Tether ⌲ Stiles Stilinski [2]

four

Stiles had left shortly after receiving the phone call about Heather. Instead of going straight home, he told me he was going to stop by the hospital to ask about the body.

Upon my questioning of why, he simply told me that he had to check something out and that he would tell me all about it tomorrow. Considering it was already four o'clock in the morning though, I assumed he meant later today.

I laid awake for another hour, unable to close my eyes without seeing the dead body draped over the lifeguard chair with a thin rope cut into its throat  and blood pouring from its mouth. What was getting to me was the fact that the body wasn't an 'it' at all, it was a he. A person. Someone with a family and friends and a life that had been so suddenly taken from him.

I didn't bother setting my alarm. It was as if the digital screen was mocking me when I pondered making an alert for my usual weekday wake up time merely ten minutes away. Instead, I wandered over to the bathroom to take a shower with hopes of jolting some energy back into my bones.

The gossip in the hallways made my head pound. Yet another body had been found that morning during track and field practice, which I knew the entire lacrosse team had witnessed since Coach was adamant about them staying in shape in the off season. On my way to my own locker, I passed a memorial set up at another. The fatality had been another student, and this one had been from our own senior class.

The locker stood out amidst the bland wall of otherwise blank metal and had drawn a crowd. Each member of the current huddle stepped forward and stuck memories onto the surface: a letter, a flower, a picture. Leaning against each other for support, a few girls were weeping.

I ripped my eyes away and carried on, wanting to escape the grief and dread crushing my chest. I was desperate to find anyone to cheer me up. Allison had already left me to go to her own class, and I was meant to meet up with Lydia later, so I was searching for the boy I loved.

And who loved me back, I thought, my heart leaping at the one good thing to come from all of the madness in town.

Unfortunately, Stiles wasn't anywhere to be found in English class, and I didn't get to see him until our lunch break. 

When that hour finally rolled around, I strolled across the courtyard with Lydia by my side to find Scott and Stiles sitting on either side of a picnic table.

"Hi," I greeted, startling Stiles.

He regained his composure when he realized it was me.

"Oh, hi! Sorry, I'm a little jumpy."

Scott motioned towards his friend's jittery hand on the table. "Maybe that has something to do with the fact that you've had five cups of coffee today."

"Just trying to stay awake," Stiles shrugged. "I didn't get any sleep."

I reached out and interlaced my fingers through his to stop the shaking. He smiled back gratefully.

"Yeah, well I don't think any of us got any sleep," Lydia snapped, pulling out a boxed salad from her bag and beginning to poke at the vegetables with a fork as if she was angry at them. "That's what happens when you're the ones to discover another dead body."

"Where's Allison?" Scott asked to change the subject to something less morbid. He nodded towards the empty seat beside me.

"Lunchtime detention if you can believe it," I replied, recalling the text I had received an hour earlier.

Groaning, the teen wolf dropped his pen down onto the open pages of the textbook in front of him and rubbed his forehead. "Great."

"What?"