Off Limits

Chapter 20 - Acting 'Normal'

Stiles found the next couple of days extremely difficult, everywhere he turned he seemed to see Lydia or something that reminded him of her. All he wanted was to see her, to hold her, but since their 'moment' she seemed afraid of being alone with him. The part he hated the most was that when they was with the group, Lydia's way of coping with Stiles being there seemed to be overcompensating. She would act even meaner and colder than she ever did beforehand and Stiles was sure that Allison had spotted this too. It often created awkward moments when the group was discussing something and if he spoke, she was usually quick to insult him or make a overly sarcastic comment, often leaving the atmosphere tense and the group confused.

Scott, on the other hand, appeared not to have noticed, he acted like these strangely mean insults were just Lydia 'being Lydia', but it seemed that not all the rest of the group thought the same way. Similar to Allison, Stiles also believed that Isaac had figured out this unusual tension between him and Lydia, although, he guessed that Isaac just thought that he had a crush on her. However, to his annoyance, Isaac had decided to be difficult and to act on it in a different way. He seemed to be trying hard to entice a reaction out of him and make him jealous. To do this he seemed to more persistent and obvious on his flirting with Lydia around Stiles. He had to admit it did bother him, the snide remarks, the not so subtle hints and touches which left Lydia looking at him in a way which seemed like she wished he would come save her, not that he could of course, but god did he want to.

Isaac would constantly and shamelessly flirt with Lydia, but not before flashing a quick cocky glance and annoying smirk back at Stiles to see how he would react, mostly Stiles would just roll his eyes at the boy and look the other way. He definitely wasn't going to give Isaac the satisfaction of knowing that he was, in fact, making him extremely jealous that he was even getting that close to her. But Isaac knew that Stiles wouldn't do anything, especially not on front of Scott. Who, similarly, seemed to be utterly disgusted by Issac's obvious flirting with his sister and more often than not would threaten to beat him up but Allison would always stop him. Stiles felt completely fed up with the whole situation. His kiss with Lydia had just cemented all the confused feelings he had for her and now he couldn't even be with her. Nope, instead, he had to watch Isaac and other dumb jocks flirt mercilessly with her while he stood pitifully on the sidelines. It was pathetic.

Stiles stood by his locker as he got his books out that he needed for the day and shoved them aggressively into his bag, taking a deep breath, as he prepared himself for the day to come. He was already fed up, already irritated. Today was going to be like all the others. Stiles quickly jumped out of his skin as someone ran into him, giving his shoulder a hard push that shocked him massively as he failed the hide the girly scream that came out of him at the same moment. "Heyy Stiles! What's up?" Allison's light cheery voice spoke from beside the startled boy as she jumped excitedly next to him. "Ali! are you freaking kidding me?! I think i just had a minor heart attack! Why does everyone like jumpscaring me?!" Stiles protested sarcastically as he dramatically clutched his chest which only earned him another shove from the pretty brunette.

"Yeah...I noticed that." Allison laughed as she gave him a judgemental look, as he finally got his heart to beat properly again. "You might want to cool it on the girly squeals though, people are actually staring..." she teased as he tilted his head a little, squinting in agitation at her. "Oh I'm sorry, I will try to contain my fear next time someone attacks me!" He replied dramatically as Allison scoffed at him. "Shut up you dramatic ass, you're fine, you're just grouchy." Allison retorted back to him as she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest defensively and making him scowl at her. "I AM NOT GROUCHY!" he shouted back at her making her chuckle. "You see, that's what a grouchy person would say!" she sing songed back at him which made him groan loudly. "Okay fine. I'm a little grouchy...now what do you want?" Stiles admitted in defeat as he closed his locker before leaning against it, clutching his rucksack strap tightly over his shoulder.