"This is what teenagers are supposed to do on Saturday nights."
Lydia dumped a huge pile of shopping bags onto the floor, kicked off her purple suede pumps, and settled into the expensive, leather couch in her parents' living room. "Shopping and a movie. Normal, human things." She sighed contentedly. Shopping therapy worked every time.
Allison followed her into the living room, smiling. "It is kind of refreshing. I could get used to the quiet life every now and then." Allison placed her substantially smaller pile of bags next to Lydia's on the floor and pulled a DVD from her purse.
Lydia groaned.
"It's my turn to pick the movie," Allison said happily, popping open the DVD player on the enormous flat screen.
"Much to my chagrin." Lydia rolled her eyes. Allison had the weirdest taste in movies. "How many times can someone watch Indiana Jones before being declared clinically insane?"
Allison turned on the TV and kicked off her boots. "Just stare at Harrison Ford. Everything will be fine." She flopped onto the soft carpet, leaning back against the couch.
Lydia considered this a moment, tilting her head to one side. "It could be worse, I guess."
"Way worse," Allison agreed.
The doorbell rang.
"Pizza!" Lydia grinned.
"Perfect timing."
"I told you, call from the mall and the pizza will get home when you do. It's an art form." She grabbed her purse and pulled herself up off the couch.
Rifling through her wallet, Lydia wandered to the front door and pulled it open. She found a twenty stuffed in a side pocket. "How much do I owe you?"
"That depends on what you want me to do for it."
Not the pizza guy then. Lydia knew that voice.
"Isaac?" She looked up, then up some more; Lord, but this boy was tall. He slouched against the door frame with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He was wearing that stupid sweater again. She hated that sweater. It wasn't even sweater weather.
"I mean, twenty bucks will get you a long way, but . . ." he shrugged and smiled his little half smile.
Lydia looked down at the cash in her hand. "I thought you were the pizza guy."
"Sorry." He rubbed the back of his head with his right hand.
This wasn't about pizza.
"What are you doing here? What's the matter?"
"Nothing, I just..."
Isaac was the worst liar. Lydia gave a small, exasperated sigh and put her hand on her hip. "This was supposed to be girls' night. No boys. No supernatural weirdness. Just new clothes, and pizza, and maybe some truth or dare." She punctuated each phrase with a wave of her wallet.
"Give it up, Lydia. You're never getting me to play truth or dare," Allison called from the living room.
"One day," Lydia muttered. Isaac chuckled.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on in." She stepped aside to let him in. Of the wolf pack, Isaac was the least physically intimidating. It was the way that he carried himself, really. Leaning quietly in corners. Slouching, hands in pockets, as if he were trying to disappear into the background in large groups.
"Scott's not being very subtle, you know." Allison smiled up at Isaac as he entered the living room, but she clearly wasn't that pleased.
"Scott didn't send me." Isaac perched on the couch arm, clearly not comfortable in the setting.
Allison cocked an eyebrow, clearly incredulous. "Whatever."
"You might as well sit down and stay awhile. It's pretty clear you weren't just 'in the neighborhood.' Seriously, what's up?" Lydia shooed him off the couch arm and onto the couch proper. Isaac unfolded his long limbs and sat.
"Nothing, really. Just... stuff."
"Yeah. Helpful. Thanks, Isaac."
The doorbell rang again.
Isaac stood. Lydia waved him back toward the couch. "It's the pizza. Ax murderers and werewolves out for blood generally don't ring the bell." She rolled her eyes.
Isaac followed her to the door anyway.
Lydia opened it to find Max Sanders - a sophomore who'd had a huge, and undisguised, crush on her since the sixth grade. He was holding her pizza and beaming his perfect smile, his green eyes sparking behind his stylish glasses. Max was tall, dark, stunningly handsome, and dumb as a pile of bricks. Really. You couldn't have a conversation with the boy.
"Hey, Lydia!"
Isaac pulled the door the rest of the way open behind her and leaned against it. Max's face fell, and he fiddled with his glasses. "Oh. Hey, Isaac."
"Hi, Max." Lydia rifled through her wallet again. "How much do I owe you?" She could feel Isaac grinning behind her. She plastered a smile on her face for Max, and elbowed Isaac - hard. He took it gracefully. Stupid werewolf pain tolerance.
Max watched them with thinly veiled jealousy. "Umm, thirteen fifty?"
Lydia handed him her twenty and grabbed the pizza. "Thanks, Max. Keep the change." She spun on her heels and marched away with the pizza, leaving Isaac to close the door.
Allison was pulling her boots on in the other room. Running away from girls' night. Again.
"No, you can't go. The pizza just got here." Lydia held it up as proof.
Allison's phone beeped. She picked it up and read the text message - a worried crease forming between her eyes.. "It's my dad again. I have to go. Sorry! Rain check?" She scooped up her bags and bounded out the door.
"Great." Rain checks never happened in this town, Lydia was well aware. "What am I going to do with a whole pizza?" She slid it onto the coffee table in disgust.
"It's a good thing I'm starving." Isaac opened the box, grabbed a slice, and settled back onto the couch.
Lydia just looked at him.
"What?" He took a bite.
"Aren't you going to follow your charge?"
Isaac looked confused for a second, then smiled. "Scott didn't send me. I told you."
If not Scott, then who? Lydia knew that Isaac wasn't here for the company. The two of them had barely spoken outside of the confines of supernatural goings-on.
It clicked. "Derek. Derek sent you." That arrogant son of a bitch has thought he's in charge of the sun and the stars ever since he became an alpha. "Why is Derek Hale worried about my safety?"
Isaac shrugged and set his piece of pizza down. "You're part of the pack."
"I sure as hell am not part of your werewolf pack."
"Sure you are." Isaac looked puzzled, as if it were obvious. "You may not be a werewolf, but you're part of the family, you know."
Lydia raised an eyebrow. "Because Derek's creepy uncle hijacked my brain to bring himself back to life?"
"You did get bitten. If you weren't immune, you'd be part of the pack." He did look fairly apologetic about it.
Rolling her eyes, Lydia gave in. It's not like it was Isaac's fault Peter Hale was a psycho and her social life was in ruins.
"Okay, but why is Derek so concerned about my safety tonight? It's been quiet all summer."
Isaac hesitated.
"It hasn't been quiet all summer, has it?"
"It's just Erica and Boyd are still missing. Derek and I have been looking for months, and nothing. The trail is cold. And we have no idea what the alpha pack is doing. What their plan is. Who they are."
"This is certainly confidence inducing information." Lydia wasn't sure if she preferred knowing or not knowing, honestly.
"Then tonight Derek found something. He wouldn't tell me what it was-"
"Typical."
Isaac continued, "but he said he needed my help, and he sent me here."
"Here to . . .?'
He shrugged.
"Awesome." Infuriating, all of them. "I am not some pawn in your werewolf game."
Isaac shot to his feet, defensively. "It's not like that, Lydia. If he finds what he's looking for tonight, Derek might ruffle a few feathers. The alphas have had time to watch us, to learn our weaknesses, and you and Stiles - "
"If you call me a weakness, Isaac Lahey, I will show you a thing or two about-"
He took two steps toward her, reaching out like he was going to grab her arm, but stopping himself before he did. "You're not a wolf or a hunter, Lydia. If they came for you, you wouldn't be able to fight them."
There was a desperation in Isaac's eyes that scared Lydia more than anything he'd said. Erica and Boyd's disappearance was hitting him harder than she realized. Should it be hitting her that hard, too? Maybe she was getting too used to the people in her life disappearing.
That's not something she wanted to think about right now. This was supposed to be one night of normalcy in her otherwise batshit crazy existence.
"Fine. Whatever." If her experience over the past two years was any indication, she was going to have to pick her battles. This did not have to be one of them. "We'll hang out and eat some pizza. The whole town is going to think something's going on between us before the night's over, if I know Max's big mouth, so I might as well get some company out of it." She scooped the remote off the coffee table and tossed it to him. "Put something else on - the one good thing about Allison bailing is that I don't have to watch this movie for the millionth time. I'm going to get a soda. Do you want anything?"
"Whatever you're having is great, thanks."
That was the Isaac she thought she knew. Polite. Quiet.
She wandered into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. Soda wasn't going to cut it. She opened the bottom drawer to find the six-pack of wine coolers she'd stashed for girls' night. Perfect.
She walked triumphantly back into the living room, prize in hand. "Even better than soda."
While she'd been gone, Isaac had slid his shoes off and pulled his legs up onto the couch to sit crossed-legged in one corner. He looked up from flipping channels and smiled. "It seems like a night for it."
"Most definitely," she agreed. She pulled two from the box and set the rest on the floor within easy reach. She popped one open and handed to Isaac, then settled into the opposite corner of the couch and opened her own.
From this position, they were almost facing one another. Lydia tucked her feet up under her and straightened her dress. "What did you find?" She turned her attention to the TV.
"Nothing much. It looks like there's a How I Met Your Mother marathon on?"
"Sounds great."
"Normal?"
"Normal," she agreed.
Isaac laughed. It was a real laugh – something she'd almost never seen from him. Isaac was hot, she realized. Especially when he smiled.
They ended up watching 5 episodes. It was fun, to Lydia's surprise. Isaac cracked jokes. He was sarcastic, but sweet. They made it through the six-pack and the pizza before Isaac pulled a bag of Twizzlers from his messenger bag.
"Oh my God, the Pull and Peels are my favorite!" She giggled as she pulled one string of the candy off and ate it. By now she was sitting on the floor, leaning against the coffee table. She was almost completely turned away from the TV, looking at Isaac as he sprawled on the couch. She tossed the Twizzler strand to him rather haphazardly, but he caught it with his usual werewolf grace.
"Mine too," he agreed, biting a chunk off the top of the strand.
"You cannot be serious."
"What?"
"That is not how you eat Pull and Peels!"
"It's how I eat them."
"Well it's the wrong way." Lydia scrambled up onto the ottoman next to the couch so she was next to Isaac. She grabbed a Twizzler out of the bag, pulled a single string off and held it out over him. "Try it this way, it's so much better."
Isaac raised an eyebrow. "Doubtful."
Lydia wiggled the string insistently.
Isaac took the end of it in his teeth and nibbled a few bites.
"Way better, right?"
Isaac lunged up, biting the string off right under Lydia's fingertips. He turned, half sitting, as he chewed so he could make eye contact with Lydia.
"Not bad." He said it quietly. Intently.
Her heart pounded. She slowly raised the last bit of the Twizzler to her lips and popped it into her mouth. Isaac watched as she chewed and swallowed. God. Twizzlers should not be this sexy. She watched as Isaac took a breath. Made a decision.
"Lydia, I – "
She closed the distance between them, stopping his words with her mouth.
He sat up into the kiss, using one hand to pull the ottoman closer to the couch while wrapping the other around the back of her head to tangle in her hair.
It was a gentle kiss, but purposeful. His lips moved over hers, meeting her bold intention with soft curiosity. Lydia leaned in, resting her hands on Isaac's chest. His racing heart matched hers. Belied the calmness of his touch.
She pulled away from the kiss slightly, leaving her hands lightly on his chest. He brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, focusing on that rather than meeting her gaze. He played with the hair idly, wrapping it around his finger.
"Isaac . . ." Their eyes locked. She couldn't remember what she was going to say. Were his eyes always that blue? They were mesmerizing. Was this some werewolf thing? She suddenly, very viscerally, understood Allison's attraction to Scott.
He pulled her toward him. Slowly. Giving her ample time to pull back if she wanted to.
She didn't.
This kiss was nothing like the first one. It was desperate, powerful. Isaac scooped Lydia off the ottoman and into his lap. She melted into his arms, but met his mouth stroke for stroke. She could feel the strength in his arms that he wasn't using. There was serious muscle under his stupid sweater. She ran her hands up his chest and pushed at the sleeves of the hideous thing. She was going to get it off of him if it killed her.
He got the hint, and let go of her for just long enough for her to pull it off and fling it into the corner. Underneath he wore a simple white v-neck. Much better. Isaac should wear short sleeves more often. Lord, those werewolf muscles were something to look at. It was a lean sort of muscle that made it clear to Lydia that he was more dangerous than he looked at first glance.
As soon as his arms were free again he put one at her waist and one on the back of her head. His touch was light - almost as if he were afraid of breaking her. The hell with that. Lydia fisted her hands in his t-shirt and pulled him closer.
His pocket vibrated.
Isaac startled, tensing from head to toe. Lydia gave a small, frustrated sigh.
"You don't have to answer it." She pressed a soft kiss on the side of his neck. His breath hitched.
"N-no, I should. What if it's Derek? He might be in tr-"
"Then let me get it." Lydia slid her hand into his front pocket. His heartbeat went wild.
Lydia smiled.
She pulled his phone out slowly and then handed it to him, relaxing into a more comfortable position in his lap.
Isaac cleared his throat before answering. "Hi Derek. Is everything okay?"
The TV was still on, so she couldn't hear Derek through the phone.
"Okay. Good."
Well that was comforting. Death probably wasn't imminent if Isaac was this calm. His poker face wasn't this good on a normal basis, and Lydia was a bit more attuned to his nonverbal clues at the moment than she usually was.
"Okay, I'll be right over."
Lydia pouted.
"Okay, bye." Isaac hung up the phone.
"You cannot get a girl worked up like this and then just leave."
Isaac blushed. It spread from his cheeks upward so his ears tinted just the slightest shade of pink. It was quite possibly the cutest thing Lydia had ever seen.
"It's just that Derek needs to see us. It seemed pretty urgent."
"Us?" Lydia was momentarily excited to be included before she remembered that she was being included in werewolf business. Very likely violent werewolf business. Was one normal day really that much to ask? She missed the time when calculus homework had been her biggest impediment to a weekend of shopping and partying.
"That's what he said."
"That can't be good."
Isaac brushed the back of his fingers lightly across Lydia's cheek. "It's never good around here, is it?" He kissed her forehead softly.
Lydia sighed. "Not recently, that's for sure." She scooted off of Isaac's lap, though it was the last thing in the world that she wanted to do.
"Let's get this over with." She slipped her shoes back on her feet and grabbed her purse from the table. "I'll drive." Watching Isaac slide his feet back into his shoes, her eyes flicked briefly to his sweater in the corner of the room. Thankfully, he didn't seem to remember it. If she accomplished one thing tonight it was going to be ridding him of the hideous sweater.
She held her hand out to him and went through the motions of pulling him up, even though he clearly didn't need her help to do so. Once Isaac was standing, he didn't let go. He twined his fingers through hers. "Let's go." He seemed as reluctant as she was.
Not everything unexpected in this town was supernatural in nature. Lydia smiled to herself as she clasped Isaac's hand a little tighter. This was normal. Well, at least as normal as her life was likely to get any time soon.
"Let's go," she agreed. "Here goes nothing."