Stay with Me (Stalia)

Chapter 14

Lydia woke to her own screams and a pain unlike anything she had ever experienced. She knew what it meant, she could feel it. It was a feeling she had experienced only once before and had hoped to never feel again. Try as she might she couldn’t avoid what it meant, the consequences were too dire. Stiles was dying.

“Lydia?” A sleepy voice next to her asked. Lydia had let Malia sleep over since she knew she hated going home and had slept a lot at the Stilinski’s, plus she didn’t really want to be alone either. In truth, Lydia had been just as surprised by her offer as Malia had looked when she accepted it. The two girls may act civil towards each other, but Lydia knew there was tension there. So she wasn’t sure why she invited Malia over, maybe because they had bonded a bit that day or maybe because Malia was pack and she was hurting for the same reason as Lydia and it didn’t make sense for them to be alone. Regardless, she was there and Lydia had just woken her up with her screaming.

“It’s fine, just a nightmare. Sorry, I woke you.” Malia sat fully up looking at Lydia with an annoyingly concerned expression.

“Just a nightmare?”

“Yes just a nightmare, I’m just going to get a glass of water” Lydia abruptly stood up. She knew Malia could tell that she was lying, but she couldn’t say it out loud yet. She would tell the pack tomorrow morning, not that the information would change anything. Knowing would only cause them more pain, not help them find him sooner, but still they deserved to know what she knew.

She walked downstairs to get some water, but instead was distracted by her keys on the counter. Knowing she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep that night she felt the need to go for a drive. It was almost 5am and she figured she could go grab some bagels and coffee for the pack, maybe by the time she had finished it would be an appropriate hour to go over to Derek’s.

Lydia opened the door of her house and found Malia leaning against her car.

“Malia” Lydia sighed, “I told you I was fine, now go back to sleep.”

“You think I was asleep? I don’t think I slept more than 20 minutes the entire night.”

“I’m going to get food and coffee for the pack and then head over to the loft. Do you wanna join?” Lydia asked, resigned to the fact that the girl was not going to leave her alone.

“Yes please, anything to distract myself from my thoughts.” The two girls got in the car and drove in silence for a while, then Malia began talking,

“When Stiles and I first went public in school everyone was less than pleased.”

“How do you know?”

“I love being a werecoyote most of the time, but sometimes it's more of a curse than a blessing. Especially when it means I can hear every little piece of gossip whispered about me.” Lydia couldn’t imagine it. She knew people talked about her, teenagers were not nearly as sneaky as they thought they were, but she would never want to hear exactly what they were saying.

“What did they say?”

“Some said I wasn’t pretty enough to be with Stiles or that Stiles wasn’t hot enough to be with me. I didn’t care so much about these because I know we are both attractive people and I think there are  a lot of factors other than looks that are more important.” Lydia glanced over to see the girl looking at her hands and twisting them together. She wondered if Malia had picked up that nervous habit from Stiles or if she did it naturally.

“What talk did you care about?”

“Some people said I wasn’t good enough to Stiles, which was true. I mean I’m trying to be good enough for him, but I was worried that might not be enough.”