Animals

54. Part Two

STILES' POV:

I listened to my printer make a beeping noise at me again to tell me that it was out of paper, but instead of reloading it, I continued to pace behind Lydia, "Try Maddy." I suggested as she stared at the computer screen, "It's got to be Maddy." 

"Doesn't Maddy feel a little obvious as a cipher key?" Lydia questioned.

"I guarantee it's Maddy." I said confidently and watched her as she typed Maddy. She pressed enter and the word Error  appeared in the slot, "Okay, your name." I suggested again, "She left the code for you right? So it's got to be your name." she typed in Lydia, another error message appeared, "Your mom's name?" she put her fingers back on the keyboard, Natalie, another error. I saw Lydia slightly shake her head and take her hands off the keyboard, "Do you have any beloved family pets?" I attempted, but Lydia let out a quiet groan and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. 

Lydia took a deep breath, "Does Callie know that she needs to find a ride home?" she changed the subject. 

"Yes, Lydia, I told her that I wasn't going to school today." I stared at her as she kept her eyes on the computer screen, "Now back to what really matters right now," I held my hand out towards the screen.

"All the people we know, we've already seen on the list, cracking this one doesn't seem as important, Stiles." she mumbled.

I gawked at her, "There could be more people that we don't know about on this list, Lydia." I ran my fingers through my hair, "What if we stopped before the last one? We wouldn't have known for sure that my girlfriend was on it,"

"Um, and Callie and Liam," she faced me, "Or are you attempting to hide any left over feelings you have for Callie? Because not caring that she's on the dead pool is a pretty shitty way of doing that." I opened my mouth to deny her words, but quickly just looked away and began to pace again. Eventually I knelt down beside her and placed my head on my desk, thinking of other words the decipher key could be, "That's what I thought," Lydia mumbled quietly. 

I glanced up at her and sighed, "The ashes were left for you. The code was left for you." I changed the subject back to our previous conversation instead of focusing on my ex-girlfriend, "You're supposed to be able to figure this out."

"But no one else is," she breathed out, "Which is why she made it hard."

I began to nod my head but the sound of my printer beeping, yet again, was enough to make me want to rip my own hair out. I got up from the ground, "Ohh," I walked behind Lydia and grabbed a stack of paper, "Oh my god," I said under my breath as I shoved the paper into the printer, "Okay?" I asked the inanimate object in frustration. I began to walk away from it and started to think about what Lydia had just said, "You..." I held my hand up to my forehead, "No one else. No one else but you." 

"What?" Lydia asked without looking at me.

"Our guesses. They're all about Lorraine. Right?" she nodded her head at me, "We keep trying to guess a word that has something to do with her. So, maybe we should be trying to guess one that's about you." I suggested.

"Me?" Lydia asked, "What about me?"

"What do you remember doing with your grandmother?" I asked her, "You know, what was your guys' thing? Did you guys go to the beach? You know, did you like ice cream or..."

"We read." she cut me off.

"Okay. What did you read?"

"The Little Mermaid," she answered as she glanced over at me.

I stared at her for a minute, "You read that movie?"

"It was a book first." she looked away from me, "Hans Christian Andersen," she said as if she was trying to jog my memory.