Peach Rings & Apple Pie
PARTIES: @letsbenditlikebennett & @declinlalune LOCATION: The Generic Store TIMING: 2 1/2 years ago. CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A
Andy turned the block of soap over in her hand, gaze flicking up to meet Alex’s from across the way. The pharmacy they stood in was small, and though Andy had gotten a job at a local diner to make ends meet, there were still some things that were easier to steal than to purchase. It made room in the budget for school supplies, or even a nice meal every now and again if they did it right. “Lavender or…” Andy looked back at the shelf, scanning for a possible second choice, but the options were slim. “Never mind, lavender it is.” She dropped the soap into the basket and moved towards the toothpaste. The things they were typically running low on were what Andy made an effort to take without notice, so she set the basket down and began to rummage through her bag. Andy leaned into the shelf, knocking two tubes of the toothpaste into her tote. “Can you see how much those dish towels are?” Andy made a show of pointing towards the aisle she was trying to get Alex to go to, then pulled away from the shelf. She picked up the basket and moved to where her sister stood. “I like the blue one. What about you?”
Home. It was a concept Alex hadn’t dared to think of since some time in the land of before— before her parents died, before she became a monster, before Andy had given up everything to protect her. Before. It seemed like such a distant idea now and she could barely remember what her own home had been like. All she knew is it hadn’t been worn. Training session after training session left her father more exasperated with her lack of progress even if Andy always tried to make it better.
This home would be different. It would be theirs. Despite the monster that Alex could feel just beneath the surface waiting in wake for the light of the full moon, Andy loved her— accepted her, even. There was no one Alex had to be for her sister, but even still, she couldn’t shake the expectations that came with growing up in a prominent hunter family. Not that any hunter worth their salt would look in her direction now unless it was to fire a silver bullet.
The cabin they were renting was remote, out deep in the woods where she could always smell a hint of something else lurking in the night. They barely even had any furniture in it yet, but Lexi couldn’t bear to be the one to dampen the mood. Andy was excited. With a full time job on the horizon, things were finally looking up for the Bennett sisters. This trip to the general store was supposed to be the last one that would require shoplifting.
Alex let her fingers glide over the towels as she eyed the colors. The purple was light and reminded her of the lavender fields out in Oregon and the deep, golden yellow looked too close to the sunflowers that once grew in their mother’s yard. Blue it was. “Blue is nice,” she mumbled, still perplexed by the idea of dish towels. These were pretty. Far less ratty than the scraps they’d used in the years prior. “Kinda frilly, though?” She turned it over in her hand, looking at the $7 price tag, “You’re not gonna go for a Live Love Laugh sign next, are you?”
The guilt that had plagued Andy early on when their parents first died had no place in her life now. She couldn’t keep up with raising Alex and keeping them safe if she was drowning in her own self misery. Of course, it wasn’t to say that there weren’t nights where she laid restless, leafing through the number of things that she could have done differently to better support her sister, or even herself. But in the days since they had arrived in Wicked’s Rest, she knew she had an opportunity to change their lives for the better, and she would ignore every inkling of guilt or self-deprecation in order to do just that.
“Only if it embarrasses you.” Andy grabbed the towel off of the shelf and stuffed it into the basket. Once they were around a corner, she would slip it into her tote. “But hell no. Just wanted something nice. T-shirts aren’t made for cleaning up all kinds of messes, it’d be nice to have something with some actual absorption.” The nights that Alex shifted were messy on several accounts. Whether it was because of the rabbit’s or deer blood she came back covered in, or because of her own mistakes in trying to help her sister, there were a lot of situations in which actual towels could come in handy.
Andy clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she turned around. An assortment of candles, cards, and general house supplies were on the opposite end. “Did you burn through the last one we had? Candle, I mean.”
It was difficult to bite back the edge in her voice. The uneasy feeling had no place in their light-hearted outing to get things for the hole in the wall cabin they now called home. Alex couldn’t shake the feeling this place gave her though. The sensitive nose that came with being a werewolf was hard enough to get used to on a good day, but here she could smell others like her and likely worse. She still couldn’t piece it all together. After years of faking being able to sense beasts, now she finally could and it was only because she was now one of them. So much for her family’s “sacred destiny”.
Alex rolled her eyes playfully all the same, “There’s only one millennial in the house, it’s yourself you’d be embarrassing.” She gave Andy a playful nudge, doing her best to let the sense of ease settle in, “Spring for the Gatekeep Gaslight Girlboss is you really wanna set the tone.” Her eyes glanced over at the towels again. She wouldn’t admit it, but they were nicer than t-shirts. After a particularly bloody full moon, it would be nice to have something meant for cleaning. “Just don’t turn all Stepford Wives on me.”
Before they even rounded the corner towards the candles and other assorted home goods, Alex could smell it. Her face was trained in a neutral expression as she refrained from a grimace. And to think she used to love the candle aisle as a kid. “I did, yeah,” she answered, “Nose has been a little… you know.” Maybe Andy could never feel the same things she felt or sensed, but they both grew up learning the ins and outs of beasts. Andy knew the challenges Alex was up against, which was a good thing most of the time. “Can we do one of the apple pie ones? They remind me of the McDonald’s playgrounds.”
“Excuse you, ‘96 is on the cusp of both.” Andy rolled her eyes at Alex before nudging the candle on the shelf with her index finger, moving it to the side so that she could see the scents behind it. To say there were tons would be an understatement. There were scents that Andy wasn’t entirely sure should be candles. Who the hell wanted linen? “I don’t even get that reference. Who’s the millennial now?” She shot a look over her shoulder at Alex, immediately able to tell that the idea of getting a strongly scented candle was off the table. It had been years, but Andy still forgot some of the smallest adjustments that came with her sister shifting into a wolf.
Even then as they stood in the aisle, the sinking feeling was ever present. It was like her skin was crawling, but all it took were the memories of her sister to push them away, to disarm the idea that no, Alex was not a monster. Andy’s gaze fell upon the apple pie scent just as Alex asked about it and she nodded. She put it into the basket and turned towards Alex, a bright smile stitched to her features. “Snacks?” Andy bumped into her sister lightly before turning a corner and moving towards the brightly lit section that had an assortment of treats, all of which were in brightly labeled packaging. “Strawberry wafers… biscoff cookies…” She hummed lightly before looking sideways down the alleyway. “Cheddar popcorn is obviously a must.”
“I thought cusps were just for horoscopes,” Alex mumbled while looking over all the home-making stuff on the aisle. A comfortable home was such a distant memory, one she wasn’t even sure had been a happy one all those years ago. All the memories were so tied up in missing her parents and missing being human that it was hard to really parse through the good and the bad parts. The only thing she knew is that she didn’t fit then, she could always tell something was off with her. Everything that Andy did with grace never seemed to kick in for Alex. Their little hole in the wall cabin would be different though. Stable without the crushing weight of expectations breaking both of them. It made the idea of home slightly less unnerving, so she scoffed in response, “Andy, we don’t have cable or streaming. Obviously I watch old movies. Plus, Nicole Kidman is hot.”
The mention of snacks was always enough to make Alex perk up. Whether it was a werewolf thing or not, she wasn’t entirely sure, but she could piece together that around the full moons, she always felt especially hungry leading up to it. “Snacks are never a question,” she nudged Andy as she moved quickly past the overwhelming smell of candles. The snack aisle was much more her speed. “Strawberry wafers. And the little sour worms…,” she agreed, “And obviously cheddar popcorn but we need the can cheese too. Maybe some crackers and make a movie board.”
As they rounded the corner, Alex could smell something was off and tensed slightly. It didn’t smell like a wolf, but they sure as hell didn’t smell human either. She wondered if Andy could notice it or if it just felt the same as it always did being around her werewolf kid sister. She longed for the days of faking sensing something supernatural was around instead of her nose doing the job for her. “Hm,” she said, quickly gliding past the woman she suspected to be not entirely human either. She could feel the eyes on her, but did her best to ignore it. Once out of normal earshot, she whispered, “How’d you hear about this place again?”
“I mean, it’s not like we had it before, either.” Their parents weren’t exactly welcoming to the idea of the girls sitting down to watch television. The cable they did have was strictly informational; news channels, cooking channels— though, Andy never minded. The dessert segments on the cooking channels had been her favorite. “But yeah, I mean, I guess.”
“How could I forget the sour worms?” Andy plucked a bag from the shelf and threw it into the basket. Though it should have been growing some weight to it, it didn’t bug Andy. “What about peach rings?” She eyed them longingly before deciding to grab them regardless of Alex’s choice on whether or not they should have them. With the few items they were stealing accompanied with the lump sum that Andy had made by cleaning a few houses, they were able to at least afford some nice things, even if that looked like mostly candy.
Far too engrossed in the candy options, Andy barely realized it when Alex tensed up. It wasn’t until she spoke that she could hear the slight change in her tone. Andy glanced towards Alex, then to the woman who was standing down at the other end of the aisle who was also trying to choose between what cookies to get. “It just sort of fell into my lap, you know? Heard through the grapevine that it could be a good place to blend in.” She cleared her throat and turned to look at Alex, resting a hand against her arm. “We’re going to do fine here, Alex. It won’t be like before, and we don’t have to leave in… what, a month? Two?”
“Fair. You did manage to sneak home that documentary about penguins from the library that one time though,” Alex smiled as she recollected one of her favorite memories. Television wasn’t exactly something their parents permitted outside of the local news and those viewings were usually filled with quizzes on finding patterns of potential supernatural threats. It was perfect nightmare fodder for a five year old which left her particularly anxious on a stormy full moon when she and Andy were home alone. When her sister had pulled out the DVD, she could still so clearly remember the rush of excitement. Penguins were her favorite animal and she knew it was something Andy had done just for her. “Lowkey still mad that Papa didn’t let me get a penguin costume to wear to school on Halloween that year.”
Their basket was becoming an odd assortment of items that resembled a kid with free range on the snack section combined with practical soccer mom purchases. Alex supposed they were kids with no rules when they first started shopping for themselves— though shoplifting for themselves was probably the more accurate statement. “Peach rings are a major food group,” she joked as the bag was already being placed with the other items.
Alex knew her sister was right. Andy was always right, ever the example of all the things she was supposed to be. Blending in was the safest option. In a town crawling with werewolves and hunters alike, they were less likely to stick out. They always took precautions on the full moon, it wasn’t likely they’d draw a ranger’s attention with everything else present in the town if she wasn’t posing a threat. “Guess not being the strangest people in town doesn’t hurt,” she relented, “Might be nice to make friends, too. Think it’s too late in the school year for me to try out for a sports team?”
Andy snorted at Alex’s dream to become a penguin on Halloween. “I mean, there’s still time. Just ‘cause you’re older now doesn’t mean you can’t dress up.” They hadn’t ever had the luxury, and dressing up as something other than themselves seemed to be a little too close to what they had been doing in the past several years. However, Andy had to admit that the idea of dressing up and doing something fun was a lot more interesting than focusing on the bad.
“I think they’re better than the actual thing.” She remembered just after they’d gotten back to the states, they’d managed to find their way through Georgia where Andy had stolen a box of peaches off of a truck on the side of the highway. They were good, but after surviving solely on those and cajun boiled peanuts, Andy knew they needed a better system for their thievery. Luckily, peach rings tasted a little too artificial to incite the same feeling of when they’d been back in Georgia.
There was a lot that both Andy and Alex had become accustomed to— never making friends, never putting down roots, those were only at the base of what they had given up. But over two years in one place? Wasn’t it about time to make those friends she and Alex had dreamt of? Andy knew that she couldn’t make excuses for not forming connections any longer, especially if she was trying to push her sister to make those same ones. “I think you should do whatever the hell you want to do. If you want to try out, do it. If they don’t let you, make them let you. Just kick a ball at their heads or something.” Andy smiled at her sister before motioning to the checkout. “We should go before we buy that twelve pack of gushers.”
Given her height, Alex was already mistaken for being younger than she was on a good day. Something told her that unless she found a way to make a penguin costume slutty, people would assume she was 12. “If you can come up with a way to make a penguin costume sexy, I’m game. I don’t need all the cute girls thinking I’m an actual fifth grader or something party crashing,” she laughed, “Though hey, may keep the guys from hitting on me. So there's still a win in there somewhere.”
As always, Andy was speaking the truth. Ever since a stint living out of the car in Georgia and stealing peaches and peanuts, both foods had lost their appeal for Alex. Peach rings however were their own food group and were exempt from the peach hatred. “So much better,” she agreed, “And you mean you didn’t want to clear out the entire snack aisle? It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.”
Somehow, Andy always seemed to believe in her despite what she was. Even though Alex loved and trusted her sister more than anyone in the world, it was still hard to wrap her head around how Andy could just throw away everything they were taught about werewolves as kids and choose to protect her anyway. Alex liked to think that if the roles were reversed, she’d do the same thing, but in so many ways she felt like she was still trying to live up to their parents' expectations. Not that she ever could seeing as she turned into the very thing they taught her to hunt. It was a thought that left her feeling jaded on her worst days, but still sparked a bit of defiance in her, too. They’d think a sport like soccer or volleyball was a waste of time, so she’d do it and tell herself that it didn’t matter she wasn’t an actual ranger. “Try out it is,” she nodded affirmatively, “Looks good on college applications and good to get some energy out.”
“Just wear some fishnets, isn’t that what they do?” Andy had little to no idea of how to make anything remotely alluring, especially a costume. She might’ve known how to sew patches into clothes, but the thought of creating something for aesthetics instead of longevity or necessity was a foreign concept to her. She scrunched her nose up at the thought and shook her head, shifting the basket from one hand to the other. “Maybe just go as something scary. Don’t men hate when women lean into the whole horror concept? I swear I read about that in a magazine once, it was from the 90’s in that one camper we were in for a bit back in North Carolina.”
Andy rolled her eyes at Alex’s comment and knocked her shoulder into her sister slightly as she walked past. “Listen, we can do that at another store, but we might be a little over budget, if you know what I mean.” She could only stuff so many things into her tote bag before it became noticeable, and God forbid the cashier have x-ray vision or something.
“That, and it’d be something you’d want to do. Wouldn’t have to be just ‘cause you think it’d be good for… your college stuff.” Andy shrugged, a simple expression melding over her features as she felt the telltale vibrations of knowing run up her spine. She averted her gaze from the person who walked into the store, looking down at Alex. “You should do it ‘cause you wanna do it. I think you’d kick their asses though. Wonder if they have a rule about moon beams on the team.”
“Fishnet penguin, feels oddly on brand,” Alex joked with a light chuckle. In reality, it’d probably look ridiculous more than anything else, but maybe they both deserved a little bit of ridiculousness. It was hard to wrap her head around, knowing their parents would have never stood for it. Their home hadn’t exactly been the most loving of spaces, but their mom sometimes went a little easier on them. And it wasn’t like they had been thrown out of their home, their parents died the night she got the stupid bite that turned her into the very monster she was supposed to hunt. It was hard to pick out what her parents were right and wrong about when she still missed them so damn much.
Given how much of the stuff they’d lived off over the years was stolen, it didn’t take long for her to catch Andy’s drift. Alex eyed their basket and tote, knowing they really had more than enough snacks on hand for the foreseeable future. “I think we’re good without, pretty sure we could feed my whole class with all these snacks,” she whispered.
Between the encouragement from her older sister and the smell of another werewolf getting stronger in her nose, Alex felt herself growing more apprehensive. The unconditional support and acceptance Andy showed her still felt so foreign, even if her sister had been a source of it all her life. It was such a stark contrast from the high expectations their parents had set for the both of them that the younger could never live up to. “Yeah, it’d be fun for me– Still good for college though and I think I wanna do that,” she said, “It’d be nice to make friends and have an outlet for… you know. All of this.” She gestured to herself knowing that Andy understood what she meant perfectly. “But let’s get out of here,” she added in a more hushed tone, hearing the sounds of the other werewolf that she decidedly had no interest in talking to getting closer.
“Or if you really wanted to fuck around, you could be The Penguin from Batman. I doubt they’d expect that.” Andy wanted normal for Alex. Hell, on nights where she couldn’t sleep, she swore she wanted it for herself, too. She’d been so caught up in making sure that Alex was well taken care of that she hadn’t been paying attention to herself very much, or even at all. So if Alex came to her in October explaining she wanted to be a penguin, Andy would make it happen, regardless if it cost an arm and a leg.
Even just looking at Alex, Andy could tell that her sister’s mind was working around their situation. Even though she always felt the need to interject when those anxieties were clear as day on her face, Andy had to remind herself that sometimes it just took her sister working through them on her own time rather than Andy trying to patch everything to make it better. “Just let me know what I gotta sign.” She smiled at her sister before looking past Alex to the woman who, just like them, was shopping for snacks. “Yeah, we can open the peach rings on the way home. Car snack.”
