North Starr

29

Allison was close to tailing the bus. "Am I getting too close? I'm getting too close, aren't I?"

Lydia glanced up from her book and shrugged. "That depends. Are you just following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point."

"You're gonna make them suspicious," Melanie warned.

Allison nodded. "Yeah, I should back off."

Lydia sighed. "Well, that also depends. Oh, do you mean the bus, the ex-boyfriend you're currently stalking, or Melanie's not-boyfriend?"

Melanie huffed. "He and I are just friends."

"Oh, sure. You're just friends, but constantly worry about each other, he's head over heels for you and you're pretending you don't feel the same, but you're just friends."

"Shut up or I'll send my brother after you."

Allison snuck a glance at Lydia in the rearview mirror. "Well, after it happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight, and I know Melanie is worried about him as well."

"Hm," Lydia hummed.

"And by the way, this all started when he came knocking at my door."

"For what?" Lydia wondered.

No one answered, and Melanie leaned forward, closer to Allison. "Are you going to keep following that bus? Because you're taking the "not letting them out of your sight" literally."

"Why?" Allison questioned.

"You're gonna run out of gas," Melanie told her in a blunt tone.

Allison groaned. "Ugh."

Lydia glanced at Melanie and nodded. "Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that bus holds a lot more gas than this Toyota."

Allison glanced to Lydia a second time. "What if we stop?"

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, so we lose them. We know where they're headed."

Melanie shook her head. "Um, no. Leaving Stiles alone equals something stupid occurring."

Allison nodded. "You didn't see what happened."

"I know who started it," Lydia said.

Melanie glanced at her with a light smirk. "Is that what Aiden told you?"

"Aiden?" Lydia asked in an innocent tone. She glared at Allison. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. Is that why you invited me on this whole little road trip thing? Oh, my gosh. You're keeping an eye on them and me."

"So there's nothing between you two?" Allison asked.

Lydia pursed her lips. "I'm appalled by the insinuation."

"Nothing?" Melanie pressed in a teasing tone.

Lydia shot her a look. "Nothing."

Traffic stopped and Melanie let out a sigh.

Lydia's phone started ringing and she answered. "Hey, Stiles. Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie, uh, you know, the popcorn and..."

"I know you're following us."

"Okay."

She put her phone on speaker and Stiles' voice resounded. "Okay, look, Scott's still hurt."

Allison frowned. "What do you mean still? He's not healing?"

"No, he's not healing. I think he's actually getting worse. The blood's turning, like, a black color."