Days pass, weeks go by, then months flow in and out of memory, packed full of stabilizing catch-ups, considerate teachers who give them mini lessons, and extra help.

The slow normalcy pulling them back from the tumultuous sea the last half of the year has felt like.

The hospital visit, police, court, school, and home all had added up, and now that it’s finally smoothing out, it’s easier to see it was too much for them to handle on their own, even if they had good intentions.

The large mounds of built-up soot and filth that weighed on them weren't entirely smoothed out, however, leaving bumps and cracked, half-formed bricks that weighed on them until they broke under pressure.

One brick in the form of his lame leg, and Eveline’s insistent need to know he can never go missing on the way to school again. Only satiated when she gets a car for her birthday, and unofficially makes it her business to drive them to school every day from then on. He would tell her he’d be fine, but the idea of actually walking on the street by himself scares him.

It’s bothersome, but every time he finds himself in the same place–no matter how safe–near traffic lights, or sometimes even the sidewalk.

The bright lights remind him of the dizzying flurry of red, yellow, and green as he was put under. The beige walkway blurry under his struggle.

Then suddenly he no longer feels safe, reduced to a paranoid dog, looking behind him at every turn, no matter how silly it feels, he expects someone to snatch him off the street. It’s shameful, even if he knows it’s how his brain is choosing to categorize what happened.

Will feels like he should be fine; he should know it’s not every day someone will drag you into their white van to torture you in their stupidly isolated basement.

But trying to tell his brain that–when the pain was so bad it felt like it rewired him–is a losing battle; he would be stupid to ignore the biased common sense telling him he’s safer in a car.

Car crash statistics are for another day.

It makes Will happy that Eveline is so enthusiastic about driving him everywhere. After being friends with her for a couple of years now, he’s been exposed to a lot of new sides of her, her usually elegant, untouchable, and quiet facade of a vice student council president dropping almost as soon as he got to know her better.

For those who do know her, she actually smiles, not just making faint barely there upticks of her mouth, and only as deep as necessary proposals.

She actually jokes, however silly and nonsensical they are, Eve really digs in once you’re in her circle. Will would bask in that smile, content to bring it to her face forever–as a friend, even if it feels like he’s betraying his instincts to protect her instead of the other way around.

He would let Eveline because it helped her mental state, and if he got more time with just them, it’s a win-win.

Of course, it’s a bit embarrassing when he could do it himself; it’s not like driving takes that much out of him, but if it makes her happy, he’d let her drive him anywhere.

If it made her smile, Will had a feeling he could get behind almost anything. What that says about him, he wouldn’t confess.

One full year passes by in a flash, with everything keeping them busy even in their sleep. 18 is only a moment in hours of things happening.

The fulfilled threat of senior year gave them little time to get a grip, but somehow they managed. The start was busy, but now that they were in the middle of it, things were slowing down.

Constant and wave-making updates on the case break through their peace, bring silence, and justified anger, as furious feet almost stomp across the room to clamber over a remote and shut off the TV.

It takes everything in their power not to watch what is going to happen to Mr.Hawthorne obsessively.

The murderous species-ist headmaster, though fallen from multiple high places, is still unpredictable in his plans or thought process.

Who in their right mind murders, not one but multiple wolf-dogs, and thinks they can get away with it, with the recent revisions to wolf-dog rights?

Their old headmaster was crazy enough to do it, set in his ways enough to feel vindictive over small offenses or even no contact whatsoever.

Understandably, even his regular acquaintances and friends don’t like him, and his business partner is guilty enough to drink his woes away.

How he managed to get away with it could only be blamed on corruption and money; any upright person who is blinded by greed or held down by those above them would crumble before bringing him down.

William is overwhelmed with a sense of gratefulness at the thought, grateful that Evelines parents are high enough to make a difference, and didn’t dismiss their findings.

That they believed them when they brought them evidence, evidence that they stressed to get, on a silver platter moments before Will was lost forever to a mill full of the crunching and popping bodies of wolf-dog teens before him.

It’s no consolation that he wasn’t the first; the very real and horrifying fact only adds to his nightmares of imagining that it could have been him next.

Life continues despite these disturbing thoughts; it continues on, so they made it out somehow.

Their last year of high school isn’t even past its first semester, but it feels like a struggle to think of the future past it.

Eveline wants to go into the STEM field, Noah wants to study psychology, and Oakley, in a similar boat to Will, isn’t sure yet. The taller boy had always had his life planned out for him. His every movement, hobbies, and grades topped others in a show of superiority manned by his father.

So when he’s free from that, he is understandably floundering to find himself. Will, on the other hand, is already in the workforce with the absurd amount of jobs he’s had to handle by himself.

The same jobs he’s unsurprised to find he’s been fired from after his month-long recovery from a run-in with one known serial killer.

One anxious and liberating meltdown later, he’s working at a coffee shop and grooming dogs for a living under a different company. A welcome change from his previous restaurant job and manual labor, but no less stressful, nonetheless, it’s a start.

Talking it through with each other, debating, or even just talking at someone, it helps. The consensus of friends, his pack, which he can use for support, is comforting. It steadies his nerves and rights his mind.

Whatever it is they want to do in the future, he’s confident they’ll figure it out together.

To anyone who isn’t William, it’s a given that after at least 3 years of mutual friendship deepening, Eveline would ask Will on a date.

But to the person in question, it’s like something he’s denied himself has just plopped itself into his lap, the idea of it scorching hot and burning bright in its ability to make him unabashedly pleased.

It’s incredibly embarrassing, even when Eveline tells him it’s endearing, that he fucking beamed at the invitation. The upward pull of his lips was wide and genuine as he felt his face heat up.

Clear and unhidden happiness that he’d struggled to push down burst forth like a dam of endearing, pure affection and admiration.

But to his surprise, Eve hadn’t faltered for a second, her eyes crinkled as they narrowed, a small and almost knowing smile across her face.

Like she had been waiting for it and survived off the honey of his teeth for food, and the lovely look in his eyes for water.

How had he not noticed this before? He had no idea.

Sending his apologies for past Eveline’s unnoticed affection, he had composed himself slightly, vowing to never make her act first again.

His acceptance was a blurt when he noticed he’d been stunned for too long; the words broke through so fast they stumbled over each other, but quickly he recovered his composure, reasserting what he meant to say.

The pleased expression he found on Eve was enough to give him endless butterflies.

Is this supposed to make him feel like throwing up? Does he deserve this happiness? Will felt like the world would end the next day, given how giddy he was in the moment.

She had nodded once in affirmation, looking at his face, then back at the ground as she gave a couple of giggles and her eyebrows knit together, the laughs bubbling out of her slowly in disbelief.

“I can’t believe I was so nervous. You’re adorable.” She almost dissolved into little huffed out and uncontrolled laughs when she saw the confused and flattered half-pout on his face.

“I-, Thank you?” He joked, unsure if he should feel insulted or flattered, but chose to be endeared as he let some of the pressure in his stomach flit out in breathy chuckles; he had joined her in her dissolving state, folded over the kitchen counter in a heap of limbs and hair. William had plans formulate in his head at that moment.

Plans William acted on about a week after they finally went on that date.