My Longest Love

Chapter 6

The next day was much more awkward than the one before. The whole ride to school neither of them said a word, and Stiles had to turn the radio up so it wasn't quite as awkward.

Finally, when he got enough courage, Stiles spoke up, "Hey, look I'm sorry for...yesterday I think I need to realize when I should stop..."

"Don't worry about it." Lydia said, giving him a half smile of forgiveness.

Stiles sighed a sigh of relief, hopefully things would go back to normal now.

Stiles arrived at school and they went their separate ways.

"So anything new with last night?" Scott asked as Stiles approached him.

"Well...I don't know I think something's up with Jackson and Lydia." Stiles said, looking concerned.

"It's not just because you're jealous of their relationship?" Scott asked, making a good point.

"No I really don't think so! I kinda had a debate with her in the car yesterday...about how he doesn't treat her right and she was really upset."

"So now you're going after her relationship too?" Scott raised an eyebrow.

"Scott it's kinda a big deal...she was really upset when we talked about it." Stiles said.

"Whatever, it's her relationship, her business." Scott said in a tone that meant the conversation was over.

...

Nothing of importance happened the rest of the day, until 5th hour, where Stiles, Scott, and Lydia were all in the same class.

Stiles sat there looking around the room since he was so bored. His eyes rested on an empty desk and thought about who was gone. Looking around some more, he realized with surprise that it was Lydia who was missing.

Only about five minutes later, she came rushing into class and sat down. The teacher gave her a look, but since it wasn't like her, let it slide. Stiles felt as though something was wrong. He looked over at Scott who was also contemplating what was different with Lydia.

When she turned around to pass the worksheet that the teacher had handed out, Stiles realized she had her hair laid gently in front of her eye.

"Something must be wrong with her eye..." Stiles whispered to Scott, who nodded, agreeing.

Once the day was over, and Stiles and Lydia were in the car, Stiles spoke up, "Lydia, are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh um what do you mean? I...I'm fine." she said uncertainly.

"Ok...if you need someone to talk to just let me know." Stiles said.

"Yeah...I will." Lydia replied.

...

The next morning when they were walking into school, Lydia's hair got lifted in the wind, revealing a black and blue eye. She quickly adjusted her hair to be settled over her eye once again, but she had been too late.

"Lydia what was that?" Stiles asked, reaching for the piece of hair covering her eye.

"What was what?!" Lydia tried playing innocent, grabbing his hand and pushing it away.

"Don't act like you don't know, what happened Lydia?" He questioned once again.

"It's nothing ok?!?" she snapped, and quickened her pace so she was walking ahead of him. She reached the door and didn't wait for him before entering the building.

When Stiles got into school a few moments later, Lydia was nowhere to be seen. However, Scott was putting his books in his locker.

"Hey..." Stiles said distantly.

"Hey what's up?" Scott questioned, sensing something was wrong.

"Lydia...you know how she had her hair covering her eye yesterday? Well when we were walking in to school I noticed she had a black eye which is why she's covering it up..."

"Seriously? Wonder how she got it." Scott replied.

"Yeah, I think that's a touchy subject...she flipped out at me when I asked about it." Stiles said.

"Weird. Well I guess if she doesn't want us knowing, we shouldn't be nosy." He suggested.

"Scott, there's some things you shouldn't be nosy about, and there's some things you just need to know." Stiles replied, and they walked to first hour together.

...

The day was uneventful. Stiles' dad wasn't home when it was time for dinner, so Stiles took matters into his own hands, making dinner for him and Lydia.

She was sitting at the table, patiently waiting for her food, and he came over with her plate. While he was setting her plate down, it brushed slightly against her shoulder, but only just. She winced at the slight touch, and her face grimaced. The shoulder of her shirt had slid down a little bit, and before she pulled it back up quickly, Stiles noticed a reddish mark of some sort.

"What's that?" Stiles questioned, pulling her sleeve down so he could get a closer look.

What he saw was horrifying. Lydia had a huge bruise running all the way down her shoulder. It looked nasty. Stiles started to connect it all, the black eye, the bruise, everything was adding up and he was pretty sure he knew what was going on here.