"I am going to be fine, Ally." Lydia sighed on the phone, exasperated. "Hopefully, I will live to see a few more weekends which you can reserve for spending time with your supposedly best friend of ten years."
"You are mad at me, aren't you," Allison's voice came in a slightly higher pitch than usual, and at that Lydia finally understood how much the former wanted to see this new guy. "But this is the only chance of seeing him again and getting his number, Lyds. I swear, I have never seen such a...of course, that doesn't mean I forgot about you I just..."
"God, I am not mad, I was just kidding." Lydia laughed. "Go have fun, Al."
"I love you. We are going to make up for this next Friday, promise."
With that she cut the call.
Lydia smiled to herself. She probably was not going to hear the last of this guy who caught her friend's fancy at the DVBBS concert anytime soon. She refilled her pen and began writing the fifth page of her essay on Gene Regulation, putting headphones on.
The essay would be completed within half an hour.
Her gritting her teeth over day before yesterday's incident would not.
I had a summer lover down in New Orleans
Kept him warm in the winter, left him frozen in the spring
My, my, how the seasons go by
"Lydia, come and dance!" Malia yells over the blaring music from somewhere in the middle of twenty sweaty bodies grooving sickeningly close. "Remind me sometime in the distant future," Lydia shudders shaking her head as a 'no' to the girl who would never understand how exactly Lydia wanted to spend a 'fun' Wednesday afternoon. Kira laughs at the face she makes. "Have something," she suggests. "Um, actually, alcohol being a diuretic, in this hot weather and timing, it can seriously interfere with your body's homeostasis," Lydia quickly rejected. Seeing her friend's face fall and eyes sort of glaze over, she bites her tongue. "Do they have cokes in here?" Damn afternoon clubs.
"Hey, Lydia." Ugh, not now. It's one of the jocks she doesn't really bother to know the name of. "I will get you that." He smiles, and it's not the melting kind, in fact, she just wants to get away. Kira is dancing with Malia, one surreptitious glance confirms. A buzz in her pocket reminds her that Allison is not as close as she would have preferred. "Hmm," she turns away. He gets her a coke anyway.
Minutes later, or so it feels like, she is vomiting her contents out on the sink of the club's unisex restroom. Well aware of an onlooker, her stomach clenches unpleasantly, adding to the misery of her burning throat. Her head hurts.
"You okay?"
"What the hell," she manages, between chokes.
"You do look like hell."
She wants to glare at the boy looking down at her, she wants to incinerate him, burn that smirk off his face, and punch the lights out of him, but her head weighs her down.
"What's the time," she pants, sitting down on the floor, all sophistication screwed.
"Nine-thirty."
"What the hell."
"I know."
"Who even are you?"
"Oh, just your average loser taking care of an obviously wasted girl trying to keep her from puking on his shoes-oh dear god- and apparently failing." He rattles off at one breath as she does exactly what he predicts.
"You are not the same guy," she mutters tiredly. She wills one eye to open, and sees the reflection of a 5'8" silhouette, well it is a dirty mirror, towering over her form, holding her hair back as she vomited for the third time, this time into the sink aided by a second set of strong arms around her.
"I am guessing same as the guy who handed you a so called coke?"
"Correctly so," she sobs internally.
"Definitely no, then. They spike the cokes. Maybe it's fun to try messing with people who want to remain sober."
She looks up at him and his irritated glance at his ruined shoes screams sarcasm, thankfully.
"Next time you come here," He leans down to her eye level, bending a knee. His eyes are light brown. Could be even golden in brighter light. They are beautiful, but his expression isn't. "Stay off driving duty or just bring mineral water to put off the thirst, okay?"
They stare a long while at each other. When he waves one hand at her unblinking eyes incredulously, she takes note of the toilet paper roll he is holding out to her, not so subtly eyeing the mess she made on herself.
"I need to go and find my friends." She says, trying to maintain a nonchalant tone.
"Able to walk?"
"Yeah," she lies, and as if trying to prove it, she trips miserably.
"I can see that."
One of his annoyingly firm hands snakes around her waist and seemingly halves the effective weight of her body. "C'mon," he urges, and they make way to the exit.
"Call your friends." He says, and it pains her that while she should be thinking of what possible things she might have left back there, or how many unspeakable things she did the whole while, or how come Malia and Kira could be so fucking oblivious to her supposedly being shit-faced drunk, all she could do was watch his Adam's apple bob up and down and focus on his voice. Everything else seemed to be a blur of noise and neon lights and they weren't really aesthetic anymore, just sickening.
The muscle clenching in his jaw, his sharp cheekbones hosting a rosy tinge, were a different sort of distraction. Almost like an escape.
"My purse," she gasps in horror, as realization set in.
"It's here, it's here." Him rolling his eyes wasn't necessary at all, but she still wants to wrap her arms around him and maybe even kiss him, yeah like how much more disgusted do you want him to be, as he brandishes her purse out of nowhere, like magic. She takes a while to fumble through all the items in it, feeling weirdly self conscious as he watches patiently...no wait, he is just sending a text on his own phone.
"Hey, Malia?" She wishes her voice wasn't so croaky and well, helpless.
"Where in the effing hell are you, miss?" Malia's voice is shrill through the speakers of her phone, nearly making Lydia cower. She is relieved, but also somewhat subdued. Her friends went back to campus without her.
"You worried us sick!" She hears Kira exclaim, imagining her snatching the phone from Malia.
Looking up at the boy's face she sees him raise one eyebrow at her.
"I am still at The Nemeton. With, um..."
"Stiles."
She gives him a look.
"I know Malia," he says, looking as surprised as she probably did. "If you're in her year, then I am in your year too. Springfield?"
"Springfield," Lydia nods at him.
Everybody in their year knew Malia, but how come she didn't notice Stiles? He is easily the noticeable kind. He has a beanie, which instantly earns him points, but there is something more, not in the leather jacket or the sparkly wristwatch that gave away the 'jock' vibe, but in the way he carries himself. One moment, he is smoothly supporting her through the parking lot ignoring the stares that follow them both like he gives zero fucks about whatever's going on around them, the next moment his fingers are drumming away intensely on the side of a car, and his eyes move back and forth as if expecting attack anytime.
"I am here with, Stiles."
"Whoa, you have some explanation to do," Malia whistles at the other end.
She explains the situation as briefly as she could, and hangs up.
"What's your name?" He asks.
"Lydia." She replies, shuffling her feet. It was awkward enough a situation to exchange pleasantries.
"What the hell is a Lydia?" He smirks, holding the door to his car open.
She finds herself enraptured by the smirk, but also extremely annoyed at his words.
"What I mean is that I didn't see you anywhere before today."
"Me neither, but at least I didn't say 'what the hell is a Stiles' as a greeting, did I? What even is Stiles, really?"
He laughs. "You are more pleasant when you are drunk." He says, and she is horrified again.
My ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em whole
They won't let go
Truth be told, Lydia wasn't sure why she was still on the edge about the incident two days later, even though there were parts of it which she didn't want to learn more about.
She played with her phone, rereading the same disturbing conversation.
I can't find u turn on location
Malia 8:25 pm
Took a cab at campus now
Delivered 8:28 pm
song is Elle King- Ex's &Oh's