No Judgement , Stiles Stilinski ⁴ ✓

[ 20 ] a memory resurfaced

020. A MEMORY RESURFACED

                                THE night had come to an eventual close, after everyone had read as much as they could of the book, and after Theo had quickly snuck Aspen's case of pills into his own jacket pocket, Malia and Lydia were passed out asleep on the couches, and Kira was upstairs asleep in Scott's bed.

Aspen had headed upstairs not long ago to her own room, leaving Scott and Stiles to assume that she too had called it a night and fallen asleep too, little did they know that was not the case as the two of them stood in the dimlit kitchen having a quiet, murmuring conversation.

"I don't know what to do, Scott," Stiles said quietly as he stood over the counter with his elbows rested on the marble top, nearly burying his head in his hands as he spoke solemnly, "I mean— I know there's something she's not telling me, whatever is going on with her right now is more than just her inability to trust Theo. I mean— I don't trust him either, but she... there's something deeper than what she's letting us see."

"I think you're right," Scott replied, "Have you noticed she's kind of... jumpy? Like, jumpier than usual, and I know that everything that's going on right now has us all nervous and on edge, but Asp just kinda seems like... like she's scared of her own shadow sometimes, you know?"

Little did the two boys know, the very teenage girl of which their conversation revolved around had just began to descend the staircase, her footsteps unintentionally quiet and light-footed. Of course she hadn't fallen asleep, not with those pills that Theo found in her jacket pocket still in her system and buzzing in her bloodstream.

"I have no idea what to say around her anymore, Scott," Stiles said, unaware of Aspen's presence on the staircase, "I feel like I'm treading on eggshells in every single conversation we have lately. I just want her to let me in, y'know? The last time she shut me out like this was when she found out about her father, and it turns out she was lying to keep me safe— or, that's what she thought she was doing."

Aspen's heart began to feel heavy as she stopped dead in her steps, trying hard to not even make the wood beneath her feet creak even a little bit. Thanks to her supernatural nature, she was able to hear the conversation that was taking place in the other room clearly.

"Do you think something like that is happening again?" Scott asked inquisitively, while Aspen's heart raced out of her chest immensely from where she was frozen still on the staircase, eavesdropping, "Do think she's hiding something from us because she thinks it'll protect us?"

"She's definitely acting like there's something going on that we don't know about," Stiles replied as he gave Scott a knowing and anxious look, "Possibly something to do with Theo..."

"Stiles..." Scott said apprehensively, but Stiles continued anyway.

"Scott— I know you trust him, okay? I know you think he's like one of us, a lost teenager just looking to find his way, looking to find a pack. And that's fine— trust him all you want, but I've witnessed far too many people exploit our trust to just let it happen blindly again."

It was true, far too many people had exploited their trust in the past.

Peter.

River.

Aspen.

"I think Theo's bad news," Stiles said confidently with his chest, still ignorant to the listening ears, "and I don't have it in me to give my trust to anyone else. But right now, I don't care about him. I care about the fact that I feel like the Aspen we know and love might be slipping away right in front of us, and I care about finding a way to stop that from happening."