When I got inside, I went and sat with Melissa in the living room, sat on the sofa whilst we both ate our tacos she had made for dinner. We sat and watched an episode of Twin Peaks on DVD from my box set before she excused herself to go to bed before the early morning shift. I went back upstairs to work on my homework. I eventually heard Scott come home after my work was finished and I was playing video games. I heard him come upstairs and knock on my door before coming inside.
"Hey!" he greeted cheerily, coming in and flopping down on my bed.
"Why are you so cheery?" I asked, taking off my headphones and slinging them around my neck.
"No reason. Maybe because I got a date with Allison" he replied, grinning widely like a cartoon character. I smiled at him, getting up from my desk to come sit next to him on my bed. He sat up and hugged his legs to his chest, still with an excited, goofy grin on his face.
"Wow Scott; that was quick working. How did that happen" I asked. He launched into a story about how he had overheard a conversation between Allison, Lydia and Jackson, where Allison said she couldn't go to Lydia's party for this Friday. When she had come into the clinic with an injured dog, he'd calmed her down, helped fix up the dog before walking her back to her car. He plucked up the courage and asked her if she could in fact come to Lydia's party with him, and she'd accepted.
"Gabby, you have to come to the party now!" he'd begged, flashing me his puppy-dog eyes.
"Ha. Good joke, Scott. Like Lydia would even let me in the door" I scoffed and rolled my eyes.
"Come on Gab! I bet she doesn't even remember middle school" he said, making me grimace.
"But the thing is Scott, I still remember middle school. Anyway, she definitely still remembers me, she was being the class-A bitch that she is when I was watching your practice today" I muttered, running my hands through my hair. I could see by his face that Scott wanted me to explain what had happened, but I brushed it off. He was in a good mood, why spoil it by tearing open old wounds.
"It's nothing, Scott. Look, you need to go to bed or something, okay? My stupid, lingering middle school feuds aren't important" I said, giving him a small smile, "Look, before you go; how's your bite? It didn't seem to bother you today in practice, you were on top of your game!" I continued, swerving the situation away from the topic of me.
Scott grimaced before standing up. I looked at him, confused until he picked up the bottom of his shirt. Where there should have been a bandage, or at least an angry, red bite, was smooth, tanned skin. My mouth dropped open. "What the hell?!" I near shouted, leaping from the bed to run my hand over where the bite should have been. There weren't any bumps or marks, or anything to remotely suggest there had been a bite there at all.
"I went to change the dressing at work, and there was nothing there" he ran his own fingers over the blank space, "I didn't even feel it healing or anything, it just didn't hurt" he said, drifting off.
I was completely speechless. It made no sense for the bite to heal so fast. When I had been in Moorebrook, I had read countless books on illnesses and diseases to pass the time, and I had never read anything about bites healing that fast, not even in the really obscure volumes I had found in my therapist's office. But I had in fairytales and folklore.
Lycanthropy.
Werewolfism.
Whatever way you spun it, I had read about bites from werewolves healing quickly, turning the subject into a creature drawn to the full moon. I tried to push those thoughts away; they were only for scary stories and classic horror movies. But the idea that Scott could be a werewolf wouldn't budge. They would explain why Scott had thought he heard a wolf in the woods, and it'd explain how his senses had heightened like Stiles had told me earlier. I cleared my throat and made my face go blank and calm.
"Now I think of this, Scott, I've actually heard of bites doing this. It's a really fluke, luck sort of thing. The bite heals in twenty four hours. It's to do with your diet or something" I lied, smiling. A look of relief crossed his face. He had bought it. I put my hand on his shoulder, "Now go to bed, Scott. We have school tomorrow" I said. He hugged me quickly, saying goodnight and he left my room. Once I heard his bedroom door shut, I dashed over to where my phone was charging next to my bed and opened a text to Stiles;
Developments made with Scott. Pick me up for school tomorrow (EARLY) and I'll explain. Too risky to call now in case he hears me.
I sent it and quickly got a reply;
Can do. I'll be there early. We'll go get breakfast before he wakes up so we don't alert him.
Any other time I would have laughed and teased him about his formality, but I was too caught up in what was happening with Scott to joke around. I set an alarm to wake me early and started to get ready for bed. I got into pajama bottoms and an old t-shirt, shut off my laptop and got into bed. As I lay there in the dark, I doubted I'd sleep easily. My mind was swimming with the possibility that Scott could be something that I had only ever thought to be of myth, or maybe something else far worse was wrong with him. As these worries wracked my mind, I eventually managed to claw my way towards sleep.
The car ride home was quiet, as I watched the houses pass from the backseat. I felt completely numb and heavy; like gravity was trying to drag me to the depths of the earth. We eventually pulled up outside the house, and my mother pulled me from the car and dragged me inside, seeming to forget my arms were still bandaged and protecting my self-inflicted claw marks. I could hear my father going up the path behind me, pulling out his cellphone and dialling someone. As he started talking to someone, my mother dragged me through the front door and up the stairs to my bedroom. She released me there and stopped to survey me. With her platinum, ice blonde hair, she reminded me of the icy queen from Narnia. She was certainly as evil and heartless as her.
"Pack." She ordered. She offered no true explanation, so I didn't do anything, and simply stood there.
"PACK!" she barked again, glaring at me.
"Why should I?" I snapped back, though thanks to the amount of mood stabilizers and painkillers I was on, I knew I had only sluggishly replied.
"We're driving you to an airport and taking you to a mental health facility near New York to fix you" she said frostily. Her glare was so full of…disgust that I didn't bother fighting back. Maybe it was the meds I was on, but I just simply obeyed her even though I hated the thought of going clear across the country. I packed some clothes into a case I pulled from my wardrobe, topped with a couple of books and my shoebox that I kept photos, notes and knick knacks inside. They were all related to my friendship with Scott and Stiles. As I zipped the case shut, my mother arrived back in my doorway. She took the case from me and went downstairs.
"Stay in your room" she called out to me. I didn't protest and sat down on my bed. My head started feeling even heavier and fatigued, so I let myself fall back to lie down on my comforter, my mind so completely overwhelmed that I felt completely devoid of emotions. I could distantly hear someone calling my name, but I didn't react or try find the source.
I felt as if I had been lying there for hours when my mother returned.
"Get up. We're leaving" she stated, turning and leaving. I followed along behind her. My father emerged from the formal sitting room and met us at the bottom of the stairs. He guided me out the front door, as I still was feeling and walking sluggishly.
As he walked me down the front path, I noticed Scott and Stiles sitting on the verge. Their heads snapped to attention and stood up. I felt the cloudiness leave my brain, and my situation finally dawned on me.
"SCOTT! STILES!" I screamed, trying to pull away from my father's grip on my arm. But though my mind might have no longer been weak, my body still was, and I couldn't free myself. They ran to me, jumbling their words together and talking over each other, but they were both hysterically asking me what had happened and where I was going. I tried to tell them, but I found myself just continually calling their names and reaching towards them. As my father reached the car, Stiles' hand finally found mine, but it was wrenched away as I was thrown in the backseat. The door slammed shut, and I saw Stiles smack his palms against the windows. His eyes were wide and frantic; his dark caramel irises panicked and darting around as he desperately tried to understand what was happening. I reached up, laying my hands over his; our palms now mirroring each other through the glass. I could hear Scott yelling at my parents, trying to find out what was happening and where they were taking me. But I knew that they would freeze him out and ignore him, keeping themselves completely stoic as they retrieved their own bags from the foyer. I could see Stiles' eyes brimming with unshed tears, as I felt my own tears slip down my cheeks as I repeatedly screamed his name. I heard the trunk open and close, soon my parents taking the front seats. Scott's face joined Stiles', and my hysterical screams got worse as the engine started.
"I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE" I screamed as the car pulled away from the curb. I could hear Stiles through the glass yelling my name back at me. The previously unshed tears were now coursing down his face, and Scott was on the brink of tears too. The car started driving down the street, and my two best friends seemed momentarily resigned to what was happening. Scott sunk to the ground with his head buried in his hands, whilst Stiles ran his hands through his hair. I swivelled around to watch them out the back window, still crying and screaming for them to come and save me from the hateful souls I called my parents. As the car picked up speed, Stiles started sprinting after the car. I clawed at the back window as I head my mother make a snide comment that he didn't know to notice a lost cause when he saw one. We rounded a corner, and the road became more populated and we sped up to a speed which Stiles couldn't hope to run down. As he too turned the corner, he slowed down and even from a distance I could see his resignation. He slumped down, just as Scott had. With all my desperation and heartbreak for what was happening, I screamed for him one last time.
"STILES"
I sat up with a gasp. My heartbeat was erratic as I tried to get my breath back. I hadn't had that nightmare in months. I had tried so hard to force that memory from my mind and tell myself that I had only waved goodbye from the back window. I hadn't had that vivid of a flashback to leaving behind Scott and Stiles since the first few weeks at Moorebrook. Nurses had to sedate me more than a couple of times because they had been so vivid that I had become manic and hysterical. I wiped away the panicked tears that were wet on my cheeks as I began to calm down. I glanced at the clock. It was an hour until Stiles was due to pick me up for school. I wiped my face again and kicked back the covers to go get ready for school.
As I applied my makeup after showering and drying my hair so it was loose and fell down my back like a waterfall; I found myself having to cover up my still blotchy and puffy cheeks from crying. I internally scolded myself as I changed into a printed t-shirt over top a black and white striped undershirt, with my favourite jeans and lace-up brown boots. Hearing Stiles' pull up outside in the rattling Jeep, I grabbed a coat and headed downstairs, swiping an apple from the fruit bowl on my way out the door. I hadn't heard Scott getting up, so hopefully I wouldn't have to worry about him intruding on the conversation with Stiles. Pulling the passenger side door open, I jumped into the seat.
"Morning Stiles" I greeted as the engine started again.
"Morning Gab. Any requests for breakfast?" he asked, pulling out on to the vacant street.
"Anywhere" I replied as we drove in the familiar direction of Stiles' favourite twenty-four hour fast food restaurant.
I ordered nothing more than an orange juice and banana muffin, whilst Stiles ordered a feast of muffins with every other form of breakfast food under the sun (I noticed that he didn't order anything with egg, making me smile that he remembered that I hated the smell) and sat in the Jeep in the restaurant parking lot as we ate.
"Okay Stiles, I need to give you a rundown of the deal with Scott" I said. "You told me how he'd mentioned his senses being all heightened, right?" Stiles replied with a nod, his mouth full of food, "Well when he came home from work last night, his bite was healed. And I don't just mean scabbed over or whatever; it was really properly healed like there was nothing there in the first place. His skin didn't even have a blemish on it" Stiles' eyes were widening.
"And that got me thinking. Heightened senses, healing fast, hearing a wolf…Stiles, I don't think your joke about lycanthropy was a joke. I think Scott might have had a run-in with a werewolf" I finished. Stiles had stopped eating.
"So. Scott's a werewolf? He's been bitten and he's transitioning?" he asked. I shrugged before nodding.
"I know it's ridiculous, but I can't really think of any other explanation. I read a LOT of medical journals and stuff like that at Moorebrook and I never read anything about animal bites healing in like, twenty-four hours. Something's up, and that made me turn to more supernatural explanations. Scott being bitten by a werewolf kind of fits the bill" I said, fiddling with the straw in my bottle of orange juice.
Stiles' reaction was surprizing. I had expected for him to launch off into a big spiel about how he was only kidding, that I was nuts to even think of that and that maybe Scott had fooled us or something. But he was serious. His face was full of thought and he was considering everything I had said. He ran his hands over his buzzed hair and turned to me.
"Look, I must be nuts; we must be nuts, but I believe you. We need to research this stuff okay, we need to figure things out before we approach Scott about it. Hell, I even looked into a lot of it last night. But you know him, he can be quite the non-believer. We have the same free period in the last period of today, so we are going to the library and we are checking out and reading every book we can find that's legit okay? We have to help him, Gab" he said, looking dead serious. It wasn't a way of being I associated with Stiles, it made me realize just how much growing up he'd done since I was gone.
"You know I want to help him, Stiles" I replied. Stiles nodded, putting the remainders of his lunch on the back seat.
"Well let's get to school and start this" he said, starting the engine and heading towards school.
Stiles and I hit the school library as soon as we got to there, sorting out if there were any books on lycanthropy that weren't in the same vein as Twilight. We found that there was next to nothing in there that wasn't a cheesy supernatural romance novel, so we agreed to hit the public library during free period. We parted ways as the bell rang for classes, me heading off to my film class and double History. I sat with Stiles at lunch, but Scott was nowhere to be found. I remembered him mentioning having to meet with a teacher at lunch sometime in the next few weeks, so we didn't worry. I pulled up Google on my phone and we flicked through sites and pages, trying to find something helpful and not related to some movie from the 1980s. We found and bookmarked a few before heading off to our next classes. I struggled to pay attention in my afternoon classes, my mind swimming with memories of old folktales and myths I remembered reading over the years. I eventually gave up trying in French and asked for a bathroom pass to get out of class and clear my head for a couple of minutes rather than actually go to use the bathroom. I walked down the hall towards the girl's room, planning on just standing at the sinks for a few minutes when I saw Scott and Jackson in a glaring match at the lockers. They hadn't noticed me, so I ducked behind the edge of the line of lockers, eavesdropping on their argument.
"Oh you mean steroids! Are you on steroids?" I heard Scott say to Jackson, earning himself a shove against his locker as Jackson zoned in on him.
"What the hell is going on with you McCall?" Jackson shouted, his fist grabbing at the front of Scott's lacrosse jersey.
"What's going on with me? You really want to know?!" Jackson nodded and Scott continued, his voice sounded stressed and panicked, "Well so would I! Because I can see, hear and smell things; that I shouldn't be able to see, hear and smell! I'I do things that should be impossible, I'm sleepwalking three miles into the middle of the woods, and I'm pretty much convinced I'm totally out of my freaking mind!" Scott finished, letting out a sigh. Jackson chuckled.
"You think you're funny, don't you McCall? I know you're hiding something. I'm gonna find out what it is. I don't care how long it takes" Jackson replied, not buying his story. He hit the locker directly to the right of Scott's head, making him flinch before storming off down the hallway in my direction. I shrank back against the side of the lockers, praying Jackson didn't see me. He didn't, and he kept angrily stalking down the hall past me. I kept hiding against the lockers until I heard Scott head down the hall in the opposite direction about a minute later. I headed back to French, my head even more buzzed than earlier. So that's why we hadn't seen him. Not because he was with a teacher, but he had woken up in the middle of the woods and had to get home then here. I pulled my phone out and sent a quick text to Stiles.
Scott sleepwalked three miles into the woods last night. Overheard him in the halls. This is starting to get really heavy.
My phone quickly buzzed with a reply.
Heavy? Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?
I sighed and tapped out a reply.
Whatever Doc. We need to get research done before you guys have lacrosse practice.
I worked through the last periods before Stiles and I were both free. We had around forty minutes before we'd have to be back for lacrosse practice where we planned on keeping a close eye on Scott and his heightened abilities. We found a few old volumes of lycanthropy mythology and some other books that spoke about supernatural forces in a more serious light rather than the jokes of books we'd found at school. We didn't read much of them before we were rushing back to school again for practice. Stiles headed off to the locker rooms to change whilst I went off towards the field. I heard someone call out my name and I turned to see the new girl, Allison coming over towards me. I was confused, but didn't ignore her.
"Hey. Um, I'm Allison" she said, introducing herself awkwardly.
"Yeah, I know. We have English together. I'm Gabby, which you clearly already know" I replied, feeling more than a little confused. She was friends with Lydia, who hated me with every inch of her being.
"Yeah. Look, I just wanted to tell you that I wasn't down with how Lydia treated you. You seem really nice, and it wasn't fair what she said to you" she explained. I raised my eyebrows, slightly taken aback.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that. Jeez, okay. Well thank you for that, Allison. Lydia and I…its old beef and she's hated me for years. Thanks for not immediately just siding with her, it means a lot" I said, giving her a small smile. She grinned back.
"It's fine, I understand what it's like for people to cast judgements on you without knowing anything about you" she replied. She checked her phone, biting her lip, "look, I'm supposed to get meet and sit with Lydia for the lacrosse practice, but I really would like to get to know you. Do you maybe want to sit together one lunch? If I can get away from Lydia that is" she said with a laugh. I chuckled.
"Yeah that'd be great. Enjoy the practice, I know Scott will be glad to see you there" I said and she blushed, ducking her head. I waved her goodbye and we went our separate ways.
I arrived at the field and saw Scott prepping at the sidelines. I waved to him and went and took a seat as far away from Lydia as I could. I had been sitting there a few minutes when I saw Stiles rushing out and over to Scott. I saw him frantically try to explain something to Scott before Scott went out on to the field. I quickly rushed over to Stiles.
"What's going on, Stiles?" I asked. He glanced around to make no one was paying attention to us before replying.
"I just overheard my dad on the phone. DNA tests are back from L.A about the hairs found on the body. They were wolf hairs, Gabby" he said. I felt my eyes widen. "Look, I need to go out onto the field. But this is real, Gabby. We were right" he said as he dashed out on to the field too. I went back to the bleachers, feeling even more worried than ever about Scott. I watched him intently as the practice began and Stiles dashed back over to the benches. When Scott finally got the ball, Jackson came up and rammed into him, knocking him down. I saw Jackson flick up his helmet and glare down at Scott before smirking and running off. Even from the distance I was away, I could see Scott's determination come to the surface and he went off to put the ball into play against Jackson. As he knocked it away from Jackson and headed off towards the goal, I saw the Scott who had been at practice the other day. He was on game and an absolute pro. Dodging and running past people, he then jumped clear over three people and flung the ball into the goal, scoring easily. I stood up, clapping and completely dumbfounded. The team rushed around him, congratulating him whilst Jackson stood off to the side, looking seriously pissed. Coach Finstock called Scott over to him. Initially it seemed as though he was scolding Scott, but the crowd heard Finstock say to him "You're starting buddy".
He'd made first line.
While everyone stood up and cheered, I slipped over to Stiles, who was still sitting on the bench.
"Did you hear that, Stiles? He made first line" I said low enough that only he could hear. We shared a concerned look.
"Gab. It's the full moon tonight. He's going to Lydia's party with Allison tonight" he said. My eyes widened and I looked over at Stiles.
We both knew what a full moon meant.
We had to tell him soon.
After practice I went home with Stiles, helping him print out and find sites about werewolves. We didn't talk too much; we were both too concerned about what was happening to Scott. I eventually had to go off to work, which thankfully wasn't too far from Stiles' house, so I borrowed his bike and headed off so he didn't have to drive me. Stiles had texted me when I got to work saying that Scott was going over and he was going to tell him. Thankfully I was only working for two hours, so I watched the clock tick slowly through the minutes before I could finally leave, pedalling back Stiles' as fast as I could. As I turned onto the road that Stiles' house was one, I halted. I saw a very confused Scott storming out the front door, snatching his bike off the lawn and pedalling off down the street. He passed me but he didn't even look at me properly, only a guilty glance in my direction. Stiles talking to him clearly hadn't gone well. I quickly pedalled the rest of the way down the street and rushed inside, dumping the bike on the front lawn like Scott had. I quickly went inside and upstairs to Stiles' room. He was standing looking at the back of his desk chair.
"Hey what's going on? I just saw Scott leave. He looked…I don't know, kind of guilty and confused" I asked sitting on the end of his bed.
Stiles cleared his throat, "Uhh well I told him. He told me I was wasting his time and got mad and said I was ruining things for him now he's first line and got a date with Allison. I tried to take his phone and cancel the date and he uhh…shoved me against the wall, almost punched me before knocking my chair over. He apologized and just left" he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Holy crap, Stiles. Are you okay?" I asked, standing up. He nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But my chair however…" he turned the back around to face me and I gasped. There, across the black faux leather back of Stiles' desk chair were three claw marks. I looked up at Stiles, "Gabby, we've got a big mess on our hands" he said quietly.
Stiles and I drove back home around an hour later. We had sorted through some of the research, and once we knew that Scott would have gone out to pick up Allison, we had left. We greeted Melissa briefly before going upstairs and into my room. Once the door was closed, Stiles moved to speak but I held up my hand to him.
"I know what you're going to say, Stiles. You're going to say that I have to go to the party" I said and his mouth snapped shut. I rolled my eyes, "And I was right. Look, I know I have to go now but we still have this problem; Lydia hates my guts" I said, shrugging.
Stiles was already dressed for the party. He'd even put on a damn tie, even though I'd said it would be way too formal. He leant against the edge of my desk, "Look, Gabs. I know that Lydia hates you, and you're not her biggest fan either, but you need to put this aside to try help Scott. The full moon is rising, and at the moment, we're really the only ones who can help. And aside from anything else, I doubt Lydia will even see you there. It'll be packed with people, you'll be able to slip in no sweat. Just say you're with me. I might be a loser, but I am on the lacrosse team. I kinda get into these parties easily enough" he said, looking me straight in the eyes. Dammit. I could never say no when he gave me that look.
"Ugh, okay fine" I said, admitting defeat. I went over to my wardrobe and flicked through my more party-ish outfits. I pulled my collared black dress with the black lace overlay, a pair of opaque black tights and my black wedge heels. I went off to the bathroom to change, leaving Stiles flicking through the copy of Game of Thrones that was sitting on my desk. I returned quickly. I tried to not notice Stiles' reaction to what I was wearing, but I saw his jaw drop slightly. I went over to my mirror and tied my hair into a messy fishtail side braid, did a silver smoky eye makeup with my pale pink lipstick. I pulled my red blazer with three quarter sleeves from my wardrobe and turned to Stiles.
"Let's get this torture over with then" I said with a sigh, as he jumped up and we headed downstairs.
I said a quick goodbye to Melissa and we left. It was a longer drive to Lydia's lavish home than I realized. Her home was down long winding streets, all filled with luxurious mansions owned by Beacon Hills' finest families. Stiles' theory proved true when we went inside, Lydia was nowhere to be seen. The mass of people was almost claustrophobic, but we managed to push our way through to the kitchen where there were only a few people. Stiles went over to the window and peered out.
"Scott and Allison are out there. Nothing seems to be wrong yet," he set his jaw, "uh, Lydia and Jackson are out there too. So yeah we're fine" he said, turning away from the window. I could see how his face had fallen from seeing Lydia, who was obviously kissing her boyfriend. I sighed.
"Look, Stiles" I walked over and stood next to him, leaning against the counter, "one day Lydia will come to her senses and realize that you're a great guy, okay? She might be my own personal Satan, but you deserve for her to realize you exist, and that you're the nicest guy she's ever going to meet" I said whilst rubbing his arm. He nodded and bumped his shoulder against mine.
"Sometimes I remember that you weren't around for eight months and remember just how much how much I missed you when you say crap like that, Gabby" he said softly, reaching down and squeezing my hand, "it really is great having you back" Stiles smiled. I couldn't help blushing then. Stiles was really such a genuinely kind and loving person.
The moment soon broke as we saw a familiar figure stumble through the kitchen door from outside.
"Oh no" we murmured in unison, taking off after him.
We had to shove our way through a mass of bodies in the hall, and eventually Stiles managed to get up to Scott and ask if he was okay. But Scott brushed Stiles off and headed down the hall and outside. I caught up to Stiles, who was still standing in the hall watching where he had just been.
"What are we going to do?" I asked, slinking closer to the wall so to stop from being jostled about by other party-goers. As Stiles opened his mouth to reply, we saw Allison go out the door after Scott.
"Oh man, he's ditched her" I murmured to myself. Stiles grabbed my wrist and we headed down the hall and outside.
Stopped at the top of the stairs, we saw Allison talking to a tall guy with dark hair. Melissa's car, which Scott had driven to the party in, was gone from the space it had been outside Lydia's.
"Gabby, that's Derek Hale again" Stiles said. I raised my eyebrows. The guy had grown up, no longer the brooding teen I remembered. The brief conversation Allison seemed to be having with Derek ended, and they both walked off, down to a black Camaro and got inside. Moments later, they drove off.
"Stiles, Scott's obviously gone home. We need to get there NOW" I said and Stiles shook himself out of his confused haze and we rushed off to the Jeep. I thanked god that Melissa would be at work by now, so we didn't have to worry about her safety. The long drive to Lydia's seemed even longer now I was so concerned about Scott. We eventually pulled up outside. Stiles had barely killed the engine before we were both sprinting inside. We practically flew up the stairs and ran to Scott's bedroom door. We both pounded on the locked door.
"Scott it's me" Stiles called out, "Gabby's here too". We heard the lock slide open, but Scott had his body against the door so we couldn't get in.
"Let us in, Scott, we can help!" Stiles said again. I was so worried and tense I thought I was going to vomit and I could barely open my mouth.
"No! Listen, you gotta find Allison" Scott said, his breath sounded ragged and like he needed his inhaler.
"She's fine, alright? We saw her get a ride from the party. She's totally fine" Stiles replied in an effort to comfort Scott enough to let us in and help.
"No I think I know who it is!" Scott said again.
"Wha- just let us in Scott! We can try- " Stiles started but Scott cut him off.
"It's Derek. Derek Hale is the werewolf. He's the one that bit me. He's the one that killed that girl in the woods" he said with a strain on his voice. Stiles and I went completely silent, sharing a look. I really felt like crap then. Stiles turned back to the crack in the door to reply.
"Scott. Derek's the one who drove Allison from the party" he said. Scott's door slammed shut. Stiles tried the doorknob but it wouldn't budge. He slammed an open palm on the door, yelling for Scott. I could hear a thud out on the window ledge and I rushed to my room to look out the window. Scott leapt from the ledge down onto the grass. He no longer looked like Scott. His face had changed and taken on more wolf-like qualities. His ears were now longer and pointed, his nose and brow were fuller, there was hair creeping down towards his jaw, and even from a distance I could see a golden tone to his eyes and his teeth were more fang-like. I could feel Stiles watching from behind me as we saw our best friend raise his head to the sky and let out a soul-shaking howl before taking off.
"He's heading to Allison's. Let's go" I said and we ran down the stairs and out the house to the Jeep.
I was thankful that Stiles remembered Allison's address from when Scott had been talking about picking her up when they were in the locker room after lacrosse practice. The drive was tense. I was calming myself down from a near full-on panic, and Stiles was practically jumping in his seat. When we pulled up outside, Stiles went to leap out and I put my hand on his chest to stop him.
"Stiles, let me handle this. We need to be calm, not raise suspicion and freak people out, okay? No matter how worried we are" I said before removing my hand and getting out the Jeep. I walked up to the front door, Stiles staying in the Jeep. I glanced back as I rang the doorbell. He was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and jittering as he sat waiting. Eventually the door opened and tall woman with short red hair answered.
"Hello. Mrs Argent?" I asked.
"Yes" she replied cautiously answered.
"Great. Well hello, I'm a friend of your daughter. I was wondering if she was in? See, I need to talk to her quickly before the weekend" I said smiling. Mrs Argent nodded.
"Allison! It's for you" she called out up the stairs. Allison appeared moments later, standing at the top of the stairs. She came down whilst Mrs Argent walked back off into the house.
"Gabby? What are you doing here" Allison asked as she reached the doorway.
"Well, Stiles and I just left the party and I just wanted to check you got home safe" I said with a smile.
"Yeah, a friend of Scott's, uh, Derek I think his name was gave me a ride home. Scott kind of just took off…"
"Oh that's great you got a ride, which brings me to my other point of order, Scott. Look, he started having an asthma attack you see, and while he wanted to go back and explain, he just couldn't because he couldn't really talk, and he's also really embarrassed by his asthma. He had to get home and get his inhaler" I lied easily. Allison nodded, but I could tell she was still upset, "but don't worry, he will apologize to you in person, he just wanted me to tell you that he was sorry for now before he sees you next and makes it up to you. But try not to mention I swung by, when I said he wanted me to tell you, he didn't really. He was really embarrassed"
"Well thank you, Gabby. It was really nice for you to come check I was okay" Allison replied.
"It's no trouble. Look, I've got to go, I've left Stiles waiting and I promised him I'd pay to go for curly fries. I'll see you at school" I said, waving goodbye and heading back to the Jeep. As I climbed in, Stiles started the Jeep.
"No problem here, Stiles. Allison's safe. Now we need to go find Scott. I'd bet he'll be in the preserve" I said and Stiles took off again towards the preserve.
We drove around the roads through and around the preserve for hours. Around 6am, when Stiles and I were both dead tired and had almost given up, we saw a figure walking down the road in front of us. It was Scott. I climbed into the backseat as Stiles pulled up next to him. Scott got in. We didn't say anything as I took Stiles' jacket he had been wearing earlier and put it over his shoulders. Stiles started driving again. I wet my lips before speaking.
"Well, I don't want to say that we were right…but we were totally right" I said. I could see Scott and Stiles roll their eyes in the rear vision mirror and I laughed quietly before continuing, "Seriously though Scott, we were really worried about you. You were in the woods all night"
"I was worried about me" he replied, "but you know what actually worries me the most?"
"If you say Allison, I'm gonna punch you in the head" Stiles said quickly. I snorted as Scott sighed.
"She probably hates me now" he said, his voice sad.
"She doesn't hate you buddy, I covered for you. She thinks you had an asthma attack and were too embarrassed and unable to talk to explain yourself. I said that you didn't want me to say anything but I did anyway. You better apologize, dude. She was still pretty upset that you ditched her without an explanation" I answered.
"Or you could just, you know tell her the truth and revel in the awesomeness that you're a frickin' werewolf" Stile added. Scott and I both shot him withering looks, "Okay. Bad idea". Scott looked away again, his face cut up with emotion. Stiles hit him on the arm, "Hey! We'll get through this. Come on, if I have to, I'll chain you up myself on full moon nights and feed you live mice" he said. I rolled my eyes, "I had a boa once, I could do it" Scott scoffed and we drove the rest of the way home. Scott and I went straight to our respective bedrooms and fell asleep immediately, barely waking up for the rest of the weekend.
After school that Monday, Stiles and I stood by our cars as we watched Scott wait for Allison to apologize to her. I spoke up.
"You know, Stiles, we made a pretty good team in helping Scott" I said. Stiles nodded.
"I'll agree with you there; we researched up a storm on lycanthropy" he replied as we saw Scott jump up as Allison walked past.
"And I thought I'd never admit this to you, but yeah. It is pretty cool that our best friend is a werewolf. It's like my own personal movie storyline" I said, making Stiles laugh.
"I knew you were more excited about this than you let on!" he said.
"Yeah, Stiles. You were right for once. But you still won't get me to budge about Shawshank and The Dark Knight" Stiles groaned as I laughed. Scott and Allison seemed to be on better terms as we heard the tooting of a horn and Allison turned to leave. Scott turned towards the car she got into, and we could see his eyes widen. As the driver got back in and left, Scott ran over.
"The guy that just picked her up was her dad, right. He was the hunter, guys. He was the one who freaking shot me" Scott panicked. Stiles' jaw dropped.
"Oh shit" I murmured.
Looks like having a werewolf for a best friend wasn't going to be all that awesome.
Author's Note: Okay so I totally suck at updating, I'm so sorry. I kinda went through a complete rewrite, then I ended up going out of town because it's summer here in New Zealand and I've had next to no internet for just shy of a month. I also got a job, so I've had to work writing around that too. I'm not going to say for definite when the next update will be, but I'm going to try make it before the 25th. Hope you all had an amazing holiday season and I wish all you flawless humans a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
- Alice