Smoshjackets - Chapter Ten
summary: After doomcoming, the group has a bit of cleaning up to do. All with raging hangovers, the team reconciles with the events of the night before and finds out some interesting details.
AN: omg can't believe its the last chapter (of part one..). thank you to everyone who's read this far!! hope you enjoy!
The morning after doomcoming, it was very quiet in the cabin. Mostly because almost no one had spent the night there. After Spencer and Anthony had crashed the crazy cult party, only them, Alex, Shayne, Courtney, Angela, and Coach Chanse had made it back to the cabin to sleep. The rest of the team had slept outside in the dirt.
The group woke up groggy, all with headaches and no memory of the night before. Slowly, many of them got up and brushed the dirt off their clothes. Ian found a plastic butter knife laying in the dirt by his feet, and picked it up. How had that gotten there?
Decorations for doomcoming were still up, and there were cups and bowls littered all over the place, but the team decided to leave cleaning for later. They walked back to the cabin to find everyone else.
~
In the back of the cabin, Alex was washing his hands with a bucket of water. He shook his hands out and then wiped the excess water on his jeans.
“Oh my god,” Spencer said. Alex turned to see Spencer walking toward him, the rifle slung over his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Spencer lifted a hand to Alex’s shoulder but he shrugged him off.
“Last night, I mean,” Spencer continued.
“I’m fine,” Alex responded curtly. “Actually, I’m better than fine, I finally got laid so I’m doing fan-fucking-tastic.”
Spencer sighed. “I don't care about what happened with you and Anthony, Alex. They had a knife to your throat!”
“It was a fucking butter knife,” Alex said.
“That’s still weird as fuck!” Spencer shouted at him.
“I said i was fine, didn’t I?” Alex huffed and rolled his eyes. “I’m gonna go look for Selina.”
Alex began walking off before Spencer processed what he had. Belatedly, he turned and started walking after Alex.
“Wait,” Spencer called after him. “She’s not here?”
“Nope,” Alex shouted back, walking faster to get away from him.
~
Those who had slept inside the night before, except for Anthony, were sitting in front of the cabin. Coach Chanse sat next to the campfire, boiling something over the flame. He was the first to greet the group that had slept outside as they came back.
“Hey,” Coach Chanse said, smiling. “I boiled some drinking water in case anyone’s as hungover as I am."
A few people took mugs of the water and drank it hastily.
“Has anyone seen Anthony?” Ian asked.
As if he had heard him, Anthony came out onto the cabin’s porch, leaning on the doorframe. He crossed his arms, eyes set on Ian.
“I have nothing to say to you,” Anthony told him. “To any of you. I mean, what the fuck?”
“Yeah,” Olivia scoffed. “Like you’re so innocent.”
“Hey! I’m not the one who went completely fucking insane last night!” Anthony yelled defensively.
“Right. ‘Cause you were too busy screwing Alex,” Courtney quipped.
Anthony glared at Courtney and looked like he was about to say something back, but Coach Chanse stopped them.
“Woah, hey,” Coach said, holding his hand up. “Look, I’m sure we all did and said some stuff that we regret last night on account of the shrooms. So, I think the best thing to do is–”
“Wait, wait,” Ian stopped him. “Shrooms?”
Courtney sighed. “Okay, yeah. That makes a lot of sense.” She rubbed a hand over her face.
“Oh, shit,” Shayne said. “The broth.”
Without another word, the entire group turned on Angela.
“You drugged us?” Amanda asked her.
“No, I didn’t!” Angela blurted out. She looked guilty and stood up from where she was sitting on the porch. “Okay, yeah it was an accident. They were meant for Chanse.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Oh my god, do you know how insane you are?”
“They were MY mushrooms!” Angela shouted at her. “And you stole them to put them in your stupid soup! Besides, none of this would have even happened if he–” she gestured to Coach Chanse, “–wouldn’t have tricked me into falling in love with him!”
Coach Chanse groaned. “Oh, Angela would you–”
“Wait! Stop!” Arasha cut them off. “Do you hear that?”
There was a rustling in the bushes that surrounded the cabin. The group turned to see a bear coming from the forest, walking right towards them. They all began to scramble backwards to the porch or even all the way into the cabin.
“Oh, my god! Oh, my god!” Courtney yelled, freaking out.
“Alright everyone, just stay calm,” Coach Chanse told them.
“How the fuck are we supposed to do that?” Olivia shot back.
While everyone had moved back away from the bear, Arasha had stayed put. She just stood calmly face to face with a bear only a few feet away from her.
“Who has the gun?” Shayne asked. “Where’s the gun?”
“Spencer has it,” Amanda told him. “We saw him take it with him.”
The bear inched closer, growling. Arasha reached out behind her, not even looking back.
“Ian,” she said quietly. “The knife.”
Ian pulled his knife– his real knife– out of his pocket and handed it to Arasha. She took it from him, adjusting her hold before taking a step closer to the bear.
“Arasha, don’t,” Courtney told her.
“What are you doing?” Coach Chanse asked. Arasha shushed him.
She walked even closer to the bear. It growled again, and took another step, but instead of attacking Arasha, it layed down on the dirt. In a split second, Arasha had raised the knife and stabbed it through the bear’s head.
Everyone gasped, except for the bear, who moaned in pain. The bear died quickly, and everyone just watched in shock. Arasha handed the knife back to Ian like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
~
Soon after Arasha killed the bear, the team started to prepare the bear meat for breakfast. Ian had bled it out and once he was done, he and Amanda skinned it. They took the skin of the bear and Coach Chanse and Amanda cleaned it up so that they could use it as clothing or blankets. Ian took the bear meat and began chopping it into smaller pieces to cook. Next to him, Olivia was putting them on the pan she had over the campfire.
Everyone else was helping with daily chores, or preparing something else for breakfast. Angela had walked around, trying to help everyone out in some way, but almost all of them had shrugged her off. She went over to the campfire and offered to put the meat in the fire for Olivia.
“Yeah, right.” Olivia snorted. “Like we’re gonna trust you near the food.”
“Look,” Angela said calmly. “I’m just trying to help, so–”
“Oh my god, Angela, just get the fuck away!” Olivia yelled at her.
Angela stared at her for a moment before walking away and hiding out in the cabin. Olivia continued cooking the meat, and gave Amanda a shrug when she looked at her weird.
Ian passed Olivia a new bowl of meat pieces and got a new big piece to chop up. He scraped up the blood dripping from the edge of his knife. Ian lifted his finger and looked at the drop of blood on his fingertip. After a second, he brought it closer, bringing it to his mouth.
“Ian, don’t.” Amanda stopped him. He looked up at her, lowering his hand. “It’ll make you sick.”
Ian wiped the blood on his flannel and continued cutting up the bear meat.
~
Upstairs in the attic, Shayne was watching the bustle of getting breakfast ready from the window. He turned his head at the sound of creaking coming from the attic’s ladder. It was Courtney climbing up the stairs.
Shayne smiled. “Hey,” he said.
Courtney smiled back awkwardly, but didn’t say anything. Shayne scooted over on the bench and patted the space next to him.
“Talk to me,” Shayne told her.
Courtney scoffed. “Why? So you can tell me how dumb I am?”
Shayne stood up. “You’re not dumb,” he assured her. “I think something really, really scary happened to you and you’re trying to deal with that, but Courtney–”
“I saw something,” Courtney said, cutting him off. “After. Not just the werewolves. I don’t think I was dead, but I wasn’t really alive either. I think I was… in between or something.
“You were in shock,” Shayne rationalized. “Your body was–”
“No!” Courtney raised her voice. “I know what I saw. I don’t know what it meant, but I know I saw something. Something was out there with us.” She pointed a finger at Shayne. “And I know you saw the werewolves too, don’t try to deny it.”
Shayne raised his hands in surrender and sat back down on the bench. “Okay. You had a near death experience and now you believe in tree spirits and werewolves?” He half-laughed.
“Don’t do that,” Courtney said. “I know you’re scared too, but don’t act like you have any idea about what’s going on out here!”
“Courtney, you think sucking plastic phones tastes good,” Shayne replied. “You believed your life was The Truman Show until like 10th grade. You don’t believe in whatever this is!” He gestured out the window to the group below.
“What if I do?” Courtney asked back. “Huh? And if that’s gonna be a problem for you, then just say it.” Tears were pooling in her eyes.
Shayne paused. He stood up again and walked over to Courtney, immediately engulfing her in a hug.
“No, it’s not,” Shayne whispered. He pulled back from the hug. “It’s okay. We’re okay.” He kissed Courtney on the forehead.
~
Before the sun had set, the team was getting ready for dinner. They had cooked another quarter of the bear meat and prepared some leaves and worms to eat with it. Everyone was setting bowls and plates down on the table, grabbing their own plates and first helpings.
As people began to eat, Ian stopped them. “Shouldn’t we wait for Alex and Spencer?”
The group paused eating, but no one responded. They were hungry now, and God only knew where Spencer and Alex had gone.
“Uh,” Coach Chanse started. “I think they have some things to sort out. They can eat when they come back.”
Everyone continued to eat.
“Arasha,” Courtney said. “Last night, you said we wouldn’t be hungry much longer. How did you know that?”
Arasha chewed and swallowed. “I just did.”
“Yeah,” Anthony chimed in. He was sitting on one of the chairs that surrounded the living room. “It’s called getting lucky. The bear probably just smelled us and came looking for food. There was probably something wrong with him.” He pushed the meat around in his bowl.
“It didn’t look sick,” Amanda replied. She bit into another piece.
Olivia groaned. “At this point, I don’t even care. Let’s just eat.”
Everyone agreed with that, except Courtney, who stopped them again.
“Wait,” she said. “Maybe we should… I don’t know, say grace, or thank you, or something?”
No one responded at first.
Shayne sighed. “Yeah, let’s just make it quick, okay?”
Anthony leaned his head back, completely over the cult shit, even though it had barely just begun. The others nodded in agreement and Courtney asked Arasha to lead.
“Let’s hold hands,” Arasha told them.
The group joined hands to those around them. Angela reached her hand out to Anthony, who stared at her like she was crazy. He looked away, pointedly not holding her hand.
“For this gift from the wilderness, we give our thanks,” Arasha said, closing her eyes.
Courtney said thank you in response, her eyes closed as well.
“To the spirit of the bear, who sacrificed so that we could survive, we give our thanks.”
This time, everyone said thank you.
“To the ancient gods of the sky and dirt, we give our thanks.”
The group said thank you again. Arasha opened her eyes and let go of Ian and Coach Chanse’s hands. The rest of the team let go of each other’s hands and started to eat again.
Angela leaned closer to Anthony. “You didn’t say it!” She whispered at him.
Anthony stared at her again, wondering why the fuck she cared so much. When he didn’t respond, Angela turned to the rest of the group.
“Anthony didn’t say it!” Angela told the team.
Anthony laughed dryly. “No, I did not thank the dirt for bringing us a brain-dead bear. What is even happening right now? The fuck is wrong with you all?”
“It’s fine, guys,” said Shayne, standing up for Anthony. “He doesn’t have to–”
“Oh, shut up, Shayne,” Anthony spat. “Don’t pretend like you weren’t a part of it.” The group shifted, but no one spoke. “What? We’re just not gonna talk about it? We just howl at the moon now and fucking hunt people down? And somehow I’m the one who did something wrong??”
“Woah, what?” Coach Chanse asked from the corner. No one acknowledged him.
“Anthony, calm down,” said Ian, rolling his eyes.
“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!” Anthony stood up, putting his bowl down on the floor. He stepped closer to Ian. “What were you going to do Alex last night, Ian? Answer me!”
“I don’t…” Ian trailed off. “I don’t remember.”
“Bullshit!” Anthony accused. “You had a knife to his throat! You were going to kill him! You probably would have if me and Spencer hadn’t stopped you!”
Ian slammed his bowl down next to him and stood up. “SHUT UP! None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for you! If you hadn’t–”
“Hadn’t what?” Anthony asked. “Hadn’t gotten you pregnant the night before we left for nationals?”
The group gasped, clearly unaware about this detail of Ian’s pregnancy.
“You did read my journal!” Ian had already known it, but the confirmation hurt all the same.
“You were my best friend,” Anthony deflected. “How could you not tell me about that? Do you really not care about me at all?”
“Oh, my god, Anthony!” Ian groaned. “You’re so obsessed with yourself, I'm surprised you’re aware other people even exist! You know, you never even asked me if I wanted to go to UCLA! You just assumed I’d go wherever you wanted.”
Anthony stared at Ian in disbelief. Ian wasn’t finished, though.
“You tell me what to do, what to wear, who to hookup with,” Ian continued. “I DON'T EVEN LIKE SOCCER! You just get everything you want. All the time, like it’s nothing. It’s like we’re just extras in the movie of your fucking life!”
“Oh, my god, I'm sorry I'm all you think about,” Anthony replied, his hand over his chest, mockingly touched. “Don’t make your boyfriend Shayne even more jealous of me. I mean, you're already jealous enough for the both of you.”
Ian shifted on his feet. “Are you quoting Degrassi at me right now?”
“What?” Anthony choked out. “No…”
Ian chuckled. “I'm not jealous of you, Anthony. I feel sorry for you. Because you’re weak, and deep down you know it.”
Crossing his arms, Ian took another step towards Anthony. “I’m sure everyone back home is so sad to be losing their perfect little prince, but they’ll never know how tragic, and boring, and insecure you actually are. Or how high school was the best your life was ever gonna get.”
Ian sighed. “Maybe I didn’t tell you I was having your baby because I didn’t want to be at your beck and call for the rest of my fucking life!”
“Fuck you,” Anthony said. “Get out.”
“No.” “Go on!” Anthony pointed at the door. “Get out!”
“No,” Ian said again.
“I can’t be around you, I can’t even fucking look at you right now!” Anthony yelled at him.
“Well, that sounds like your problem, so maybe you should get out,” Ian told him.
Anthony scoffed. He looked to the group for back up, but none of them seemed interested in supporting him.
“Maybe you’d be better off,” Olivia piped up. “Since we’re all so crazy.”
“Okay,” Coach Chanse said finally. “Stop. No one is sleeping outside.”
“Stay out of it, Coach,” Arasha barked at him.
“You know what, fine!” Anthony said.
He grabbed his pillow and a few blankets, walking towards the door.
“Anthony, wait–” Shayne started.
Anthony turned his attention to Shayne. “Don’t pretend like this isn’t what you wanted the entire fucking time.”
He looked back up at Ian, who was looking back at him. Both of them had tears forming in their eyes.
“I don’t even know who you are anymore,” Anthony said.
Ian shrugged. “Then maybe you never did.”
Anthony walked out the door, slamming it behind him as he went to sleep outside. The group quickly moved on from the fight and finished their dinner. Ian didn’t touch his bowl.
Instead, he was watching out the window as Anthony tried to start a fire. He clicked his lighter a few times, but it didn’t set the bundle of sticks in front of him aflame. Anthony threw the lighter to the ground.
Looking over his shoulder, Anthony nearly caught Ian spying on him. Ian ducked behind the curtain quickly before Anthony had fully turned around. A moment later, Ian peeked out the window to see him trying to light the fire again. It was going to be a long night.
~
It was dark in the woods, and Spencer didn’t have a lantern. After Alex had stormed off, he had gone to look for Selina on his own, worried that something had happened to her. Spencer had been searching for Selina for hours, and the sun had set long ago. He was starting to lose hope. Suddenly, he heard someone else calling out for Selina. Alex.
“SELINA!”
Spencer followed the sound of Alex’s voice and eventually stumbled upon him. He was barely able to see him in the dark, but he could make out his shadow and the lines of his face. Alex frowned at him and turned away.
“Uh… I can’t– I can’t find her,” he admitted.
Shit. “She might be back at the cabin,” Spencer suggested.
“No,” Alex said. “Something happened last night.”
“Then I’ll help you look.” Spencer swallowed.
“I don’t want your help,” Alex told him.
Spencer nodded. “I know.”
“I don’t want your fucking help, Spencer!” Alex said louder. His eyes were glossy.
“I know!”
Alex shook his head at him. Tears began to fall from his eyes. He sniffled. Spencer felt tears build in his own eyes as he watched Alex cry.
“I’m sorry,” Alex said finally. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “I didn’t want to. I… I fucking love you, Spencer.”
Spencer pulled him into a hug, and they stood there for a while, crying and holding each other in the darkness of the forest.
~
After finishing dinner, the team had begun to get ready for bed. Ian and Shayne both made their way upstairs as the rest of the group got under their covers. A few of them took looks out the window at Anthony, but none made any move to bring him inside.
Up in the attic, Shayne sat down on his blankets. Ian went straight to the window. Anthony had managed to get a fire going, but it wasn’t much. The flame flickered in the wind, and Ian could see Anthony shivering under the layers of blankets he had wrapped around himself.
Although Ian should have felt some kind of guilt, he didn’t really. Anthony could come inside whenever he wanted. It wasn’t like Ian was standing at the door all night to make sure he wouldn’t come in.
“Just go talk to him,” Shayne said from the floor.
Ian shook his head and turned away from the window. He laid down next to Shayne, facing away from him. It should have been his most restless night of sleep, but Ian drifted off seconds after closing his eyes.
~
Outside, Anthony was freezing. Despite the three blankets and letterman jacket that were protecting him from the cold, he was still shivering. The fire in front of him was petering out and Anthony only watched, too tired to try and relight it again.
He heard footsteps crunching on the grass, but didn’t turn. Somehow, he already knew it was Ian. Anthony pulled the blankets tighter around him.
“Hey,” Ian said. “Come inside. This is stupid.” Anthony didn’t respond. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m really sorry.”
Ian crouched down in front of him, forcing Anthony to look him in the eyes.
“Come inside,” he said again. “Please?”
Nodding, Anthony let Ian pull him to his feet and into the cabin. The moment he set foot inside, Anthony felt like he had been thawed out. The fireplace filled the house with a cozy warmth.
The entire team stood in front of him, all smiling as he walked into the living room. Amanda and Ian piled more blankets on top of Anthony’s shoulders. Anthony smiled at them.
“Thanks, it’s freezing out there,” Anthony said.
They led him over to a chair in front of the fire and Anthony sat down.
Anthony yawned. “I’m so tired.”
“Here, this will help,” Arasha told him. She handed him a warm mug.
Anthony brought the mug to his nose and sniffed it. His eyes widened in surprise and he almost laughed as he looked back up at Arasha.
“Hot chocolate?” He asked. “How? Where did you find this?”
Ian kneeled next to Anthony’s chair. “Does it matter?”
“Ian–”
“It's fine,” Ian assured him. “It’s all gonna be fine. I love you, Anthony.”
“We love you, Anthony,” the group chorused.
Anthony looked around at the team and then back at Ian.
“You’re the best friend I’ve ever had,” Ian told him. “You know that, right?”
“I know,” Anthony confirmed.
Anthony turned to look at the group again, but instead, Trevor Lee stood in front of him. The right side of his face was blurred and blotchy, like he wasn’t really there.
“It’s not as bad as you thought, is it?” Trevor Lee asked him.
Anthony looked to Ian, and then back to Trevor Lee, whose face was becoming clearer, then at the group. Trevor Lee stood and joined the team. Suddenly, Anthony noticed someone else standing in the doorway to the attic.
Barely visible in the shadows, Coach Defy smiled at Anthony. “So glad that you’re finally joining us. We’ve been waiting for you.”
~
Ian woke up to the cold air biting at his skin. He wanted to pull the covers over his head and go back to sleep, but the light streaming in from the window was much brighter than normal. Reluctantly, Ian got up to see what was going on.
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the light, but when they did, Ian’s heart dropped to his stomach. A blanket of snow covered the ground and the trees.
“No,” Ian whispered. “No, no, no.”
Shayne, who had been jostled awake by Ian getting out of bed, turned over and shielded his eyes from the light. “What happened?”
Ian ignored him. He turned and quickly started climbing down the ladder. He haphazardly stepped over his sleeping teammates, waking most of them up in his efforts to get outside. Ian reached the front door and tried to open it, but the snow had seemingly frozen it shut. Around him, everyone was beginning to get up and see the snow. With a final tug, Ian managed to yank the door open and he was met with a blast of cold.
There was an obvious lump in the snow, right next to the campfire that had also been coated. Ian took a shaky breath, barely processing what was in front of him.
“Anthony,” he breathed, air visible in front of him. He ran off the porch and over to him. “No, no, no, no, no, no.”
Ian dropped to his knees next to Anthony and began frantically brushing the snow off of him. At this point, everyone had realized what was happening. The team gathered outside on the porch, gasping and covering their mouths in horror as Ian just screamed.
Shayne came out onto the porch, pushing past everyone to run over to Ian who was shaking Anthony and trying to wake him up. He wrapped his arms around Ian and tried to pull him off of Anthony’s frozen body.
“No!” Ian screamed, thrashing in Shayne’s hold. “Anthony, wake up!”
Eventually, Shayne was able to get Ian off of Anthony and held him in a hug as he sobbed. Ian was in Shayne’s arms for a minute before wriggling out and latching on to Anthony again. Ian screamed, crying as he held Anthony as tight as he could.
~
The snow crunched under their feet as they walked. Once they reached the tree stump, Courtney and Angela stopped and allowed Arasha to step in front of them. They kneeled behind her as she did the same.
In her hands Arasha held the heart of the bear that she had killed the day before. The blood dripped through her fingers onto the white snow.
“Versez le sang, mes beaux amis,” Arasha said. She placed the heart down in the center of the hollow tree stump. “And let the darkness set us free.”