~Beauty~
The jangling of keys woke her from her sleep.
Bethany had accidentally pulled an all nighter - or almost pulled an all nighter.
Teigan hadn't called her the night before like he had every other night. It made her head run loose with ideas of all the bad things that could have happened to him and the one good thing that could have happened to him. She decided to distract herself by listening to one of the many playlists Teigan had made for her. She even tried making one for him - one filled with the bubble gum pop he despised so much as a revenge for not calling.
It distracted her for the first hour. Then, she ended up turning to more self destructive things.
She tried not to but she ended up flicking the tv channels to the news. Carina had warned her that they were talking about Bethany and it wasn't good. Instead of incentivising her not to watch it, it made Beth all the more curious.
She watched until they played the story about Bethany and the Beast. She was revolted to hear the words that came out of the news anchor's mouth.
Runaway.
Staged.
Planned.
If this was journalism, Bethany was uncertain if she wanted any part of it.
She wondered if this would give her problems when she returned home. Would someone try to make a case against her? Could they actually try to put her in jail based on a conspiracy theory dropped at a police conference?
It was enough to drive sleep far from her.
Grayson and her mother knew first hand that this theory held no weight. Something was seriously wrong with the people on her case if they thought this was true.
The next thing Bethany did was lurk on social media. She had snuck upstairs and into Teigan's room to use his laptop where she searched up Grayson's Instagram and went through all of his recent posts - which weren't many.
There was Bethany's official missing poster with a caption listing all the numbers people could call with information. There was another post of a few pictures of Bethany and Grayson together with the caption asking people to keep an eye out. There was a picture of him and his teammates celebrating a win, a picture of a new dish served at his grandmother's restaurant, a picture of Jason in a school play, and a post saying the news reports about Beth were untrue.
You were always loyal, she had thought to herself.
She went on her school friends pages and saw they had all posted the initial missing poster picture for Bethany. She also saw how life moved on without her. It was surreal to say the least.
She placed the laptop back where she found it and camped out in the living room to do nothing but think. She thought about whether it was selfish of her not to escape when she had the chance, when people were worried about her or if it was selfless because she was protecting Teigan. She thought about what it would be like if she would have met him under different circumstances. She thought until sleep came.
Then, at three in the morning, she heard keys digging into the locks on the front door.
She didn't move from her spot initially. She was groggy and confused - having been ripped from a dream and struggling to process what reality she was living in. When the door creaked open and footsteps followed, she shifted in her spot.
Her first response was fear. Her mind conjured up Ryan Daniels, his brother, or some other criminal who would have a bone to pick with Teigan. Quickly after she recalled the first two had no possible way of showing up and that a criminal probably wouldn't have the keys to the house.
This meant Teigan was home.
His footsteps carried across the kitchen and into the living room. She sat up just as he was about to flick off the lamp she had left on.
"Hey." She rubbed her eyes.
He froze in his spot. His mask was off but his signature hoodie was up. As her vision adjusted she could make out his blotchy eyes and disheveled hair underneath. He probably looked as put together as she did having just woken up.
"Is everything alright?" she asked when he didn't respond. He took a few tentative steps toward her. She guessed that maybe he was upset he hadn't broken the curse within the week like he had planned to. She gave him a kind smile.
Without a word, Teigan crossed the space between the two and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. He held her like she would slip through his fingers.
"Don't tell me you've gone all soft on me," she said into his chest.
She let him pull away first. When he let her go, he collapsed onto the couch with a sigh. She sat beside him, offering him the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders because he was shaking.
"I'm sorry I woke you," he said, draping the blanket across both their legs.
"That's alright. I couldn't sleep anyways."
"I could hear you snoring from outside."
Bethany laughed softly. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"
Teigan did. He told her about saving the man from being robbed and then saving him from being run over by a train. Finally, he told her about the curse refusing to break.
"There's clearly some things we have to rethink before we can make a second attempt at it." Beth scratched her head, frowning. She wanted his story to have a happy ending. "Maybe it's best to take a break for some clarity."
"I like that idea." Teigan buried his head in one of the throw pillows with a groan. "I should tell you that the witch visited me while I was driving back home. She was very adamant about letting you go."
"She visited me, too."
Teigan lifted his head. "She did? What for?"
Topics that reminded the two that Bethany had been brought there against her will were promptly avoided by the both of them. They had both established a friendship against the odds and their initial situation reminded them of why it was strange. Beth pushed through it thinking perhaps talking about it would make it easier, and make their friendship stronger.
"She wanted to help me escape." Her words hung in the midnight air.
"Oh." He furrowed his eyebrows. "And you didn't?"
"No."
Beth wished she could read his mind. She knew he had to be thinking up a storm. All of that storm was reduced to a single word, "Thanks."