THE GRAVEDIGGER'S HANDBOOK → ISAAC LAHEY

[xxv] Set Up

November 19

7:59 P.M.

Tonsla Household

    Constantly seeing Allison Argent in the Tonsla household was surely something that Joy would have to take the time to get used to, even if it was her idea to begin with. For the last few days, Phoebe and her had been inseparable all while Phoebe had completely distanced herself from everyone but Lydia.

Isaac thought she was joking the night he left him in the cemetery. He thought that the next day at school they'd all be sitting together as always and Isaac and her relationship would be back to normal, but that wasn't the case at all.

During first period she completely ignored Stiles, Scott, and Isaac's existences as if they never meant anything to her. They called after her during school hours but she continued on walking as if she didn't hear them. At lunch, instead of sitting with Lydia and the boys, she'd sit with Allison at the empty table in the corner of the room giggling to each other, and at times, the pack caught them reading a specific red book together.

The boys asked Lydia about it but the strawberry blonde was of no help to them; She had tried to ask Phoebe about it herself, but Phoebe merely brushed off the topic as nothing serious.

One day at the end of the week, Isaac decided he'd had enough. The pain of feeling hated had been weighing on him for the past few days. Had the girl he'd been in love with since they were kids really played with his emotions and mind, all to just throw him away as if he was nothing?

Isaac spent too much of his life feeling useless, and he wasn't going to go through this again without an answer at least.

He practically marched up to Phoebe at her locker as she was gathering her things to leave that day, of course, with Allison by her side chatting her ear off. Allison's words drifted off into thin air when she saw him approaching, causing Phoebe to question why she stopped.

She shut her locker and turned around to ask but her breath was immediately caught in her throat at the sight of Isaac.

Her reaction certainly wasn't the one that he was expecting.

"Isaac, what the hell?!" She burst out, surely catching the attention of surrounding students. "What, are you following me now? I don't need a babysitter!"

"W-What? I never followed you-"

"You've been following me around like a lost puppy ever since that night!" She screamed, flailing her arms around angrily.

Isaac's eyebrows furrowed deeply and he took a step back, trying to process her words. The most he had done since that night was glance at her whenever she was near because they had the same class. What was she on about?

"I don't know what you think we had, but I didn't want it!" Phoebe pointed at his chest, pushing him back slightly. His mouth went agape and his head spun as she continued, "You were fun, I told you this! But I've never liked you, I don't like you now, and I never will! So just get away from me, all of you! Jesus christ!"

With that, she spun on her heel, grabbed Allison's hand and ran out of the school with her.

➴

   "That was a nice little show you put on. You seriously need to share your acting skills with me." Allison complimented in the midst of their watch session, nonchalantly flipping a page of the beastiary as they sat in Phoebe's car. "How long do you think you need to keep it up?"