𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲 ▷ Stiles Stilinski¹

53|risk and reward

I know a lot of stories do the whole 'new haircut-new person' crap, and I usually don't like that, but it felt right

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"So some random chick came into the school, grabbed you, and bruised both of your arms with what looks like the exact same mark," I said slowly. "Have I got that right?"

Lydia, who was sitting in the passenger seat, looked over her shoulder at me. "Yes, and Allison seems desperate to believe that it means something."

"You don't know that it doesn't," the brunette argued defensively.

With a nod I leaned forward a bit, "And that's why you're meeting up with the boys - you want to see if they know something."

Allison and Lydia had picked me up on their way to see Scott and Stiles who were at someone's seventeenth birthday party. I couldn't think of anyone who had their birthday recently but I was lucky to remember my own, so there's that.

"Exactly," Allison huffed, not happy that Lydia was not one hundred per cent with her idea.

She pulled up out the front of a house where we could already hear the music from the outside. It didn't look like a rave or anything, just a chill sort of party. Allison's phone buzzed, "Scott's on his way out now. Still no reply from Stiles."

Pursing my lips, I opened the car door. "I'll go and find him."

"Are you sure?" Lydia asked. "I can go.

"It's fine," I said, shaking my head. "I need to talk to him about what we were attempting to talk about earlier. I just need him to know that he still means something to me, you know?"

"So, what? You're going to apologise?"

Biting my lip, I pushed the door outwards. "I'm not apologising for what I said - they needed to hear it. I just hope they understand that I needed that time alone without anyone until I had to come back. You guys aren't mad at me for not calling, are you?"

The two looked at each other, before Lydia spoke up. "Not mad. But hearing from you would've made me less nervous."

"Sorry," I said quietly.

"It's fine, we get it. Now go and get your man," she said with a small smile.

I rolled my eyes with a laugh, before climbing out of the car.

Allison and Lydia wished me luck as they got ready to leave also. I walked towards the house just as Scott was leaving. "Hey, Scott."

His face sunk a little, "Hey, Riley. I just wanna say sor-"

"No," I put a hand up. Not in a rude way, just so that he would stop. "No more apologising. Everyone's done things they've regretted, so let's just. . . let's not keep doing that."

Scott took a minute to process what I was saying. "So, are we okay?"

"We always were," I smiled sadly. "I just needed some time alone to sort my head out. I know I could've went about talking about it better, but I needed you guys to hear me. To understand. I needed time."

Scott didn't say anything as he took a step forward to wrap his arms around me. He was silent as he waited for me to return the gesture. The weight on my shoulders felt a little lighter now that I knew Scott wasn't as mad at me anymore, so I allowed myself to hug him back.
"We were just worried about you."

"I know, and I thank you for that, really," I whispered.

When we pulled away, I felt like we had gone back to before. Something felt different, but it wasn't as bad as it was when first returned. Unfortunately, things were worse with Stiles than they were with Scott and I didn't know if I had gotten through to him the way I wanted to.