"Find anything?" Scott asks when Liam and Stiles get back from the woods. He's leaning back against Stiles' jeep, arms crossed in front of his chest. Even though he hadn't agreed with Stiles and Liam's idea of following Theo around, he also hadn't wanted them to go alone. If they have learned anything, it's that the woods of Beacon Hills are a dangerous place.
So, to keep his slate clean, he had tagged along, but had refused to give into their small and – as it turned out, harmless – investigation.
"Nope," Stiles mumbles bitterly, walking past Scott and getting into his car. "He was throwing flowers into the river for his dead sister. So yeah, pretty embarrassing too."
Liam watches them from a short distance, rubbing his upper arm uncomfortably.
"I fell in a hole," he tries to distract them, his words followed by a soft snicker.
"Get in the car, Liam," Scott sighs.
The boy obeys, gazing towards the ground as he opens the car door next to Scott, settling himself into the backseat. He sinks in on himself, playing with the cords of his headphones as he does. The bottoms of the sleeves of his hoody have fallen partly over his hands.
The ride home starts off quietly. Stiles seems to be focusing on the road, but Scott can smell his anxiety. The air in the car is thick with it. Liam notices it too, so he plugs his headphones in and starts listening to some music, trying to distract himself.
"Look, man, I don't mean to make you feel bad, but Theo hasn't done anything wrong," Scott breaks the silence after a while. He turns to look at his best friend.
"Not yet," Stiles comments, averting Scott's eyes.
"Why can't you trust anyone?" Scott asks, wanting to understand.
Stiles can feel something inside of him blow up. "Because you trust everyone!"he exclaims, slamming his hands on the steering wheel.
In the back, Liam sinks deeper into the seat. He retrieves his phone from his pocket, turning up the volume.
Scott doesn't know how to respond to that. Somewhere inside he knows Stiles has a point.
Stiles shuts his mouth again as well, recognising that his distrustful nature isn't a particularly good quality.
"Maybe we should just stop talking about it," Scott offers a minute later. "If you think Theo can't be trusted, that's fine."
Stiles sighs. Scott's passive words hit a sensitive nerve deep within him. "And I shouldn't blame you when you do trust him," he compromises. "It's just that…so much has happened over the past few years. We've lost so many people. I don't think I could bear losing another one."
The lines in Scott's face soften. He frowns at Stiles, indicating towards Liam in the back. Stiles throws a look at the boy through his rear-view mirror. The beta has his eyes fixed on the dark world outside, head leaning against the doorframe. "It's alright, he's listening to music," Stiles says softly.
Scott nods, thinking for a minute before he continues the conversation, "I know you're scared. And that's okay. But you can't go your whole life without letting people in. We're all going to be heading off to college next year-"
"Hence the vision," Stiles interrupts, knowing what Scott's about to say. "That way we'll still see each other and I won't have to make new friends."
Scott chuckles a little, appreciating Stiles' honesty. It makes him more vulnerable. "So you don't want any new friends? Like, ever?"
Stiles' eyebrows knit together, the boy shooting the other a judgmental look. "No. I don't need any new friends as long as I've got you guys."
Neither of them see the small hint of a smile Liam has around his lips. He has turned down his volume.
Scott's grinning at Stiles like a maniac, making Stiles feel a little uncomfortable. He tries not to laugh, but a mere second later he caves. "Stop that," he laughs, pushing his hand into Scott's face. Scott chuckles.
"I couldn't help it. You were being really cute."
"Shut up."
Scott purses his lips together, yet still smirks. He glances at the digital clock on the dashboard. "We have to hurry, it's almost midnight."
Suddenly, Liam pops up between their seats, curiosity and excitement evident on his face.
"What's at midnight?" he wants to know, looking from Scott to Stiles.
"Your bedtime," Stiles answers, glancing at him through his mirror.
Liam gives him a look.
Scott chuckles. "It's Senior Scribe."
The boy tilts his head, confused. "What's that?"
"It's the night before the first day of school. All the seniors of the year gather to make something memorable at school", Stiles jumps in.
"Like what?"
"Like putting liquid confetti into everyone's locker," Stiles continues, smiling deviously, eyes wide like a murderous psychopath.
Liam's facial expression shifts into shock. "You're skipping mine, aren't you? I have really important stuff in there!"
Scott chuckles. "He's just joking," he soothes his beta. "We're gonna write our initials on one of the bookshelves in the library."
"So no party?" Liam asks again, slight disappointment coating his voice.
Scott shakes his head and Stiles answers, "Not for you anyway. We're taking you home."
"Ah, what?!" Liam sounds upset. "Why? I've been good!"
"Because it's late and you've got school tomorrow," Stiles explains. "And we don't want to babysit you all night."
"But I wanna go with you guys!" Liam pushes. "Come on. I'll be good, I swear."
"Nope, not gonna happen."
"Good, as in, last month? During the full moon?" Scott reminds him, twisting his body so he can lay eyes on Liam, eyebrows raised judgementally.
Liam rolls his eyes dramatically. "That was one slip up."
"One slip up?! You ran around Beacon Hills naked!" Stiles exclaims.
"Yeah," Scott chips in. "And, by the way, why were you naked?"
"It was really hot out that night…" Liam mutters, falling back into the backseat.
"You could've at least worn underwear," Stiles mumbles under his breath, earning him another delighted chuckle from Scott.
Liam crosses his arms, turning his gaze outside again. His small lips form an exaggerated pout, but Scott and Stiles know better than to comment on it.
"Alright, this is your stop," Stiles says when they pull up in front of Liam's house. He turns off the engine.
"Sleep tight," Scott smiles genuinely.
"And no funny business," Stiles can't help but warn him.
"But I-"
"Good night!" Scott and Stiles say in unison.
Liam grumbles something inaudible before getting out of the car. He slumps up to the porch of his house, looking over his shoulder once, but only to see the two older ones waving at him. He squints his eyes at them, another grunt leaving his mouth before he retrieves his keys from his pocket and steps through the front door.
Fifteen minutes later, Scott and Stiles reach the school. There are already tons of other students passing them in the parking lot, all chatting hurriedly, excitement in their voices.
Scott finds Malia, Kira and Stiles and he catch up with them at the front doors.
"I passed!" Malia exclaims happily, her arm around Kira's shoulders. "I'm officially a senior!"
Scott and Stiles congratulate her, each pressing a kiss onto her cheek.
"There you are! What took you so long?!" Lydia says as she marches up to them.
"We got held up," Scott explains briefly.
Lydia rolls her eyes. "Well, are you guys ready?"
They move with the other students towards the library. Several shelves in the same bookcase have been emptied and there's a line of seniors waiting to leave their legacy.
Stiles goes first, his eyes suddenly catching the letters 'D.H.'. The corners of his mouth curl at the memories that flash back to his mind.
Lydia goes second.
Malia's third. She hesitates for a moment after the letter 'M', before deciding to put a 'T'. As soon as she does so, she feels reborn, realizing that she's leaving the thoughts of what could have been behind her.
Kira goes fourth. She smiles at Scott when she hands him the marker afterwards.
Scott lets out a sigh as he writes his initials down. Then, he ponders for a second, looking behind him at his friends. Stiles frowns at him, confused, but Lydia has this hopeful look in her emerald eyes and gives a single nod. That's all Scott needs to turn back and write 'A.A.' under his own scrawl.
"She would've been here," Stiles sighs, patting Scott on the back in a comforting manner.
"She still is," Lydia comments, stare unyielding as she remembers the beautiful smile on her best friend's face.
Scott nods, shying away a little, but is nonetheless pushing out his chest proudly.
There's a minute of silence before Malia takes off to the bathroom. The gang walks with her, but then moves on towards the cafeteria, where loud music is emerging from. The place is filled with students; tables have been pushed aside and Scott can even smell a hint of alcohol on some of the red cups.
They're still near the entrance, waiting for their friend.
"Look what I found on my way back," Malia announces with a sarcastic tone when she catches up with the group again.
She has dragged something along with her. It sputters and struggles to break loose, but the grip she has on its neck is too tight.
"Ouch, you're hurting me!" Liam says, trying to yank her wrist away.
But then he freezes, looking up into the eyes of his fellow pack members. "Hey guys," he greets them awkwardly, giving a short wave.
"Can't you just listen to us at least once in your life?!" Stiles is the first to yell. "Do we seriously need to keep you on a leash? How did you even get here?!"
"I'm sorry!" Liam immediately falls onto the defensive. "I just-it sounded so much fun and I just-" he pauses, hanging his head forward. "I just wanted to be there during your special moment, so I ran here."
"You ran here. Of course you did," Stiles sighs, throwing his head back in disbelief.
He motions at Scott, indicating towards Liam with his hands in a way that clearly reads 'you say something now'.
Scott struggles to suppress his amusement, but Stiles threatens to hit him, so he contains himself.
"Liam, we told you to stay at home," he says, but he doesn't sound very upset. Hell, he doesn't sound even remotely angry at all; much to Stiles' annoyance.
"I know," Liam sighs, head still bowed towards the ground. He's rubbing the point of his left shoe against the other.
"Then why didn't you listen?"
"Because…! I wanna be with you guys! Staying at home is boring," he mutters. "And, besides…" He pulls his sleeves over his fingers. "You were fighting earlier, so I wanted to make sure you're okay." His voice has fallen into a whisper now.
Scott looks back to Stiles, his nose wrinkled as he throws him a helpless look. Stiles groans softly.
Both boys neglect to notice that each of the girls are rolling their eyes and shaking their heads at each other.
"Alright. You're gonna stay with us, yeah?" Scott then says.
"Scott!" Stiles calls.
"Promise!" Liam perks up, smiling brightly again.
"And no running off."
"No running off," Liam repeats obediently.
"Scott, you are undermining-Scott!"
"Then you can stay."
Stiles facepalms himself; the hand hitting the skin on his forehead audible even above the loud music.
"Awesome!" Liam exclaims excitedly, finally breaking loose from Malia's tight grip. "Thanks, Scott," he grins, before turning to Stiles and throwing him a mischievous smirk. Stiles has taken a step back behind Scott in the meantime and is now wordlessly implying that he's going to kill the fifteen year old by sliding his index finger along his throat.
Liam sticks his tongue out in response, and Scott raises his eyebrows, looking at Stiles and then back at Liam.
Both of them fold their hands behind their backs innocently and Scott only shakes his head, rubbing his nose with two fingers. "Alright, you two," he says, stepping forward and wrapping an arm around Liam, before he does the same to Stiles with his other. "Let's celebrate the last night of summer vacation."