bittersweet → stiles stilinski

eight

eight

warnings: mentions of epilepsy.

★

Stiles

I was walking down the empty halls of Beacon Hills High on my way to the library. Scott and I had agreed to meet there and talk about this new kanima problem. I thought it was over after Peter was killed, but was my life always going to be like this? Were these supernatural problems gonna keep coming until I'm eventually killed by one of them? I-

"Hey, Erica." 

I froze. Apparently, the hallways weren't as empty as I thought, cause that was definitely Valerie's voice.

"How have you been?" I heard her say. It was coming from around the corner. I turned around and carefully peeked over. I saw Valerie and Erica standing there.

"Great," said Erica. "How have you been?"

"Good."

Despite knowing it would make me late for meeting with Scott, I decided to stay and listen to their conversation. You might wonder why, well, Erica was currently on the enemy side, and I never knew what important information she could drop while she didn't know I was listening. At least, that's what I'd say if someone asked.

"So, er, you look different," said Valerie.

Erica smiled. "Yeah, isn't it great?"

Valerie nodded, glancing down at her feet for a split second before looking back at Erica. "Yeah, it is - just, what happened?"

"What do you mean?" Erica frowned.

"Well, you just changed overnight, what prompted it?"

"I'm just fed up with being the freak. What happened after P.E. was the last straw, so I decided to do something about it."

Valerie drew her brows together in sympathy. "Erica, you were never a freak."

"Well, you're the only one who thought so," said Erica, her smile fading. Valerie looked at her with deep concern, fiddling with her fingers. "There's still something you wanna say, huh?"

Valerie sighed. "It's great that you're feeling good like this, that's all I've ever wanted for you."

"But?"

"But I'm worried that it won't last. The thing making you happy right now is because of validation from others, and that's not sustainable. I think you should try and learn to not care about what everyone thinks of you. It's better to be-"

"It's better to be hated than loved for what you're not, I get it. You just think popularity is something bad because you associate it with Michael. Just because popularity ended badly for you doesn't mean it's like that for everyone."

Seeing the look on Valerie's face, Erica sighed and her expression softened. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought him up. It's just - can't you be happy for me?"

Valerie nodded slowly. "It's okay," she said. "You have a point. Of course- I can do that."

They smiled at each other, then Erica wrapped her arms around Valerie, bringing her into a loving hug.

"How did the check-up at the hospital go the other day?" Valerie asked once they pulled away, pulling her best 'pretending that that didn't just happen' smile, in an attempt to change the subject.

"Great, I'm cured!" said Erica with a wide smile.

Valerie's eyes narrowed suddenly. "What?!" she exclaimed.

"I'm not epileptic anymore." Erica clarified.

Valerie looked more confused than I'd ever seen her. "Erica, epilepsy doesn't just go away," she said carefully, like she didn't believe Erica. I couldn't blame her.

"You're the one who told me to believe in the impossible. I can't explain it, but it's gone, okay? I'm not gonna waste my time thinking of how it happened. I'm gonna enjoy it." Erica shrugged her shoulders, a lazy smile on her lips as she walked away.

Valerie stood there, looking in the direction Erica went off to, for quite some time. I probably should've left at that, since the conversation was over, and head off to the library as I intended to, but for some reason, I didn't. I remained where I was, staring at Valerie. Despite everything, I felt sorry for her. This was bound to be really confusing. I couldn't imagine what I'd done in her place.

Suddenly, I realized with a holt that Valerie had finally seemed to compose herself, and she turned around and headed right towards me.

As quickly and as quietly as I could I turned around, and to my relief, the men's room was very close to me. So I quickly opened to door and went inside.

It only took a few seconds before I heard footsteps go past and disappear.

I let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding, as I turned around, looked in the mirror and mulled over everything I'd just heard. The thing that kept popping up was Valerie's reaction to Erica bringing up Michael Larson.

Okay, you're probably wondering, so let me tell you about Michael.

He and Valerie dated last year. Back then, Valerie was - different, for a lack of a better word. Very unlike the Valerie you know. Anyway- back to Michael. He was on the lacrosse team with Scott and I, and he was really good. He was also popular, good-looking, friends with Jackson and Danny: the whole package.

He and Valerie dated for quite some time, and Valerie seemed really happy with him - not that I cared or anything.

But then, something happened between them. I have no idea what, but about a week later, in the locker room after practice, I heard him bragging about how he had dumped her.

Valerie didn't come to school for a week straight after that, and when she came back - she'd changed. Her flowers grew back as thorns, her hair was colored, she traded her sundresses for her now regular punk attire, she cut off her bonds with all of her previous friends and began eating lunch alone. It was then she befriended Erica.

gif above belongs to @hqhunting on tumblr