Right Beside You | Stiles Stilinski | Two

26 - Truth and Truce

"I want to start by saying I didn't do anything wrong."

"What? Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine, Mom, I just...I got another detention."

I hadn't expected an easy response, or any reassurance that things would be okay. I thought maybe there'd be some yelling...but there was nothing. There was dead silence on the other end of the line, and that was probably worse than anything my mother could have said to me.

"Mom...?"

There was a sigh, and a shuffling on her end. I could picture her taking her reading glasses off, rubbing her brow as I captured her full attention from work. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! Honestly, Mom, I didn't—"

"Scarlett, they didn't give you detention for nothing. I heard you say that you didn't do anything wrong. Now tell me what happened."

The words were sharp, and I winced.

"I was...Scott and Jackson got into a fight. I think it was about Allison or something, but...Stiles and I were walking by and we had to help pull them apart before they killed each other. Then Mr. Harris ran down and gave detention to anyone even standing in the hallway."

Normally, there might have been a quippy agreement that it was a stupid reason. Some biting comment about how Mr. Harris was developing a habit of dealing detentions. She wouldn't tell me that it was okay I had detention, but she'd ask if the boys were alright, then gripe about my teacher. All I'd been doing was protecting my friends, after all.

Today, that wasn't what I got. Today, I got more silence and half of a sigh.

"Mom, I know that you're mad, but—"

"I'm not mad, Scarlett!"

It wasn't as reassuring as she'd intended it to me. It was like a slap, something that made me step back even though I wasn't in the room with her. She realized what she'd done right away, and grudgingly amended her tone.

"I'm not mad. I'm worried. I mean, the detentions, the—the crime scenes, the talks with the sheriff. Some of that is to be expected. You're a teenager, I get it, but all of this at once?"

"Mom, I'm gonna be late."

"They're your friends, and I know that you love them—I love them too—but if they keep pulling you into all these dangerous situations—"

"Scott didn't do anything wrong!"

"Scarlett, you just said that he and Jackson were nearly fighting to the death over a girl. That's—"

"I guarantee you that Scott didn't start anything. If someone was causing problems, it was Jackson. Scott was defending himself."

"I know, Scarlett, but...I hate to sound like a broken record, but it doesn't matter who started it. The fact is that they're pulling you into—"

"I have to go, Mom," I sighed, cutting her off.

"I just want to make sure that you stay safe and—"

"Mom!"

"Fine," she said bitterly. "Alright, fine. Go to detention. We'll talk about this later. But we do have to talk about it. I love you."

"Love you too. And if...if you see Lydia, can you tell her I'm sorry?"

"For what?"

"For...bailing on our plans. Well—no, tell her I didn't bail, I just got detention, and our plans are still on just for...for later..."