Usually Lydia staring at him as if he was the most fascinating thing in the world would be a dream come true, but stiles had this lingering feeling that she was searching for something.
"Um, Lydia—" Stiles trailed off trying not to make it obvious that he knew that she was starring a hole in the side of his head
"Yeah." she said with a little too much eagerness.
"Is everything ok?" He asked briefly taking his eyes off the road to glance at her.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" Lydia is almost certain that stiles caught her staring at him like a creeper.
"Um, well huh... You've been fidgeting in your seat and staring at me since we got in the car." He said looking over at her one more time.
It takes Lydia a minute to come up with a believable lie because let's face it, she was staring at him. In her defense Stiles has been looking extra hot lately now that he decided to spend more time at the gym. His bulging biceps weren't lost on her. Whatever he was doing over the summer was definitely working.
Lydia made a mental note to thank Scott for dragging Stiles along with him to the gym.
"I was just—"she stopped mouth half open.
Stiles just cut his eyes at her and squinted. "Yeah." he asked waiting for her to finish.
"Well, I was just wondering if you knew what we were looking for." Lydia shrugged hoping he bought it.
"Um, not really, Scott seems to think that something isn't right, so we're basically on a supernatural stakeout."
"Uh-huh." she said doubtfully.
The blue Jeep known as Roscoe came to a stop as Stiles and Lydia arrive at their destination.
"What you don't believe me?" he asked a bit defensively.
"No. that's not what I said." Lydia said her eyebrows.
For the past two weeks, the occasional bickering and arguments between them started to happen more often than not. Usually they would argue and Stiles will make a stupid joke and they would laugh and things would get back to normal, as of lately Stiles would get defensive over the smallest things. Normally he was the type of person that whenever you were in a bad mood you could count on him to say or do something that would instantly make you feel better. However, lately he has been all around unpleasant, and it doesn't help that he has more bags under his eyes than customs at the airport.
"You didn't have to!" Stiles yelled.
"What the hell is your problem?" Lydia yelled back no longer trying to hide how completely done with his attitude she was.
Stiles only response was the reclining of his seat as he stared out of his window.
"You've been acting like a complete jerk lately." Her voice cracked at the end.
Stiles tried to interrupt but she held up a hand.
"You've been a complete jerk to not only Scott, but to Allison, Isaac, your dad, and..." she paused trying to wipe the tear that managed to escape her eye. "Me."
Stiles turned to look at her now and for the first time she notices the unshed tears that are developing in his eyes and the dark circles that are underneath.
She grabs his hand and squeezes. "Stiles, what's going on with you?" looking at him with a mixture of concern and amazement. God he's beautiful, but he's so fragile and broken right now. All she wants to do is hold him.
Stiles opens his mouth to speak, but is interrupted by his phone ringing.
Wolfboy:
Found something. Get back here a.s.a.p.
Stiles tucks his phone back into his pocket and glances over at Lydia whose looking at him with concern in her eyes,
"What?" she says voice still shaky from fear and from the tears, she had shed earlier.
"That was Scott, he said he found something." He said voice barely above a whisper.
Lydia noticing how completely drained he was.
"Stiles—" Lydia started hoping he will answer her question.
"Later." is all he said before turning to start the Jeep as they head back to Scott's place.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The drive to Scott's house was quiet. Lydia knew that she wanted to find out what the hell has been going on with him. However, his blank face expression (and the fact that he avoided her gaze like the plague) made it impossible for her to muster up the courage to say anything.
They arrived at Scott's house and Stiles didn't waste time and just gets out the car without even opening Lydia's door for her.
Lydia stared at him with her mouth slowly forming an 'O' shape.
In complete disbelief and more even concern, she gets out and stalks over to Scott's front door.
It may seem like she is being a drama queen, but anybody who knows Stiles knows that he always takes the opportunity to open the door for Lydia. He was such a gentleman in that regard, she appreciated the gesture because Jackson and Aiden both looked at her cross eyed whenever she took a second too long to get out of the car. "Ugh Assholes," She thought to herself as she made her way into the McCall residence.
The gang was all here, well everybody except Derek who left town with Cora.
Scott greeted her and Stiles, but he must have noticed the tension between them because he couldn't help but mouth to her "Is everything ok."
Lydia could have told him the truth, but because she knew that he would detect the lie almost as fast as Stiles would, she just decided to give me a small smile and nod.
They proceeded on with the pack meeting and Lydia couldn't help but notice the dark circles under stiles' eyes had gotten worse. She furrowed her eyebrows with worry. That's when she knew that come hell or high water she was going to find out what was going on with him.
"So, my mom called me to the hospital, and she told me about a body that was in the morgue and it had some type of claw marks on its back and stomach." Scott said as he looked around the room at everyone.
Lydia couldn't believe how quickly he adjusted to his new role as alpha. Granted he was still self-conscious, especially with the weight of everything being on his shoulders, but she thought he was handling things pretty well.
"But when I got there to look at the body I noticed that the claws marks weren't from a werewolf."
He says looking just as confused as the rest of the pack.
"At least I don't think it's a werewolf..." Scott trailed off before Stiles interrupted.
"How do you not know if it's a werewolf, Scott?" He says with obvious annoyance. "Aren't alpha's supposed to pick up on that sort of thing?" He ended with an infuriated look on his face.
Everyone just stared at Stiles in disbelief over the sudden outburst. They knew how quickly this was going to escalate.
"And here we go." Isaac mutters before heading into the kitchen.
Scott takes a moment to take in his best friends tone. "Like I said Stiles, the claw marks were claw marks, but they didn't look like the claws of a werewolf," he said with a hint of anger and some annoyance.
Stiles just chuckled and walked in the opposite direction of Scott.
Before things got out of hand, Allison decided to speak.
"Maybe it's a werewolf, but it's mixed with something else," she suggested glancing over at Lydia and then back to Scott.
"Like what?" Isaac chimed in from the kitchen.
"I don't know but that's what we need to find out." She said matter of factly.
Everyone nodded in agreement as they all slowly but surely left the McCall residence. However, before Lydia could leave Scott pulled her aside.
"Hey, um, what's up with Stiles?" he said voice below a whisper. He was obviously still upset about the altercation between them earlier. If anybody had faith in him as an alpha, it would've definitely be his best friend.
Lydia noticed it and gave him a reassuring smile. "I don't know but I'm going to figure it out."
She gives him a hug and heads to the jeep.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The car ride to Lydia's was quiet and awkward.
Stiles noticed how Lydia couldn't stop bouncing her knee and how she had her arms wrapped tightly across her chest.
He hated that he made her feel like she had to be on guard because of his random attacks of anger lately. He thought about how much of an asshole he was to Scott and suddenly his was even more disgusted with himself then before.
When they pulled in Lydia's drive way. He opened his mouth in an attempt to speak, but Lydia interrupted him.
"You said we could talk later, now is later." she said looking out the window at her empty home.
Her eyes landed back on him and reluctantly he nods and agrees to the talk.
