Lie To Me Again
When Lydia first hears that Stiles and Malia broke up there's a pang in her heart. A good type of pang for she smiles. She doesn't mean to. She realizes how rude and inconsiderate it was but she simply couldn't help herself.
Scott could hear her heart begin to race through the other line as the information sunk in. He wondered what that was about but didn't give too much thought to it for he was too busy trying to keep things under control.
"Listen, Malia's really upset. She went after the Desert Wolf and we've gotta stop her. Who knows what could happen—she's not in the right state of mind." Scott explained through the phone.
"A-Alright?" Lydia exhaled not knowing where with was going.
"The Sheriff's at work and… I-I don't want to leave Stiles alone, especially not now—" Scott struggled with his wording. He was worried about his best friend and couldn't be there for him when he needed him.
"So you want me to go over there." Lydia finished, cutting him off.
"Yeah. Could you maybe do that?"
"Sure." She tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal—like any of this news was. But she already had a slight suspicion that Scott was skeptical of her reactions. Especially since her heart was beating a hundred miles a minute.
When she arrived at the Stilinski household Stiles was surprised to see her.
"Scott asked me to come over." Lydia mumbled. She figured he already knew about the Malia/Desert Wolf thing and didn't need further explanation.
Stiles just nodded and let her in without a word.
She can tell he's sad. His shoulders are sunk, his expression sullen. "I uh… I heard about…" She doesn't finish the sentence for he understands what she wants to say.
"Oh. Yeah, that." He clears his throat as he leads her to his bedroom. It's beyond messy. The walls are half covered by post-it notes, and pictures of suspects etc… and hanging red string. "I was just—" He tries explaining his surroundings.
"Clearing your head?" By the looks of it thats what he was doing.
"Something like that." He smiles. And its the first time she see's it today. "I was trying to—"
"You don't need to explain." Lydia cuts him off, offering a pursed smile. She sits down on his bed as he continues to take the remaining stuff off his walls. They were only clouding the space in his brain. He couldn't think anymore.
Clinging tight to her purse Lydia gazes around. She never realized how crowded and clustered his room seemed.
"Need any help?" She wanted to ask him about Malia. The reason they broke up, if he was okay—if she was okay. If it was mutual or not. If he still loved her. If he regretted ending things. Yet she had the slightest hint that he didn't want to talk about it, plus it really wasn't any of her business. So she kept to herself and offered a set of extra hands.
Stiles shrugged. And she knew something was wrong when he didn't speak his mind.
"Yeah, sure." As she approached him he attempted to smile.
"Uh, basically take anything attached to a red string off. Put the pictures in that pile," He pointed with a pen to a messy stack of photographs on his desk, "and the notes in that trash bag."
Lydia nodded taking a moment to study him—his movements, his tone, before looking up at the wall to find that nearly all of his work was connected by red string.
"Stiles? All these are attached to—"
"Oh, I'm aware." The fact that he knew what she was going to say made her heart flutter inappropriately. And hopefully the expression on her face wasn't giving that away.
"And what about the red string? What do I do with it?" She was trying to be helpful. But there was no denying the bounce in her step, or the lightheartedness in her tone.
"Just throw them on the bed, god knows I'm gonna use them again." He mumbled. Stiles could tell she was at ease with his situation, but as they worked, he remained silent and tried to ignore it.
They organized the notes and photographs for a good ten minutes in puzzling silence before the anticipation finally grew over Lydia and she couldn't take it any longer.
"So do you want to talk about it?" She hinted lightly as she chewed on the back of a sharpie marker.
"Talk about?" He didn't even look her way.
She just rolled her eyes and continued working. "Don't play stupid Stiles, you and I both know you're smarter than you look." She found his response quite annoying and left no room to call him on it.
Typical Stiles.
"What's there to talk about?" He commented. This time she stopped to take a good look at him. She could tell by the tone in his voice and the tense way he ripped the photo's and notes off his walls that he was a bit flustered.
"Stiles—!"
"Yeah, alright. Let's talk." He snapped back. "How about you tell me all about Parish and your crazy adventures to discover the supernatural together?!" He mumbled bitterly causing Lydia to frown in confusion.
Stiles never had a problem with Parish before, where was thing all coming from?
Sure, she was spending more time with Jordan, and sure once upon a time thing's were getting a little heated between them because she convinced herself she was over high school boys and what-not. But in the end it was just aimless flirting and teasing. She enjoyed a good chase.
He still doesn't look her way and it bothers her more than she would ever care to reveal.
"I have a right to date or like whoever I want!" She shot back.
Stiles tore something off the wall and threw it in the bag before turning her way. "You know what Lydia? So do I! But you can't do that!"
"Do what?!" She hisses, an inexplicable rage overtakes her. Somehow this always happens around him.
Is she that obvious?
"Be all happy and ecstatic when we break up!"
Yes. Yes she is.
"And why not?" She demands. She's defensive and hurt in a way. But she doesn't back down. Clearly, her being happy about the fact he's single again is bothering him and she wants to know why.
"Because you standing there, with that smile on your face makes it hard for me to regret ending things in the first place!" His eyes meet her's as he spells out the sentence and suddenly the air around them is light and thin. She wants nothing more than to kiss him in that moment. But she doesn't, she knows it's wrong.
"Oh my god."
Instead she smiles.
"See! There it is again!" He's frustrated and it's kind of turning her on in a wrong way. This time she tries to wipe the smug smile off her face as she takes a seat next to where he sat himself down on the bed.
"Stiles listen… I'm not happy to see you hurting." Lydia starts. She's calmer. "I hate seeing you this way." She shrugs as she plays with some red string she grabs from next to her.
"You and Malia had something—there's no denying that…" She mumbles. "A strong bond, a sense of guiding trust." He gazes up at her, so far what she was saying wasn't making him feel better.
"It's hard—and it sucks. Trust me, I know." She insists talking from her experience. She definitely had enough of it to relate.
"But towards the end you both struggled, too much in my opinion… I-I don't know what exactly happened; that's between you two, but everyone saw it Stiles. You began to resent each other. It wasn't working anymore… so as your friend, I'm glad too see you got yourself out of that." She explained with perfect sense that he began to realize what an idiot he was for thinking any differently.
"That's why I'm smiling—that's why I'm happy. I'm happy because you may be hurting now, but you won't in the long run." There's such clarity in her voice he wonders how he ever looked past it.
"And is that the only reason?" Stiles asks after a moment, taking the red string her hands and wrapping it gently across her fingers. Thing's went silent as he peered at her, trying to figure her out.
No.
"Yes." She swallows shooting him crazy look. But it was no use, he could tell she was lying.
He just smirked and challenged her. "What if I don't believe you?"
Lydia's emerald eyes widened. Her heart raced.
"I'd be a very bad thing if you didn't." She mumbled her eyes trailing down the little brown moles on from the side of his face till she reached his lips.
"Lie to me again." He whispered faintly as he leaned in, ridding of any space between them.