The next day Haley didn't come to the shop. Stiles spent almost the entire shift going over their conversation in her mind, trying to think of what had happened. She spent the rest of the time replaying the situation to Isaac who was pretty annoyed with her by the end of the night.
But the next day, there she was. Same as always. Stiles considered asking her what she had done to break their little routine (a whole month!), but she didn't. Instead she made a lame comment and Haley replied with a roll of the eyes and a little smile.
Same as always.
For the next month, everything was normal. Haley came in at 5:30 everyday and ordered the same type of tea, paying in spare change and eye rolls. Sometimes she would stay for a while and work on her assignments and sometimes she would leave right away, making Stiles wonder where she was rushing off to. Everyday Stiles contemplated doing the extremely cheesy thing and leaving her number on a cup sleeve, but she didn't. Usually Stiles would be all over the failed attempts at flirting. She had actually given her number to a few guys and girls at the shop before Haley came along, but something about her made Stiles hesitate. Something about her made Stiles feel like a dumb teenager again, getting sweaty palms and a racing heart at every sight. Stiles, she would swear on her life, has matured since high school. Instead of doting on one person for long periods of time, Stiles was working her way to mastering the "ask, get rejected, and move on" technique. She was, at least, but something about Haley made Stiles feel that if she waited and bided her time, maybe, just maybe, there would be no rejection.
So Stiles worked with what she had, even though it wasn't much.
…..
"I hate to be the one to say this, but you should work on getting over this Haley girl." Scott said as they were on their way to another party. It was a Friday night, which meant no work for Stiles. She always wondered what Haley did on Friday nights.
"It's only been like two months." Stiles muttered.
"Yeah, that's a long time. I think I waited a day or two before I asked Allison out." A goofy smile filled his face when he said her name. They'd been together for almost two years now and he still made that love-struck face when he talked about her. "If you're not going to ask her out, I think you should move on. You're in University, you're young. You should be hooking up with people, not getting nervous about asking one girl out."
"One very, very attractive girl." Stiles corrected him. "But you're probably right. And plus, if we ever did get together I'd be like a total kid compared to her. I have no… experience in this sort of thing. I've kissed a total of one girl and that was Lydia and I'm pretty sure she was just pitying me."
"Maybe you don't have to get over her, just have some fun. Ever since you've met her you haven't even flirted with anyone else. It's kind of sad to just watch you sit on the couch with Isaac during parties."
"Speaking of Isaac, he's not coming, is he?" Stiles asked him.
"How should I know? You work with the guy."
"I told him about the party and he usually texts me but not this time." She was concerned even though they had only been friends for just over a month.
"He probably has too much work or something."
…..
"Hi, I'm Erica." Stiles was standing in the thick of the party and a stunningly pretty girl walked up to her. So pretty that Stiles could barley believe she was talking to her.
"Stiles." She said, attempting to smile despite the shock. The past two Haley-centric months had been filled with Stiles and Isaac sitting on the couch getting drunk. The only people who usually came up to them were people who were too stoned to dance. Well, them and Scott.
"I haven't seen you around before. Do you not go to parties often?" Erica smiled, leaning in very close to Stiles.
"No I do, I just, uh, hang around the back more." Stiles, admittedly, was distracted by the very low cut collar on Erica's dress. Erica noticed Stiles looking and smiled.
"Well I'm glad I saw you this time."
Stiles was close to asking her if Scott had put her up to this. Even before Stiles became a wallflower at parties, the people who came up to him were not in Erica's range of looks. And they were mostly guys – not many people automatically assumed she was into girls.
"Do you want to go somewhere a bit quieter?" Erica asked with a special note in her voice. Stiles was drunk and speechless so all she could do was nod.
Erica grabbed her hand and led her though the crowd and up a flight of stairs. As soon as they were on the upper level the noise was instantly subdued.
Erica was about to pull her into one of the rooms when the door opened from the other side and a disheveled Isaac came stumbling out, followed by another guy that Stiles didn't recognize.
Even though Stiles was drunk, she wasn't completely unaware of her surroundings. Isaac's lips were swollen and red, his hair all over the place and the top button of his jeans was undone.
"Stiles!" Isaac shouted in surprise and panic.
"Isaac, I didn't know you were going to be here." Stiles said. She wondered why he wouldn't have let her know. "Why didn't you text me?"
"Well I wasn't coming to the party with you so I just didn't bother." Isaac was blushing furiously, very aware of the boy standing next to him. The boy was now tugging Isaac's hand to go downstairs.
"Okay, well, uh, have fun then." Stiles said, giving the guy a once over. It's not like Stiles hadn't figured out that Isaac was gay, but Isaac hadn't told her yet and this was a very awkward way to be outed to your friend.
"You too." Isaac smiled, looking at Erica and then following the unnamed guy downstairs.
"Isn't it awkward running into an ex after they've just hooked up?" Erica said with a slight grimace on her face.
"No! No, he's not my ex. We're friends."
"Okay, whatever." Erica said with a roll of her eyes. An image of Haley rolling her eyes forced it's way into Stiles' mind and she felt a sudden pang in her heart, like she was guilty of something. Erica grabbed Stiles' hand again and pulled her into the vacant room. "Now where were we?"
As soon as the door was closed, Erica wasted no time. She pushed Stiles up against the wall and kissed her. Her hands were tangled in Stiles' hair, trying to somehow pull her closer than she already was. Stiles, at first, just had her hands rested on Erica's waist. It was her first time seriously kissing a girl and it was so… different than with guys. Boys were rough and their lips were thin and their breaths were short. Erica was a completely new experience. Everything about her was soft. Her curves were soft underneath Stiles' hands and her lips were softly moving into her own. It was sloppy, too, on account of the fact that they were both wasted. But Stiles' drunken mind didn't really care that it was messy and she didn't care that she didn't even know Erica, she just wanted more.
Everything after that seemed like it happened in less than a second. Suddenly their shirts were off and Erica's breasts looked even better than they did in the dress. And then Stiles was kissing her neck and everything was going fine.
And then the door opened.
"Stiles?" A familiar voice came from the doorframe. Stiles almost died right there in that second.
"Why can I not have one ounce of luck?" Stiles muttered and stepped away from Erica. "Haley, what are you doing here?"
"Um, nothing." Haley's lips were pressed into a thin line. Stiles could feel the tension in the air, she could feel it so much that she could barley breath. "I should go." And with that she spun around and walked out of the room.
"Haley, wait!" Stiles yelled after her.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Erica asked, a distinctive scowl on her face.
"No." Stiles hissed. "But I'm sorry, this was great I just…" Stiles looked out the door and couldn't see Haley anywhere. "I have to go." She pulled on her shirt and ran out the door.
Downstairs she ran into Isaac dancing with the same guy from earlier.
"Isaac, have you seen Haley?" Stiles screamed at him.
"Yeah I have, haven't you? I told her you were upstairs, it will make her totally jealous." Isaac smiled. With one sniff of him Stiles could tell that he was completely wasted.
"You're really stupid when you're drunk, did you know that?" Stiles gave him back to the guy he was dancing with and continued to look for Haley.
After about 20 minutes of searching the entire house, she found Haley sitting on the back porch, like she was waiting for her.
"Haley." Stiles sighed, full of relief. "I thought you had left."
"Yeah well I'm sorry for walking in on your, um…" She spoke awkwardly, which was a first for her in Stiles' experience.
"That? Oh that was nothing. It's fine, yeah just don't worry about it." Stiles spoke too quickly, almost molding her words together. There was a stagnant pause in the air.
"I wanted to tell you something." Haley broke the silence. Stiles could smell alcohol on Haley's breath from where she was sitting. She didn't look drunk at all, but Stiles could tell that she was different. She felt looser than usual, more relaxed.
"Go ahead."
"A long time ago, when you found out my real name, I acted really weirdly." Haley wasn't looking at her as she spoke; she was looking straight ahead, staring into the forest. "And I just wanted to tell you why. Remember that big fire that happened a long time ago? It was in a big house in the middle of the woods, it was all over the news." Stiles nodded but Haley wasn't looking. "That was my house. And it killed almost everyone I knew. Everyone except for my sister, Laura." Her voice was shaking. "It brought us a lot closer, Laura and I. But Laura was the only one who called me De… my real name. It was sort of a special thing between us. And then a year ago, Laura was killed." Haley's breath was sharp. It seemed like every intake caused her pain. "She was really into hiking and mountain climbing and once while she was out on a trail up North, she was mauled by a wolf."
"Shit, I'm so sorry… if I had known, I…" Stiles, for once, was at a loss of words. She knew that Haley wouldn't be telling her any of this if she wasn't drunk. She wanted nothing more than be able to wrap her arms around Haley and to hold her until everything was all right.
"It's fine. When you said it at the coffee place, it was the first time I had heard it since Laura."
Stiles didn't say anything; she couldn't say anything. It seemed as if every single comforting phrase she ever knew just flew out of her head at this very moment. Stiles looked over at Haley, her face still looking forward. Stiles saw her wipe a single tear from her cheek.
"Fuck, I should go." Haley said, promptly getting up. "I'm not a crier. I don't cry." She built her self up and walked off, away from Stiles and away from the house.
"I bet you also don't tell people you barley know your life story." Stiles said loud enough so Haley could still hear it.
She didn't stop or look back, but Stiles knew that she was rolling her eyes with that careful smile on her face.
