Beacon ⌲ Stiles Stilinski [1] EDITING

one

"You two are unusually quiet," Mom speculated from the front seat, as we drove silently down a seemingly never-ending road. Supposedly, it was meant to stop at some point; having lead us directly to our new house in Beacon Hills. But it had been hours and my foot was asleep.

The only thing I could faintly see outside the car windows was a blur of trees against an otherwise blank sky. There were only a few visible stars and the moon was hidden behind a blanket of clouds, which was unfortunate since I had read on the weather report that it was meant to be full tonight. 

"Spit it out, girls," she spoke again, harshly.

Knowing Allison's determined nature, it was only a matter of time before she spoke what was on her mind. So, I remained quiet and waited until Allison sighed loudly.

"Sorry if I'm not in the best mood, moving around so much doesn't exactly put me in the best spirits. Especially after San Francisco where, by the way, I had finally established a solid friend group that I didn't have to abandon within a few months," Allison retorted. "I mean - even Eleanor had some friends, right Ellie?"

She smiled at me with an encouraging gleam in her eye.

There were friendly people who sat with me in art class, but I had never felt super connected to a specific social circle. It was harder for me to commit to people, knowing I'd probably be leaving them in a few months. Only having a few classroom friends made saying goodbye easier. This didn't hurt me that much, since I actually enjoyed having some quality time with myself and my canvases once in a while. The downside was that my sister worried about me occasionally, trying to invite me out with her friends even when they didn't seem to care as much about me as she thought they would.

Whereas I remained hesitant to connect with anyone or any place too easily, Allison tended to dig her roots in as far as she could every time we moved, with the thought that maybe if she embedded herself enough no one would be able to pull her out. But no matter how hard she worked, and she really did work in San Francisco, it never stuck. Or at least our parents didn't care if it did.

"Yeah, I had a few," I shrugged. Allison sent me a pleading look, signaling that she wanted more from me, so I widened my grin. "Plus, I was loving my art class this semester."

Allison smiled gratefully at me for helping our case.

"It's just tough, Mom," Allison muttered glumly. "Let's not even start on where Dad goes at two o'clock in the morning..."

"Your father is a highly respected private security consultant and a federally licensed firearms dealer. It's not exactly a nine to five office job, girls," Mom cut in sharply.

Allison and I sighed in unison, and I tried not to grin at our synchronicity. Meanwhile, Mom's expression looked strained through the rear-view mirror. She might have been just as affected by the constant moves and Dad's unpredictable career as we were, but she had always been a master of not letting it show.

"The hours are always going to be like that," Mom spoke after a while, a little softer this time.

Leaning forward, my gaze fell from my mom to the small stretch of road illuminated by our headlights ahead of us, and I rested my hand on my sister's shoulder from my place in the backseat.

"I get it," Allison said. "It's just - it's kind of weird when he takes off in the middle of the night, rushing out with duffel bags full of automatic weapons."

Our conversation was cut off when, suddenly, a figure appeared in our car's headlights.

"Look out!" I screeched, as our Mom veered the steering wheel left. Our car slid for a moment on the wet pavement, before we regained control and straightened out.