Strings of Fate

58-Distraction and denial Without missing a beat Bellamy hops out the car and runs around to open my door for me. Before | can so much as blink he’s leaning down overand pressing his lips against mine. Just for a moment but I'm not expecting it and | freeze in shock.

“For luck.” He states calmly, a click at my side tellshe’s undone my seatbelt. | flush red as | scramble out of my seat and take the arm Bellamy is holding out for me. There’s a smirk on his face and I can tell he’s enjoying how flustered I am.

| take a few deep breaths as we approach the front door and try and relax. Megan is the one who has the right to be freaking out, not me. Things are actually looking up for me, | really have no right to complain. Bellamy unlocks the door, | did plan to head straight up to Megan's room but | can hear noise coming from the kitchen. Is she... humming? | glance at Bellamy who shrugs and gives a confused expression which tellshe doesn’t know what's going on either. | peer around the doorway and see Megan pulling stuff out of the fridge while humming an upbeat tune. Darrien is sitting on the other side of the counter. His expression is serious and he meets my eyes and nods atto cin. | enter with Bellamy trailing behind me. Megan turns to face us holding a block of chocolate.

“Hello sleepy heads.” She greets us. Her smile is bright but her golden eyes are ringed with red and the whole expression looks forced. She continues speaking before either of us can answer.

“You are right on tRyann. I've decided to bake sbrownies. Are you any good at baking? | could use the company. | keep telling Darrien that he should go hand rest but he refuses to leavealone. Now that you're here he can head off.” | open my mouth to speak but before | can get a single work out Megan interrupts.

“No. If you ask how I'm feeling I'll cry, and | am so sick of crying. We aren't talking about it right now. | need a break from sad things. All | want is chocolate and to think about good things. Now PLEASE tellyou guys have sorted your shit out because | am sick of all the moping and | need someone to make brownies with me.” She says all of this in one breath like she’s worried that someone will stop her if she pauses to breathe. Bellamy steps in close toand Megan eyes us with a mixture of anticipation and concern. He places a hand on my hip lightly and presses his lips into my hair causingto blush furiously and drop my gaze 1/5 58-Distraction and denial to the floor. He gives a small smile to his sister then releases me.

“Darrien can head hif he wants as long as you are both happy to stay in the house while 1...” he trails off.

He must have realised that he shouldn't talk about his upcoming meeting with Tristan’s mother.

“You go get swork done. We have brownies to make. Ill... see you a bit later?” The last part comes out as a question. Bellamy smiles and nods.

“You two have fun.” He exits and | hear his light footsteps heading away down the hall. | turn and Megan looks genuinely pleased, although the expression is fleeting and quickly replaced with her forced smile. Darrien looks smug. | turn on him.

“Not. A. Word. If you say one word | am going to have no choice but to go and hide in my room and not emerge until you have entirely forgotten who | am.” My tone is light but | keep a stern expression. Darrien’s smirk only gets worse.

“That would never happen, he would drag you back well before | manage to forget even one hair on your head.

Us Shifter men can be clingy.” He throws a side eye towards Megan and | can see his reluctance to leave her behind, however he is also clearly exhausted. She might have a point about him needing to rest. | make eye contact with her and | can see she is exhausted too, I'm starting to wonder if this false cheer is an attempt to get sspace from Darrien. | approach Darrien and grab his arm dragging him towards the front door.

“Alright it’s tfor you to go home. Get srest, shower, whatever. It's girl tnow and as you have clearly just identified yourself as a man you are not invited. You can cback later for dinner and maybe if we feel like it we will save you a brownie. Now get out, go.” | open the front door and shove him out. He stares ata moment, briefly makes eye contact then nods.

“I'll be back in a while, take care of... yourselves.” He says with a pointed look towards the kitchen, I nod and close the door in his face.

Back in the kitchen Megan's shoulders sink down and the false smile falls from her face. She looks exhausted and is staring at a mixing bowl not moving. | take over.

“Alright, how do we make brownies? Do you have a recipie?” | see her phone is lit up and she 2/5 58 - Distraction and denial has a recipie open online. | grab it and glance at it. Doesn't look too hard. | start reading out directions and we get to work. We eat almost as much brownie mix as we end up putting in the oven. While it bakes | start washing dishes and Megan dries since | have no idea where anything goes.

“So you an you and Bellamy, hey?” Megan starts. | flush red and give an awkward nod.

“I... | guess so. But... we're not telling people right now. I'm not ready for... well, you know?” Megan nods understandingly.

“Yeah | get it, people are pretty obsessed with Bellamy’s love life.” “Yes exactly, | don’t want to deal with all the pressure.” | see my phone vibrating on the counter and check my messages.

Bellamy- Tristan’s mother will be here for her meeting in about 30 minutes. Any chance you could take Megan upstairs and keep her there for a while? Ryann- No problem. Brownies are almost done, we will head up soon.

Megan glances over as she dries the last dish.

“Is that my brother? What does he want?” she asked. | pause, unsure how to respond and when my phone goes off again | grab it as a way to delay responding.

Bellamy- Thanks, I'm so glad you're here. <3 Ryann | blush red and Megan smirks.

“| take it back, if you're that embarrassed, | don’t want to know.” | mock glare at her.

“It’s nothing like that. He's just checking in. Now let's get those brownies out the oven so we can go upstairs and talk’ in private. Bellamy explained a few things about Shifter courting this. morning and you never said anything about it. You have sexplaining to do.” Megan smirks at me.

3/5 58 - Distraction and denial “Oh do 1? You're the one whose been avoiding talking about him, it’s not my fault. But | see your point.” We move half the brownies into the fridge and take the rest upstairs with us. We both collapse into Megan's bed and Megan immediately shoves a warm brownie into her mouth and lets out a groan.

“Yes that’s exactly what | needed.” She settles back and pulls a blanket over herself. | place the plate of brownies on her lap then grab one myself. | have to agree they did turn out pretty well considering that we had no idea what we were doing.

“So, shoot. What questions do you have after talking with Bels this morning?” Megan asks.

“Uhm, well before | interrogate you, | wanted to check... Bellamy said it was fine but, you're... okay with... him and me?” Megan stares atlike I'm an idiot.

“If I had a problem | would have said something long before now. I'm a lot more. straightforward than my brother.” She looks grumpy and | wince.

“I'm sorry. | hope you aren't mad. It’s just... he knew it would hurt you, and neither of us could bring ourselves to do that.” | drop my eyes to my lap and fiddle with the edge of at blanket. Megan sighs.

“At least YOU toldthe truth. Bellamy...". She trails off.

“He broughthere. He wanted to make sure there was no doubt before saying anything in case he was just being overprotective... and then | guess | broke his faith in my magic for a bit so you can see why he might not have said anything. Please don’t be angry, he was just trying to look out for you.” Megan cats another brownie then sighs.

“Fine, but he owesan apology. A proper one, not srandom gift or something. Now enough about me.

Distractwith your relationship .” Her tone made it clear that she was done talking about it. | guess Bellamy was right that she would be more angry with him than me. Hopefully she doesn’t hold it against him too long.