𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘃𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗻𝘁

Mountain Lion

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"Finally! Have you been getting any of our texts?" Stiles yells into the phone while sitting on my bed. 

"Put him on speaker!" I whisper, and he pulls the phone away from his ear and presses the speaker button. 

"Yeah, like, all nine million of them." Scott's voice responds from the phone. 

"Do you have any idea what's going on? Jackson looks like he got a time bomb inserted in his face, another random guy is dead, and you have to do something about it!" 

"Like what?" Scott asks. 

"Something!" Stiles responds, the frustration showing in his voice. 

"Okay, I'll deal with it later." 

"Oh, happy birthday Allison!" I yell across the room, hoping she hears me before Scott hangs up. 

"Thank you Mae-" The phone hangs up and cuts off Allison's voice, mid sentence. 

"Alright," I turn to Stiles and force a smile, "Lydia is on a lot of anti-anxiety meds right now. She isn't really in her right mind, but I can ask my mom if you can go in her room with me." 

✿

"Honey, there's a Stiles here for you." My mom yells through the closed door. 

We wait a second before hearing a slurred and muffled voice respond. "What the hell is a Stiles?" 

My mom quietly chuckles and looks over at Stiles, "She took a little something to ease her nerves. You-you can go in." 

"Thanks." Stiles walks in and I start to follow, but my mom puts her hand around my arm. 

"He's cute! I'm so glad you finally have a boyfriend. I was worried that you would stray away from making friends at your new school because of your... mental issues." She smiles at me and walks away. 

I don't bother explaining to her that Stiles isn't my boyfriend, and I've been friends with him and Scott for years. Normally I would explain to her for the thousandth time that anxiety isn't some horrible, end-of-the-world mental illness, but I don't want Stiles to see me end the conversation with both of us crying. She'd be crying because of the fact that her least favorite daughter couldn't be more different than Lydia. I'd be crying because I know I will never get her to understand - and Stiles doesn't need to see that shit go down. 

I deeply inhale and step into my sisters room. "Hey Lyds! How are you feeling?" 

"I feel...fantastic." She responds, rubbing her palm across her lips in a failed attempt to get some of her hair out of her mouth. 

"Oh." Stiles picks a pill bottle up off the nightstand and reads the label. "What-"

"Mmm...good old Xanax." I hum, staring at the bottle of anti-anxiety meds. "You know, my mom actually bought these for me but I refused to take them. Now I find myself wanting to take one at least twice a day with all this...large wild animal...shit that's happened."

Stiles sits down at the edge of her bed, and she props herself up with her arm to look at us. "I bet you can't say 'I saw Suzy sittin' in a shoe shop' ten times fast." 

"Stiles, even I couldn't say that." 

Ignoring my protests, Lydia tries anyways. "I saw shuzy- I shaw- I saw..." 

She huffs in defeat as Stiles and I squint at her. 

"I saw a mountain lion." 

"Oh shit..." I mutter under my breath. 

"Are you sure that it was a mountain lion that you saw, or are you just saying that because it's what the police told you?" Stiles asks. 

"A mountain lion..." her words blur together and I stare at her empty eyes, glossy from the pills. 

"Dude, she is not here with us right now, if you know what I mean." I point my finger at the side of my head and move it around in circles. 

"Shh!" Stiles sticks a finger up to my face and grabs a stuffed giraffe off of Lydia's night stand. "What's this?" 

"A mountain lion!"

"Okay, you're so drunk." 

"I would say she's more high than dru-" I start responding when Lydia throws her head onto Stiles lap. 

"Oh! My god..." 

I roll my eyes and grimace at him. "If you're done creaming your pants, can we leave her alone in here to rest?" 

"Okay, I did not- you know what? you have a vulgar sense of humor sometimes." 

I roll my eyes and walk over to Lydia, carefully pulling her body off of his lap, and laying her head back down onto the pillow. 

"Alright Lyds, we're gonna go, okay?" I whisper, slowly walking out of the room. 

"Yeah, I'm gonna let you get back to the whole...post traumatic stress thing..." Stiles says. 

"Mmm..stay." She mumbles, half asleep. 

"Okay, yeah. She probably just doesn't wanna be alone. I'm gonna get her some water and crackers, you stay with her while I do that. Okay?" I don't wait for Stiles to answer, knowing he will have no issue sitting in my sisters room, all alone with her. I close the door and quickly walk down the stair. 

I make an obvious effort to ignore my parents, turning a corner every time I head their footsteps in order to ignore the whole, "Oh! I forgot we had another daughter! Since, you know, you're only here about once a week." conversation. 

I fill up a small cup of water and grab a sleeve of saltine crackers before heading back up the staircase and back down the hall. I open the door to see my sister feeling up Stiles, seconds away from planting a sloppy kiss on him. The crackers fall out of my hands as I place the water on her dresser. 

"No. Absolutely not!" I grab Stiles and pull him off the bed. Lydia doesn't seem too worried about what just happened, flopping back onto the bed and closing her eyes. 

"What the hell, Maeve? I almost had a chance with her!" Stiles raises his voice, clearly pissed off at me. 

"You're not gonna get a chance with her!" I grab the water and place it on her night stand along with the crackers and shove my phone in my pocket before dragging Stiles out of the room. 

"What do you mean by that?" 

I stay silent for a minute, trying to think of a lie. "You said it yourself, Stiles. She's 'drunk'. Don't be the type of guy that gets with girls when they're intoxicated. Even worse, traumatized, like Lydia is right now." 

"Alright, yeah...yeah you're right. I'm sorry. Look, can we just go?" 

"Yeah, let me just see if Scott has tried texting me anything new." I pull the phone out of my pocked, "oh, I grabbed Lydia's phone. Let me just get mine...wait, Stiles. Look at this." I turn the phone towards him to reveal a picture of a demon looking werewolf, lunging out of the dvd store. 

"Well that is horrifying." 

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