"So, like last year: Hale – team captain. New in the first line: McCall and Lahey. Now, out!" the coach bellowed at them and vanished through the door. Derek turned towards Stiles.
"I bet you just missed first line by inches!" he tried to cheer his best friend up.
"Nah, I bet I was the worst of all."
"Stop saying that." Derek frowned as he took off his shirt, getting ready to take a shower. "I know you know you weren't. Come on," he said, jerking his head at the showers.
"Alright…"
Some fifteen minutes later, they sat in Mr. Harris' chemistry class and tried to understand what he was teaching them.
"Why do I even still try out for Lacrosse?"
"There're still two years of High School, Stiles. I can just refresh my offer to help you train."
"That won't help."
"Not if you don't do it regularly, yes."
"It's easy for you to talk, with your muscles and superhuman endurance and strength," Stiles said as he eyed Derek longingly.
"Something you want to tell us, Mr. Stilinski?" Mr. Harris called from the front of the class with a stern look.
"No. No, I'm sorry," Stiles said and carefully looked back at Derek.
"Something different: wanna hang out tonight, watching a movie, ordering some delicious pizza? My dad's not home tonight so we could use the flat screen in the living room," Stiles asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Sorry dude," Derek said with an uneasy expression. "I'm… out tonight."
"Out?" Stiles narrowed his eyebrows. "Like… out out?"
"Yes Stiles, out out."
"With who?" He crouched nearer so nobody but him would hear.
"Gill."
"Oh… okay." Stiles leaned back and eyed his best friend with an appraising look. "That's the third girl in two weeks, you know? Don't you think you should… slow down?"
Derek then gave Stiles a look so he wished he hadn't asked.
"Alright, alright, do what you want. I'm just saying that if you keep going like this, there'll be no decent looking girl left in this town in three months and you'll have the reputation as the school slut."
Derek bit his lip. "There are a lot of girls who'd die to go out with me. And that's what I do: I go out with them. I don't fuck them in my car, Stiles. I'd never do that."
The next afternoon, Stiles got a text from Derek.
"Complete disaster. Pizza tonight? I pay."
He hurried to write a reply and then got down into the kitchen to fetch a Red Bull.
"Hey Dad, still working?" He looked down at the open files on the kitchen table, but his father hurried to close them, because, well, he was the Sherriff and actually his son shouldn't know about the cases he worked on.
"Yeah. No new clues. This case is absolutely mind-wrecking."
Stiles gave his dad a pat on the shoulder.
"I know you can do it." After a short pause he added: "I'll be at Derek's later. Not sure if I'll be here for the night or not."
"Alright," his dad said, his eyes on the files again. "Drive carefully, will you?"
"Always, Dad."
Stiles parked his Jeep in front of the half wrecked, half rebuilt house of Derek where he lived with his uncle and his two sisters, the only ones who survived the fatal fire that killed most of his family some years ago. He pressed the door bell and some moments later, Derek's older sister Laura opened the door.
"Hey Stiles."
"Hey Laura," Stiles said as he stepped in and slipped out of his sneakers.
"Derek's upstairs in his room."
"Thanks," he said as he climbed the stairs and Laura returned to the living room. Then he walked along the hallway and into Derek's room. "Hey buddy."
Derek laid on his bed, his face half buried in his pillow.
"Hey Stiles."
"So miserable?" he asked concerned as he sat down on the large window sill.
"That doesn't even comes near what it was like." He sat up and looked around his room. "We talked like… ten sentences? Mostly she talked. About her favorite TV show. Her favorite actress and actor. She didn't even care that I couldn't say anything about that stuff. She just kept going. And then she begged me to have sex with her on the way back to her house which I refused. Then she got mad… I don't have words for it." Derek sighed.
"I told you," Stiles said, unable to suppress a grin.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I should have listened to you, stop laughing, idiot," Derek spat at Stiles and threw his pillow at him.
"Sorry I'm always right," Stiles laughed, catching the pillow and throwing it back, right in Derek's face. "Let's order some pizza, alright?"
"Same as usual?"
"Same as usual," Stiles said, grinning.
Half an hour later, two steaming pizzas laid on the floor before them, Salami Supreme for Stiles, Pizza Hawaii for Derek. The Simpsons were on TV and the boys almost choked on their pizzas at some jokes. It was a comfortable feeling. They didn't worried about school, about the oncoming tests and the Prom for which neither of them had a date yet.
"Derek?" Stiles said after he ate the last piece of his pizza.
"Yeah?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Am I attractive to gay guys?"
"What?"
"Am I attractive to gay guys?"
"Uhm… I don't know."
"Do you find me attractive?" Stiles whispered as he wiggled his eyebrows and leaned in real close to Derek, their noses only inches from each other, which made Derek blush.
"I… don't know."
"Yeah, Stupid thing to ask," Stiles said and leaned back. "We know each other since kindergarten, how should you know if you find me attractive? Either way, you're not into guys."
"Yeah… Well, thanks that you put up with all those crazy stories about the girls."
"That's what best friends are for, Derek," Stiles said as he boxed Derek's arm softly.
"Did you really pop Gill's cherry on Friday?" Danny asked first thing on Monday morning at school. Derek gave him a flabbergasted look.
"What? Who told you that? NO!" he denied.
"Jackson. Lydia told him that Gill told her."
"That's a lie!" Derek said indignantly. He looked around at Stiles, but he just shrugged his shoulders.
"Where's the proof?" Jackson said amused as he turned up beside them, arms linked with Lydia.
"You have to trust me. I haven't had sex with her!"
"Why do you worry, Derek?" Lydia asked. "Now all the girls will line up to go out with you."
"She's right, dude. No more worries in the world. You'll be in paradise. But be sure to pick out the pretty ones," Jackson said grinning.
"JUST SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!" Derek shouted and Danny, Jackson and Lydia stormed from him with frightened expressions.
"What's wrong, Derek?" Stiles asked as he steered Derek into a quiet corner.
Derek breathed heavily and finally managed to look Stiles straight into the eyes.
"You wanna know, yeah? I'll tell you! When I told you that I would never fuck someone in my car, I lied, because I would happily fuck you in it. And when you said that I'm not into guys, you were so wrong because I am into guys. I'm into you, Stiles. All those girls should just distract the others because…"
"Because what, Derek? Because you were too insecure to stand by your feelings?"
"Yes," Derek said after some moments of silence.
"Oh dear," Stiles said and grabbed Derek by his shirt and pulled him close…
~ Epilogue ~
"Ready?" Stiles asked, entwining his fingers with Derek's.
"Yes," Derek said, his voice steady. He opened the door of his Camaro, let go off Stiles' hand and went around the car to open the passenger's door for Stiles.
"Such a gentleman," Stiles said mischievously as Derek closed the door behind him.
"Shut up."
"Okay."
Derek took Stiles' hand into his and together they walked into the school building. Heads turned as they made their way towards the gym and something of a tumult broke loose when they began to slow dance. But nothing was weirder than their Coach who suddenly stood before them.
"If I see you kissing on the field one single time, I'll kick you both from team! Got it?"
"Got it, Coach," Derek said laughing and gave Stiles another kiss.