of alarm inside him, especially since jacob was unnaturally silent in his thoughts, that made him wonder if following them had been the right thing to do. but if kris was on jacob's side, he had to know why.

"what's going on in there?" courtney asked.

michael shrugged, keeping his eyes on the car ahead. "nothing new."

picking courtney to rely the information to was rather out-of-left-field, even by his reckless standards. but she was one of the first people he could think of who wasn't on a side or would back-stab them. maybe.

luke, ash, and calum were pilled into the backseat. they'd been asleep for maybe four minutes, resuming what they'd been doing before michael had come in and nearly dragged them down the hall by their ankles. he personally was just coming down from the rush of a 5am coffee. although the growing anxiety probably would've been enough to keep him awake on it's own.

eventually, trees began to outnumber the concrete buildings. michael put his head up against the window and exhaled. the scene blurred, his eyes becoming too lazy to focus on any one thing in particular. the thoughts coming in were almost background noise, nothing filtering through as particularly interesting.

a few minutes of silence passed. occasionally, he'd catch kris glance through the window back towards them. they were the only two cars on the road, tensions quietly rising. michael debated suggesting they do something to stop them; however, having learned more about jacob and knowing kris as a good person, he kept his mouth shut. eventually they'd accomplish something.

luke's stirring thoughts provided michael with a place to put his attention. he glanced behind him. luke already had his eyes open, pushing ash's head off his shoulder and onto calum.