Infinitesimal

Chapter 3

His face looks different up close. Sure, it doesn't look as how it usually would since its bloody and bruised now, but it makes her feel weird to know that Malia had been ogling the boy before. Lydia felt weird peering into his life this much, watching him on the verge of getting arrested seemed different than gawking at him from across a field - but it wasn't, both were an invasion of privacy.

"You know, Malia hasn't sunken her claws into him just yet if you wanted to," Isaac trails off, vaguely gesturing towards Stiles. Lydia's cheeks turn cherry red as she blushes, embarrassed at being caught staring. She mumbles something along the lines of 'I wasn't even looking in that direction', and lowers her gaze to the floor.

"It's okay, I won't tell Mal. I love my sister but sometimes she needs a gentle nudge in the right direction. Stiles is too much like her last boyfriend and plus, I've been trying to get her together with Scott for a while. I have to say, though, I'm a bit surprised - didn't know Lydia Martin is into bad boys." Isaac whispers the last part with a teasing grin, nudging her in the side.

Lydia rolls her eyes and ignores him, putting all of her attention into spying on Stiles over there. With his hands behind his back, the security guard was free to pick through Stiles' pockets. The guard found a wallet, a packet of cigarettes and women's jewelry bunched up in his sweatshirt.

She watched the man in uniform say something to Stiles, only for him to respond with a sly smirk that wasn't going to help his case. Lydia got back to wondering what he was doing here, why he needed women's jewelry so bad he would come and steal it.

Honestly, she isn't sure what makes her leave Isaac's side to strut across the store. Maybe it was Isaac's little prep talk, or her promise to herself to be more outgoing, or perhaps it was the way Lydia could've sworn Stiles glanced at her - just for a split second - and briefly acknowledged her presence. Either way, her legs were moving without going numb, straight in the direction of trouble.

"Stiles!" Lydia exclaims once near them. They both stared at her in surprise as she went on with her poorly formed plan, casually resting a hand on Stiles' arm. She rubbed circles onto his bicep, trying her hardest to seem like she'd done the motion a thousand times. The guard watched them curiously, glancing between the two quickly.

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm sure my boyfriend wasn't stealing the jewelry, I just told him to hold them for me while I looked at some scarves." Lydia explains hastily. "I can totally pay for the bracelet and necklace - I'm meeting his parents and wanted to look nice. It'd really be a shame if his folks thought his girlfriend was trying to force him to shoplift for her."

What happened next she wasn't too proud of. Lydia batted her eyelashes at the guard, - she could see now his badge said Jordan Parrish - looking innocent and sweet. It worked almost too easily, Parrish's face turned red and he dropped his eyes to look over her body for the third time.

"Okay, fine - but I better not see him in here again. My boss is still pissed off from when he, uh, relieved himself in the dressing room." Parrish reluctantly unlocks the handcuffs and steps away from Stiles.

"Thank you." Lydia says, smiling politely. The girl drops a forty dollar bill on the counter and Stiles collects the jewelry. Parrish continues to watch them suspiciously, his gaze flickers to Stiles but mostly spends an uncomfortable amount of time on Lydia.

She slips her hand in Stiles' both to make their charade more believable and for the guard to take a hint and back off. Thankfully, Stiles doesn't object and plays along easily.

"It's really no problem." Parrish waved it off, then leaned into her personal space to whisper something to her. "Although, I don't know what a pretty girl like you is doing with a guy like him."

Stiles' grip on her hand tightens, having heard Parrish insulting him. She thinks this encounter has been going on long enough, and says goodbye to the guard before pulling a reluctant Stiles out of the store - Lydia pretends she doesn't see Isaac watching them from inside the store.

"You know, you really didn't have to do that. I was doing fine on my own."

The first sentence Stiles says to her isn't a thank you, or a greeting. It's actually really weird to hear his voice, considering it isn't at all what she expected. When looking at Stiles, she imagined he would sound low and throaty, like the lead singer of some unknown, garage punk band.

Though his voice had a childish tone to it, as if everything he was saying was another jab towards someone. It's a bit more high-pitched than she was expecting. It actually reminds her of how young he is, she felt like he was a couple years older than her when in reality they must've been the same age. Even with all of this, somehow he still manages to scare the living hell out of her.

But she'd be damned if she ever showed it.

"Well, I wanted to." Lydia replies, ignoring his annoyed tone.

Stiles' eyes narrow at her for a brief moment, and he fiddles with the jewelry still in his hands. Lydia wants to ask a - and this an understatement - million questions about his life. She barely knows anything about Stiles and yet he's the most interesting thing she has going on right now.

"Are you a cop? Cause you have to tell me. I mean, you look a little younger than the last person my dad sent - frickin' Cora - and you're not my type so I don't know what he's doing this time. Tell him I don't need a babysitter that's younger than me anyways." Stiles goes off rambling on her. The suspicious look never leaves his face even as hers forms a look of confusion.

"I'm not a cop. I was just shopping and, uh, I don't know.. I've seen you around the campus, saw you here and decided to be a decent person for once." Lydia explains.

"Oh." Stiles says. He holds the word on his tongue for a rather long time, and runs his eyes over Lydia just as Parrish had done - except Stiles looks at her like a detective looks at his murder board.

"Bye, then." He gives her a short, half-assed wave of his hand and then is taking off in the other direction.

"What? No thank you?" Lydia calls after him, but the boy is already turning the corner and walking out of her life.

A/N

I'm going to writing camp for a week tomorrow and I'll probably be swamped with a bunch of writing assignments there, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to update soon.

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