Slightly Consequential (Slightly Awkward Series / Book Five / Teen Wolf)

CHAPTER TEN---Status Asthmatics

It was still pouring rain outside.

Stiles was driving us in his Jeep. 

I took a deep, shaky breath, knowing that I didn't want to dive into this, but also knowing that I had to to set things right. "What did Theo say to you? What did he tell you?"

Stiles hesitated, shaking his hand, looking at the knife in my hand. "Theo had that knife in his car. He  showed it to me and Scott. He told us about your hurt shoulder, the one you said that you hurt during cross country. He told us that was Donovan. He told us that he went after you at the library."

I hesitated, nodding. "Yeah."

"He said that he only saw the end of it," Stiles told me. "He said that he couldn't stop you. That you shot him with your crossbow and made him fall. And then you started to stab him in the chest with that knife. And then you just--you just kept stabbing him. Said that you made his chest concave."

I felt like I was going to get sick, looking away, tears in my eyes. "No, no, no. No, that's not--that's not what happened." I looked at him. "Stiles, that's not what happened. You have to believe me." 

The car started to smoke, breaking down, the smoke blowing into the car, making us both cough uncontrollably. 

Stiles pulled over to the side of the road. We both got out of the car, breathing heavily, trying to catch our breath. Stiles took out the tool box, walking over to the hood of the car to open it and start to fix it. 

I stood nearby, but didn't want to get too close, the rain making the smoke die down instantly. 

"Stacie, tell me what really happened," Stiles told me.

I took a deep breath, trying to keep emotions in check, but they were raging all over the place. "He came at me. I tried to fight him off, but..." Tears filled my eyes. "All I kept thinking was that... I can't let him kill me, and I can't let him kill you, and I can't let him kill Dad. He tried to stab me with this knife, and I turned it on him, dragging it down. He was so angry. He picked me up and threw me into this scaffolding so up from the floor that if I fell, I was going to break a leg. I caught onto this pin, and it--it--it slipped, and then these support beams, they slid off of the top. When I looked back, one of them had gone right through him." Stiles looked at me in shock, the look that I knew he was going to give me when he found out. I started to cry. "I didn't--I didn't know what to do. I dialed 911, but when the deputy got there, the body was gone. Even the blood. Everything was just... It was gone, and I didn't... I didn't know what to do. So I didn't do anything. I'm sorry, Stiles. I didn't know what else to do. So, I didn't... I didn't do anything." Stiles stepped closer. I started to cry even harder. "Stiles, please... please, you have to believe me."

Stiles pulled me into his arms, holding me comfortingly, protectively, sympathetically. "I believe you. Hey, I believe you. It's okay. I believe you. It's okay."

I wrapped my arms around him, crying. "No, it's not. It's not okay. I'm sorry. Stiles, I'm so sorry."

      °    

Morning came before the tow truck was able to come and take the Jeep away.

Stiles and I looked at each other sadly. 

"Can they fix it?" I asked.

"There's not enough duct tape in the world to fix that thing," Stiles told me.

"I don't care, Stiles," I told him. "We've had that thing forever, and I'm not about to lose it, even if it means helping repair it using something other than duct tape. Whatever it takes."