—

Ryder stared ahead at the ground in front of her as she listened closely to the pounding of Austin's heartbeat.

Per Ryder's request, Austin brought Josie home and took Ryder with him and Isaac to avoid the possible interference of her parents if they started arguing. They also did this out of respect for Jesse, knowing the small child wasn't very fond of loud noises.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's not my business, nor was it my place to just say something like that." Ryder shrugged, "Like I've said before, if you had asked, I would've told you. But what Stiles was going through wasn't something that needed to be spread around like that."

Austin understood.

He's known from the beginning that even if he were her biggest enemy, Ryder wouldn't have just told everyone that Stiles killed someone.

"He's was crying, Austin. He was covered in someone else's blood with his own seeping from his shoulder, and still, his biggest concern was how his closest friend was going to react once he found out that someone was killed in front of him. And clearly, his need for me not to tell
anyone was necessary because Scott didn't even care that his supposed best friend was almost killed. He cared more about the fact that Stiles couldn't save the guy that wanted him dead."

"Theo told me that you were apart of it." He stopped his pacing to look at her, "Is that true?"

She wanted to be offended that he believed such a thing, but knew that Theo had nearly gotten into just about everyone's heads. And, Austin, he was so easily convinced if you could shed a few tears to make your story more sad.

She couldn't blame him. He was used to giving people the benefit of the doubt and allowing them more opportunities to get on his good side.

His father's done it more than once. Stiles was given the chance, along with Scott and just about everyone else in the group. So, Austin giving Theo a chance— even if he didn't know it was a chance to possibly ruin his relationships— wasn't so unexpected.

"It's not true. The only involvement I had was when Stiles texted and told me what he did." She inhaled softly before continuing, "I went over to his house, he told me what happened, I let him know that it wasn't his fault and then I promised to keep quiet about it."

His heart fell in his chest.

He couldn't believe that he allowed Theo to get so far into his head that he nearly lost Ryder. And Isaac. Simply because he couldn't just ask her what happened.

She could see him beating himself up internally, sighing softly before she reached forward to grab his hand, pulling until he was sat next to her.

"I'm not mad at you."

He huffed, "You should be."

"I'm not."

"But you should be." He looked over at her, "Ryder, this is the third time i've doubted us and our relationship."

"With good reason." She pointed out.

"For no reason." He corrected, "You've given me no reason not to trust you, and I still treat you like you have."

"That's not your fault." She reassured him, "I can understand why you would've assumed that I just didn't want to tell you. I'm more upset that Theo was able to convince you that i'd lie."

His face softened, "You're really not mad at me?"

"Nope."

He wrapped his arms around her, face burying into her neck, his words coming out muffled, "I love you so much, Ryder. I'm so sorry."

"I love you too." She pressed a sweet kiss to his head, "And again, there's no reason to be sorry."

She could have laughed. The look on his face was hilarious. She felt bad that he was under so much stress about him getting upset with her, but she truly wasn't bothered by it.

The first time something like this had happened, Ryder quickly realized it would happened again. The only thing she was a little off with was the unexpected death that came along with it.

Austin's naturally welcoming and forgiving personality is what led to Theo being able to get into his head, making him feel as though he couldn't trust his own girlfriend. Ryder couldn't fault Austin for that, hell, he clearly got that from his mother.

She was more angry at Theo for thinking he could mess with her relationship and get way with it.

•••

"What's happening?"

After finishing their conversation, Austin drove Ryder home where the girl would opening up about everything to her parents.

Realistically, she felt as though there was no need to do this, but whilst she was in the passenger seat of Austin's car, she thought over how her keeping such big secrets for the sake of a friend nearly led to her losing her boyfriend.

She couldn't imagine how things would've turned out if Theo somehow got into her family's heads about this.

"Stiles killed someone."

Ramona stopped patting Jesse's bum in shock, resulting in the small child to whine in complaint, "Oh?"

"And I knew about it."

"Oh."

"In his defense, it was self defense—"

"He told you that?" Aaron sat down near his wife, his eyes focused solely on his eldest daughter.

"Yeah. And I believe him. I, one hundred percent believe him."

"If it helps at all..." Josie cut in, her eyes casted downward, "I heard them talking about it in the library."

"Heard who talking?" Austin asked, brows pulled into a crease, squeezing Ryder's hand slightly.

"Theo and Stiles. They were talking about how if Lydia found something then she would find the bodies." She started, "Theo mentioned Donovan and Stiles looked scared, and then he said how they'd also find Josh. Theo looked like he didn't care much. That's all I know, I kind of ran out after I realized they killed them."

She hesitated before adding, "And then I told Isaac."

Ryder glanced at Austin, who looked just as shocked at the new information, "Did you know that?"

"No, he didn't say anything to me."

"Go figure."

"You knew?" Ramona asked Ryder, "And you didn't say anything?"

"If I told on Theo, I'd be telling on Stiles." Ryder shrugged her shoulders.

"I figured that's why he and Stiles were suddenly so close. They were keeping each other's secrets." Josie added on.

"Long enough for Theo to switch up Stiles' story and turn everyone against him." Ryder came to the conclusion, huffing as she fell back against the couch, "This guys an asshole."

The pinging of Aaron's phone took everyone away from the current conversation,

"Shit." The oldest Anders stood up, "I have to go."

"What's going on?" Ramona sat up, eyes filled with worry as she watched her husband dart around the house for his work attire.

"Emergency. I got called into work. They think something tried to kill the Sheriff."

—

A/N: if i could kill of scott, i def would
any hate towards austin will NOT be tolerated 😐 he's innocent 🙄