bittersweet → stiles stilinski

fourteen

fourteen

warnings: not that bad this time actually, just a bit of angst.

★

Stiles

"Good morning," said Ms. Blake, as she set down a book on the teacher's desk. "As you all know, Mr. Harris is still missing- I mean, sick. Anyway, I'm filling in while we all hope and pray for a more qualified substitute to take my place. Okay, so, let's get started, shall we?" She turned to the board.

I looked over to the opposite end of the classroom, where Valerie was sitting, as far away from me as possible.

Ever since the incident at the motel, Valerie had avoided me, and anyone else that was in the room that night, even more than before. She had sunken into herself even more than when Erica died. She had stopped eating lunch in the cafeteria, several times I had gone looking for her and she was nowhere to be found. At the times she couldn't avoid being in the same room as me, like in classes, she did what she's doing right now, and sat as far away from me as possible. In the beginning, I had tried to talk to her after class, but she gathered her stuff as quickly as she could, and once she was out of the classroom she was suddenly nowhere to be found again.

Of course, I understood her. She was more confused than ever, and that's saying a lot. I would probably do the exact same thing in her situation. The thing is, I had no idea what to do in my situation. I'm not sure just telling her about the supernatural world would work, even if I could. In this state, I don't know how she'd react. She's most likely in denial right now, and even if I somehow proved it to her, it would probably just scare her off.

The only thing I could do was to try and make sense of the situation. I was very busy right now, what with all of my homework and the human sacrifices we were trying to stop, but every second of free time I had, I spent searching the web, trying to figure out what kind of supernatural creature Valerie could be. So far I had nothing.

Apparently, there weren't many records about a fire shooting, human-like creature. Honestly, my first thought was a firebender like in Avatar, but that didn't explain the glowing eyes and superhuman strength and speed.

Valerie turned a page in her notebook then continued to copy what Ms. Blake was writing on the board. She looked more put together than she'd done the past couple of weeks. She had brushed her hair, put more effort into her makeup and didn't wear her hood up. Maybe it was a way to reduce suspicion, or she was in denial like I suspected.

She tapped a finger on the shoulder of the person in front of her, and they turned around.

It was Ethan.

Valerie whispered something to him, her lips tugged up in a smile, and he smiled back.

What was Valerie doing talking to Ethan? Were they friends? If so, since when?

Even though I knew I couldn't get the answers to these questions, I asked them anyway. I let out a sigh, god I had other things to take care of. One final thought plagued my find before I turned to Scott.

Valerie may be avoiding me, but Ethan wasn't.

★

"Stay away from her."

Ethan, who was busy changing into his lacrosse uniform, looked at me curiously. "Stay away from who?"

"You know exactly who I'm talking about. And it's whom, by the way."

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Why does it concern you anyway? It's not like you're friends."

I gritted my teeth. That comment hurt more than it should've. And judging from Ethan's expression, that was its exact intent. "Just stay away from her, okay? You have no reason to hang out with her other than for the sake of just being plain cruel.

"I have a reason," he insisted, "I think she's cool. And for your information, she was the one who started hanging out with me."

"Yeah?" I challenged. "And what do you think she'd wanna do with you if she found out the truth about Erica."

Ethan went still.

"Yeah, guess that never came up in conversation, huh? They were best friends until you and your little psychotic alpha pack showed up."

"And who's gonna tell her?" he rebutted. "You? Do you really think she'd believe that?"

My teeth gritted again. "Just stay away from her."

"And what if I don't. What are you gonna do?" Ethan challenged.

"You really wanna know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna break off an extra-large branch of Mountain Ash, wrap it in wolfsbane, roll it in mistletoe and shove it up your freaking werewolf ass!"

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Ethan looked a bit scared by my threat.

Unfortunately, our conversation was cut short by Coach entering the lockerroom.

"Asses on the field, everyone!"

★

"What the hell are you doing, Stilinski?!"

My locker door slammed shut. Valerie's firey glare was trained on me like it hadn't been in a long time. I was so surprised by the fact that she was even approaching me, I didn't even register what she was saying.

"I – what?"

"Ethan told me what you said to him!" Valerie crossed her arms. "What the hell makes you think you have the right to control who I can be friends with?!" Valerie's loud tone caught the attention of several people in the hall.

"I- I don't. I was just trying to protect you," I said in a hushed whisper, frantically looking around at the people staring at us.

Valerie's eyebrows rose. "Protect me?!"

"Ethan and Aiden are dangerous, okay?" I placed my hand on Valerie's shoulder but she shrugged it off, a humorless laugh escaping her lips.

"Dangerous? Ethan is a sweetheart! Give me one legitimate reason I shouldn't be hanging out with him."

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I couldn't spring on Valerie that they were werewolves who killed her best friend in the middle of a school hallway. And Ethan was right, she wouldn't even believe me if I did. I could only imagine what that would've looked like from her perspective. She'd probably never speak to me again.

Valerie scoffed. "Thought so. Now stay the hell away from me, Stilinski." She pointed a warning finger at me and left.

I sighed and banged my head against my locker. Couldn't something in my life go right for once?

gif belongs to @pterparkers on tumblr