swine | ☆

○ chapter 11. ●

CW: Things get a little steamy and not because it's a shower scene, Chris again.

look for the ~~~ because that'll mark where the steam starts and ends, in case you want to skip it.

forgive me if the amount of (short) timeskips give you whiplash. there's like three or four.

○●☆●○

There was a familiar ache settling behind (e/c) eyes by the time Y/n and Erin sat down against a wall in the hallway they'd retreated to. At the very least, Erin seemed calm.

Y/n, on the other hand, was still a bit dazed. Hannah's reaction was not the cause of this; everyone who was there when the news came out was still rattled from it all. Some took it harder than others.

Hannah had been one of the few who had no outward reaction until later on when it became clear that something had changed in her. The murders continued and Hannah would grow irritated when people brought it up. Sometimes silently, sometimes vocally.

It was a mistake for Y/n to let the conversation proceed, but that wasn't what had the (h/c) boy's fingers shaking. At the near mention of... that, at Hannah's outburst, at Erin's slightly unsettling calmness... none of it had him worried.

It was Teagan.

She was a person who didn't take shit from anyone and she'd let people know that, but never had she gotten physical. Especially not in front of Ezra.

She could've — no, she was looking out for people like Y/n and Towa, who couldn't even bear to talk about him without breaking down. But to slap Hannah? Slap Hannah?

"You're not considering what Hannah said, are you?" Erin's monotone voice cut into the silence of the empty hallway. Y/n's worried thoughts were also made scarce with the shifted focus, but the topic didn't ease the slow spin in his stomach.

"Hannah said a lot of things. Which thing?" Y/n settled on asking, because it was true. Some of the things Hannah said... probably needed to be unpacked, but if Y/n wasn't asked to analyze them by someone else, he wouldn't ask himself either.

"The one about me," Erin muttered, and Y/n finally turned to actually look at the brown-haired male. His heart sunk.

Erin actually looked... upset.

"Do you think I'm the one killing people?" Erin muttered, dark eyes focused somewhere on the ceiling. Y/n blinked.

He was a bit taken off-guard by the visible, almost sad tension in the other boy's features.

Did Hannah's words actually... get to him?

Y/n had known Erin for years. Once, he was easy to anger. Easy to rile up. But now? He was neither of those things. He didn't let people get to him. Even if someone somehow managed to, it would never show, but Y/n could see it now in the form of a downturn to his lips and a small furrow in his brows.

"If you had an evil plan to kill everybody, this would not be the stage of your life it happened in," The (h/c) boy settled on saying after a discouraging pause. The statement was meant to be a humorous reminiscence of the past, but Y/n couldn't manage to inject any much needed warmth into it.

The past was a shadow hanging over the two boys. Jokes could be attempted but it was hard to laugh.

A huff of amusement left the other boy's lips, but he didn't quite conjure up a smile. Y/n chewed the inside of his cheek.