Fifty-nine: Cold Shoulder

[ T E S S ]

There was a soft moment between Tess and Darrick as they walked together after the drama of earlier, Darrick having Tess affectionately cradled into the crook of his neck to keep her warm beneath the hood of his jacket. While she was cozied up and warm against Darrick's neck, he had simply Austin's hoodie on and what was left of his clothes, parts of the fabric that had been ruined, used to tie around his waist to keep him warm considering he had grown out of his clothes earlier. He didn't even have on shoes as he walked through the forest, not making a single complaint as he stepped through the foliage of leaves and branches. His legs were likely scratched and bruised, the soles of his feet stepping on rocks and twigs till his heels bled. He didn't make not even one complaint, pushing along with a lack of clothes he steadied behind Austin through the forest. All the while, he was still looking after Tess, having a hand by his neck to keep her safely on his shoulder beneath his hood.

Austin walked ahead, muttering curses since he was upset they had to leave his car behind as it had been crushed. He held Josie's hand, walking side by side simply so she couldn't run away. Tess could see Josie moving closer and closer to Austin as the night air cooled, almost cuddling him compared to earlier when she had tried running away again. She had become their hostage, following the giant girl as she led the boys to her car, which she'd parked somewhat far so they wouldn't spot her spying. She hadn't done a very good job of hiding in the tree line, as Austin had spotted her.

"Are you okay?" Darrick whispered into her body, turning his chin so his lips were by her head where she was still huddling up against his neck. His breath was warm around her, the fabric cocooned throughout her entire body of the hoodie. Taking a small shaky breath, she felt somewhat embarrassed even still with how she acted earlier towards Darrick. She wasn't sure how she would make it up to him, how she was able to make him feel better about the situation. She overreacted, he was giant, larger than a tree and she was terrified of him. Darrick had never laid a hand on her, was it simply a natural instinct to be scared of something so big. She could feel between them there was a heaviness, an unwieldy feeling she couldn't shake and knew he probably felt the same. Her mind was buzzing, fingertips cold but also face hot with a perpetual scarlet blush of shame.

"Yeah~ I am now.." she spoke back softly, moving closer to lean into his neck wanting to close her eyes to fall asleep but was scared to slip down off his shoulder and down into the depths of the hoodie where his bare chest moved with every large step, could see his very large pecs if she looked down. Sounding terrifying to even think of falling "I-" she began her sentence but couldn't find the right words, her mind running at a million miles an hour for her mouth to dribble gibberish. As he paid further attention, he felt his head wanting to turn towards her but didn't want to risk knocking her off "are you cold?" She finally asks

"Y'know... if what your trying to do is to say sorry, don't worry" He sighed lightly, adjusting the cloth around his waist. He sounded a little annoyed but was controlling himself seeming a little agitated. It didn't appear to be directed at her, if not at her then what, "yes, I'm cold, sorry I just feel like shit"

"well, we're not all born with the ability to grow, right? I- " Tess hesitated, feeling the heat from Darrick's body growing hotter beneath her hands "I just overreacted I'm sorry if I freaked you out"

"Did I not just say to don't worry about it~" he huffs lightly "it's okay I understand why you'd be scared. I shouldn't of done it" he spoke softly back, letting out a gentle yawn she could feel him shudder beneath her from the cold. Darrick sped up towards Austin as they near Josie's car.

"Give me your keys" Austin turned to Josie, motioning for her to hand her keys over.

"I'm not letting you drive my car. Not after the wreck you made out of your own car" Josie spoke with venom on her lips

Austin's hand twisted into a tight fight, letting out a loud groan of frustration he appeared to be trying to burn a hole into Josie's head with the glare he sent towards her. Without a second thought he grabbed onto the belt loops of Josie's jeans, pulling her close against him so she couldnt wriggle free, he began feeling at her jean pockets to retrieve the keys. Slipping his hands into her back pockets, then moving around to the front

"Wait til Steph finds out your grabbing her best friends ass"

"Shut the fuck up" Austin pulled out the keys, retrieving them from her pocket and then pushing her towards the car door, "get in"

Once in the car, Josie sat in the front with Austin and Darrick in the back with Tess, Darrick tried stretching out his very large body across the back seats of the car to lay down. He seemed to be still quite large still compared to his usual size, his legs barely being able to curl up as if his body couldn't relax back down to its normal size.

"are you okay?" Tess looked up at him worried.

"I don't know what's wrong, okay? I'm just really tired." he groaned and winced with every movement as his muscles were still contorting in his legs, strained from his entire body's sudden growth and shrinking moments earlier. He spoke with an attitude, moodier than usual, growth having a strange effect it seemed on Darrick both emotionally and physically as he grunted and groaned. Looking back at his face, he was practically asleep as soon as he found a suitable position to lay in, his head resting awkwardly against the window and touching the roof while his legs curled up on the seat in a twisted pretzel position. Tess gasped as she lost concentration and slipped a little off his shoulder, Darrick losing all sense of care about Tess as his body was too exhausted to be wary of Tess, needing sleep. Crawling back up onto his shoulder, Tess moved to climb around onto the base of his neck near his chin, frowning up at the large features of her passed out boyfriend as she rested against the hoodie.

He was delicate when he was like this, his features did not pinch into hard lines as he drifted into sleep. She could tell that Josie was stealing glimpses back at Darrick, who was monstrously much larger then Austin and Josie still. Tess knew she was safe, she had felt safe, she was safe, But why could she not bring herself to believe it? she had a wonderful boyfriend who would lay down the world for her. So why? She had all the evidence to prove that she was safe, even if she were to hear the words be spoken from Darrick's mouth "Your safe now" she wouldn't believe it. She had an idea why, and it sat in the front seat beside Austin. Josie made her feel uneasy, knowing Lenny could be nearby, Tess still unaware of the truth on why Josie was out here in the forest, on what had happened to Lenny. Tess sunk further into the hoodie to hide from Josies wandering eyes, curling up into Darrick's body she did her best to wrap her arms around the thick trunk of his neck to be as close as humanly possible to a giant man.

~~~

[ A U S T I N ]

Austin looked at Josie every few seconds, making sure she didn't make a mad dash to open the car door as they were moving.

"I am fully convinced you never graduated kindergarten," Josie spoke out of the blue and Austin's nose scrunched immediately after the sentence as if he'd got a whiff of a bad smell. Looking at her quickly as he drove her car, he had the thought of how easy it would be to just throw her out the car door and leave her on the side of the road to walk back to town. It would be a few hour's walk.

"Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?'' Austin rolled his eyes in her direction, he'd dealt plenty of time with both Josie and Steph, and knew the sly/snarky comments Steph would make that Josie would try mimicking. Josie was dumb, to say the least, proving her intelligence by trying to find Lenny. Who had always been mean to her, Josie too dim to realise he was embarrassed to ever call her his girlfriend. Whatever Josie thought of Lenny was clearly twisted by the master himself, still working his evil magic even when he was the size of a mouse. Josie was angry, probably scared and annoyed at the boys for kidnapping her, so these silly comments were not unwittingly. He didn't care, if word got out what had happened, the town would surely turn on Darrick out of fear.

Josie scoffs, "you just think your so cool Austin, don't you? wait till people find out that you kidnapped me and are holding me against my will. You'll be put into jail or something" she crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Austin with high eyebrows.

"Josie, this is quite possibly the last thing I had wanted to be doing tonight. It's your fault for getting into this mess, shouldn't have been snooping around" Austin kept his eyes on the road, trying to ignore her.

"Well, what can I say? I'm a badass" she smiled largely, sitting taller in her seat and crossing a leg over the other

Austin scoffed loudly, "I would call you an imbecile, but that'd be cruel, cause you wouldn't be able to spell it." Austin laughs, amused at the offending gasp that came from Josie

"Oh, do you ever shut up?!" She shrieked, pushing at his arm and making the car swerve to the right of the road a little. Austin gave a nonchalant shrug, not really caring if he was rude to Josie. He'd known her for a fair few years now and this type of bickering was fairly normal "I can spell"

"no, I don't" Austin smirks "prove it then, I'll give you fifty bucks if you can spell the word imbecile-"

"Please be quiet." Darrick groaned meekly from the back, shifting and making the car bounce beneath his body. He sounded as if he was in agony, Austin peering at the rear mirror briefly to see Darrick clutching at his head trying to hide behind his hood, still partly naked from the waist down but Darrick didn't seem to care, too exhausted to bother fixing his circumstances of being naked.

"Look at that~ saved by the bell" Austin smiled at Josie, who glared in return. The drive home wasn't long, but Austin pressed down on the accelerator to rush home considering Darrick looked close to death in the back seat.

~~~

Update! Writers block is a pain in the ass so let me know what you thought cause I just forced this update out! Love you guys thank you for continuing to read my story hope your still enjoying. Hopefully will be updating soon, got a chapter in the works already about Jace and Lenny !