It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight
Chapter Seven – Kicking My Heels
"Morning." I groggily said as I found my Aunt Sheila in the kitchen standing over the coffee pot while she waited on a new batch to brew.
"Morning sweetie." She greeted back sounding more tired than I was.
She'd been acting strange since the night before when I'd mentioned Derek's last name, but she wasn't offering up any information on the subject matter.
After getting her a cup of coffee she sat down on one of the tall stools at the center island and grabbed the remote for the small television that was mounted under the cabinets. She turned on the news and it opened up with a story of how the driver who'd been attacked had finally succumbed to his wounds.
My eyes widened –I'd just been in his hospital room the night before with Derek.
"What a shame."
"Yeah, it's terrible." I nodded, as I started to stand up but stopped when she said, "We should send his wife flowers and a card or something."
"Did you know him?" I asked, not able to hide my surprise.
"Mhmm." She nodded taking another drink from her mug, "Garrison was the one who trained me back when I first got my job at the insurance office."
"I thought he was a bus driver…"
"He got fired a few years after I started there." She added before she stood up and looked around, seeming worried.
"Sheila, you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine honey. Do you wanna grab some breakfast, I don't have to go into work until later today." She offered, but I could tell she was trying to hide something behind her normally genuine smile.
"Nah, I think I'm just gonna lay around the house today. I'll fix something to eat later." I said before getting a glass of orange juice and retiring to the living room where I flipped through about five hundred channels of absolutely nothing worth watching.
Well… I thought to myself, there is always more to be learned about werewolves. Shutting the TV off; I returned my empty glass to the kitchen and went upstairs to my room.
But when I opened my door and walked in I nearly screamed when I saw Derek sitting in the chair at my desk, flipping through a stack of papers I'd printed off about werewolves –acting like he had every right to be there and hadn't broken into my house.
"How did you even get in here?" I gasped, shutting the door behind me and staring at him wide eyed as I started to become aware that I was still in my sleeping shorts and tank top from the night before, not to mention I'd barely glanced in a mirror since I got up –my hair had to be a hot mess.
Closing the packet of papers he looked up at me, completely ignoring my question as he pointed out, "You know most of this isn't true, right? You can't just google werewolves and have all the answers."
"Maybe, but seeing as how you turned one of my best friend's into a werewolf, I feel like I should learn a thing or two." I countered, crossing my arms over my chest.
"I'm not the one who bit, Scott." He asserted as he stood up, his black clothes seeming misplaced in my room filled with light tan and pink colors.
"But-"
"Scott showed up last night, accusing me of killing the bus driver. He thought I bit him too, but I didn't… there's another, an alpha. It's the most dangerous of my kind and that's what turned Scott and attacked the driver –not me." He filled me in, catching me a little off guard by his openness, but I figured since he'd told Scott this he knew I'd find out anyways.
Still… did he have to show up in my bedroom to tell me this?
"There's something else you need to know." He added taking a step closer and my eyes dropped down to his lips before I could help it.
"An alpha has red eyes."
I resisted the urge to just smile and nod at what he said, until it finally sunk in and my eyes flicked back up to meet his as I gasped, "Glowing red eyes? Like the eyes I saw…"
He nodded and my legs felt weak but somehow I made it over to the foot of my bed and sat down; my breathing already labored as I asked, "What does it want with me?"
"I don't know." He admitted, pausing for a moment before he sat down beside me and continued, "But I tracked it's scent to your yard once before."
"So that's why you were watching my house?" I realized out loud.
"I told you I wasn't spying on you." He nodded, but that still didn't answer why he watched me at school too.
"Okay… but that doesn't explain why you're following me to school too."
"Because I don't know what the alpha wants, I don't know if he's just drawn to the property here or if it's you that he's after." He explained.
And once I looked over at him it started to occur to me that Derek Hale wasn't only in my house, not only in my room –but he was on my bed. Sitting fully clothed of course, but the thought still made my heartrate pick up.
I ignored it and hoped he either wasn't listening or had also chosen to ignore it.
"So you're trying to protect me?" I asked, my voice barely over a whisper but instead of a straight forward answer all I got was one of his intense stares and a silent refusal to answer me.
I'm going to just take that as a yes.
"Why? I mean, half the time you act like you can't stand to be around me… so why would you be trying to look out for me." I pushed, half not believing that I was actually stepping up and asking him this. But it was questions like this that haunted me and kept me awake at night, I just needed some kind of answer.
Come on Derek, I pretty much saved your ass from those hunters –the least you could do is be honest with me. I'm a big girl, I can take it.
"You wouldn't understand." He dismissed as he stood up and crossed my room, leaving me more confused than before.
How does he know I won't understand something if he doesn't even try to explain it?
I started to ask what he was talking about until I saw him pick my phone up from my dresser.
"What are you doing?" I gasped, starting towards him.
Not looking up from the screen he stated in a flat tone, "I'm trying to catch the alpha and trying to keep it away from you, but I can't be everywhere at once. So if you see those red eyes again, you need to call me as soon as it happens."
Raising up slightly and looking down I saw him save him number to my contact list. Is this really happening? Did he really just give me his number?
As he pushed my phone into my hands I looked down and verified, he did. He totally did! I have no idea why, but internally I'm almost doing a happy dance –almost.
"So you want me to call you?" I stammered out, cringing my way through the entire short and simple question but remained helpless to stop and save myself.
He stopped in front of my window and looked back to me as he restated, "If you see the red eyes again, call me."
Just nod and accept the answer Brie, play it cool and like the idea of having his number at your fingertips isn't enough to make your heart burst straight through your ribcage.
Nodding I opened my mouth to tell him bye but instead I asked, "Is, uh, is that the only time you want me to call you?"
What is it about him that makes my mouth so unpredictable? He gets around me and I have no filter at all, I need to be stopped.
"Why else would you call me?"
His tone was gruff as always and his face still with a stone expression but for half a second I could have sworn there was a flicker of something else in his eyes, and I'd almost bet my life that I saw the corner of his mouth twitch –possibly even his lips threatening to turn upwards into a smile for once. But looking at him now, I was beginning to wonder if I imagined all of that.
"Oh, uh… I don't know. Just if… something came up that I felt the needed to call you about?"
Somebody stop me, this is getting more painful by the second.
"Something like what?" He asked, still not giving anything away from his expression. How the heck does he do that? He hides everything and I can't even be in the same room as him without my telltale heart giving me away.
"I don't know… something important…" I breathed, second guessing the entire thing. I'm pretty sure talking on the phone with him would be a completely one sided conversation with me having to pry every single response from him until he finally just got so annoyed that he just hung up on me. And things would get even more awkward because I'd call back to see if we lost connection or if he really -Never mind, Derek. Forget I said anything –I will only call you if I see the red eyes again.
I watched as he opened my window and I guessed he was going to just jump from it, and probably land perfectly –totally badass.
"Do you have texting?"
Stupid, stupid question Aubrie. Everyone has a texting plan now days. When he shot me a look I clutched my phone tightly in my hand in case he came back over to me and tried to delete his number, I intended to fight him on it. Don't ask me why, I have no idea why I want his number so bad when I have no intention of ever calling him. But knowing his number was locked way inside of my phone, suddenly made my cellphone feel like my most prized possession and I wasn't going to give it up.
Without another word, he turned and jumped from my window and just like I'd predicted; landed perfectly on the ground below before he started to walk towards the woods without looking back to my house.
Well, he didn't really say no to the texting…
I quickly typed out a text saying I was only texting so he'd have my number too. But now came the hard part –smiley face or no smiley?
Clearly the guy could use some more smiles in his life, but I don't want to be that person who scares someone else off after one text. I'm just going to go for it.
I added in the smiley face and read back over the text before I hit send, at the last second regretting my choice to send a smiley face in the text, I smacked my phone several times but it had already sent.
Maybe it didn't go through… I thought as I looked back out of the window and saw him come to a stop as he pulled his own phone from his pocket. It sent. The smiley face text freaking sent, of course it did.
Moments later he looked back towards the house, his eyes immediately going up to where I was standing at my window still.
Don't do it, Aubrie. Don't you dare wave at him- too late, my hand was already up waving at him. Glancing over at it; I thought traitor.
He looked back down to his phone once more, probably wondering what on earth was wrong me with me, I had no idea myself, before he tucked his phone away and disappeared into the woods.
~(Monday morning)~
Pulling open the door to the school I walked in pausing for a moment to survey the crowd before adjusting the bag on my shoulder and smiling. I'm not sure if it's because I'm wearing a new dress or that my hair actually curled perfectly that morning…maybe it was because I'd spent the morning thinking about the encounters I'd had with Derek and the fact that his number was in my phone, but for some reason the sun seemed to be shining a little brighter when I woke up.
I smiled at some lacrosse players standing near a bank of lockers; to my surprise they smiled back and a few of them even nodded at me.
This is going to be a great day, I just know it. With the way I'm feeling, nothing can bring me down.
Or at least, I thought so until I saw my best friends –both of them walking my way at a fast pace like they were on a mission. Well, Scott was moving at a fast, determined pace while Stiles seemed to be stumbling after him, like his legs still weren't awake.
"Hey guys." I greeted trying to keep a smile on my face, even though I had a pretty good idea why they both looked so mad.
"You!" Stiles accused pointing a finger at me and now seeming at a total and complete loss for words. That's rare.
"Me?"
"You!" He yelled again, still shaking his finger at me.
"You know when you point one finger at me, you're pointing the others at yourself…"
"My mom told me she saw you at the hospital with Derek!" Scott yelled matching Stiles' tone as he stared at me in shock.
"Well…" I started to say but before I could Stiles slapped Scott's arm and demanded, "Tell her the other thing."
"I've been trying not to think about the other thing." Scott groaned at him before he looked back to me and said, "She said you were… dating him."
I would have given anything to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation, I can only imagine that Scott's face was priceless!
"Derek! She said that you were dating Derek Hale!" Stiles finally found his words and continued to yell at me.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the lacrosse player's that I'd smiled at, whisper to themselves before moving down the hallway way from me.
"I'm not dating Derek, okay? So you can both calm down and stop yelling at me." I shot back at them.
Good god, if I was dating Derek I could only imagine their reaction if they're freaking out this bad already.
"Ask her." Stiles said nudging Scott again who rolled his eyes and said, "I don't want to ask her, you ask her."
"Ask me what?" I groaned looking between their faces.
"Why were you holding his hand?" Stiles finally questioned and I had to hold back a laugh at the looks on their faces.
"I wasn't really holding his hand…" I said, fighting with everything in me to keep a straight face, but there it was. That damn smile I couldn't seem to contain when I talked about him, try as I might my lips curved up.
I have to figure out a way to control this thing, it's getting out of hand. I thought as I held onto the sides of my face and forced the smile from my lips.
"Why are you smiling?" Stiles asked, his voice almost a gasp.
"I'm not." I replied, my voice distorted from keeping my face in my hands.
Letting go of my face I pulled in a deep breath and asked, "Why is it okay for you guys to talk to Derek, but not me? There's no difference."
"There is such a difference... a bug, big difference." Stiles cut me off.
Nodding Scott said, "A huge difference."
Uh huh, now I'm dying to hear the theory behind this one.
Crossing my arms over my chest, my eyebrows raised in question, "Okay, how? Tell me how it's so different."
"Because you're you." Scott said motioning to me with his hand as Stiles nodded almost frantically beside him.
"Meaning what? That I'm a girl?"
"Yes." Stiles said then his eyes widened as he read my angry expression and began to backpedal, "I mean, no."
"Then how is it different?" I demanded to know, the hilarity of the situation had worn off and now I was starting to actually get angry with them.
"Look…" Scott breathed, stepping closer, "There's another werewolf and Derek wants to use me to find it-"
"The alpha." I agreed nodding.
"How do you know that?" Stiles asked, bouncing on his feet.
"Derek told me. But what does that have to do with me?"
They exchanged looks and I was beginning to feel like I can't believe a single word they say. They're either hiding things from me or lying to me.
"Derek made it clear that he needs me to find the alpha, because I'm somehow connected to it. Brie, all we're saying is that –we don't know how far he might go to get my help." Scott said, his tone soft like he was trying not to hurt me, but it was a little too late. I knew what he was implying.
"You're saying that Derek what? Might be using me to get to you?" The words left my mouth laced with every bit of emotion I was feeling.
They both remained silent –and the silence was my answer.
Suddenly the sun didn't seem as bright as I'd originally thought when I first got there. Nothing felt the way it had moments ago.
"Well you don't have anything to worry about… we weren't holding hands, he was dragging me away from your mom because I couldn't come up with a good enough lie for why we were are the hospital, okay? I guess your mom just assumed we were together because he's the first guy she's seen me with besides you." I assured them, shaking my head and biting down on my bottom lip.
"I didn't think we had anything to worry about." Stiles cut in smiling and clearly not realizing I was on the verge of taking both their heads off.
"But thanks for letting me know that you guys think the only way I could get a guy would be if he was using me to get to one of you. Really, that's just what I needed today." I breathed as I pushed between them.
"Brie!"
I ignored them and kept walking until they both caught up with me at my locker. Both of them spilling apologies and excuses that I wanted no part of.
"We just don't want you to get hurt." I heard one of them say, I'm not even sure which one but that was the last straw and I slammed my locker shut, spinning around to face them as Stiles nervously took a step backwards.
"Maybe I want to get hurt."
The confused expressions on their face matched mine as I shook my head and breathed, "No, that came out wrong –I don't want to get hurt. I just mean that maybe that shy girl you befriended years ago has grown up and doesn't need to be protected."
"You have grown up…" Scott agreed nodding before breathing out, "We've all changed."
"But Brie when we met you-" Stiles started to say, but I'd heard enough.
I cut him off, "I was this awkward little sixth grader who everyone picked on because I was the new girl and so shy that everyone thought I was mute. I know, but I'm not that girl anymore." I looked between them, suddenly not able to hold my anger at either of my friends.
They were just doing what they'd always done; looked out for me. Since we'd met they'd been fighting my battles for me and they both protected me the best they could from the bullies in middle school.
But I'm not that scared, shy, awkward little girl anymore… well, maybe I'm still awkward but I blame them because I've been hanging around them for so long.
"And when it comes to me and Derek, there's no me and Derek. I wouldn't even call us friends, really. He acts like we're sworn enemies most of the time, I don't know what his problem is. But you're freaking out over nothing." I added with a laugh, before my eyebrows lowered at the thoughts. Did they have reason to be worried?
Shaking my head before they could catch my unsure expression , I quickly told them they were forgiven and changed the subject. But as they started to talk about lacrosse I was barely listening.
I mean, logically I knew the chances of something ever developing between myself and Derek were slim to none. Not only was he probably the hottest guy I'd ever seen, he was older and probably also the rudest person I'd ever met. Then there was the fact that he wasn't human –which terrifies me. I already live in a constant state of fear that Scott will shift and rip me to shreds one day. But… he had been watching me to protect me from the alpha…
My thoughts were interrupted when the morning bell rang through the school halls and Scott and Stiles groaned in unison before saying they'd see me at lunch.
Looking down to make sure I'd gotten the right books, I reminded myself that Derek was the last person I needed to be getting close to or even be thinking about.
~()~
At the end of the day I was headed for my locker with a very precise idea of how the rest of my day was going to play out; study in the school library till about 4 when Sheila would pick me up after work and then I was going to talk her into going to the mall –because I'm in dire need of retail therapy and the only female friend I have is Allison, who will be busy studying with Scott tonight.
No matter, Sheila's always sort of been more like an older sister than my aunt and we've always been close.
But my plans for the day were ruined when I was walking down the hallway minding my own business and someone grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me to the side.
Jerking my arm back I held up the books in my arms, ready to beat the person who'd done it until I realized it was Derek.
"Derek?" I nearly screamed, still fighting the urge to hit him over the head with my books for scaring me like he did.
But the urge soon faded when I realized how pale and sickly he looked, immediately anger turned into concern.
"Oh my god, you look awful! Are you-"
"Where's Scott? I need to find him." He cut me off, even being sick apparently didn't improve this guy's manners.
"He's, uh… studying at Allison's after school." I managed to say, as I chocked back the sick feeling at seeing blood rolling out from the unbuttoned sleeve of his leather jacket.
I knew I shouldn't have eaten that extra slice of pizza for lunch, it's going to make it that much worse if it all comes up. Swallowing hard, I pulled my eyes away from the blood running down his hand.
"We have to find him before he leaves." His voice was gruff as usual and despite his condition, I started to grow angry at the tone of voice he used until I replayed what he said. He said 'we have to find him'. He said 'we'.
We as in the both of us, together –as a single unit.
I opened my mouth to ask when exactly we'd progressed into friends, or to the point of being a we, but I didn't get the chance when he started to slide down the wall some like he was going to collapse on the floor.
Without even thinking, I rushed forward and steadied him. "What happened?" I demanded to know, he looked even worse up close.
"I was shot… and if we don't fond Scott, I'm dead." He breathed, his eyes locked with mine. And there it was again, that term he'd chosen to use for the day because he needed something from me; we.
Dead! If we don't find him, Derek's dead… All he managed to do was open up an entire new set of questions, I thought one of the upsides to being a werewolf was being able to heal from wounds –even gunshots.
The hallway crowd was starting to thin out, I knew my friend's phone would still be silenced from the school day.
"Our best bet is to catch him before he leaves… come on." I said, nodding for him to follow me, but as we started down the hallway, it was clear he was growing even weaker and could barely keep up with my pace.
I paused and waited until he caught up with me, knowing we needed to hurry; he looked like he was going to fall down at any second. I grabbed onto his non-bleeding arm and pulled it over my shoulders as I quietly said, "We have to hurry if we're going to get to him in time." Scott was excited to be spending time with Allison after school and I figured he'd be rushing there as soon as he could.
As we walked down the hallway, more and more people stared at us. Probably because Derek looked like he was about to drop dead at any moment, either way I didn't like the attention it was bringing me and if it hadn't been a life or death situation –I would have said he was on his own.
Just as we neared the doors, Jackson came out of the nurse's office with a hand on the back of his neck. He looked at me with a confused expression and then his gaze went to Derek, before he jumped backwards like he was terrified. I rolled my eyes at him and pushed open the doors, almost falling over as Derek slumped farther against me.
With a groan I planted my feet firmly against the sidewalk beneath me until I was sure we were staying vertical.
"You're going to have to help." I groaned, struggling to keep the both of us up.
"I am." He growled back.
"Well, I don't know how much longer I can do this. I do yoga, not strength training and you're like all muscle…" I breathed, my eyes drifting over to the snug faded black shirt that was hugging his muscled frame from beneath his leather jacket.
Focus Brie, you can check him out when he's not about to just keel over on top of you at any moment –not that I'd been checking him out.
"Okay, look my car's across the parking lot. Get me over to it and then you find Scott."
"Alright… let's go." I said, readjusting his arm on my shoulders and trying to convince myself that my heart was racing from the exertion of the task at hand and not because his arm was around me.
We'd made it about halfway across when, he started to stumble again and my legs were shaking from both our weight. "Derek, we're almost-" My reassurance stopped with a gasp, as I saw a car headed right for us. I pinned my eyes shut, it was becoming clear that Derek Hale was going to be the death of me, one way or another. At first I thought it was because he was going to kill me, but now I'm going to be hit by a car for just trying to help him.
But when there was no painful collision, no sounds of screaming from witnesses and no white light –I realized we hadn't been hit. Popping one eye open but still cringing, I was relieved to see the car had not only stopped just a few feet away from mowing me and Derek over –but that car also happened to be a blue jeep, Stiles' blue jeep.
I started to yell for Stiles to get out of the car and help us, but I didn't get the chance as Derek lost his balance and my shaky legs were no help when he not only collapsed but pulled me down with him, luckily for me –he broke my fall.
"What the hell is going on?" Stiles asked, in a scrambled run as he raced over to us where I was trying to get off of Derek without hurting him even worse than he already was.
"Where's Scott?" I asked, practically throwing myself to the pavement beside Derek, as I looked up at Stiles and said, "We need to find Scott now!"
The sounds of car horns filled my ears as students let us know exactly how impatient they were to get home and how they felt about us blocking the parking lot exit.
Well, sorry guys… but I've got a werewolf problem that ranks above your homework and whatever else you've got going on.
"What are you doing here?" Scott asked, seeming to almost appear out of nowhere as he dropped to the ground in front of us and I sat up rubbing my sore elbow and Stiles leaned down to pick up my books and folders that I'd dropped.
"I was shot." Derek breathed, managing to sit up.
"He's not looking so good, dude." Stiles pointed out. As if we couldn't tell.
"Why aren't you healing?" Scott questioned, and I used my good arm to shove the books Stiles handed me into my messenger bag.
"I can't. It was a different kind of bullet." Derek admitted, but barely got his sentence out as Stiles gasped, "A silver bullet?"
"No, you idiot."
"Wait, wait… that's what she meant when she said you had 48 hours." Scott seemed to realize out loud.
"What? Who?" I questioned, surprised at how panicked my own voice was.
"The one who shot him." Scott said, his tone simple –almost as if what he was saying wasn't a big deal at all.
I started to stand up but stopped when Derek pulled in a ragged breath and grabbed onto his bleeding arm, I looked over to see his eyes were flickering between his normal color and his werewolf blue.
"What are you doing? Sop that!" Scott demanded.
"I don't think he can." I softly said, growing more concerned by the second as I faced him.
Nodding Derek agreed, "That's what I'm trying to tell you, I can't."
"Derek, get up." Scott ordered, nodding for Stiles to help him. As they pulled the wounded werewolf to his feet, I also stood up and checked our surroundings for any lost papers or folders. When I looked back up they'd loaded him into Stiles' jeep.
Rushing over to them, I listened as Derek said that Scott needed to find the bullet he was shot with at the Argent's house or he'd die.
"Why should I help you?" Scott complained and I shot him a disapproving look.
"Because you need me." Derek reminded him.
Sighing Scott said, "Fine, I'll try…"
"I hate you so much for this." Stiles groaned as he started his jeep back up.
"I'm coming with you." I said as I started to pull the passenger door open.
"You guys get him out of here." Scott agreed, but then I saw a paper blow past the driver's side of the jeep and realized it had to be mine.
I rushed after it, but luckily Allison caught it as she was headed towards us.
"Hey, is this yours?" She asked holding it out with a friendly smile.
"Uh, yeah… thanks." I breathed, hoping she wouldn't ask about Derek.
"What's he doing here?" She questioned.
"Uh…" I stammered.
"Stiles and Brie are just giving him a ride home, right?" Scott asked, rushing over to us.
"Yeah." I nodded so fast it made me dizzy.
"I though you said you weren't friends with him?" She pushed.
Oh god, this isn't going to end well. I'm just going to slip away, get into the jeep and leave.
"Oh, uh… not really friends with him, no I'm not." Scott lied, as I took a slow step away from them.
"We're still studying together, right?" He quickly added in, but she was focused on his first answer.
"Which one is it? You're friends with him or not friends with him?" Allison asked.
I took another step, but moved too fast this time and my movement caught Scott's eye.
"I'm not friends with him." Scott assured her before nodding to me and saying, "Aubrie is… she's friend's with him."
I came to a stop with wide eyes and stared at him as his eyes pleaded for me to agree.
"Yeah…" I breathed plastering on a less than believable smile.
Allison turned her focus on me as her forehead lined with confusion, "You seemed to barely know him the night of the party…"
"Yeah, well… a lot has changed since then." Scott answered for me, before he squeezed my arm and said through his teeth in a nervous smile, "Right, Brie?"
"Yeah, totally. So much has changed… Derek and I are great friends now." What is happening to me? I'm becoming the world's worst liar.
"You can even ask my mom." Scott seemed to say in a fit of nervous laughter.
Scratch that; I'm the world's second worst liar.
"Why would I ask your mom about that?" Allison said, then looked between us waiting on an answer.
I looked over to Scott thinking how convenient it was that Scott wanted me to play friends with Derek when it suited him, but yet just this morning he and Stiles were both freaking out on me for even talking to him.
Scott's eyes widened as he looked at me for help, smirking at him I then turned and gave a smile to Allison as I said, "You guys have fun studying, I'd better go –Stiles is holding up the line."
Scott stared at me in disbelief as I left him alone to stumble over his excuses and lies to Allison.
"Come on." Stiles complained as I walked past the driver's side of the jeep, nodding I handed him my bag through the open window and he threw it into the backseat.
Pulling open the passenger door, I looked in to where Derek was sitting. Normally I just climbed over Scott in the passenger seat to get to the back, but this wasn't Scott. This was Derek who I could barely be in the same room with before my heart sped up and he stared at me.
This would be simple enough, just step up into the floorboard, one foot at a time and carefully maneuver my way between the seats and into the back –shouldn't be that difficult.
Nodding to agree with myself, I stepped up into the jeep –trying to avoid looking at Derek as I got my other leg into the car and started to try and move between the front seats but my legs got tangled with Derek's in the floorboard and next thing I knew, I'd landed partially on Derek's lap and partially down between the seats.
"Are you okay?" Stiles asked, laughing as I tried to straighten out my legs in the cramped space but I didn't have room to move.
"I… I think I'm stuck." I finally admitted after a few moments of flailing around helplessly.
Stiles was laughing so hard he couldn't help me, which left the task up to Derek, who reached down and effortlessly pulled me from my partial prison between the seats. But since there wasn't much room in the jeep and since he had to pull me towards him to get me up from the black hole between the seats, I ended up straddling his lap facing him. And I'm pretty sure my heart stopped when I looked up and realized how close our faces were, not to mention I was so very aware of the warm sensations his hand was leaving on my side.
"Brie!" Stiles called out, getting my attention and I snapped my gaze over to him to see he had a shocked expression on his face as he nodded behind him and said, "Just get in the back already."
"Oh right." I breathed, before apologizing to Derek for the uncomfortable situation, even though it seemed like I was the only one nervous from the encounter. But at least my cheeks held off on growing dark until I was out off of Derek's lap and safely seated out of view behind him.
A/N- Thanks so much for reading! ^_^ I owe a huge thank you to everyone who has been added this story, I'm so glad you're liking it!
I'm super excited to get the next chapter posted because it's from Derek's point-of-view. I won't switch POV's very often, but I think it's important here to show what's been going on inside of Derek's head when it comes to Brie.
Don't forget to leave a review and let me know if you're reading and you can always follow me on Tumblr for fanfiction related things, including chapter sneak peeks!