CHAPTER 3
Lydia
I sat upright on the unfamiliar mattress of Scott's bed, my hands in my lap, waiting patiently for the Alpha while I let warm tears fall slowly down my face. My subconscious softly scolded itself for letting my make-up run, but it was a distant, nagging afterthought; an afterthought I had no desire to pay attention to.
If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm not even entirely sure why I'm here. Part of me feels like I need to tell Scott what happened at the school after he took off with Stiles to the Animal Clinic, while the other part is simply anxious to see whether or not Stiles had woken up as of yet.
The events of the last few hours played over in my head again and again, my mind constantly reassuring itself that the Nogitsune had been successfully dispelled from Stiles. The threat of losing Stiles became a commonality during the past few weeks, yet the battle was not won without casualties. Isaac, severely burned and electrocuted; Aiden, killed at the hands at one of the Oni…and Allison…
I clenched my eyes shut, eyelids acting as a dam to stop the torrent of tears that I knew would come if I dwelled on the death of my best friend any longer. I know that, eventually, I will have to come to terms with her death, but denial seems to consume me. Life without Allison was hardly life at all. Apart from Stiles, she was the only one who could see past the cold, hard façade I held up in front of myself during the day at school; constantly pretending that I never have a clue what anyone is talking about and slathering on make-up every morning with a forced smile, convincing myself that everyone needs me to be the Lydia Martin.
Absentmindedly, I took out my phone, un-locked it, and scrolled down my contacts list until my thumb hovered over a name I hadn't seen or involved myself with since last year. He had a right to know. Even though I knew fully well that he and Allison weren't the closest, I felt like he had a right to know…just as much as anyone…
"Lydia?"
My head turned at the sound of the cracked, soft voice that spoke from the doorway. Scott stood there, somewhat awkwardly carrying the still unconscious and a slightly alarmingly pale Stiles in his arms. I didn't notice the sound of the Jeep pulling into the driveway, or the sound of labored steps climbing the wooden stairs, but the one thing I did notice was the weariness lining Scott's face and the redness and puffiness that encroached his eyes.
"Scott.." I whispered, getting up from the bed so Scott could lay Stiles down on it. I watched as he gingerly laid the chocolate-haired teen on the comforter and reaching around one side of the bed to the bedside drawer to extract a wool blanket, with which he wrapped around Stiles, even making sure the blanket covered Stiles' feet.
He didn't look at me; his eyes remained glued to Stiles' rising and falling chest. I glanced at his ears and noticed that they were perked, listening intently to his best friend's vitals. I slowly reached over a hand and laid it on Scott's knee and whispered, "Scott…"
His eyes lowered to look at where my hand was resting, then slowly looked back to Stiles. He gulped in a breath before he spoke again, "It's my fault…"
Crap.
"No…no, no, Scott…none of this was your fault…how can it be?" I reasoned, patiently looking at his face, waiting for his brown eyes to make contact with my hazel ones. "This was the Nogitsune's doing, not yours. No one blames you for what happened…" As soon as that last line left my mouth, I immediately wished it didn't.
"You're lying…" Scott's broken voice said to me. "I heard your heartbeat…you're lying…" The lump in my throat swelled to three times it's size as I felt myself relive the last hour's events…
…
"Ethan, we have to go…"
"No…I can't…I can't leave him here…"
"Derek will take care of the body, y-you just need to come with me before Sherriff Stilinski comes…"
"To HELL with that pathetic excuse of a Sherriff! And his goddamn worthless son!"
"…Ethan…how can you…"
"If it wasn't for him, the Oni wouldn't have ever been summoned in the first place and Ethan would still be alive! And maybe if Scott was half the Alpha people thought he was, then no one would have gotten hurt…Allison would still be here if it weren't for Scott and you know it, Lydia…"
"…I…Ethan…I can't believe…"
"Goodbye, Lydia…"
…
"Aiden's dead...and Ethan blames Stiles…and he blames you…" I heard myself whisper.
Scott's eyes finally fixated on me, and I stared back as long as possible before tears began to blur my vision. Before the tears could fall on my lap, Scott wrapped his arms around me in a warm embrace. I noticed then that this was the height of physical comfort between myself and Scott. Our friendship seemed to be cemented and created through Allison, but now that we didn't have Allison to keep us together, our relationship became dependent on each other.
Scott whispered into my shoulder "He can't know Lydia…Stiles can't know what Ethan said…" And that's when I felt Scott's tears fall onto the shoulder of my shirt. My arms slowly reached up and laid them on Scott's back. We stayed that way until I remembered what I was going to do before Scott arrived. I told Scott that I had someone to call and he nodded apologetically. I rose from the bed, subconsciously straightened out the creases in my shirt and sadly smiled at Scott before I bent down and placed a kiss on Stiles' cold cheek. Right as I reached the door frame, Scott's soft voice called out to me again-
"Lydia…did you know?"
I didn't turn around, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
"Before it happened? Did you know when she was going to die? Before it happened?"
Still not turning around, I whispered so softly, no human could hear it.
"Yes. I knew." I said, and with that I descended the stairs and walked outside on the lawn, feeling the crisp night air hit my face. I pulled out my phone and looked over that name one more time before I pushed myself to finally touch the screen and pull up the phone to my ear. He picked up in 2 rings.
"Lydia?"
"…Jackson…"
Hey all! Sorry that this chapter was a little late but, what with schoolwork and all, it became harder to write this chapter but I finally found the time to get out a slightly longer chapter :) Would love to get some more reviews to know if I should continue this story. I've got the story mapped out and hopefully I can get a good number of chapters up. Thanks to all who favorited and followed this story!
Love you all xx