#kirbystarter

Caroline was feeling guilty. She'd been - avoiding Elena, sort of, since her parents' deaths. Maybe avoiding was the wrong word. It wasn't like Elena had been around any, and Caroline had of course sent a card and attended the funeral, but...she hadn't exactly gone out of her way to offer comfort to her best friend. Caroline just didn't know what to say. But she did care - she did. She knew how to talk about boys, parties, clothes...she just faltered when it came to the deeper stuff. Everyone always called her shallow, and sometimes Caroline worried she actually was. Maybe that was why everyone always chose Elena over her.

But that didn't matter now. Elena's whole life had been shattered - so how could Caroline think  of competing with her at a time like this? No, what she had to do bite the goddamn bullet and go hug her friend and try awkwardly to make her feel better, and so she would. Caroline pulled up to Elena's house and breathed in deeply before getting out of the car. 

Of course, she'd worked up her courage to visit, but stupidly she hadn't called ahead. Meaning Elena wasn't home. Her Aunt Jenna had directed Caroline to wait in Elena's room, and dutifully, she'd gone up the stairs. She'd just stepped past Jeremy's room when the smell of smoke hit her like a tidal wave. Her nose wrinkled and she stopped in her tracks. Caroline had been to enough parties to recognize the scent of pot, but she'd never expected to smell in the Gilbert House, of all places. 

Stiles had remained with his father once Faye had left, waiting for him to reawaken before he would feel comfortable about leaving him alone again. The injury Faye had inflicted on his father may have been minimal, but that didn't mean it still didn't scare the crap out of him seeing Faye snap his neck the way she did, the way his body limply slumped to the ground. In a way he could understand Faye's impulses, but that didn't mean he had forgiven her for what she had done either, even if she had just finished compelling the memory from his father.

Eventually his father had come to, suffering from 'minor memory loss' due to his 'accident'. To be honest Stiles was just glad he was awake and already gearing to get out of that hospital bed. Stiles couldn't blame them, neither of them were particularly fond of hospitals. He had stayed and spoken with him for a while, updating him on school while also expertly avoiding having to mention just how much he had actually missed because of recent events. Faye may have been right about having to tell his father the whole truth behind the town eventually, but he just wasn't ready to tell him. Not when he had way more to worry about.