Dear Rabbit

Chapter 16

"What?" I was pulling my shoes on, mobile phone wedge between my ear and my shoulder as I forced my foot into the converse. The voice on the other end sounded disgruntled, unhappy, as if what I'd just told Stiles was the end of the world, the reason we were all going to die...which would be a great exaggeration.

"I said I'm hanging out with Scott today, are you okay? You sound a little off..." It was a Saturday which meant I had loads of free time and no way to spend it. Lately I'd been incredibly social, but there was a certain floppy haired boy I wanted to laze about with. Scott had been asking me to spend time with him for the past two days, probably because we hadn't really had much time to see each other...and while I had every intention of inviting a certain pair of Wonder twins round mine tomorrow as Norman, mum, and Dori were out and I didn't wish to be alone, I also needed something to do on my Saturday and spending some time with Scott seemed like a decent way to spend it, Plus I'm sure he needed to get Thursday off his chest.

"I'm fine." It was curt. A quick end to the words and a hint of annoyance in them...I didn't want to annoy Stiles...I didn't even understand why he was so upset! Was it because I was hanging out with Scott and not him? Was he just in a bad mood? Either way I wasn't really appreciating the tone of voice directed at me. I wasn't Professor Snape for God's sake!

"Stiles?" I stood straight, my shoes finally on and held my phone to my ear while leaning against my door frame. You couldn't blame me for being concerned.

"I'm fine." You know that heavy feeling in your chest, the one that feels like maybe you could cry, but not really, but something is definitely not right? It has you choking up a little and you want it to go away because it's more of an ache than an actual pain? That's what I was feeling right then.

"Sti-"

I was cut off. He never cut me off, not like that at least- usually it was because he got too excited about something that happened or something happened that he wanted to check out..."Look I've got to go." I looked down at my phone. The call ended...he hung up on me. What had I done? I mean last I checked it wasn't a crime to hang out with Scott-I'd done it before, so why was this any different? Maybe he was just busy and something was making him antsy and I just got in the way? Yeah, I mean I promised I wouldn't start making assumptions that it was my fault again after last time...It couldn't have been me. We were fine last night, laughing away when I finally got his head unstuck from a set of metal fence posts. Which let me just tell you was harder than you think, especially knowing that the Sheriff or a deputy could drive by at any moment.

I brushed the incident off as best I could. If I dwelt on it nothing good was going to happen and I really, really wasn't fond of having another 'ignore Stiles for weeks on end' incident. I had learnt from last time that I found it hard to ignore either of my best friends, and it kind of felt like being run through with a lightsabre. I'd rather not go through it again and I'm sure neither would they.

It was with that in mind that I made my way the downstairs and rushed out to my car...the thought that Stiles was upset, whether with me or someone else, made me incredibly uncomfortable. There was a brawl going on in the back of my mind between going to Scott's and running to off to check on Stiles. It was...unsettling, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't ignore it. I kept most of my concentration on the road and the day I was getting to spend with puppy-dog-eyes McCall. I couldn't go running off to Stiles every time he got in a huff; I had other friends too and my commitments to them were just as important...even if it wasn't the ideal situation to be in. I was stuck between two friends and I didn't like it. Especially when those two friends were childhood buddies.

The road was quiet as I drove to Scott's. It was October time and the leaves were falling off the trees in brown bundles and the air was chillier. I'd taken to wearing woollen jumpers or zipping up Stiles-my- hoodie to fend off the cold. I'd also started fighting with Norman over putting the heating on, it was the only thing we disagreed on. He wanted to save power and I wanted to be warm...I probably wouldn't be allowed to put it on without complaint until mid-November time. As I pulled up in front of the McCall residence I turned off the car engine and let out a large breath, leaning back into my chair. Today had a bad start, hopefully it would brighten up.