Summary: Even if they took the supernatural threats into their own hands, they’re still just a bunch of kids. When Melanie suggests that they go on a road trip, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd seize the chance to get away from Beacon Hills. They envisioned a summer of tacky souvenirs, stopping at every roadside attraction, gorging themselves on gas station food, crossing activities off an Epilepsy List, and singing along to mix CDs as they drive entirely too fast down empty highways. What they got instead was a trip of a lifetime.
Pairings: It’s a lot of everything. Isaac x Melanie, Erica x Melanie, Isaac x Erica, Boyd x Erica. Let’s just say it’s hard OT4.
Warnings: Gore, violence, smut, mentions of abuse, misogyny, sexual harassment
Notes: That’s right, you get a good ol’ fashioned Road Trip AU! I couldn’t get this idea out of my head so I figured writing some of it down would be a good idea. This stars my teen wolf oc, Melanie Crowe, of which you can read about in my story Underneath it All. This isn’t set in any specific time in canon, though Erica and Boyd (obviously) never died. Let me know if you want more!
01
They all jumped when the map was slammed down on the table but, like puppies with something new laid out in front of them, they all leaned forward in their seats to survey the wrinkled and crinkled paper. Erica’s eyebrows furrowed when her eyes clocked in on the large red line drawn on the map, connecting California and New York together.
“What’s this?” Isaac ventured to ask.
Erica smirked. “It’s a map, Isaac,” she said slowly, as if speaking to a child. “It’s that thing that tells you where to go and how to get there.” She lifted her eyebrows as she turned her attention to Melanie, “This is what you wanted us for? To look at a map?”
“No, Eri! Think of the big picture!” Melanie replied, smoothing her hands over the map again. She leaned forward on her hands as her ever-present smile got bigger. “It’s summer! We’re not in school. We have three months at our disposal and what are we doing with it?” she didn’t wait for them to answer as she continued, “Twiddling our thumbs around Beacon Hills.”
“Yeah, well, when other werewolves and hunters are constantly breathing down our necks…” Isaac muttered.
“That’s exactly my point,” she said, jabbing her finger in his direction. “We’re just sitting around and waiting for something to come. Waiting for hunters to attack or waiting for some Alphas or Betas to come around. Why are we waiting when we could be doing something with our time? Who knows if anything’s even going to come to Beacon Hills?”
“Because it’s Beacon Hills.” Boyd’s face remained stoic when they all glanced at him. He leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest. He continued, “It’s only a matter of time.”
“Yeah, but what if nothing happens? What if we sit around all summer and nothing happens. We would have wasted it! And, I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like wasting my time. So, I came up with this.” She motioned to the map on the table. “A road trip!”
“A road trip?” Isaac repeated, not bothering to hide the disbelief attached to his words. “For real?”
“For real,” Melanie insisted. “California to New York. My parents have this lake house up in the Poconos. It’s perfect! Up in the mountains, surrounded by nature, no one else around to attack us or want to kill us. We can do what we want and not have to look over our shoulders at every second. We wouldn’t have to worry, full stop. It’s the vacation we’ve always wanted—nay! We deserve!”
“Oh, here we go,” Boyd muttered, rubbing a hand over his face.
Erica pushed him on the arm. “Let her talk,” she chastised. Lowering her voice she added, “It’s better to let her just keep going than to make her stop.”
“Eri, I may not have werewolf senses like you guys do but I can read lips really well,” Melanie pointed out.
“Oh, can you?” Erica flashed an innocent smile and then dragged her tongue against her upper lip as she grabbed at her chest. Isaac cleared his throat and turned his head away. Boyd stared straight ahead, holding his head still at an almost unnatural position. She dropped her hands, threw her head back, and cackled at the two boys. As her laughter subsided she threw a wink Melanie’s way.
“Anyway…” Melanie lifted the map off the table and followed the line with her finger. “We’ll start in California, go through Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, and then New York.” None of them said anything. “Eri, c’mon, you always wanted to go to New York!”
“I wanted to go to Manhattan and maybe see a play,” Erica pointed out.
“We can do that too. Or white-water rafting. Some ziplining. Hike some trails. That’s the beauty of it! We can take as long as we want to get there! We can—we can stop at the World’s Largest Ball of String! Or, or, the World’s Largest Pistachio! And the Frozen Cleveland Lighthouse. I love lighthouses! We’re not going up a coast so we could see that! Or we could stop anywhere we want! We can do anything we want!”
“Anything we want?” Boyd asked. Melanie nodded enthusiastically. “How about we don’t go?” The smile fell off her face almost instantly. Erica swore the world stopped for a moment as an aching pain settled in her stomach just from looking at Melanie.
“Look…I just think we deserve it. After all that’s gone on…” Melanie pushed her hair out of her face as she blew out a breath. “The shit we deal with…it’s fucking crazy. We don’t ever get a break and that’s self-inflicted. I just thought if we can torture ourselves we can love ourselves too. And it’s not as if we’d be leaving Beacon Hills unguarded. Scott’s here. And Stiles”—Isaac coughed which sounded suspiciously similar to the word “loser”—“and Lydia and Allison. And Derek. The town’s in good hands.”
“And Derek won’t mind?” Isaac asked.
Melanie folded up the map; it easily settled into the previous grooves of having been folded and opened many times before. “I already talked to him. He’s into it. And I already asked my parents, they’re all for it as well. They’ll even waive the cost of the place so long as we pay for our own food and fix anything we may damage.”
“Lucky me, I have no parent’ to go to for permission,” Isaac said dryly.
“My mom would never let me go,” Erica said. It was her turn to lean back in her chair and cross her arms.
“My mom already talked to her,” Melanie revealed. Erica eyebrow rose as started to bounce on her toes. “She said you can go! But you have to call every time we stop somewhere.”
“Wow. Awesome.” Erica slowly nodded her head and brushed her head. Melanie didn’t miss the smile that slowly began to form on her face. Erica may not have to deal with her epilepsy anymore but she still had an overprotective mother that didn’t quite have the same reaction to the goings on as Melissa McCall did. Call her crazy. “Guess you’re the only one left, Big Guy,” she addressed Boyd.
“Something about being trapped in a car with all of you doesn’t sound too appealing to me,” Boyd commented.
Melanie smirked. She knew Erica would be the easiest to win over with Isaac as a close second. Boyd would be the holdout, she knew that from the very beginning. Thankfully she had a trick up her sleeve and she didn’t have to rely on her siren abilities to execute it. “Okay,” she said, heaving a large sigh. She rounded the table and dropped onto Erica’s lap, looping her arm around the blonde’s shoulders. “It’s your loss. Erica and I will just…hang around the place in our bikinis by ourselves.” Melanie crossed one leg over the other and kissed Erica on the cheek. Erica laughed as she looped her arms around Melanie’s waist and pulled her closer. “But you know what, since we’ll be alone, I was thinking…why wear clothes at all? S’not like we’d have to worry about anyone seeing us.” She twisted her finger in Erica’s hair, tugging on the end. Out the corner of her eye she could see Isaac and Boyd give each other a look.
“Oooh, that’s one of the best ideas you’ve ever had!” Erica cooed, nuzzling her nose into Melanie’s cheek. “We can find a spa too. Or we can just buy the massage oils and do it ourselves…”
“Fine,” Boyd spoke. Melanie let out a squeal of delight and clapped her hands together. “I’ll go.”
“Boyd, you’re the best!” Melanie reached across Erica and pulled him closer to kiss him on the cheek. “So, my plan worked?”
“No; I’m going because if I don’t Isaac’ll die of an embolism.”
Confused, the two girls looked over at Isaac whose eyes had narrowed and whose face turned so red Melanie was surprised steam didn’t come out his ears. He mumbled a quick “excuse me” and jumped out of his seat, not bothering to hide the bulge in the front of his pants.
“That had no effect on your whatsoever?” Erica asked, studying him.
Boyd held her gaze. “You sound disappointed.”
“Maybe I am.”
“That sounds like a you problem.”
Erica stuck her tongue out at him. Undeterred, Melanie hopped off Erica’s lap, grabbed her hand, and tugged her upwards. “Come on. Help me figure out which bathing suits to bring,” Melanie said as they ran up the stairs.
Once up on the landing Erica pulled Melanie into her arms and backed her up against the wall. “Will you model them for me?” she murmured, pressing a kiss to the side of Melanie’s neck.
“Mmm, not sure you deserve it after flirting with Boyd.” Melanie slipped out from beneath Erica and entered her room only to flop on her bed.
“I wasn’t flirting.”
Melanie scoffed and pulled a pillow to her chest. “Seducing, then.”
“Don’t be mad.” Erica jumped onto the bed and kissed Melanie’s forehead. “You’re my number one girl.”
“Feeling’s mutual and I’m not mad,” Melanie clarified, “I just don’t get why you’re so annoyed that you didn’t have an effect on Boyd.”
“Because! It’s the principal of the matter,” Erica replied. She may as well have been baring her fangs with the conviction wrapped around her words. She brought her thumbnail up to her mouth and bit down. “Maybe he’s gay…”
Melanie snorted. “I doubt it. And if it really bothers you, you have the entire trip to try and get in his pants if you so desire.”
Erica watched her as she approached her dresser and started rummaging through the drawers. “So…it wouldn’t bother you? If I actually tried.”
“Me? No.” Melanie even scoffed at the notion as she filed past the bright colored fabrics. “Have at it. In fact, I’ll be surprised if you can even make it happen.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
“You said it, not me.”
Brown eyes lit up, Erica’s mouth quirked up and curled in the corners the way it did when she had a devious idea. Melanie had seen it many times over the years; every time it appeared she found herself half afraid and half enticed.
“Okay, then. I bet that I can seduce Boyd during this trip. And when I win…” She clicked her tongue and grinned at the impatient noise Melanie made in response to the stretching silence. “Okay, when I win, I get to fuck you.” Melanie’s eyebrows rose. “With handcuffs and a crop.”
“You’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Melanie noted.
“You bet your ass I have been.”
Melanie’s eyes lifted to the ceiling as she mulled it over. She didn’t have to think about it long, however. In the end, she’d still get some either way. “Fine, give it your best shot. But I have a special punishment in mind if you lose.”
“Oh, don’t threaten me with a good time, sweetie.”
