Finding Beauty (Rewrite)

Chapter 40

~The Beast~

The pair rose with the sun that morning.

Teigan had never been a morning person. He liked the nighttime the best so he'd stay up into the early hours and fall asleep just before the sunlight was peeking through the curtains.

When he was a kid, Saturday's were when he'd sleep in the latest. He had times where he would wake up at three in the afternoon and mess up his sleep schedule for the next week to come. There were special Saturdays, though, where his grandfather would wake him up at the break of dawn with a car loaded with trail mix and bug repellent.

He would take him to a hiking trail a couple of miles from the house. It was remote and lonely, giving them the illusion of being far from any civilization. They'd follow it to the mini waterfall that ran into a brooke and then go to breakfast afterwards. The walk would work up a fierce appetite in Tiegan. He'd down a whole stack of pancakes in record time and wash it down with the diner's famous hot chocolate.

His grandpa would tend to take him on these hiking trips whenever he thought it'd be a good idea to get Teigan out of the house. It was when he knew tensions were high in the home - if his parents were fighting worse than usual or his father was on a stressful case. Teigan had an inkling that his mother would put him up to it half the time. She was saving him in the most indirect and inpermanent manner possible.

Teigan had decided to take Beth on this morning hike because they needed to get out of the house. One of the interested buyers had scheduled to see the house and he couldn't let them find a beast and a missing woman there. The two would go on a lengthy hike while Carina showcased the house for him. Besides, he trusted her charisma and knowledge of the house more than he trusted his own abilities had he been in the right situation to showcase it himself.

The car zoomed by trees and bushes that had grown back their leaves. Flowers dotted the grass fields, delicate little reminders that it was the end of a season and the beginning of a new one. The breeze devoid of the bitter cold served as a warning for him to brace himself. This adventure of his was going to be over soon and he was going to miss it when it was done. This hike they were going on was not only getting them out of the way for the house tour. It was them stealing moments away. The inevitable was quickly approaching.

He was going to miss her when she was gone.

The hiking trail was a lot more weathered than he last remembered it. There were fallen trees in the middle of the pathways and once or twice they questioned whether they were actually following a trail or a streak of dirt. Bethany seemed to find it all the more exciting. She doubled over laughing when he followed what he thought was a path into some shrubbery. He laughed even harder when she walked into a spiderweb but quit laughing when he found the actual spider was on his shoulder.

Bethany was balancing on a fallen tree about a foot above the ground. Tiegan was spotting her though she was showing no signs of losing her balance. She skillfully placed one foot in front of the other with her arms outstretched. She dismounted by jumping into the dirt, straightening herself, and raising her arms in the air like a gymnast salute.

"Now do a backflip!" he teased.

She picked up the backpack she had left on the ground. "I'll have you know I used to do gymnastics . . . When I was five."

"So you got a backflip somewhere in you?"

"Maybe but I'm certainly not going to break any bones to prove it to you."

The two of them walked side by side on the winding path up the hill. If they listened closely they could hear the rush of the waterfall nearby. Teigan watched her for a moment. Her brown hair appeared golden in the direct sunlight. She was quiet but her eyes remained thoughtful. He wondered what was going on in that head of hers.