I'm really looking forward to completing this story so I really hope you all like it. This chapter is shorter than the other ones will be, sorry!
So please, please favorite/follow and review :)
It had been four months since Lydia's first semester at College started and she could slowly feel herself begin to wear away. Lydia didn't feel like herself anymore, she couldn't sleep properly at night, she couldn't stop thinking if Kira was okay with the skin-walkers, she couldn't stop wondering what Derek and Malia were off fighting or what girl Stiles was hooking up with. She shivered at the thought. No-one had even heard from Kira since senior year when she left Beacon Hills for the skin-walkers and Lydia was scared something bad had happened. She wondered if Scott thought this too. Malia decided not to do College in the end, she paired up with her long-lost cousin Derek and now they travel and help protect the cities that are affected by supernatural creatures. Now Lydia's at Stanford and Scott and Stiles are both at San Jose.
Stiles. Lydia couldn't get her mind off of him even if she tried. Every thought she had of Stiles consumed her, she thought of him when she woke up and when she fell asleep. It was obsessive, really but Lydia couldn't help it. She wondered if he would just randomly turn up at her flat to say 'Hi', but he didn't. They texted often but there was nothing she craved more than the presence of him. Right before she left for College he told her how he felt, he poured his heart out to her telling her everything he has ever thought and felt but Lydia couldn't find it in her to say any of it back. So she let it slip. Thankfully their relationship didn't become awkward or sad he just acted like it never happened which Lydia was thankful for, she had loving issues.
She tried hard to be normal, tried to pretend she wasn't a banshee but she was and the beautiful red-headed girl that passed everyone in the hall with a smile had felt her best-friends death come and swallow her whole. How does something like that just stop? It stays with you like a heavy bag, constantly weighing you down and making your muscles ache. But here, in another city she thought she could rebuild herself. There were no horrible promotions here, in Stanford, or so she hoped. She could feel her powers gnawing at her mind and stopping her from sleep, her relief was hearing Stiles' sweet voice on the phone. She wanted to cry every time she thought of him being twenty miles north of her in San Jose. It made her core ache and heart throb.
Lydia had friends. She had her two roommates that were nice enough, they had movie nights every Tuesday and hit the town every Friday and Saturday night despite Lydia's anxiety that she would fail the semester if she wasn't working every single minute of every single day.
"Are we still on for tonight?" Lydia calls out to her roommates.
One of her roommates is a girl, her name is Amelia. Amelia majors in Media studies, she's tall like Malia, her skin bronzed and her hair too dark for her complexion but nevertheless pretty. She also lives with a boy named Conrad. But before anyone could say 'Ooh la la' she had to tell people he was gay. Because he is. He's broad and muscly, light hair but caramel colored skin. He's gorgeous, Lydia often found it sad he was gay because if she ever had the chance she would date him. If she could ever forget about Stiles.
It's Friday and Lydia was itching to get alcohol flowing through her veins. She could feel something crawling up her spine and making its way out her throat and she needed it to stop.
"Yes, I need to be grinding on a boy before I combust!" Conrad calls to her, Lydia laughs and shakes her head. Conrad has the best sense of humor, just below Stiles' of course.
"Too much information, Connie!" Amelia calls back. Lydia drops her pen on the assignment she was working on and stands up from her desk, pushing her chair back. She wanders out to the small hallway and hangs by her door. Amelia comes out of her room and so does Conrad.
"Great, what time?" Lydia asks, she tries to forget about the weird feeling that's making her tense.
"Let's say... in two hours time?" Conrad suggests, Lydia and Amelia nod in agreement.
Then Lydia's heading for the bathroom to shower. She lets the hot water wash off her day. A seminar and a three hour lecture. She washes her hair, ridding it of hairspray and car fums from the city. She sighs as she lets the water trickle down her back. She thinks of Stiles and if he's getting ready for a night out or if he'll be having a quiet one in with Scott. She thinks of what girl he'll be getting off tonight if he does go out. Thinking of Stiles reminds her how he hasn't text her today. She turns the shower off. The shower is her time to think and dwell, and she can't afford to think because it hurts too much.
The two hours it takes Lydia to get ready passes quickly and when she's finished she's impressed. She wears a white floral dress that stops at the top of her thigh, the dress is loose and doesn't hug her curves but allows her cleavage to be seen. She styles it with a small, nude clutch bag and matching shoes. Her makeup bronzing her skin and making her cheekbones stand out. She's about to check if everyone is ready when her phone starts ringing. It's Stiles face-timing her. She sighs, goes to shut her door and swipes to answer it. She props the phone by her mirror on her desk and stands before it as she prepares herself to talk to Stiles.
"Lyds-" He starts when his face appears on her IPhone. He's in a black t-shirt and jeans, he looks like he's about to go out too. "Sorry were you just heading out?"
"Yeah, but I have a few minutes to spare. What's up?" She slides into the chair at her desk so her face is closer to the screen. She tries to look for Stiles' moles or his amber eyes but it's to pixelated. She tries to ignore the wave of disappointment that travels through her body that she won't get too analyse his face for another day.
"I haven't spoke to you in a while." He smiles, he slides in front of the camera, sitting close like she is.
"We texted yesterday." She tells him, although she believes texting isn't the same as talking over the phone. He smiles and shakes his head at her. She suddenly wants to tell him that she misses him, that she thinks she loves him too.
"Texted, not spoke. How was your day?" He asks, Lydia is conscious of the time and doesn't want Amelia to walk in in a short dress and all made up because Stiles may fall for her. She scolds herself for being paranoid.
"Boring and long. Yours?" She answers short and sweet, feeling bad that she can't speak to Stiles for longer like they usually do.
"Interesting and short." He juxtaposes. He smiles like he's joking, Lydia smiles back. "Where are you off too?"
"It's a Friday and we're nineteen. Where'd you think?" He doesn't answer so she answers for him. "Partying, obviously."
"Obviously." He smirks, and Lydia has to literally force her eyes away before she cries or erupts into hysterical laughter because she misses him so much. She breathes in and looks at him again.
"What about you?"
"Same as you. Scotty here is still in mourning over Kira." Stiles lowers his voice, she nods in understanding. Then he says, "Are you in mourning over me?" Her heart pounds in her ears, her mouth goes dry. Of course she is, she's infatuated with the boy. She's in mourning over someone who is still alive. But before she can answer Conrad comes into her room, nodding his head as if to say, 'You ready?'.
"I got to go, but have a good time tonight." She tells him, she's not sure she means it, because having a good time to him might mean sex with a nameless pretty girl.
"You too, stay safe. I love you." He says, she can't say it back because she knows if she admits it there really is no going back. She smiles and blows a kiss then the screen goes black. Lydia draws a deep breath in, he must think there is no admiration for him in her heart. When in reality he is her heart.
She leaves her room, trying to allow her mind to drift to what the night will hold. She tries to decide if she wants to hook up and have heartless sex. It wouldn't be the first time she's done it in hopes of making her feel better. Her heart stops when Stiles texts her a few hours later, Did I mention how amazing you looked tonight? So Lydia decides it then, she needs to occupy the void in her heart that can only be filled by Stiles, she'll hook up with the first man that tries to dance with her because she needs to feel something other than her growing love for Stiles or the feeling of dread knotting in her stomach.
A boy starts dancing with her. She has found her companion.
The morning crawls to a beginning and the light of dawn starts to leak through her window that was opened a crack in the middle of the night. Her curtains blow as the breeze waltzes through the room making the air more breathable. Lydia drifts awake with the arm of a stranger draped over her body. She shivers and slips out of the bed, making the stranger stir but settle again. Her mouth tastes like stale alcohol and her chest is filled with regret and longing. She only wants Stiles to wake up too.
She slips on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt covering her naked body she so easily wasted lasted night. She wants to hate herself for letting men take advantage of her, but she can't. She can't feel anything but a pang of lust toward Stiles and what they could've had if she had been brave enough to tell him how she felt. But that's not in Lydia's nature to be like that. She hates herself for it.
She walks into the kitchen and drinks some water then sits out on the tiny balcony in the morning light. The air is crisp, the slight wind whipping her hair and making her ears turn red. She watches the group of girls in their ridiculously short party dresses stumble home with their shoes in their hands. She watches the early morning joggers run down the path that lead to the local park. Lydia sighs, her breath clouding in the air as she shivers at the thought of sleeping with that guy last night. A beautiful stranger. But would she do it again? In a heartbeat because she just wants to feel something.
A dull throb spreads behind her eyes from lack of sleep so she wanders back into her room and climbs into the bed. Her skin cool against the boys. When she presses her skin against his body he turns away so Lydia starts to cry. Her tears streak down the side of her face as she lays on her back, they soak the pillow. She knew all she had to do was text Stiles and everything would be sorted, but it wouldn't be. Not unless they were together, as a couple and in presence. She was shaking and crying and sobbing and she couldn't help herself. Salty tears pooling in her ears and hair and her small hand clutched helplessly at her chest as her body was racked with sobs. She considered texting Stiles but didn't know what she'd say.
'Oh, I had meaningless sex last night, like I do a lot of nights actually in hopes to get over you xoxo Lydia.'
Of course she wasn't going to text him.
Then a strong wave of nausea washes over her. It starts at her stomach and rises to her chest, then her throat and lodges there. The unnerving feeling sits in her toes and Lydia wipes away her tears. Sleep it off, she tells herself but it feels like something is trying to claw its way out of her mouth and won't stop until it's free.
She feels as though she's about to scream.