The Absence of Truth | S. Stilinski

XXI. | neverland

XXI. | neverland

                  AS FAR AS kisses go, it wasn't awful. Surprising and unplanned, but not terrible. Stiles actually kind of had soft lips. Luckily we weren't embracing for too long - Sarah turned the corner just as I smashed our mouths together, then she jumped back with a surprised, "Oh!"

We pulled apart, Stiles with a red flushed face and me with that stupid sly grin. I turned and looked at Sarah. "Oops," I said, no apology in my voice. "Didn't mean for that to happen."

"Uh-huh," Sarah said. "I-I'm sorry."

"No problem," I said.

She stood there for an extra second, then excused herself, rushing away with her eyes averted. I blew a stream of air from between my teeth and pinched my nose right between my eyes, trying to ward off the headache I felt coming.

"Sorry," I said to Stiles, who'd been dead silent since the kiss. And I actually was. "It was the only thing I could think of."

"Yeah," Stiles said quickly, rubbing a hand over his buzzed head. I watched as he retreated in on himself, shutting down. I couldn't tell if it was annoyance or uncomfortableness. Either way, he was acting twitchy - twitchier than usual. "You know it, uh - I need to go." He sped away, avoiding my eye.

When I was alone in the hallway, I sighed. That had been stupid of me. No, not just stupid. Idiotic. Not only was he was one of my only friends, Stiles Stilinski was the only other normal human in the same situation as me. Us two, with no hunter parents or superhuman abilities. The regular ones needed to stick together, because the minute we were separated, people like Erica and Isaac would swoop in and gut us. Thoughts of me getting gutted by Isaac Lahey made me squirm.

To relax myself, I made my way into the women's restroom and cleaned up my makeup, wiping off my smeared lipstick entirely. The guilt in my chest hadn't eased much. In fact, when I made it back to Sarah's desk just to see that she'd been called out on a disturbance call, panic was close to making me breakdown again.

When I sat down, I couldn't help but glance over to the Sheriff's office. He was there, still chewing on the fries I'd given him. Stiles was sitting in one of the chairs that faced his father's desk. His head was down, and he was staring at his hands. I sighed.

I hoped I hadn't done too much damage.

-

By the time Friday rolled around, I felt a little better. Stiles and I still had some difficulty when talking to each other, but overall, I thought we were working through it. I saw him and Scott in the hallway when I walked into chemistry for last period. They were talking swiftly, under their breath. When I ambled over to their lab bench, they broke apart like they'd been doing something wrong. I laughed.

"What's gotten into you two?" I asked.

Stiles avoided my eye, but Scott answered. "We got tickets for tonight."

"The rave?" I asked. Presley had given me his extra ticket last night. "Yeah, I heard everyone's going."

"Ugh," Stiles groaned, "You sound like Matt."

I furrowed my brows. "You're calling me creepy?"

There wasn't any ill will between us, but I could hear the edge in Stiles's voice. He didn't answer me, instead rolling his eyes and muttering something under his breath. I wanted to call him out, ask him what the big deal was. The kiss had been under five seconds, and I'd been moving under pressure. Either ignoring the tension between us, or not caring enough to ask, Scott began talking again.