IN TOO DEEP || Liam Dunbar [3]

FIFTEEN

With summer halfway over, and her sixteenth birthday coming up in a few weeks, to say Katherine was feeling a little bit unhappy with how soon school was starting would be an understatement. It had taken her the first month to really relax after everything that had happened — the Beast, Theo, the dread doctors, the hunt, Stiles leaving — and now that she was calm and collected and had herself under control, she was left in the mindset where she was waiting for everything to go wrong again.

She'd spent a lot more time with Mason and Corey now that they'd gotten past the honeymoon phase of their relationship, as well as Liam who was swearing up and down that he was over Hayden. She did believe him, but she didn't want to rush him into something and get screwed over so she was waiting for him to make the first move.

Even with the hesitant awkwardness, though, things were going surprisingly well. He would send her pictures of kittens and puppies when she was having a bad day, he spent most afternoons watching Criminals Minds or playing Clue with her, and she was back to having dinner at his house twice a week and hanging out with his parents. It was nice, falling back into old patterns this comforting.

Which was exactly why she hadn't felt the slightest bit nervous when she'd seen a notification for the group chat the three of them were a part of.

🦎MR CAMO PANTS🦎
it's so fricking hot out oh
my god

🍫KITKAT🍫
yeah, it's gross

the amount of sweat that's
coming off of me right now
is astounding

🏳️‍🌈BEAST MODE🏳️‍🌈
dude

really didn't need to
know that

🥍DUMBASS DUNBAR🥍
dude

we don't need to see you
making out with Corey every
five seconds but we put up
with it

🍫KITKAT🍫
HAHA ROASTED

anyway what're we
doing today

I'm assuming that's why
Corey texted but I'm not
actually a mind reader

which is unfortunate

anyway

🏳️‍🌈BEAST MODE🏳️‍🌈
beach???

🥍DUMBASS DUNBAR🥍
fuck yeah.

And so off to the beach they went. Liam drove her down while Corey and Mason went together, and they met up in the parking lot. It took her twenty minutes to find a pair of sunglasses and a towel that wasn't dirty, so he sat in the living room and waited for her to get organized, then wordlessly gave her control of the music before they drove off down the high way.

They were waiting on the concrete barrier between the beach and the parking lot when Liam eventually chose a parking spot in the otherwise essentially empty lot; the only other vehicle was a minivan that she was guessing belonged to the family of five playing down in the sand.

Katherine had a backpack slung over her shoulder and a pair of shorts that were just past the length that would give her brother a heart attack, and had gotten dressed with a loose black and white striped shirt with a pair of comfortable sandals. She'd decided to just skip over the whole bra and underwear concept and just wear her swimsuit to avoid having to change on the beach.

As much as she wished she could leave her hair down to avoid getting burnt on the back of her neck, it was too hot out for that so she'd pulled it up into a messy bun with two elastics to make sure no hairs would fall out. She couldn't help but smile as she watched Mason and Corey run around in the sand, carefully dodging around the family's sand castle that the children had built near the walk down to the beach.