Nightmares ~ Teen Wolf [Book 3]

What Would Scott McCall Do?

A laundry list of reasons to regret joining cross country was growing with every bump and pothole. The heavy stench of B.O. in the air was another bullet point that had been added on. About twenty minutes into this ride from hell was when Maya began to wonder what she was thinking when she filled out the form to join the team. Being physically fit in a town where she almost died every other weekend was important, but not at the cost of listening to Jared complain about being car sick for the last fifteen minutes. She should have joined field hockey.

"I'm going to take that iPad and smack you both upside the head with it." Maya grumbled from the seat in front of Scott and Stiles. Her broken headphones meant being forced to endure a vocabulary lesson for a good chunk of this ride. At first it hadn't bothered the teen, but now she was starting to get testy and if she heard one more obscure word that almost never got used in daily life, she might just strangle someone with the wires of her aforementioned headphones.

Stiles subtly leaned back out of reach with his eyes still trained on the device. "I almost forgot how bitchy you get on long bus rides."

"Ignore her. Give me the next word." Scott requested as he tilted his head to dodge the earbuds being tossed over the back of the seat.

The pale teen swiped to the next word, "Incongruous."

"Uhm..Can you use it in a sentence?"

Maya groaned loudly, but unfortunately had nothing else to toss at other boy unless she wanted to go digging through her backpack. "Please put me out of my misery."

Stiles snorted, "Yes. Yes, I can. It's completely incongruous that we're sitting on a bus right now, on our way to some stupid cross-country meet after what just happened. Incongruous." 

Despite being irritated, Maya could hold in her own snort. She tried and failed to cover it with a cough, but Scott could tell it was faked. He flung her headphones back at her landing them directly on her face. The mermaid flipped off the werewolf before letting her arm flop back down onto the seat, too tired to even bother moving the tangle of wires from their perch on her face.

"Out of place, absurd, ridiculous."

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Nice, next word. Darach, it's a noun..."

The werewolf gave him a blank look, not providing a response. Tension thick in the air made Maya find the energy to sit up, knowing that Stiles had crossed an unspoken line put in place before they went on this trip. The sentence he'd used for incongruous had made her laugh because of how fitting it was, but bringing up the darach had gone too far. 

"We have to talk about it at some point. And we're going to be on this bus for like five hours, so why not now?"

Maya cast a worrisome glance to her supernatural friend. Just because it had to be discussed at some point didn't mean now was the right time. Not with fresh wounds, both physical and emotional, carved into their lives so recently. Healing took time, especially for those finding themselves weighed down with guilt. One look at Scott was all Maya needed to know that those wounds still burned and it wouldn't surprised the mermaid at all if he was intentionally letting the pain fester as a self-inflicted punishment. Irritation melted into the background. Maya realized that now was not the time to let petty annoyances sour emotions. Scott needed support right now. So if Maya needed to put on a fake smile and study, she would do it so that the werewolf could have a stable emotional foundation to stand upon while he found his footing once again. 

"Gimme that." The brunette snatched the iPad from Stiles. "Next word: intransigent."

Corners of his mouth quirking up at the gesture, Scott began to give the next definition. "Stubborn, obstinate-"