"Is the summer almost over yet?" Stiles groaned as he leaned his entire upper body over the counter, his arms hanging loosely.
"It's only June," Scott answered with an amused smile.
He was rearranging the muffins and cakes on the glass shelves, trying to keep himself busy while Stiles opted to simply wallow in his boredom. There were only two people in the diner during that early Wednesday afternoon, and they were in the middle of their meal. The best friends were the only waiters working that shift, and indeed were two of only four waiters employed. Scott was the one who had gotten them the summer jobs before they left for college, saying that they needed to get money somehow. Stiles had acquiesced, knowing he was right, but was really just waiting for the day when he and Scott got out of Beacon Hills. They were going to the same college and were signed up to be roommates. Everything was falling into place. The summer just had to end.
Stiles never thought he would ever say that. But here he was, tapping his fingers on the counter incessantly, trying to get through the day. In the midst of this, there was a short jingling sound, instantly gaining his and Scott's attention.
Two girls about their age stood in front of the doors, waiting expectantly. Stiles's gaze immediately locked on the redhead, dressed as if she was on her way to a party, in a short dress and high heels. Her emerald eyes were wide and impatient, and he knew in that moment that he needed to date this woman. What he didn't notice was that Scott seemed to be infatuated with the redhead's, no, strawberry blonde's companion. They scrambled out from behind the counter, attempting to shove the other out of the way as they went.
"Can we help you?" Scott asked as they both stopped abruptly in front of the girls.
"Yeah, I can show you to a seat if you want," Stiles added.
"I guess it's been a slow day or something?" the brunette asked with a slight laugh as she glanced at her friend.
"Or something," the other one responded.
"Lydia," she whispered under her breath before addressing Stiles, "We'd love a seat, thanks."
He grinned, the cringing feeling from their obvious blunder ebbing, and grabbed two menus from the counter. He directed the girls to the third booth from the door, which he chose on random, and dropped the laminated cardstock on either side.
"My name is Stiles and I will be your waiter today," he said the usual line cheerily, "Do you guys want to start off with drinks?"
"I'll have an iced tea," the strawberry blonde, Lydia, stated.
"Just a coke, please," the brunette requested.
"Pepsi okay?" Stiles asked.
"Uh, yeah, that's fine," she answered.
"Sorry, everybody complains, I know, but what're you gonna do, I don't own the place," he laughed awkwardly, "I barely get minimum wage."
The girls smiled uncomfortably, Lydia showing her disapproval much more than her friend.
"I'll go get those then," Stiles uttered before quickly walking back behind the counter.
Scott had just closed the cash register as he approached him, the family of three having just left. He turned to face his best friend dejectedly.
"You always get the hot ones," he complained quietly so they wouldn't hear.
"You just gotta be faster, Scotty boy," Stiles smirked as he took a plastic glass and began filling it.
"I was there first," Scott insisted.
"No, you weren't," he replied.
"No, he was," a new voice came from the window to the kitchen.
"See, Danny knows," Scott gestured to where he was leaning on folded arms.
"Well, it doesn't matter because you didn't stand your ground," Stiles stated as he nodded firmly in emphasis.
"I am with him on that one," Danny said pointedly.
"I thought you were on my side," Scott exclaimed.
"I'm not on any side," he replied matter-of-factly, "Somebody has to play referee for you two."
Stiles tried to put on a displeased expression, but a laugh came out instead. He picked up the two glasses and headed back towards the girls' table.
"One iced tea and a not-coke," he said happily, placing them down, "Are you guys ready to order?"
"Yeah, I'll just have the grilled cheese please," the brunette stated, handing him her menu.
"The chicken Caesar wrap for me, thank you," Lydia specified.
"Of course," he smiled.
Just as he finished jotting the orders down on a notepad, the tell-tale jingle announced the arrival of new customers. Stiles turned to see an elderly couple waiting and couldn't resist a slight grin. As he began heading back behind the counter, he passed Scott on his way and smacked his upper arm.
"There are your people, Scott," he laughed, barely trying to keep the comment between the two of them.
His best friend just shook his head as if he couldn't believe the situation. Once behind the counter, Stiles ripped the paper from the notepad and slapped it onto the kitchen window's ledge.
"Get busy, Danny," he cried.
The cook merely rolled his eyes in annoyance and disappeared from view. Stiles leaned against the counter and, oh, right, he can hear the two girls from here. For a split second, he considered tuning them out, but that wasn't how he worked.
"We've got to find someone to take to the party on Friday," the brunette was saying, "That gives us two days."
"Well, it's not that easy, Allison," Lydia replied sternly, "He's got to be somebody that Jackson can't ridicule."
"Let's not forget that I need someone too," she stated.
"It shouldn't be this hard to make our exes feel like they made a huge mistake."
"I just need to show Matt that I'm doing fine without him," Allison said, "I would never take him back."
"He was pretty possessive," Lydia observed.
"That's an understatement."
"What we need here are two guys that nobody from our school knows. I mean, we already left town just to avoid them for the day. Obviously, there's an issue."
That was all Stiles needed to hear before he was fast-walking to their table, passing a confused Scott on the way.
"Um, sorry to intrude," he began, their judging eyes on him, "but I couldn't help but overhear your problem. You know, I'm sure nobody from where you're from knows my buddy or I, and we're free on Friday. It doesn't have to be a date-date, of course, that's fine, but we'd be happy to help."
"That'd be great," Allison said thankfully.
"Do I not get a say in this?" Lydia asked, her expression the picture of skepticism.
"You just said it wouldn't be easy, and you want to turn this down?"
"Fine," she sighed, holding up her hand, "Give me your notepad."
Stiles scrambled to take it out of his pocket and hand it to her.
"And the pen," Lydia said in exasperation.
"Right," he let out with a nervous laugh as he gave it to her.
After she finished writing, he took the pad back gratefully and headed towards the storage room, motioning Scott to follow him. Stiles held the paper up victoriously once his friend entered.
"Numbers, dude, for both of them," he stated, "She even specified which was which."
"Did you just get us dates?" Scott asked in shock.
"To a party in the town over, yeah," he answered, "Now don't say I never do anything for you."
Scott gripped his shoulders and shook him in excitement.
"We've got dates!"
"Yeah!"
There was a faint jingling sound from beyond the door.
"We should probably go do our jobs."
"Yeah."
They left the storage room quickly, Stiles going to assist the new arrivals. The rest of the afternoon passed by swiftly, only pausing when Lydia and Allison left.
"Pick us up at 7:30, and don't be late," Lydia commanded.
"I'll text you the address," Allison told Scott, both so obviously flirting as she paid at the register.
"Looking forward to it," Stiles called as they exited.
Allison reluctantly gave a small wave, but Lydia never hesitated to simply strut away.
"I think she's into me," he stated.
"Well, Allison's definitely into me," Scott gave that puppy-dog smile.
"Okay, okay, we've both got good chances with these girls," Stiles concluded.
His best friend nodded uncertainly before returning to work, leaving him to bite his lip and force optimistic thoughts onto his mind. It was working too. All through that night, Thursday, and Friday morning, Stiles was practically dancing on air. His once boring summer was turning beautiful, thanks to one strawberry blonde. So maybe he was getting ahead of himself, maybe Lydia hadn't really shown him much interest at all. In fact, he had overheard her saying that she was just trying to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. But that didn't mean he couldn't win her over. And it wasn't simply her looks that had him crushing so hard, it was her attitude. Sharp, calculating, and full of emotion, he just knew it. Stiles was good at reading people, this was an undeniable fact as far as he was concerned.
Yet at 10:00 that Friday morning, an unexpected man in his early twenties entered the diner and proceeded to throw a wrench into his plans.
"Hey, Mr. Owner, what brings you here?" Stiles asked, having just delivered some pancakes and Scott being occupied at another table, "And by the way, we got another complaint about the Pepsi products on Wednesday. I keep telling you, the people want Coca-Cola."
"For the last time, I'm not changing the soda machine," Derek said gruffly, arms folded in his typical manner.
"Okay, I'm just saying, it might bring in more business," he replied with his hands in the air defensively.
Derek sighed heavily, ignoring the comment completely.
"I need you to cover for Erica tonight," he stated.
"Whoa, whoa, no can do, I have big plans tonight," Stiles exclaimed immediately, "Tell Erica she can't have off because Scott's busy too. We are going to be very very busy."
"Erica's in the hospital," Derek responded directly.
Stiles paused for a moment, mouth open, and then swore.
"Is she okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, it was another seizure," Derek answered, "She just has to relax for the rest of the day."
"And why do I have to fill in?"
"You're the only other person who took off once."
"I was sick!" he cried.
"Doesn't matter, you're working tonight," Derek told him matter-of-factly before grabbing a muffin, waving briefly to Danny and Scott, and leaving.
"Motherfucker," Stiles cursed under his breath.
"What was that about?" Scott asked upon his return behind the counter.
"I have to work tonight," he groaned, "This is the worst possible thing to happen."
"That sucks, dude, what're you going to do?" Scott asked.
"I can't do anything, I need this job," he replied miserably, "I'll have to text Lydia and tell her I can't make it. God, this is unbelievable."
"Wait, if you don't go then she won't have a date and Allison will, and then they might not even want to go to this party," his friend sputtered nervously.
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
"We need a replacement."
"Thanks, dude, you're a great friend," Stiles stated mockingly.
"But Isaac and Boyd are working tonight too," Scott continued, "I don't think we have any other friends that would do us a favor. I'm not even sure Boyd would, actually."
"I know somebody," Danny piped up from the window.
"You do?" Scott said hopefully.
"Is he straight?" Stiles asked, "Wait, it'd be better if he wasn't, actually."
"I can get my boyfriend to make his brother go," Danny said.
"You would do that for us?" Scott asked.
"It would make Ethan happy," Danny replied with a shrug, "I'll tell him right now."
"Thanks!" Scott called.
And that settled that. Stiles's potentially beautiful summer had turned to shit again. Hours went by and he only seemed to get into a worse mood. Scott tried to cheer him up a couple times, but the dork couldn't keep from smiling about his own good fortune and therefore did no good. Eventually first shift ended and Boyd took over Danny's job while Isaac replaced Scott. Isaac was a good friend, had been ever since he became Mrs. McCall's foster son, but he was no Scott and at this point Stiles was determined to just stay irritable. Once the time hit 7:30, he groaned loudly and smacked his forehead onto the counter, thinking only of what could have been.
Time passed agonizingly slow after that, and Stiles was absolutely sure that he wouldn't be getting the best tips. Of course, he didn't care too much. Once the point came to close up, only he and Isaac were left in the diner. Boyd had left about ten minutes earlier after cooking the last customers' meals and cleaning up his area. He knew his services wouldn't be required any longer and wanted desperately to get back to Erica. The two boys remaining were wiping the tables when the jingling sound came again.
"We're closed," Stiles called out without even looking.
"Well, can you make an exception?" a voice answered, somewhat demanding while holding a hint of desperation all the same.
He instantly recognized her and whipped around in surprise.
"Lydia?" he let out, "What are you doing here?"
From the corner of his eye, he could see Isaac raise his eyebrows and place his cleaning supplies on a nearby table.
"I'm gonna go," he stated slowly before doing just that.
Stiles spared him a glance but couldn't seem to be able to comprehend much more. He was too focused on Lydia, who was dressed in a dark green dress just as short as the one from Wednesday and would've looked even more beautifully put together with her array of accessories were it not for that fact that she had obviously been crying. That's not to say she wasn't still beautiful. Stiles didn't see a reason to call her anything less than lovely.
"Well, are you going to show me to a seat?" she asked bleakly.
"Right, yeah," he answered quickly.
Stiles walked past her, brushing her arm lightly with his hand to signal her to follow, and gestured to a booth. She sat down gingerly and folded her hands on her lap, looking at them nervously. Stiles stood anxiously by the table, fingertips pressed hard against its surface.
"So-,"
"Why didn't you go to the party?" she asked abruptly, looking up at him.
"I, uh," Stiles struggled for words, "I am so sorry, but my boss made me cover for the girl who was supposed to work tonight and I really need this job for college. I wanted to go so badly, really, you've gotta believe me, I did, but I made sure you wouldn't be dateless."
"Oh, yeah, Aiden was a real gentleman," Lydia spat in disgust, "Ditched me as soon as he saw someone he liked better."
"God, I'm sorry," he replied, the worst feeling of guilt exploding in his chest, "I guess I should've met the guy or something but I trusted Danny. I'm going to have a long talk with him, don't worry."
"Yeah," she scoffed lightly.
There was another awkward pause.
"Do you want some coffee?" Stiles asked, "I haven't emptied the pot yet."
She nodded noncommittally in a sort of 'why not' gesture, prompting him to immediately head towards the counter. He managed to empty the pot into two mugs and quickly returned, sitting across from her this time. Lydia smiled gratefully and wrapped both hands around the beige mug, taking a tentative sip.
"It was really stupid to come here," she stated quietly.
"No, it's alright," he replied instantly.
"It's just… a lot of guys would love to get a date with me and I agreed to go with you because I needed someone to make an appearance. Someone who will stay by my side and cater to my every whim during this party. You seemed the type."
"Oh, well,"
"And then you don't come at all."
"Sorry, again, I-,"
"Can you not interrupt me when I'm trying to spill my soul to a complete stranger?" She inquired mockingly.
"I wouldn't say complete stranger," he started but then caught her expression, "Sorry."
"Right. So at this party, Aiden's off who knows where with some girl, Allison and Scott are too infatuated with each other to be aware of their surroundings, and Jackson is practically making out on the dance floor with the new girl. He barely even notices I'm there, and when he does, he just makes a comment about my complete loneliness. That's not the way it's supposed to be."
Stiles was quiet for a moment as he tried to fashion a response.
"How is it supposed to be?" he asked softly.
"I was the popular girl, Stiles," Lydia answered, clearly upset, "I was the one everyone wanted to be with. That's always how it was. And then a new girl shows up and they flock to her, because she's prettier than me. How shallow is that? And I know I can be shallow. I'm not an idiot. But I… I did love Jackson, even if it just started out with him being the popular guy and captain of the lacrosse team. And he left me. The worst part is… I don't think I even care about being the popular pretty girl anymore. You know, I have a genius level IQ and the only person who's aware of it besides my family is Allison, because it wouldn't matter. People wouldn't care."
"Well, they should care. I care," Stiles told her, "Those people need to sort out their priorities. I met you three days ago, and I know you're more than just beautiful."
She stared at him for a long minute, a smile slowly creeping onto her face. Letting out a short laugh, she shook her head slightly.
"What?" he asked, desperate to know if he had said too much.
"It's just, right before I left the party," Lydia began delicately, "I thought, who is going to love me in thirty years when I am anything but pretty?"
"Yeah, you don't call middle-aged women pretty," Stiles said with a smirk.
"Thanks," she replied bitterly.
"You call them beautiful," he continued, "or lovely, or gorgeous, or brilliant, or a genius."
Lydia laughed but continued to shake her head, as if in disbelief.
"I would never date someone like you, Stiles," she stated after taking a large drink of coffee, "My type is the muscled and overly-confident."
"Hey, I have some muscle," he defended, taking a nervous sip out of his own mug.
"But god knows I need more humor in my life," Lydia said with a magnificent smile.
"Wait, so… what does that mean?"
"I don't know," she mused, "but something better, I think."
Stiles grinned widely.
"You deserve better," he expressed confidently.
She laughed to some extent, clearly still unsure, and before he even knew what he was doing, Stiles took her hand gently.
"Well, milady," he began lightheartedly, "would you like to accompany me to dinner tomorrow night? I promise I really am free then."
Lydia gave the most genuine smile he'd seen that whole night.
"I'd love to."
A/N: So this is a reposting of this oneshot that I had in a Stydia oneshot collection which lasted one chapter before I decided to take the second AU much much farther than a collection would normally entail. Still, I do adore this one and may even write a sequel once I'm done with my current story. Anyway, thanks for reading and please review!
~Catie