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CHAPTER EIGHT NO QUESTIONS

Sitting in the car with her brother, no noise but the engine running and the soft radio playing through the speaker as they waited for an all-clear from Kaelyn that she was all right to go home. Beth would be lying if she said she wasn't worried about the girl and her tendency to run away from home, but she would always have a room at Beth's house no matter what, she made sure of it. She turned her phone on and off as she waited for a text from Kaelyn, trying to avoid the curious gaze of her brother in the seat next to her.

"Are you gonna tell me what happened tonight?" he asked, finally breaking the silence. Beth had been dreading this question because the last thing she wanted to do was lie to her brother.

"I said no questions," Beth sighed, her gaze glued to the window.

However, the peaceful night she was observing was interrupted by a flash of red and blue outside her window, knocking. She jumped, rolling down the window while being very aware of her brother sitting right beside her, probably even more confused than he already was.

"Jesus, Peter, you scared the shit out of me!" the exclamation left her throat before she could stop it, "Shit, sorry, I mean, Jesus, Spider-Man, oh, whatever. What's up?"

"Do you know where Kaelyn is? Is she upstairs?" Peter asked, keeping the mask on probably on account of the boy in the drivers' seat who had absolutely no idea what was going on. "I wanna make sure she's okay, tonight was... weird, and yeah."

"Uh, yeah, she's upstairs, knowing her, she'll probably be up on the roof like usual, just be safe and be gentle with her, she's fighting with Caden right now," the girl explained with a calm weariness to her voice, the aftereffect of a long, long night. It was hard to believe only a few hours ago she had been kissing Liz Allen in her bedroom and now she was here, talking to Spider-Man about the emotional state of her best friend.

Peter nodded, "Okay, thanks, and thank you for taking care of her, I don't know what she'd do without you."

Beth scoffed, shaking her head, "Yeah, and I don't know what I'd do without her. Goodnight, Pete."

"Night, Beth," he gave her a mock salute before heading up the fire escape of Kaelyn's building. Once he was gone, the girl rolled up the window once again, embracing the warmth of the car without the intrusion of the outside's brittle air.

She relished in the silence in the brief moment before her bother exploded, "Was that Spider-Man? Why do you know Spider-Man's name? Why do you know him at all? What the hell happened tonight? I know you said no questions, but there are questions and lots of them. Jesus, I leave for a few years and suddenly you're friends with vigilantes. Care to catch me up?"

Before she could answer, her phone buzzed with a text from Kaelyn. Caden and I are good, thank you for waiting and thank you for tonight. I love you

Beth returned the sentiment with a quick few taps before saying, "We can go home now. I'll answer all of your questions during the drive, but we can't speak of this at home. I can't risk mom and dad finding out, they'd freak."

"Okay, well, I gave you four to start out with so get talking," Will sighed as he put the car in drive, shaking his head as his eyes focused on the road instead of the girl next to him.

"Well, to start, yes, that was Spider-Man, stellar observational skills. Uh, we go to school together --"

"Spider-Man is a high school student?"

"Do I look like I'm suddenly in college?" she bit, "Yes, he's a high school student. He's a friend of mine, he and Kaelyn have a little thing going on, like, she definitely has feelings for him but I don't know if she'll do anything about it. Also, what happened tonight... I'm not even sure. Uh, Kaelyn might have superpowers, so we've got that going for us. Peter was chasing some bad guys and Kaelyn wanted to help, she almost got shot. She did get shot, it just... didn't take. Somehow. I don't even know. I'm confused and stressed out and I just wanna sleep. Is that enough for you?"

Will seemed to notice her exhaustion as he looked over at her with his dark eyes, noting how she leaned her head against the window and kept her gaze trained on anything but him. "Yeah, yeah, that's good enough. Thank you for telling me, I know you didn't want to, I just... you're my little sister and I wanna make sure you're being smart and safe. I know I've been gone, but I'm back now and I'm gonna keep an eye on you. It's not because I think you can't handle yourself, I know you can, I just... I wanna make sure you're not going down a bad path. Not that I think Kaelyn is a bad influence or anything! I-- I'm gonna stop talking. Just, I know we never really said it all that often, but I love you, Beth."

She caved in to his rambling, shooting him a caring look from the passenger seat as she muttered, "I love you, too. Thank you, I guess, for wanting to keep me safe. I can handle myself, but... but it's nice to not have to all the time. Plus, sometimes I just feel like I'm supporting both myself and Kaelyn completely and it just... it's too much sometimes. I love her to death, but I'm only one person."

Her brother's voice softened, "And I'm sure she knows that. You guys have been inseparable for years, you know she loves you. I'm sure if you just told her how you felt, she'd be understanding. Ah, I don't really know how to handle... girl drama, but I do know that communication is always important."

Beth groaned, leaning her head against the headrest, "Oh, also, I'm a lesbian, figured I should tell you that, too, that's another thing that's gone on since you left. Don't tell mom and dad."

If Will had an adverse emotional reaction to this, he didn't show it in on his face as he continued to navigate the nighttime traffic with ease. After a moment, he spoke, "I'm bisexual, so that's gone on since I left."

"Bullshit!" Beth exclaimed, not even being able to contain the giggle that fell past her lips, "Oh, mom's gonna be pissed! You just lowered her grandchild chance down to what? Like thirty-percent? Oh, man!"

Laughter filled the car as the two siblings eased out of the tension from before. Will was the first to speak since they calmed down, saying, "You're the first person I've told. Well, except for the boy at boarding school who helped me figure it out, heh."

"Gross, I don't wanna hear about that!" she groaned, plugging her ears as the boy beside her laughed.

They pulled up outside of her home and she felt leagues better than she did before. A chill went down her spine as she exited the car, but before she could go inside, Will pulled her into a hug.

"What was that for?" she questioned once he let go of her to unlock the front door.

He shrugged, "I'm glad we talked. I missed talking to you."

She smiled softly as she followed him inside, "I missed talking to you, too."