Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters
A few days later, Isaac has another craving for a slushie.
He is again alone when he leaves Derek's loft, but offers this time except no one wants to come, and walks the couple blocks to the corner store. He thinks he'll get blueberry this time, but doesn't know why.
After the bell greets him Isaac halts when he sees the same figure that had been lurking around the store the last time he was here. Except she's at the candy display instead of the slushies. And her hood is down giving him a full view of thick, shoulder length golden rod hair that he almost envies for its straightness.
"Hey Charlee-" The girl in question flinches straight, knocking into the candy rack almost hard enough to tip it over.
"Please don't do that."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He had been trying to be cool. He planned to slide up next to her and go 'hey, Charlee right?' like he kind of remembered her but didn't remember her or something suave like that.
"You startled me." She corrects in that typical way a girl who has obviously been scared might say and makes a quick grab for a bag of Skittles. A couple bags of Skittles actually.
"Ok, well I'm still sorry."
"You say that a lot."
"Say what?"
"Sorry," She tells him, finally turning towards him and looking at him with a cool green stare. "Did you really almost say 'I'm sorry' to being told you say sorry too much? You did it again right there didn't you?"
Her observation causes conversation to halt. An awkward tension fills the air as silence stretches too long as Isaac doesn't know what to say if he can't apologize.
"So no cherry today?"
Charlee blinks once at his rather sudden attempt to not break the ice but smash it with a hammer before she shrugs. "Someone told me it was a good idea to cut down on red dye 40."
The partial grin on her lips tells Isaac that she's making fun of him. Ok, not the best, but at least she's not ignoring him, he thinks.
"Ouch. Ok, I get it. It wasn't funny." He relents, taking a soda out of the cooler instead of getting a slushie. And not because the sodas were next to the candy and the slushie machine was on the other end of the store. He just suddenly changed his mind ok. "Do you live around here or something?" He asks as they head to the front to pay for their separate items.
"Why?"
"A futile attempt to engage in small talk."
"Why?"
"Because you're hot," Isaac answers honestly and he's pleased with the faint blush that colors her impressive cheekbones.
"No, not really, I walk here from my house when I can't sleep. Insomnia." Charlee tells him as she puts her Skittles on the counter to pay.
"Alone?"
"Yeah alone why?"
"You shouldn't be out here alone. It's dangerous." Despite the typical cookie cutter message that Beacon Hills is a safe place to raise children, puppies, and kittens, it certainly was not at night.
The bell like sound of a giggle comes from her closed lips, twisted in a reluctant smile, "I can take care of myself."
He doesn't get why that's funny, maybe he's missing something critical but can't put his finger on it. Either way he's still concerned for the pretty girl out alone in the middle of the night.
"But you're pretty skinny."
The taller teen is taken by surprise when Charlee suddenly cold cocks him in the shoulder. "Did that hurt?"
"Yeah, kinda," He chuckles. It kind of had hurt a little. It must have been the advantage of surprise.
"I had three older brothers. If I can fight them off I think I'll be ok." She announces proudly, before knocking back a handful of colorful candies.
"You still shouldn't be out alone." Isaac insists. "Let me walk with you."
"You…wanna walk with me?"
Isaac stops and turns over his shoulder to see that Charlee hasn't moved. She seems frozen in place. Bolted to the ground in a mixture of confusion and surprise.
"Well yeah, unless…you don't want me to." 'Or think it's weird or creepy' He hadn't really thought about it completely. This was only the second time they had met, both times had been at night in a convenience store that, despite having fantastic slushie flavors, was not the most reputable. For all she knew he could be a mugger, or a junkie, or a rapist. For all he knew she could be the same. He just had the advantage of being a werewolf if things went south.
"No. No that's ok. I…sure." It seems like she wants to argue, make some excuse, but give up half way through. He thinks that might be a habit of hers.
"Ok," Isaac says with a smile and they fall into step beside each other.
It's quite for a long while, the only sound between them being the shuffle of their boots against the asphalt, the hiss of Isaac's soda when he opens it, and the rattle of Charlee's Skittles as she eat them.
"So have you been in the area long?" He finally asks and Charlee shakes her head.
"No. We've only been here for a few months now."
"You don't go to Beacon Hills High?"
He doesn't really need to ask, he would have recognized her if she did. She was kind of hard to miss. That tall, petite yet feminine body, those green eyes with the facets like emeralds, that golden blonde hair the he could smell smelled of lavender and honey and just a touch of a faint smell that reminds him of snow that he can't tell is from her shampoo or just her skin. But for the point of conversation he'll ask.
"I'm home schooled."
"Oh yeah, how come?"
"Traditional school settings didn't sit well with me." She shrugs before kicking back another handful of candy.
Isaac chuckles. "It doesn't 'sit well' with anyone but you still have to go."
"Not me," It's mumbled around the mouth full of colorful sweets but Isaac got it, thinking he hears a twinge of irritation in her voice.
Conversation stops again.
"So, you have brothers? That's cool. What are they like?"
Charlee's lips scrunch in an indifferent frown as she shrugs. "I don't know. I guess they were ok. I haven't seen them in a while."
"How come? Did they leave for college or something?"
"Or something…."
There's a question to be asked there, but that sound of irritation in her voice stops Isaac from prying.
Conversation stops again.
"So…do you have any..hobbies or anything?"
"You ask a lot of questions."
Isaac looks over at the girl beside him looking at him with inquisitive, pensive look. He huffs through his nose and hunches his shoulder defensively.
"Ok, I'll stop then."
"No! It's ok. It's just no one's ever…." That habit of her stopping mid thought is showing again and Isaac looks back at her when she stops altogether. "No one's ever been interested in me before." Charlees confesses, seeming to be both embarrassed and in awe that someone might actually care about her at the same time.
"Well, I'm interested."
Charlee's head tilts up slowly, green orbs connecting with blue for a second before its flinches back down, but he sees it. That tiny blush staining her cheeks and reluctant, but pleased, smile pull at her lips. And Isaac can feel it pulling at his too. Well….at least one attempt at suave had worked.
"Do you have any hobbies or anything?" She asks when she starts walking again, Isaac falling instantly into step.
"I play lacrosse on my school's team. I really like it. Other than that I just hang out with friends, homework, usual stuff."
"It must be nice." She bemuses quietly and Isaac laughs.
"What? Homework? Trust me it is highly over rated."
"Having friends."
Isaac looks back at her and his heart clenches at how unhappy see looks and lonely she sounds despite trying to hide it.
"I could be your friend."
Charlee halts again and looks up at him. "Really?"
"Well yeah, sure." Isaac says, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to think of a cool way to get out of the rather lame teen-flick line he's just said. He hadn't meant to say it. He had meant it but he hadn't meant for it to come out. "I mean, you seem alright I guess and I don't-!" Isaac's attempt to be cool, brooding, and nonchalant is cut off when the wind is almost knocked out of him by the girl in front of him slamming into him in what he thinks is meant to be a hug, not an attack.
"Sorry! Sorry! I got really excited. I'm sorry!"
The impromptu hug is over just as quickly as it started and Charlee all but leaps back, hands cupping around her nose and mouth in obvious mortification. It seems her…'hug' had taken her by surprise just as much as Isaac.
"It's…ok…."
He wants to laugh but thinks it might be rude. Charlee on the other hand makes a dramatic move of dropping her arms to her side and groaning loudly before running her fingers through her hair.
"Gah! Great! Now you probably think I'm some total spaz loser! I'm really not ok! I just don't think a lot before I act sometimes. Marcus says I need to work on that and Sydeny says I should try to be more like a lady but all I could think about when she said that was that stupid cotillion thing my mother made me go to when I was nine and it was awful so I completely blocked it out and-"Whoa! Slow down! I'm maybe only getting about 60% of that now."
Charlee's rapid speak stops on a dime, which is slightly impressive, before she tucks back into her shell and mutters sullenly. "Sorry…."
"It's ok. I just don't get why you're so excited."
Charlee glances back up at him for a second and looks embarrassed when she tells him, "Since we only just came here a month or so ago and I'm…homeschooled, I don't get a chance to meet a lot of people. Even before then I didn't have a lot of friends."
It's obvious to Isaac when she says that that she really doesn't have any friends. He's surprised but yet not surprised at the same time. It was hard to make friends normally, without the added obstacles she faces. But she just sounds so….alone that he feels the need to reach out to her. Throw her a life line. He remembers what it was like to be that alone.
"So you moved here. Where did you move from?" He asks and restarts his walking.
Charlee looks back up. She must have been expecting question, dreading having to give him answers, because the smile on her face when she sees he's just going to let it go and move on is one of relief and thankfulness.
"Tennessee. All of my family has been there since the Civil War days. Can't 'ca tell."
Isaac laughs a little at the exaggerated twang she puts into her voice at the end to sound like a Southern belle.
Someday soon he'll look back on this moment and remember how simple it had all been. How simple it had all been to fall in love with her and not stop and think about the hard ground below.
Thank you to all those of you who should early interest and faith in this story even though the first chapter was kind of short and almost crap. Review and feedback are always welcome!
