Stay with Me (Stalia)

Chapter 11

“I never want to do that ever again,” Malia said as she and Scott exited the Sheriff’s station. Seeing the Sheriff reaction to their news had almost broken her, especially since she was barely holding it together in the first place.

“Let’s hope that was the last time,” Scott said with a grimace. Parrish had offered to give them a ride back to the Loft, but they decided they both could use some fresh air. So they were walking to Scott’s house to get his bike. They walked without talking for a while, both immersed in their own thoughts. Finally, Malia broke the silence, 

“How did you meet Stiles? 

“He never told you?”

“Nope." 

“He’s probably embarrassed. We met in the sandbox when we were around 3. I had built this incredible sand castle that I was extremely proud of. Enter Stiles, he comes racing into the sandbox, not even noticing as he runs right through my castle. Needless to say, I got upset and started yelling and crying which made Stiles start yelling and crying back. A typical 3-year-old meltdown where we both thought the world was ending. Our mothers came rushing over and quickly figured out what had happened. Trying not to laugh they encouraged us to build a castle together that was even better than the one Stiles had trampled. They even sat down in the sand with us and helped us. Stiles and I became instant friends and our moms also hit it off.” Scott told the story with a smile.

“You remember all of that?”

“No, not really, but goodness knows our mothers loved telling that story. I’ve heard it enough that it’s almost like I remember it.”

“Did you know her well? Stiles’ mom? He never talks about her.”

“Yeah, she was like a second mom to me. She was beautiful, Stiles gets his brown eyes from her. She also was one of the kindest persons I have ever met. She never got mad at us when we did something stupid, but she would give us this disappointed look that had us scrambling to make up for what we did wrong.”

“She sounds amazing.”

“She was, and she would’ve really liked you Malia.” Malia felt a sudden feeling of loss for the woman whom she had never gotten the chance to meet.

 “I wish I could’ve met her.” She said quietly

“Losing her was one of the hardest things I had ever experienced, but my pain was nothing compared to what Stiles and his dad went through. They sort of lost her before she died you know.”

“Because of the Dementia?” Malia had researched it in length as it was one of the few things she knew about Claudia Stilinski.

“Yes, Frontotemporal Dementia caused Mrs. Stilinski to change a lot. The main way that it affects people is in their personality and behavior. At first the changes were not as noticeable, it almost just seemed like she had depression, but as she grew worse and worse it was a lot harder to watch. Mrs. Stilinski had always been such an incredibly kind and caring and compassionate person, but her disease took that away from her."

"It can cause lack of judgment and inhibition, apathy, lack of awareness of thinking or behaviors, which all contribute to overall increasingly inappropriate actions." Malia recited slightly mechanically remembering what she had read online.

"Yes, the hardest for Stiles was the apathy. He suddenly found himself with a mother that no longer had the patience or kindness to deal with her hyper young son."

"Poor Stiles" Malia had thought about all of this when she looked up the disease, but hearing Scott's first-hand account made it all the more real.