Love Me ~ Derek Hale

4

After a little driving, we arrived at a local diner just on the edge of beacon hills that my friends and I had always come to on late nights.

Once we were seated, we told the waitress our coffee orders. "Okay, I'll be right back with your drinks," she smiled and walked off. "I've lived here my whole life and I don't think I've ever been here. Where'd you hear of it?" Derek asked randomly. "I-uh used to come here all the time cause it's the only diner in Beacon Hills that's open at three in the morning," I said with a little laugh.

"Some of my old friends introduced me to it," I finished and he raised an eyebrow. "How come they're old friends?" he asked.

Before I could respond, the waitress came back and handed us our coffees. We both said thank you and it remained silent until I spoke up. "They died, that's why I referred to them as 'old' friends." I took a sip of my drink not daring to make eye contact with him, but I could feel him staring. The same way I could feel everyone else staring for months.

"It gets better, I promise," he spoke making me look up and into his eyes. It shocked me because it was the first thing I heard in months that wasn't "I'm sorry." I smiled at Derek as his words comforted me for what felt like the first time in months.

"But," he said tearing me from my thoughts, "I got you out of there to not think about that," he finished making me smile more. "Thank you for that by the way," I said and he nodded as he took a sip of his coffee. He looked like he struggled to want to swallow the coffee and tried holding back a face of being completely disgusted. "I didn't say this was the best place to get coffee," I said smiling at the face he was making.

"Mia, this is the worst coffee I've ever had."

I started busting out laughing which made Derek laugh too. "The worst ever? Not even like second worst?" I managed to ask in between laughs. "No, I stand with my statement of worst ever." I nonchalantly shrugged and took another sip of my coffee. "How can you even stand to drink it?" Derek's eyes were wide in disbelief at what he was seeing. I smiled and gave another little laugh again, "Once you drink it a few times you get used to the awfulness and it goes from being the worst to slightly less." Derek shook his head but also remained wearing that cute smile he has.

I started to lose focus and just stare at him and all of his features starting with that smile. He had the most perfect smile with straight teeth and the fullest lips. His face had an even layer of facial hair covering his jaw, upper lip, and chin. His eyes were the most perfect shade of green and when he smiled he got these wrinkle lines around them that made him seem so pure.

I snapped myself out of my fantasizing over him when I realized he noticed I was analyzing him. I then realized it appeared he may have been doing the same with me. We made eye contact and I quickly broke it by looking back down at my coffee.

"So Mia," Derek started breaking the silence we both failed to realize we were in. "Have you always lived in Beacon Hills?" He asked as he took another sip of his coffee, this time being prepared for the awful taste. I smiled at the fact that he was trying to like it.

"Yeah, I've lived here my whole life and it's really all I know. It's just my mom, brother, and I so we don't really go outside the town often."

"No Dad?" Derek asked and I shook my head. "There's a dad, we just....don't get along. I try my best to avoid him at all costs," I joked hoping Derek would laugh but he didn't. He just gave me this look I couldn't really read. "What about you?" I asked in return hoping to shift the conversation from me to him.

"I've lived here my whole life too. I had a bigger family but lost most of them. Now it's just my uncle, sister, and I," He said. "What're they like?" I asked leaning forward. "My uncle was messed up pretty bad from the fire, so he's been living in an assisted living facility. I visit when I can but it's like he's not even really there anymore," Derek said trailing off and staring down at his mug. I noticed he was nervously tapping his fingers on the side of the glass. I could tell how much this has affected him and at this moment I knew we both connected from this awful pain of loss we both suffer from. I grabbed his hand to comfort him which made him glance up at me. He slightly squeezed my hand and gave me a small smile.

"I'm glad we met. I've never met someone who really knows what grief this terrible is like," I spoke. "I've never really opened up about this to anyone, but with you, I feel like you really understand," Derek said back making me smile.

As I stared deeply into Derek's eyes, my phone started ringing insanely loud making us both jump and release our hold on each other. "Uh, sorry," I said franticly searching for it in my purse to make it stop. "I forgot I turned the ringer up because of the par..."

Oh shit, the party.

I finally found my phone and silenced it. I opened it to see a million missed calls from Stiles and Scott. "Oh shit," I whispered. "What's wrong?" Derek asked with his brows furrowed.

STILES: Where r u??

STILES: Im worried

SCOTT: where are you?? please tell me you're safe

SCOTT: answer me right now Amelia i swear to god

"Um, I-i gotta go," I said grabbing my things. "My friend I was with at the party, he's-" I stopped in my tracks and looked at Derek. "I didn't mean to cut off this moment, I wanna keep talking, I just-"

"I know, let's go," He said getting up and leaving a 10-dollar bill on the table. I smiled and followed him out of the restaurant. As we approached the car, I noticed out of the corner of my eye Derek taking off his jacket. Before I could reach the door, he handed it to me and I furrowed my brows confused.

"You're cold, take my jacket," he insisted. I shook my head, "Oh, I'm good I'm not even-"

"Your hands were freezing Mia, take my jacket."

~

We had just arrived back at my house, after a whole car ride of me frantically texting Scott and Stiles back that I was safe and on my way home.

"Thank you, for the ride," I said taking my seatbelt off. "Not a problem," he said making me turn to him. "And for being my distraction tonight," I smiled making him give a little smile back.

I opened the car door and started to get out, "Oh, uh, tell Scott I said 'Hi'," Derek said making me stop what I was doing.

"You know my brother?" I asked confused and he nodded. "Yeah, recent friends actually, kind of like us," He said making me question when they met and why he didn't bring up the fact that he knew Scott when we were at the diner.

"Just, tell him I said 'Hi'," He said again. "Uh, okay," I said shutting the door behind me. As soon as I did this, he pulled off.

Not even wanting to process what just happened, I rushed inside and checked my messages again to see if they responded. I quickly texted Scott that I was home and called Stiles. Out of everyone right now, I owed him an apology the most.

He almost immediately picked up. "Mia?! Are you okay, are you home? What happened?!" Stiles panicked making me almost smile at the fact that someone cared that much about me.

"I'm fine, I'm so sorry. I couldn't be at that party anymore, it was just a lot. So I caught a ride home with a....friend," I explained. "I'm so sorry Mia, we shouldn't have forced you into it if you weren't ready to come. I'm really sorry," Stiles apologized over and over again. "No, seriously it's okay Stiles. You made a great date and I had fun," I said but the other line was silent for a moment making me confused, but Stiles then spoke up, "I had so much fun with you too! There's actually something I wanted to tell you too."

"Yeah of course, but can it be at school in person? I'm just really tired," I said making the other side of the phone grow silent. "Yeah, of course, no worries."

"Okay well, goodnight Stiles, and thank you again for tonight," I said.

"Goodnight Mia."