EIGHT LETTERS || Liam Dunbar [2]

FIFTY: THE EPILOGUE

It had been two weeks since they'd destroyed the Beast.

Since then, lots of things had happened. Mason and Corey as well as Hayden and Liam were all thriving in their relationships; Scott had gone with Kira to say good bye as she'd decided to go train with the Skinwalkers; Malia had successfully killed her mother the night the beast had died; Lydia's neck had healed and she was fine, aside from any underlying emotional trauma she was hiding from them; and in the end, it had been Allison who saved Scott's life.

When Sebastian had accidentally seen into Scott's memories that night in the tunnels, he'd seen flashes of Allison and had thought it was his now deceased sister, Marie-Jeanne. Katherine had cried when Scott had told her and her brother, which had only made her eyes and nose hurt more as they still had to heal and she was wiping them and sniffing quite harshly.

But as it always seemed to, everything had worked out.

Her Dad — who had rightfully freaked out over the appearance of her face — had agreed to let her miss two weeks of school until her ankle was partially healed and the bruises on her nose and eyes could be covered by makeup so no one would think she'd been jumped.

In that time Lydia had spent two nights over the first weekend, just ordering take-out and watching various movies for entertainment and had helped her shower and change her clothes the first couple times so her Dad and brother wouldn't have to. Melissa had properly set her ankle the night she'd gotten home and promised her that her nose was just severely bruised and not broken, so it would take around three weeks to fully heal.

She'd had movie nights in her room with Scott and Stiles, her Dad and Stiles, Liam and Mason, and even Hayden, who'd been bringing her homework after being asked by a teacher.

Katherine knew that the way things had reached their conclusion wasn't anyone's fault, it was just the way it happened sometimes. So she made the effort to be friends with her, for everyone's sake. Being bitter and hating her simply because she was slightly jealous was exhausting, and so not her.

There she laid in her bed with a bag of frozen peas on her face as she watched The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey now that her ear had healed and she could thankfully hear everything properly now. It was another one of her comfort movies she tended to watch when she wasn't in the mood for Tinker Bell. She had a box of birthday cake Pop-Tarts on her left and a bucket of ice cream on her right as she scooped a spoonful on to the pastry and took a bite, letting out a shriek when she noticed a figure standing in her doorway.

"You're not very observant," Brett snickered as he wandered in, lazily sitting down beside her legs. He had a paper bag with him, and was dressed in his school uniform, which almost made her wonder if he was skipping classes to come and see her. "I've been here almost 10 minutes now — oh my god, what happened to your face?"

"There was a fight," Katherine grimaced as she sat up, "and Liam hit me in the face."

HIs once cocky expression turned dangerously serious, almost angry. "Liam punched you in the face? Are you fucking kidding me? What happened? I thought you guys were—"

"Oh, no; Liam was thrown at me and landed on my face," she cut him off through a yawn, scooping more ice cream onto her Pop-Tart.

He stared at her blankly as she bit it, chewed, and swallowed, seeming to not quite understand what she'd said. "I..."

"The Dread Doctor we'd captured used his little electromagnetic powers or whatever the fuck they are, made a forcefield when he went to see his master like the demonic little lap dog he is, and Liam ran at the forcefield and was thrown at me and landed with his elbow on my nose. So yeah." She ate another mouthful of ice cream and Pop-Tart. "My bad, I explained it poorly."

"Yeah, that was definitely the problem." Then he cleared his throat and adjusted the way he was sitting, his smile growing almost more nervous than easy-going. Almost. "So I have a question for you."

Her brows raised and she paused, ice cream-slathered Pop-Tart halfway to her mouth. "Okay then, go on."

"You still think you wouldn't turn it down?"

Okay what the fuck.

Careful to avoid choking on her food, Katherine swallowed what was in her mouth and took a swig from her water bottle as she stared at him, her brown eyes wide. She rolled her lips inward to avoid them opening in shock, and she inhaled a sharp breath. "Oh, it's that kind of question...okay, um...look—"

"—That's never good—"

"—Shut up, you already talked now it's my turn. So here's the thing; I still really like Liam, Brett. And I do like you, but it's going to take me a while to get over him, and it wouldn't be fair for me or you if I were to go into some kind of relationship with you while I'm hard-core crushing on my best friend; you understand what I'm saying? That would turn way too toxic way too fast and I don't want my very first boyfriend to dump me after a week because I'm in love with someone else and pretended I could ignore it."

"I do," he nodded softly, and sprawled out on the bed beside her, taking up the majority of the empty space the way he had when he'd stayed the night with her last. The paper bag she'd completely forgotten about was dropped into her lap. "Lori bought you cream puffs, by the way."

She tore it open immediately, and ate one, fist-pumping the air. "Tell your sister I plan to marry her in September of the year we graduate oh my fucking god," she uttered when her mouth was empty, then turned to look at him apologetically. "We're still friends though, right?"

"Yeah," he promised, smiling over at her with his arms behind his head. His eyes crinkled at the corners, as well as his nose, and in that moment she could understand why so many people found him so attractive. "For now, anyway."

A/N: and that, guys gals and non-binary pals as well as those of you who identify as anything else, that is the end of Eight Letters. I love and appreciate all of you for tolerating my random and unannounced breaks in updating because of my garbage mental health, and I hope you know that I'm proud of you for sticking with me until now lmao.

Book Three is the final instalment of my series for Kat and Liam series, you guys need to help me come up with a name for lol, and it will be up sometime in the new year. Hopefully in January but as I'm fucking swamPed with grad-prep homework it'll probably be closer to February.

Take care of yourselves 💞

Hannah.