The next morning Melissa was standing downstairs stirring her coffee when she heard the two boys upstairs staring to argue, loudly this time.
She couldn't quite make out what they were saying but she knew that there was something wrong. It's probably just some teenage nonsense that I'm far too old for now, she thought, or it could be some werewolf nonsense that I really don't need to deal with. Either way she just sat down and tried not to pry as she read the morning paper.
She heard a door slam and some heavy feet that she knew to be her son's come galumphing down the stairs. He had his bag slung over his shoulder and a scowl on his face as he stormed past the kitchen.
"Morning Scott!" She called.
"I'll see you after school mom!" He called back and she flinched at the sound of the front door slamming behind him.
He's always been a door slammer when he gets angry. When he's just annoyed he gives you a blank stare and just shuts the door on you. Melissa thought about it again and heard the second set of feet come walking down the stairs, slower this time.
Isaac walked into the doorway and gave Melissa a weak smile. "Sorry about all the noise." He said.
"Is he okay?" she asked.
Isaac nodded. "Yeah, just some pack stuff." He lied.
Melissa sighed, "I thought that might be it. I swear I'll never get used to this werewolf thing." She chuckled a little and Isaac just nodded again. She cocked her eyebrow at him. "Are you sure he's okay?" She asked again.
"Yeah, he'll be fine."
"Are you okay?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, I'm great, just fine."
"You know you can talk to me if you need to Isaac, I know you've had some bad things happen in your life and… well if you do need anyone to talk to I really don't mind." She gave him a smile but unfortunately that just made him feel worse.
"I know, thanks Ms McCall." He said as he hitched up his backpack and headed for the door.
"Teenage boys…" she muttered to herself before taking a sip of her coffee.
Stiles –
Last day of the first week, I am seriously starting to wish it was over already because this year is going to be a bitch. Not to mention that we have prom coming up and I am totally not going to be able to take Derek.
I mean the school is a little more flexible about that kind of stuff now, but Derek is like, in his twenties and I'm still seventeen so they're probably not going to be so hot on that. It's mostly because Derek would rather die than come to the prom with me because he just doesn't do that.
His idea of going out for dinner is buying take-out and sitting in the forest or other such uninhabited places. Don't get me wrong it's fucking awesome but dinner with actual plates would be nice sometime too.
Anyway he practically kicked me out of the loft earlier because he had some super-secret werewolf shiz-nit to see to. He wouldn't tell me what it was but I seriously hope that Peter has nothing to do with it.
After everything he did earlier in the summer, what with the manipulation and evil-doings and all, Derek gave him a pretty good beating to put him in his place. I've got to say that was one of the highlights of my summer.
I mean he didn't want Derek and me to be together because he would feel less powerful next to Derek who had completed a trigger bond. I hope he feels a little less powerful around me too; I've been ready for anything since we sealed the bond. I still can't get used to that, it sounds so weird rolling off my tongue but Derek says that if I describe it in any other way he'll rip my throat out, yeah, you guessed it, with his teeth.
He's quite possibly the sexiest man alive but he really needs to find some new comebacks. I may have mentioned that to him once or twice to no avail.
Wait, where was I? Right, this year is going to suck.
Senior year means SAT's and actually having to study for once. Why did I have to get myself a sexy distracting boyfriend this year?
I'm only just getting to school now – after having been kicked out of the loft for the werewolf convention – so I shut the door on the jeep and headed into the school where the bell was about to ring and people were slowly milling about and heading to their classes.
I had chemistry up first with Scott. I walked around to the labs and found the right room, heading inside and giving Scott a smile that he didn't return as I walked over to him.
Oh good, he had his sad-werewolf look on today. Something's got to be up.
"Hey man what's up?" I said as I sat down in the chair beside him.
"Nothing." He said flatly.
"Are you okay?" I said.
"I'm fine." He said, not looking up.
He is most definitely not fine, in fact he looks kind of grumpy. "What's the matter Scott? Cat got your tongue?" I grinned and waggled my eyebrows a bit.
He looked up really slowly with a glare that would give Derek a run for his money. I put my hands up in defeat.
"Alright, okay, I'll shut up." I said, turning to the front of the class and tapping my foot under the desk.
After a few minutes of that he clenched his fist and looked up slowly again and my smile dropped pretty much instantly. "Really Stiles?" He said impatiently.
I raised my eyebrows and gave him a sarcastic 'sorry' face before turning back to my page as Mr Harris walked in. This is going to be a long day if he's going to be in this kind of mood.
The rest of the class went by pretty slowly. He didn't laugh at any of my jokes and he was out the door the second the bell had gone. I gathered my stuff and Danny walked over to me from his desk.
"Hey, I noticed Scott's pretty grumpy today, any chance he and Jackson are having the same issues?" He asked as I shoved my book into my backpack.
"Honestly Danny I couldn't tell you because I got like five words out of him today. Why, what's going on with Jackson?"
"He's just been snapping at me for the last few days."
"Isn't that basically your average day for him?" I smirked.
"To you maybe." I nodded with a bit of a shrug because hey, he was right. "I just figured since he's been hanging around with you guys a lot lately you might know why he's been in a bad mood."
"I don't know Danny, I don't think Scott's thing is at all related."
He sighed, clearly worried about Jackson. "I just barely see him anymore, it's like he's completely turned into someone else."
I felt kind of sorry for the guy. Apart from me, no one has actually told him what the hell has been going on, and even then he didn't believe me because we were both drunk and it was a story about freaking werewolves. There was no way anyone would believe it unless they actually saw it, maybe that's why I haven't told my dad, I don't really want him to have to see it anyway.
"How about you come over to Derek's place tomorrow night? We're going to have a few drinks and hopefully that'll make Jackson a little… fluffier." He raised an eyebrow at me.
"Fluffier?"
"Okay, so maybe that is the last thing I would call him but seriously, Derek will get some booze and we'll make sure they perk up a bit." I shrugged.
He looked a little sceptical but he gave me a smile anyway. "Sure, just text me tomorrow then." He gave me a smack on the shoulder and headed out of class.
I winced a little but hoisted up my bag and headed out for the rest of the day.
It wasn't that bad but Scott was just as cranky as ever, it wasn't until after the final bell that he sent me a message asking me to meet him at his place because he'd been an a-hole all day. He didn't say that exactly but he meant it.
His place was on the way to mine so I figured I'd just head on over. He might not be there but I know a thing or two about breaking into Scott's house, I've done it multiple times.
I drove over and parked out the front on the grass, hopping out and walking up to the door. I knocked a couple of times but no one answered so I guess Scott isn't home yet. I wandered around to the side and started climbing up the guard on the side of the house to get to his room when I heard the door open.
"Oh shit." I said as I jumped back down and stumbled, Ms McCall yelling in fright when she saw me.
"Holy crap Stiles! What the hell are you doing?!" She held a hand to her heart and exhaled heavily.
"Uh… I was here to see Scott." I said.
"He's not home yet! Didn't you just spend the whole day at school together?"
"You know you're still yelling right?"
"I know Stiles!" I flinched and nodded, twiddling my thumbs a little. "Sorry," she said with a breath to calm herself down. "Come in, through the door this time." She held it open and I walked back up the steps and into the foyer.
"Sorry for scaring you out of your mind." I said.
"It's fine, you I'm used to. Did you want something to drink?" She asked as we walked into the kitchen and I sat down at the table.
"Uh, water's good." I said.
I watched her pour two glasses before setting one down in front of me and sitting in the chair opposite Okay, something's got to be going on.
"Thanks."
"Stiles…"
"Yeah?" I asked, taking a sip.
"Is there something going on with Scott?" She asked and I took an even longer sip.
"Uh, no. No, not… that I know of. Why?"
"Stiles…" She raised an eyebrow at me and damn it how does she know I'm lying?
I shook my head and made an 'uh ah' noise to which she narrowed her eyes.
"So there is something, you just don't want to tell me?"
"No! I mean yeah, wait, no…" I fumbled.
I don't think she knows about Scott and Isaac yet and I am so not the one who should be telling her.
"Stiles if something is up can you please just tell me so I can stop worrying about getting a call in the middle of the night saying that he's… cut in half or something? He's been acting strange for weeks now." She pleaded and I sighed.
I don't want her to have to worry when there is nothing going on. Well, nothing in the werewolf sense anyway.
"There's nothing going on that's going to get him cut in half, I promise." She seemed to relax a little at that.
"Then what is going on? We might not talk as much as we used to but I know when there's something bothering him."
"Yeah I know, he's not so great at hiding his emotions is he?"
She chuckled to herself and nodded. "Well I'm afraid he gets that from me, and you're not going to say anything are you?"
I shook my head. "This is kind of Scott's thing. I don't really want to undercut him."
She sighed. "Just so long as he does tell me if there is something serious going on."
"Promise I will take a fist to him if he keeps all this secrecy up." I put a hand to my heart and she scoffed.
"And you think that'll help do you?"
"Nah, it would probably hurt me before it hurt him." She laughed and I heard the door click as Scott finally made it home.
He walked into the kitchen and raised an eyebrow at the two of us sitting down having a conversation.
"What's going on?" He asked suspiciously.
"You tell me." Melissa said, looking from Scott to me and I gave the two of them a super awkward grin.
"What?" He asked.
"Nothing, I'm just trying to stop him from breaking in to this place." She said as she stood up and walked over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "I'm starting work in an hour so I'm going to get ready, there's money on the counter for dinner. I take it you're staying Stiles?" She said without looking back at me.
"If you're offering free food then yeah."
She laughed and tapped Scott's shoulder before heading upstairs.
"What the hell did you tell her?" He hissed the second he heard her door shut.
"I told her everything she needed to know." I said.
His eyes grew wide. "You what?! What the hell Stiles!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy wolfy, I didn't tell her anything about you and Isaac, all I said was that your life isn't in danger. Maybe you should tell her about the two of you before you completely crack." I said, holding out an arm to get him to back up.
He ran a hand through his hair and paced back and forth a few times.
"Jesus Scott, are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" He snapped. "Sorry, I just – I'm stressed about this year and then there's the whole telling my mom thing… I just don't want to disappoint her you know?" He said and I nodded a little.
"Hey, my dad was actually proud that I could land someone like Derek. It was seriously the weirdest thing ever." I said.
"Really?" He asked hopefully.
"Look, Scott, your mom is just about as cool as they come; telling her that you're dating Isaac isn't going to kill her." I said.
"I know but it's not just that. I mean how am I going to do it? There are so many other things to worry about anyway, I just don't want everything to change because it's not like I expected to be a freaking werewolf during my last few years of high school!"
"Scott, calm down, just take a few deep breaths and come over to Derek's tomorrow night to drink and unwind." I said, realising that I probably should tell him that I'm volunteering his house for a bunch of teenagers.
"Derek's having a party?" He asked.
"Well, no, I'm inviting people to Derek's because everyone seems to have issues right now." What is with all these people and their problems, my life is the best it's ever been.
"Does he know that?"
"I'm dealing with it, okay? Just figure out how you can stay calm, god, you're like about to bite my head off."
"Sorry." He sighed. "I just had a fight with Isaac this morning so everything is-"
"So that's why you were a jack ass all day? I get it, starting the day with a fight just gets you all wound up and stuff." I shrugged, knowing exactly how that feels.
He shot me a smile. "Thanks Stiles." He looked over to the money on the counter. "So… pizza?"
"Uh, obviously." Come on Scott, like there were any other options.
Isaac –
I sat in the chair at his desk just waiting for him to get home. I know I'm just looking for a reason to avoid Scott but I kind of also want someone to talk to about this and he is the only one who will listen and give me some actually helpful advice, albeit mostly sarcastic. Derek just gets to a point where 'I don't care' is the only thing that comes out of his mouth so he's basically useless unless it comes down to werewolf stuff.
"Come on Stiles, where the hell are you?" I grumbled.
He's probably at Derek's, but I don't want to drag Derek into it, I share enough with him living in that house, then again, I share plenty with Stiles by proxy.
I checked my phone and it had just gone nine. This was a stupid idea, since when is he ever home? As I was revelling in my idiocy I heard a car pull into the street and looked out the window to see Stiles' jeep pulling into the drive way.
He shut her off and climbed out, walking casually to the door. I could hear him throw his keys on the bench before heading up the stairs. Crap, this is going to scare the shit out of him isn't it?
As the door handle opened I looked away and waited for the scream, which came out as more of a yelp than anything else.
"Holy freaking Jesus! Isaac! What the hell? Can't you werewolves ever use the front door?" He said, his heartbeat racing as he collapsed on his bed.
"You know I've heard stories about how you never use the front door." I smiled.
"Only at Scott's place because his mom kept locking the front door." He grumbled.
I shook my head with a smile and breathed in deeply. "You smell like him."
Stiles let out a grunting sound and sat up to look at me. "If you're going to start complaining about him then go right ahead, I already know the story."
"Did he tell you that I would be complaining about him?"
"No Isaac, he didn't, he just told me about your fight this morning and I figured you were going to do the same."
"So did he complain about me?"
Stiles rolled his eyes. "Of course he did, you guys had a fight, he had to vent it to someone and apparently I'm everybody's someone."
I sighed and sat down beside him. "Sorry for not knocking, or even waiting for you to get back."
"It's fine, I'm used to Derek doing it and never tire of having heart attacks." I chuckled. "Go on then, get it out. You want him to tell his mom and he thinks it's too soon." He made a hand gesture to get me to continue.
"It's been two months and he thinks it's going to change everything. I mean I know his mom, you know his mom, do you really think she'll hate it that much?" He went to say something but I think I may have cut over him. "He's not going to say anything unless I keep bugging him about it is he? That's what he does and it frustrates me all to hell!" His mouth opened again but I couldn't stop. "I know what you're going to say and you're right, it's his mom and it's not my place to tell her or get angry or whatever but I am so tired of having to hide it. You know I don't even think Allison knows, and he has no idea how that makes me feel."
"Are you done? Can I speak now?" He said and I nodded. "I was actually going to say that I agree with you."
"Well that's just because – wait, what?" I said, I didn't expect him to say that.
"I said I agree with you. I have no idea why he's not telling his mom, Allison I can kind of understand because… well… never mind that-"
"What Stiles?" I said.
He sighed and shook his head. "Well I don't know if he's totally over her or not."
I looked away, knowing that he was probably right but not wanting to think about it. Maybe that was a factor in my other problem as well. What is there to expect when I basically forced myself on him when he was still pining after her.
"Sorry if that kind of kills your buzz." He said with a sheepish look on his face.
"It's okay, my buzz has been kind of dead all day."
"You know that trying to force him into telling his mom really isn't going to help. Neither is snapping at him."
"He told you everything huh?" I asked, feeling my cheeks get a little hotter.
"Yeah, you wouldn't stop bringing it up and then you got mad when he said he needed more time. Then there was some yelling and he stormed out."
"Is that all he said?" I looked at him from the corner of my eye and he shrugged.
"Yeah, why was there something else?"
I shook my head. "No, no that was it." I lied.
"Are you going to go back and talk to him or are you a fan of the Derek method?" He asked.
"I'm sorry the what?" I asked with a raise of my eyebrow and a small smile.
"The 'have an argument and then drop it so you don't have to talk about it after' method." He grinned
"You know I never asked for an insight into your relationship with Derek, living with him was enough." I said.
"Yeah well I'm not asking for an insight into yours and I in no way encourage you to take my advice, in fact I advise against it," I shook my head at him as he tried to follow his reasoning, "but I'm here if you need me to just, you know, vent at."
"Thanks Stiles."
"Don't mention it, but I'm warning you now, I won't take your side all the time, just when Scott's pulling a Derek."
"Pulling a Derek? Can you really make a saying about him out of everything?" I laughed.
"Whenever someone's being a douche, yeah." He smiled.
He really is the most ridiculous human I have ever met. "I'm going to let you have an actual life, kind of."
"Ha-ha, you're hilarious."
"Don't have a Derek related saying for that?"
"No, he's not the most humorous of werewolves. Would you try not to snap at Scott so much? All this tension is making my head spin." He rubbed his temple and I chucked to myself a little.
"Yeah, I'll try." I stood up and walked over to the window.
"You know you can use the door if you want." He said.
"Where's the fun in that." I gave him a wink and climbed through before jumping down to the ground below.
I tried to avoid it, I really did, but someone once said to me that you shouldn't let a day go by without resolving an argument. The feeling in my gut when I thought about leaving this conversation to later made me think that whoever they were; they were right.
I headed over to Scott's house to see most of the lights off, there was still a dim flicker in his bedroom. The bedside lamp, I knew that light well. He sometimes leaves it on to read, especially now he's got this thing about finishing all the books on the reading list. He pretends that they fascinate him but I know that most of them bore him to death, probably because he doesn't understand them. Hell, I don't know anyone who really does understand them, they're all a bit too interpretive for me.
I silently climbed up the side of the house, knowing exactly where to step so that Melissa wouldn't hear, and before I had the chance to knock on the window Scott was there to open it. We stared at one another in silence for a moment, both with sheepish looks on our faces.
"Hey." I said softly.
"Hey." He replied, stepping back to let me climb through the window.
I ducked my head as I swung my leg through and walked over to the other side of the room, shuffling my feet a little. He pushed the window down and flicked the lock, turning so that he wasn't fully facing me, his thumbs concealed in the waistband of his shorts.
"Look, I'm – I'm sorry about this morning…" I said slowly.
He gave a little shrug and a nod. "It's okay. I guess I'm a little sorry too."
"No Scott it-"
"It's alright, I know where you're coming from and you know that I'm trying to work it all out so there's not much else we can say about it."
My mind started flashing red warning signs, he's going for the Derek Method.
"I just think we need to talk about it without getting angry." I said.
"There's not much more to say, besides, one of us always gets angry."
"That's because neither of us will budge." I said and he looked up. "How about I just say that I won't bug you if you promise to set a time limit on this whole secret keeping thing? I mean it, you give me a time and I won't ask you when you're going to tell her anymore." I did mean it.
I thought back to the ugly argument from this morning and really hoped we could sort something out.
"How many times do I have to tell you that I just can't do it yet?!" Scott had yelled.
"Well how many times to I have to sit back and pretend that I don't feel this way just because you're scared of something that doesn't exist?!" I had spat back.
"Jesus Christ Isaac! Maybe you could think about how I feel about the whole fucking thing? She's my mom, not yours."
"Yeah and she accepted you as a fucking wolf so why won't she accept you for this?"
"It's not about that!"
"No? So what's it fucking about? Allison? Is that it? You don't want her to find out that you're fucking me? Oh wait, that's right; you're not."
Maybe I had pushed the line a bit there. Okay, maybe a lot. That was the part where he told me to fuck off and slammed the door in my face. I regretted it as soon as it slipped out. I didn't know it was going to and I really wish that I could take it back but it's out there now and I feel like the bad guy in this equation.
The whole sex thing isn't that big of a deal, it's not. It's just when the two things tie together that it makes me feel like he's ashamed. And no, I haven't told him that because I know he'll deny it but part of me can't help thinking that it's true.
Scott let out a loud sigh. "I'll try to tell her before Thanksgiving." He said.
Not really what I was after. "That's almost two months away." I said softly.
"Well it's the best I have okay?" He said as he gave me his 'I'm sorry' face. "Can we please stop fighting? I hate it when you're mad at me."
"I'm not mad." I said with a sigh.
"I can see it on your face, you're mad and there's still… I mean this isn't the only thing we argued about this morning…" He said.
I walked over and cupped his face in my hands, resting my head against his. "I'm not mad. I love you." I said, kissing him lightly on the lips.
His hands reached up to gently caress my wrists and hole my hands against his cheeks. "I love you too, really, I'm not just saying it." He said.
"I know, Scott."
I let go of his face so that I could wrap my arms around him and I felt him nuzzle into my shoulder. I could hear his heart beat settle and I knew that it was slowly beginning to match mine.
"Isaac, about the other thing…"
"We don't need to talk about it, just forget I said anything." I whispered, my lips grazing his temple.
Huh, that's funny. I guess I'm the one using the Derek Method after all.
