𝚍𝚛𝚞𝚐𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚢 | 𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚘𝚕𝚏 [1]

you can cry

—

"So this kid's the real killer?"

Stiles nodded, "Yeah."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No."

"Dad, come on. Everybody knows that the police look for ways to connect victims in a murder, okay? So all he had to do is, like, look through their transcripts and figure out which class they all had in common."

"Yeah, except for the fact that the rave promoter Kara wasn't in Harris's class."

Ryder drowned out the rest of the conversation, tightening her hand with Austin's, successfully gaining his attention. She pulled him off to the side, allowing Scott and Stiles to hopefully talk some sense into Stiles' dad.

Austin followed her, leaning into her as her back pressed against the wall. He laid his head on top of hers, collecting his thoughts as he came to an immediate realization that she was giving him his time to figure out what he wanted to say.

"I saw my dad." He started, hearing her sigh softly.

Ryder didn't know much about Austin's father. She felt like it genuinely wasn't her place to ask him why it was just him and his mom. She felt like if he trusted her enough, he would speak when he was ready.

"He was hurting my little brother." She wanted to cut him off, but he never did that with her. He always let her talk, so she did the same, "He and my mom were arguing. He was trying to take Max and my mom wouldn't let him. I was strong enough to get out of his grip and stand by my mom, but Max was barely nine. I don't know about you, but I haven't met a nine year old that could fight off a grown man."

"Can I ask why he did it?"

He shrugged, "Jealousy? I don't know. He thought my mom was cheating on him. Kept saying how I wasn't his kid and that Max was rightfully his since they had they same colored eyes."

Ryder frowned, thinking to herself, where was the logic in that?

"My mom insisted that she didn't cheat. He took it as her calling him stupid and started hitting on her." He clenched his jaw, "The night that my brother died was the same night that I thought it would be best to finally stand up and help my mom."

Austin's brows creased, "I wanted to believe that the whole thing was my fault, but I learned at a very early age that whatever my dad was going through had nothing to do with us. The accident wasn't my fault, my brothers death wasn't my fault. But it still hurt, you know? Because I chose to start arguing, and tried to play hero, instead of calling the cops. If I did then accident could have been avoided."

The George teen cleared his throat as he thought about his mother. The woman had taken Max's death hard. The moment she found out, she went crazy. Endless night of listening to her sob into her youngest sons pillow, before he eventually found the strength to comfort her while also comforting himself.