—
Austin stood with his face in Ryder's neck, hugging the girl goodbye.
While Ryder was relatively calm with not seeing him for a day or two, Austin was acting like he was having withdrawals. She didn't have a problem with it.
She liked how obsessed he was.
"You'll be fine, I swear."
"You'll miss me though, right?" He pulled away to look at her.
"Yes, I will." She nodded, shoving Marco the Monkey into his hands. "Now go."
"Are you sure you don't want him?" He looked down at the stuffed animal, "I feel like you deserve him more than I do right now."
She shook her head, "Nope."
Austin sighed, pursing his lips as he looked down at her, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Ry, Derek just died." He started, "I know you guys have your problems, but you used to be really close. And you haven't spoken to Cora since you all found her. Has she called you?"
"No, and I'm fine with that. She just lost her brother, needs time to herself."
"Ryder."
"Austin." She mocked him in a joking tone, "I'll be okay. If anything, you'll know I hit rock bottom if I start hanging out with Lydia and Allison."
•••
She must have hit rock bottom.
Ryder currently found herself sitting in the back seat of Allison's car.
The girl had barely even stepped foot in her house when Allison and Lydia drove up asking her to come with them. If you asked her why she agreed, she would say it was because she had nothing better to do.
Allison also happened to mention that she'd give her twenty dollars if she gave them directions to where the boys were going.
"So...how has everyone been?"
Lydia furrowed her brows, turning in her seat to face the blonde.
"What?" Ryder pushed, "I'm bored and the silence is deafening."
The pair of best friends were aware of how close Derek and Ryder used to be, and despite them having their issues, they knew how much Ryder cared for him. So they could admit it was weird to see her pretend it didn't matter.
"I've been okay." Lydia told her in a soft voice, "How are you?"
"I'm okay. Allison?"
The Argent looked at her through the rearview mirror, smiling a bit, "I'm alright."
"Good. That's good."
Lydia and Allison look at one another nervously as they both took notice of the way Ryder's knee bounced up and down nervously while she look out the window, admiring the cars that passed by.
They way her fists clenched in anxiousness was enough for them to know this wouldn't end well.
•••
"Back to your seat." Couch shouted at a student, tapping Austin's shoulder as he passed by him.
Isaac looked over at Boyd, "Stop thinking about it, man."
"Like, you're not thinking about it too?"
"Well, stop thinking about it."
Boyd shook his head, "I can't."
"Well, there's nothing you can do about it either."
"You sure about that?" Boyd said, narrowing his eyes at the twin sitting not too far away from him.
Austin sat up in his seat at the sound of Boyd's heavy breathing. His eyes widened a bit when he saw the teens claws digging into the bus seat.
He could hear Scott and Stiles behind him, the two having been studying for an upcoming test he had no clue about.
"Yo, Scotty. Hey, yo, Scotty? Still with me?"
"Yeah, sorry." The McCall blinked harshly, "Uh, what's the word?"
"Anachronism." Stiles reminded him.
"Something that exists out of its normal time."
"Nice. Okay, next word... "incongruous."
Scott winced, "Um, can you use it in a sentence?"
"Yes. Yes, I can—"
"It's completely incongruous that we're sitting on a bus right now, on our way to some stupid cross-country meet after what just happened... incongruous." Austin cut in, eyes not leaning his phone as he sent another text to Ryder.
"Out of place, ridiculous, absurd." Scott answered, earning a nod from Stiles.
"Perfect. Okay, next word. Um, Darach. Darach, it's a noun." The Stilinski groaned lowly at the expression on Scott's face, "We have to talk about it sometime, okay? And we're gonna be stuck in this thing for, like, five hours, so why not? Next word...Intransigent."
"Stubborn, obstinate."
"Which is what you're being since you won't talk about the Darach."
"Thank you." Stiles gestured to the George teen.
They not sat up as a bump in the road had Scott huffing in pain while holding his stomach.
"Oh, buddy, you okay? We shouldn't have come. I knew it. We shouldn't have come."
"I agree."
"We had to. There's safety in numbers." Scott told them, eyes closed as he laid his head against the window.
"Yeah, well, there's also death in numbers, okay? It's called a massacre... or bloodbath, carnage, slaughter, butchery—"
"Genocide, extermination, a mow down." Austin listed on.
"Wow, that's...all right, Scott, I'm telling coach that—"
"No. No, no, no. I'm all right."
Austin sat up on his knees so he could see over the seat blocking them, "Well, you don't look all right."
"Would you just let us see it?"
"I'm okay."
"Just let me see it, okay?"
"Okay." Scott sighed, giving in and lifting his shirt.
"Ew." Austin scrunched his face up, looking away, his blue eyes looking towards the window behind them.
"Oh, dude..."
"I know it's bad, but it's because they're from an Alpha. It'll take longer to heal."
"How come Boyd and Isaac are fine then?" Stiles raised his brows.
"I can't believe he's dead. I can't believe Derek's dead."
•••
"Am I getting too close? I'm getting way too close, aren't I?" Allison spluttered out in panic.
"That depends. Are you just following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point?"
"Yeah, I should back off."
"Well, that also depends. Do you mean the bus or the ex-boyfriend you're currently stalking?"
"Well, after it happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight."
Lydia hummed.
"And by the way, this all started when he came knocking at my door."
"For what?" Ryder leaned forward, hand pressed against the back of their seats.
•••
"Two of you, back in your seats. Jared, again, car sick? Every ti... how do you even get on the bus? Look at me. No, don't look at me. Look at the horizon. Keep your eyes... keep your eyes on the horizon. McCall, not you too."
"No, coach, I'm good."
"Hey, Scott, you're bleeding again. And don't tell me that it's just taking longer to heal, okay? Because I'm pretty sure that still bleeding means not healing, like, at all."
Scott lowered his voice, "He's listening."
"Is he gonna do something?"
"Not in front of this many people."
"Okay, well, what about the two ticking time bomb sitting right near him?"
Scott shook his head, "No, they won't. Not here."
"You think." Austin commented.
"Okay, well, what if they do? Are you gonna stop 'em?"
"If I have to."
"I admire your confidence."
•••
"So is that whole "not let them out of your sight" thing literal or more like a general rule?"
"Why?"
Lydia pointed to the girls gas, "You're running on fumes."
The Argent groaned, laying her head on the steering wheel.
"I don't know about you, but I'm almost ninety percent sure that the bus holds a lot more gas than your Toyota." Ryder said, taking her jacket off in the process, "It's hot as hell in this damn car, though."
Allison pursed her lips, "What if we stop?"
"Then we'll probably get left behind."
"Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, so we lose them. We know where they're headed." Lydia said.
"You didn't see what happened."
"I know who started it."
"Right." Ryder squinted.
"Is that what Aiden told you?" Allison finished her thought.
"Aiden?" Lydia's eyes widen, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. Is that why you invited me on this whole little road trip thing? Oh, my gosh. You're keeping an eye on them and me."
"It took you this long to figure that out?"
"So there's nothing going on between you two?"
Lydia places a hand on her chest, "I'm appalled by the insinuation."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
"I would sure hope not. Your boys been putting flowers in my damn locker." Ryder scoffed, face scrunching in disgust, "I don't even like roses."
"What?"
"Yep." Ryder nodded absentmindedly, "Honestly, I didn't even know it was from him until that asshole winked at me. He isn't very good at keeping his cover."
She reached down to her bag, opening it and pulling out a couple suckers, smiling softly at the girls,
"Do either of you dumb dumbs want a dumdum?"
—
A/N: i kind of wanna take a break.