A/N: This has been sitting in my WIP folder for almost four months. I started writing it before I even started my current fic, and it's been bugging me A LOT that it's just been sitting there unfinished. I'm having massive writer's block with my other stories right now so I got it out to take a look at it, and I actually finished it! I feel incredibly accomplished.
Excuse the lame title, too. I can write and write all day long but I really suck at titling things.
Ever since she could remember, Lydia had lived next to the Hales. Well, that wasn't completely accurate. When they were younger, the Hales had a big house out in the preserve, but lost most of it to a fire about ten years back. Nobody was hurt, though, it was just some faulty wiring in the wall, and thank God no one was home at the time. Talia and William had taken their family to a benefit dinner, and when they got home, their house was gone. They had, by chance, bought the house next to the Martins'.
The Hales had lost everything. Peter, his wife, and their daughter Malia had gotten an apartment downtown while Talia, William, and their four children had gotten the house next door to Lydia. Lydia was really excited to get new neighbors. She was fifteen at the time and she wasn't like normal girls. She had always been a little odd. She didn't fit in with the other girls at school because, even though she was pretty and the Martins were loaded, she kept to herself a lot. She was more artsy than the other girls, and she enjoyed her books a little bit more. Lydia was also a genius. She had an IQ of 170 and was at the top of the class. Girls at school didn't really like Lydia, though, mostly because of her friendship with Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski. They had hung around ever since they were little, and Lydia had a standing Saturday date with Scott and Stiles to play Call of Duty.
By chance, it was Derek's room that had been across from Lydia's. Lydia knew of the Hales, though. Derek was in her grade, while his sister, Laura, was almost three years older and his other sister, Cora, and her twin brother, Jamie, were a year younger. And everything had started when Lydia picked up her whiteboard her mother had bought for her pre-algebra class and wrote a simple Hello on it. The next time Derek was looking over, she raised it up in hopes that he'd see it. Indeed, he did see it, and scribbled on a piece of paper, Hello. That's when everything started.
It was how they communicated. And at school, Derek and Lydia didn't really interact with one another. Derek was popular, and why wouldn't he be? Even at fifteen, he was pretty cute and on the basketball and baseball teams. Practically every girl was in love with him. Lydia, however, went with a different crowd. And yeah, she had been exposed to Derek because Lydia was friends with Cora, Jamie and Malia, but she and Derek weren't exactly friends. But when they were in their respective rooms, it was like the whole world melted away.
They were seventeen now. It was early winter, which meant basketball was happening soon, and therefore, Derek was busy. Lydia was busy studying for midterms – because Lydia took her studies very seriously, okay? She was at the top of her class for a reason. And even though Stiles was trying to dethrone her, she was on top and intended to stay there.
She was flipping through her French textbook when she saw Derek on the phone inside his room. He was pacing the floor, which was something that he only did when he was agitated, and Lydia knew that he was probably talking to Jennifer. Stupid Jennifer Blake was the most popular girl in school. Of course they'd be together, with Derek being the most popular guy and Jennifer being the most popular girl. Aware of how creepy it looked but not really caring, Lydia watched Derek pace as he talked into the phone. Then he ended the call and threw the phone across the room. When he glanced into her room, Lydia held up her whiteboard. Everything okay?
So much drama, he wrote on his. Lydia noticed Derek roll his eyes.
Sorry, she wrote. He offered a sympathetic smile, so she erased that and wrote, Anything I can do?
Derek just shook his head. Lydia just smiled back at him and then he closed his curtains.
The next day at school, she noticed Derek standing with his jock friends. Lydia hated those guys with a passion, but not for the reason you might think. They harassed her because of the way she was. Because she was more of a bookworm, more artsy, and quiet, everybody assumed that she was stuck up and thought she was better than everybody else. That was so not the case. Lydia was really nice and friendly, once you got to know her. She just liked to be alone sometimes. And Lydia had absolutely no fucks to give whether or not Jackson Whittemore liked her or not. She knew he was still sore about the time that he had tried to ask her out and she had turned him down quickly.
"Hey, Lyds, is everything okay?" Cora asked from behind her. Lydia shook every thought out of her head and licked her lips before glancing at Cora.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well," Jamie said, watching Lydia closely, "You've only been standing there and staring at our brother for the last five minutes."
Lydia shook her head, "Everything's fine."
"I hate them, too," Cora said. "I mean, I hate Jackson the most of all. He thinks that he's better than us."
Cora had been one of Lydia's best friends for a long time, and Cora was pretty vocal about her dislike for her brother's friends. Cora was a big tomboy, and even though she was only a sophomore to Lydia's junior, everybody made a big deal about Cora. Cora and Lydia had clicked over the fact that, even though they were pretty different from one another, they were not what people at that school thought girls should be, and they enjoyed being different. Cora was involved with Lydia, Stiles, and Scott's weekend afternoon video game tournaments, and she was pretty damn good at it.
"Jackson's just insecure," Lydia said. While she had liked Jackson when he asked her out, the main reason she had turned him down was because she knew he wasn't asking for a relationship. It was no secret that Jackson was a player and he was never with the same girl more than a couple of weeks. He just wanted to get into her pants because nobody else ever had. He wanted to get there first. Jackson was popular and good looking, but he just wasn't what Lydia wanted.
One thing that Lydia wanted, though, was to be noticed. Not noticed in a way that she was all into being an attention whore, a look at me kinda girl. She may have hung out with Scott and Stiles, but they just didn't look at her like she was a girl. She was just one of the guys to them, and while she was glad they were that comfortable around her, she wanted to be seen as a girl.
"He's also a douchebag," Jamie said, running a hand through his short brown hair. "Seriously, I don't know what anybody even sees in him."
The bell rang just then, signaling class. Everybody scampered off so they wouldn't be late, and Lydia would just have to put her thoughts on hold.
-x-
Lydia hated lunchtime. In fact, she hated it with a passion. While everybody left Cora alone because she was Derek's little sister, they had absolutely no qualms about saying things about Lydia.
"You'd look a lot better if you dressed nicer once in a while," Jennifer was saying to Lydia that day. Jennifer, with her perfect brunette hair and her perfect makeup, wearing a teal miniskirt that probably cost more than Lydia made in a month. Yeah, her parents were loaded, but they were also very old school. Lydia even had a job and made her own car insurance payments. Jennifer was also from a rich family, but she was a spoiled little bitch who got everything she could ever want and then some.
"Don't mess with her, Jen," Derek was saying, his arm around Jennifer's waist. The whole picture was something that Lydia hated. "I don't see anything wrong with the way Lydia's dressed."
Lydia was wearing a simple yellow dress with short sleeves and a flowy skirt. She liked it, that's why she was wearing it, and her strawberry blonde hair was in a French braid down her back. She saw absolutely nothing wrong with the way she was dressed.
"It's because you live next door to her, you have to be exposed to her more than anybody else. You've just gotten used to it, you poor baby," Jennifer was saying, pulling Derek in for a kiss. Cora made a gagging noise and Lydia looked around, wishing that she could just disappear. Instead, she just turned around and made her way out of the lunchroom.
She hid in the library. Lydia liked it there. She loved books, and books never talked badly about her or made fun of her. Books didn't care that there were times that she hated people. Books didn't care that most of the time, Lydia would've rather been in a made up world instead of this one. When Lydia's older brother, Tommy, went off to college last year, she lost her only security. Tommy had been one of the popular ones, too, and he and Derek had been pretty close. Tommy wasn't here to make sure that nobody picked on his little sister anymore, so Jennifer (and every other popular girl there was) figured it gave them free reign.
"Lydia?" The voice was coming through the rows of books, and even though old Mrs. Carter gave Derek a stern look, he just ignored it. Derek found her in-between two rows of books, in the mythology section.
"What do you want, Derek?" Lydia asked bitterly. "Go back to your girlfriend and your clique. We wouldn't want anybody to know that you lowered your standards to talk to the likes of me."
Derek sighed, squatting down to sit beside Lydia on the floor, "It's not like that, you know."
"I know what it is though, Derek. They're your friends. You deserve a girl who looks like Jennifer does. She's always immaculate and put together, and…and perfect."
She was close to crying. She had known for a while that she had feelings for Derek, but there's no way he would want her when he had someone like Jennifer. She obviously made him happy, as bitchy as she was to Lydia. And even though Lydia was pretty sure she was in love with Derek, she wanted him to be happy – that's all that really mattered to her.
"Hey," Derek said, watching Lydia closely. Lydia looked up, willing the tears not to come, when Derek said, "You're gonna find your special someone someday, Lydia. You'll see."
That just made her irrationally angry, "So what, Derek? I'm good enough to talk to when we're at home but I'm not good enough to talk to in public?" She knew that had nothing to do with anything, but her brain wasn't thinking things rationally right now.
"That's not what I meant," Derek said.
Lydia knew that she was just blowing things out of proportion, but she wasn't really sure what had gotten into her. She blinked a couple of times to get rid of the few stray tears that had the nerve to show up and just said, "Just go, Derek, okay? I bet Miss Perfect is wondering where you went."
There was nothing but silence as Derek got up off the floor and went on his way. With her precious books, Lydia sighed heavily and let the tears fall.
-x-
"Where were you at lunch?" Stiles was asking Lydia after school that day. Lydia had agreed to give him a ride home because his jeep was in the shop again. It seemed like that stupid jeep was in the shop more than out of it. But then again, it was older than they were. It had belonged to Stiles' mom, when she was alive, and he had never been able to part with it. The sheriff had kept it after Claudia died and Stiles had been driving it ever since he got his license when he turned sixteen.
"Library," Lydia said, wishing she could just go home and hide under her quilt. But she couldn't; she had a shift at the coffee shop at four, so she had just enough time to drop off her stuff and have a snack. Both of her parents were at the office, and she knew they wouldn't be back until late. Again.
"Why?"
"Look, Stiles, I love you like you're my brother. You know that, right?" Lydia asked. Stiles just nodded, so she continued, "Please let this go, okay? I've had a rough day and I'm just not in the fucking mood."
"Okay," Stiles said, dropping the subject. Instead, he babbled on about his day, and about the fact that he had finally asked Cora out on a date (he had only been pining for her for what seemed like forever) and she said yes. He felt really good about it, and Lydia didn't want to bring him down, so she acted excited about it as well.
"That's great," Lydia said, driving Stiles to his house. "You guys are gonna be good for each other."
"Maybe you ought to see if you can find someone," Stiles suggested. He had no idea he was hitting a nerve, and the whole idea just made Lydia sick to her stomach, but she tried not to show it. "Then we can double."
Lydia smiled weakly, "It's okay, Stiles. Nobody's gonna wanna go out with me. I mean, look at the way they talk about me at school. I know what they call me."
"But you're not really like that," Stiles said. "You're nothing like what people say you are."
"I know," Lydia said softly. "It doesn't change that fact, though." She pulled into Stiles' driveway and he gave her one last look before getting out of her car.
"Things are gonna get better, Lyds," Stiles said. He had always been an optimist; a glass is half full kind of guy. "You'll see."
"Thanks, Stiles," Lydia said, but inside she knew that he was wrong. Nobody wanted her.
That night, Lydia got off her shift at the coffee shop at ten o'clock, and she went home. She sat in her room, on her bed, for what seemed like the longest time; just watching into Derek's darkened room. She wasn't sure why, but it almost felt like she had lost a friend.
-x-
The next day was Saturday, and when Lydia woke up, she woke up to Derek standing in his window holding his whiteboard. I'm sorry, it read. Lydia picked hers up and started to write.
For what?
My friends are assholes. You don't deserve that.
Lydia sighed, It's not a big deal. I'm used to it.
But you shouldn't have to be.
Lydia just shrugged and left the room. She had a breakfast to make and then a marathon of Halo 3 at Scott's house to beat Scott and Stiles at.
After her video games with Cora, Scott and Stiles, Lydia felt a little bit better. She was surprised, though, when she came home and found Derek on her doorstep.
"Jesus, Derek, it's got to be forty degrees out," Lydia said, opening the front door with her key. She ushered Derek inside. "If you get sick and die, your parents are going to blame me."
Derek chuckled, "They're not gonna blame you. And I'm not going to die."
Lydia nodded, handing Derek the afghan that Lydia's mother kept draped over the couch. "You stay there," she said to him. "I'm gonna make some hot chocolate."
"You sure?" he asked.
"It's not a big deal," she said, starting the pot. After the hot chocolate had brewed and she brought him a mug, Lydia watched Derek closely, "What the hell were you doing out there, anyway?"
"Waiting for you," Derek answered.
"Well, duh," Lydia said. "I mean, why?"
"Because," Derek said. "The way we left things the other day was unacceptable. You have to know that I didn't mean to sound like you're a bad person. I know you're not, Lydia."
Lydia nodded, "Yeah, I get that, but your little clique seems pretty intent on hating me."
"Jen just doesn't get you," Derek said. "And Jackson's…well, he's just Jackson."
Lydia nodded, "Yeah, I know. But they don't see me for me. I mean, I know what they say behind my back. I know what everybody says."
"What's that?"
She sighed, "I have my nose in a book half the time. I don't talk to people and I prefer the company of my paints more than the company of people. They think I'm stuck up and they think I don't talk to people because I think I'm better than them. I don't, though. Think that. I don't care who does and doesn't notice me."
"You deserve better," Derek said, reaching out his hand to caress her cheek. The skin made contact, but then Derek realized what he was doing and withdrew his hand like he'd been burned.
"Sorry about that," he apologized. Lydia wanted to scream.
"It's fine," she said, but her voice wavered.
"You want to talk about it?" Derek asked. He was still cocooned in the afghan, so Lydia sat down in the armchair across from him.
Lydia shrugged, "Someday I'd love to be seen as me, you know? I deserve to have my first kiss with someone that cares about me, and I'd love to be involved with someone who sees me as a girl."
"You hang out with McCall and Stilinski," Derek said.
"Yeah, but it's not like that," Lydia answered. "I'm not a girl to them. I'm just one of the guys. I've grown up that way. And I don't really want to change – I like me the way I am. But the thing is, once I'd like someone to at least tell me I'm pretty."
"I think you're beautiful," Derek said.
"What?" Lydia was shocked. He couldn't have meant that the way she thought he did.
"Objectively speaking, of course," Derek added, sounding like an afterthought. Lydia nodded.
"Thanks, Derek," she said, speaking softly. "But nobody else sees it, and I wonder sometimes if anybody will see it, like, ever."
"Hey," Derek said, and Lydia looked up at him. "Someday, you're gonna find someone who will think that you're beautiful and they will treat you like the princess you are."
I wish it were you, Lydia thought bitterly, but didn't say it. Instead, she just nodded.
"So my parents aren't gonna be home for the rest of the day," she said, changing the subject and standing up. "You wanna watch a movie or something?"
"You got The Princess Bride?" he asked. Lydia just gaped at him for a moment. Derek liked romantic comedies? No way.
"Do I look like a Neanderthal?" she asked him. He just chuckled. "Of course I have it. Wanna watch it with me?"
Derek nodded, "Sure. I'm going out with Jen at seven, but," he checked his watch, "it's only three right now. I have time."
Lydia nodded and started the movie.
-x-
After that, things between Lydia and Derek started to evolve. They became friends. Yeah, they still didn't hang out with the same people at school, but it wasn't odd for them for pass each other in the hallway and say hello. It also wasn't odd for them to hang out on the weekends, and Derek and his best friend Boyd had started joining in their marathons. Sometimes they played video games and sometimes they just watched TV shows and movies. Last weekend, they had watched season 1 of Game of Thrones in two days.
Things had been going great, and before Lydia even realized it, a month had flown by. Then, that Monday morning, as Lydia was talking to Stiles and Cora (who were dating now), Jennifer Blake stopped by her locker, pinning Lydia in place.
"What do you think you're doing, Martin?" Jennifer hissed.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lydia said, even though she had a pretty good clue.
"Easy," Jennifer said, watching Lydia. Lydia hated the look in Jennifer's eyes. "You're trying to steal my boyfriend from me. What, is hanging out with McCall and Stilinski not bad enough, you've got to take what belongs to me?"
Lydia let out a sigh before snapping, "Derek and I hang out sometimes because we're friends. That's all there is to our relationship. A girl can be friends with a guy without fucking him, even though I'm pretty sure you don't know how to do that." Even though I wish it were more, she thought, but didn't dare say.
"Stay away from my boyfriend, Lydia," Jennifer warned. "I mean it. I know a lot of people who would absolutely love to kick your ass."
"Yeah, yeah," Lydia muttered. She rolled her eyes and Jennifer walked away.
"Forget about her," Cora said, watching Jennifer walk away in her three hundred dollar heels. Lydia knew, because she knew where Jennifer shopped. "I mean, she's just jealous."
Lydia nodded, "Sure. I just…" she looked around, seeing that Jennifer had stopped Derek in the hallway and they were engaged in a mini make-out session. She swallowed thickly, "I gotta get out of here."
She was walking down the hallway and then felt someone by her side. It was Cora. She walked with Lydia out the front door of the school and even got into the passenger's side of Lydia's car, "I'm not letting you hang out by yourself. It's you and me together, until the end."
Lydia smiled, "Thanks, Cor." And with that, Lydia drove to the lake. It was true that it was winter, but the temperature wasn't too bad and luckily they hadn't gotten any snow. She just wanted to observe, anyway.
As Cora and Lydia sat on the big rock that was next to the lake, Cora took her hand. "Hey Lyds?" Cora asked. Lydia watched her, so Cora continued, "My older brother…he's an idiot. He can't see what's in front of his face."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lydia said, deciding that feigning ignorance was the best way to do this.
"I know you like him," Cora said. "I've known that you've liked him for a long time. Why don't you ever tell him?"
Lydia scratched at an imaginary itch on her forehead, "Easy. He deserves someone better. He deserves someone who's gonna make him happy. That's all I care about."
"Oh, Lyds," Cora said, pulling her friend into a hug. It was there, trapped in the closeness of her best friend, that Lydia let Cora comfort her.
-x-
When Isaac Lahey showed interest in her, Lydia practically jumped at the chance. He was also a junior, but not a lot of people knew anything about him. He had grown up in an abusive household, going to live with Scott and his mom when all the drinking Mr. Lahey did finally killed him. Because of his upbringing, Isaac often faded into the background. But he was the first person to look at Lydia like a girl.
"Do you wanna do something on Saturday?" Isaac was asking Lydia that day at school. Lydia was still trying to get over her confrontation with Jennifer and the fact that Jennifer knew she had something that Lydia wanted. Lydia had tried to go on with her life, but avoiding Derek had proved to be pretty difficult.
"Like what?" she asked him. Isaac was hanging out with Lydia at her locker while Lydia picked up her Psychology textbook.
"Well, the new Hobbit movie is playing," Isaac said. "I thought it might be nice to just go. And I thought that maybe you'd like to go, too." Lydia was waiting for Isaac to say those words, the words that every guy said to her – we'll just go as friends. But they never came. Instead, Isaac said, "I thought, if it was okay with you, it could be…uh, it could be a date."
Lydia was taken aback. Nobody was interested in her romantically. And she was honestly kind of tired of waiting on Derek, wanting someone she knew she'd probably never have.
"Sure," she surprised even herself as she said it. "I'd love to go out with you, Isaac."
He beamed, and told Lydia that he didn't have a car right now – Scott had his dirt bike, but Isaac was still sharing Mrs. McCall's car with her. Lydia shrugged and told him that she'd pick him up at two o'clock. He smiled and told her that he looked forward to seeing her.
Isaac was looking forward to seeing her. It was a wonderful feeling – finally, somebody was able to look beyond the books and smart girl exterior that Lydia had and saw her the way she wanted to be seen. As the week went on, Lydia was pretty excited – but knew that Isaac wasn't Derek. She tried to ignore that feeling and went out with him anyway.
On Saturday morning, when Lydia looked out her window, she saw Derek standing there with his whiteboard, You want to hang out?
No, she wrote. I have a date later.
Derek's facial expression changed, but Lydia couldn't tell what he was thinking. However, he picked up his marker and wrote, That's great! With who?
Isaac Lahey, she wrote. She noticed the look on Derek's face, so she added, Don't worry. He's a nice guy.
Derek nodded. Have fun, was all he wrote.
After the movie, Lydia and Isaac went out to get a bite to eat. There was this Mediterranean place near the movie theater that had the best gyros that Lydia herself had ever tasted. As she and Isaac sat there, eating, Isaac looked over at her, "You're sorry I'm not him, aren't you?"
Lydia was kind of surprised, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I heard that you have a thing for Derek. Are you sad that I'm not him?"
Lydia sighed, "It's complicated. I like him, but if we keep dating, I think I might be able to like you, too."
Isaac sighed, "Unrequited love is a bitch, isn't it?"
Lydia sighed and nodded.
"Don't worry," Isaac said after a moment. "We can just be friends. I can be the best damn friend you ever had."
Lydia smiled, "I'm sorry, Isaac. I really am. You're such a nice guy."
Isaac shook his head, "Don't worry about it. Besides, I've had my eye on someone else, too. I just don't know how to approach her."
"Really?" Lydia asked. "Who?"
They spent the next hour talking over the girl that Isaac wanted to ask out, and when Isaac had told Lydia that it was Erica Reyes, Lydia smiled. Erica was such a nice girl, just doomed with seizures. So Lydia gave Isaac some advice and then said, "This wasn't a second choice date, was it?"
Isaac took a bite of his soup and said, "Nah. It was fun, though, Lydia."
Lydia dropped Isaac off at the McCall house and went home. Once again, Derek was waiting for her at her house.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, checking her watch. It was almost six o'clock, which was when Jennifer and Derek usually went out.
"I came to see you," Derek said. "You've been avoiding me, and I want to know why."
For a moment, Lydia was speechless. She wet her lips nervously before sticking her key in the lock, "I'm not avoiding. Isaac asked me out."
"And?"
"And we went out. We saw The Hobbit. We ate at Nawal's. We decided to just be friends."
Derek nodded. When Lydia went into her house, Derek followed her. "So," he said, sitting down on her couch, "our first basketball game is coming up soon. You gonna be there?"
Of course she was going to be there. She had never missed one of his games. Instead, she decided to try and fake nonchalance, "Probably. Do you want me to be there?"
Derek nodded, "Yeah." He waited for a moment, trying not to look overeager, and then said, "I mean, if you want to be there."
Of course going to that game would mean that Lydia was going to run into Jennifer again. She didn't want to think about that, though. Instead, she sighed and said, "You want something to eat? I was going to make chicken and rice."
Derek shrugged, "Sure. Jen's got a family thing."
Lydia nodded and went into the kitchen to start dinner. Derek followed her.
The recipe had been in the family for three generations. Lydia great-grandmother had gotten it from a friend, and they'd been making it ever since. Lydia memorized the recipe a long time ago – she liked the stuff and had learned cooking at an early age because her parents were never home. She and Tommy had spent hours in the kitchen cooking, because he liked it and she had wanted to learn.
When dinner was ready, Lydia and Derek ate in silence. This silence, though, was comfortable. They didn't have to speak. Lydia felt comfortable around him.
Around ten, after they'd finished dinner and even watched Never Been Kissed, Derek yawned and said, "I've gotta get home. I mean, my curfew is eleven, and even though I'm only over here, Mom and Dad enforce it pretty thoroughly."
Lydia nodded, "Sure. See you later, Derek."
-x-
"Martin!" Jennifer yelled from down the hallway. Everybody heard the yell and they were all starting to circle, to see the showdown between the two of them. As Jennifer got closer, Lydia decided to stand her ground. She wasn't going to let some flake like Jennifer Blake make her feel bad.
"I thought I told you to stay away from my boyfriend!" Jennifer was saying.
"He's my friend," Lydia said. "I'm not going to let you control my life, or his. If he doesn't want to hang out with me, that's fine, but I'm not going to avoid him just because you're a petty bitch who doesn't feel secure enough to hang onto him."
She heard mutters amongst her classmates who were watching, and she even heard Stiles say, "Ooh, burn." She didn't care, though.
"Please," Jennifer said, flipping her perfect brown hair over her shoulder. "It's not my fault you're a stuck up slut."
Lydia rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you need new material," she said. "Anybody with eyes can see that I'm not a slut. Look at the way I'm dressed," she said, motioning to her jean skirt and pale blue blouse, "compared to you," she said, motioning to Jennifer's tight black mini-skirt and her barely long enough tight red tank top. "Between the two of us, which one looks like a desperate slut?"
That's when Jennifer pounced. Lydia realized pretty quickly that Jennifer didn't know the first thing about throwing a punch or physical confrontation at all. Lydia just rolled her eyes and walked away from Jennifer.
"You're pathetic," Jennifer bit out. "I mean, seriously? He's never gonna want you, you know."
Lydia rolled her eyes, turning around to look at Jennifer. "Seriously," she said. "Get some new fucking material."
-x-
That night, after her shift had ended at nine, Lydia went home and straight up to her room. She wasn't going to show it, but what Jennifer had said about her had really stung. It was true; Derek was never going to want Lydia the way she wanted him. But if he wanted to be friends, she was going to be the best fucking friend that he could ever ask for.
When she looked out her window, Jennifer and Derek were in Derek's room, and they looked like they were arguing. After a couple of minutes, Jennifer turned around, flipping Derek off as she walked out. When Derek turned towards the window, he smiled weakly at Lydia. She picked up her whiteboard, Is everything okay?
Fine, he wrote. We need to talk, though. Can I come over?
Lydia sighed. She wasn't sure what was going on, but surprised herself a little by writing, Sure. Back door's unlocked.
With that, Derek was gone, but about three minutes later, Lydia heard Derek come through the back way. "Lydia?" he called.
"I'm upstairs," she said, and just a few moments passed before he was there. They took a few minutes, just watching one another.
"Jen and I broke up," Derek said finally.
"I'm sorry," Lydia said, even though she wasn't. She wasn't sorry in the least.
"I'm not," Derek said, coming closer. "I heard about what she said to you. You know that I don't think about you that way, right?"
Lydia licked her lips nervously, "It doesn't matter if you do or if you don't. We're just friends."
Derek's eyes watched hers carefully, occasionally flicking down to her lips. It made her feel unbelievably vulnerable.
Derek was the one to take the first step. Raising his hand, he cupped her cheek and lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her. Lydia's first thought was oh, holy fuck, he's actually kissing me right now. She tilted her head, even though this was her first kiss and didn't know exactly how to respond, but she threw her arms around his neck. Derek swiped his tongue across her bottom lip and Lydia opened her mouth. He took the access he was granted and massaged her tongue with his.
The kiss went on for a few moments. It was the greatest few moments of Lydia's life. Derek caressed her face as he kissed her, and sooner than she would've liked, Derek broke the kiss. Lydia raised her hand to feel her kiss swollen lips and she watched Derek nervously.
"Was that your first kiss?" he asked softly. Lydia, not trusting her voice, just nodded. Derek watched her closely, "Was it okay?"
Lydia grinned, "It was fucking perfect."
Derek smiled at her and said, "I'm sorry about everything. I knew I liked you. It just took a while for my heart to catch up."
-x-
They went to the winter formal together. It was the best feeling, to have someone like Derek wait on her, get her punch, and not leave her side for the entire evening. Part of Lydia thought that maybe this was a dream.
While Derek was up, getting them some punch, Isaac and Erica stopped by Lydia's table. They sat down, and Isaac grinned at Lydia, "Things worked out after all?"
Lydia smiled, "Yeah, they did. For the both of us."