Empathy ⌯ Stiles Stilinski

[14] the anger management

┌───── ∘₊✧₊∘ ─────┐

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍
the anger management

└───── ∘₊✧₊∘ ─────┘

( heart monitor; pt.i )

IT'S a task to try ignoring Stiles as he leans against the row of lockers, Maddie wishing that her locker opened the other way or that he was on the other side so that she wouldn't have to fake her attentive expressions. She's busied herself with finding her economics book, one which she spotted about three minutes ago——yes, this has been going on for three minutes, actually longer if you count the time Stiles spent festering on the way into the school. It's hard having her best friends fight, they rarely do, especially since Scott is so calm and there's barely anything that they do to each other that actually makes them fight.

This werewolf thing is really screwing them over and there's a full moon happening in less than a week.

"—I mean, my dad got hurt, Mads, it's just—"

Maddie sighs, deciding to just get her textbook before lunch ends. She closes her locker, turning to face Stiles with an annoyed brow raise.

After the parent/teacher conferences were over, Maddie had been leaning against the car as she waited for her mom and the sheriff to finish their conversation so that she could say goodbye before her mom went off to the airport to catch her flight. It was probably approaching the end of their conversation when a mountain lion——like an actual mountain lion——decided a roam around the high school's parking lot would be a good idea. It started a panic in the crowds before being eliminated by Chris Argent, which hadn't comforted Scott in the slightest——finding out that his girlfriend's dad, who don't forget hunts his kind, just happens to carry a gun wherever he went. And also happens to be a very good shot.

But Noah had been hurt in the process, with a car reversing into him during people's panic to get the hell out of dodge. He spent the night in the hospital before being cleared and told to take it easy for a couple weeks until he healed. But still, getting injured was enough for Stiles to hold a grudge against Scott for not doing anything to help his dad. He had spent the whole of yesterday ignoring him in class, ignoring him at lunch, even ignoring his texts. Maddie doesn't like being in the middle, she hates confrontation but this is somehow so much worse and she would much rather have to witness Scott and Stiles hash it out then deal with this for any longer.

She had tried to counter Stiles' point of hating Scott because he didn't help by saying that she had also been there, but Stiles didn't let it get passed him and argued that she doesn't have any super abilities that would have helped save his dad. She had replied with a sad agreement.

"—and if I have to stay mad at him for him to realise what he's done," Stiles says, giving a careless shrug. "Then I will."

Maddie rolls her eyes. She understands, she really does, having seen one of her many father figures get injured was something she never wants to witness again, but Scott shouldn't be held responsible for everything that happens or everything he can't prevent. He had managed to stop Allison from getting run over in the panic, that was a good thing, but Stiles doesn't care about that good thing. His dad is all he has left ever since his mom died, so Maddie can understand why he's going a little overboard, he's protective, it's something Maddie admires about him.

Maybe the only positive of that night is that now that mountain lion is getting blamed for all the recent animal attacks, from Laura Hale to the most recent murder, the video store clerk. No supernatural guesses murmuring around Beacon Hills, aside from the trio and possibly the hunters, who definitely know better than to assume that a measly mountain lion was responsible for such extreme massacres.