Lydia

"Lydia stay there" Allison demanded, now with her phone back from Scott. "Stiles is fine, his Dad's coming to get him. He'd be gone before you got here anyway"

"He's okay?" Lydia confirmed, breathing a sigh of relief and leaning her, now exhausted, body against the frame of her front door. Even after what he's said, she still loved him and she would go out of her mind if anything had happened to him.

Even though she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, she went back into her bedroom, lay in bed, pulled her sheets over her head, and closed her eyes; she could at least try.

Stiles

Stiles sat on the edge of the hospital bed. The whole left side of his face was swollen. The skin was torn, bleeding and bruised and one of his right ribs was broken. It also hurt like a bitch. Scott and Allison had been in to see him but they were gone now.

"Stiles?" his dad's voice sounded from the doorway. His expression complimented how Stiles was feeling right now: angry and hurt. He rushed over to the side of Stiles' bed and yanked his son into a hard hug. "What have they done to you?"

"Dad, I'm fine" Stiles reassured, gently squeezing his dads arm. "Let's just go home"

"Stiles don't ever do something like this again!" his dad yelled without anger. "I can't lose you too: I can't lose both of you"

"I said I was okay. I got beat up, that's it. Mom…." He didn't finish the sentence; he didn't trust himself not to cry. "It's not the same thing" Stiles mumbled sadly, looking down at the tiled floor.

"Dying is dying no matter how it happens" he examined the bruising on Stiles face and pulled him into another hug. "Let's get you home"

The next day -

"Are you sure you want to go into school today?" Stiles' dad called from the kitchen. "You only got beat up yesterday and…"

"Dad it's fine, I'm going in" Stiles interrupted; he needed the distraction. "Don't worry about me, just go to work" he forced himself to smile.

The swelling had gone down a lot overnight but the bruising was worse. The light shade of purple had now turned black and the skin was scabbed. His rib was bandaged but it wasn't enough to stop it from shooting with pain every time he moved.

Grabbing his school bad and wincing with pain, he headed towards his Jeep to drive to school. Maybe he could convince people that the other guy was worse off than him.

Lydia

Lydia had gone to school early. Her mom was rabbiting on about how she needed more sleep when she had seen the dark circles around her eyes and she was too tired to handle it. Today she had decided she was going to wear some of her old clothes; she wasn't in the mood to dress up.

She knew Allison wouldn't be there, so she went over to a circle of trees where Jane and Aubrey, a couple of her other friends, hung out.

"Hey guys" she smiled, sitting down on the wooden bench next to Aubrey and opposite Jane.

"Hey Lydia" they both beamed; they were always happy when her and Ally joined them in the mornings, which wasn't very often.

"Did you hear the rumour about Stiles?" Aubrey winced, knowing Lydia had a huge crush on the kid. Lydia just assumed that it was him getting beaten up but she was curious just in case.

"What rumour?" she asked half-heartedly, brushing her stray, messy hair behind her ear.

"Apparently" Aubrey got closer, now in full gossip mode. "He abused Malia and Theo Raeken, that hot guy in our Physics class, beat him up to defend her". Lydia was speechless. That wasn't true and she knew it!

The more she thought about it, the more she realised she didn't know it. All she knew was that Stiles was in the hospital for being beaten up.

Stiles

Stiles rolled his Jeep into a parking space. Exiting it, he walked towards the school building. When he entered, he felt eyes on him all around. Some people shot disgusted glares at him and other just avoided him all together. Was this just because he had a banged up face?

Stiles decided to go straight to his first lesson to wait outside. Walking through the corridor, he noticed Scott talking furiously with some kid outside the chemistry room. He stepped towards the scene, grabbing Scott's attention with a confused glare.

Scott ran over to him, a worried look covering his face. "Stiles go home today, you don't want to be here" he was almost begging.

"Scott what's going on?" he asked. Stiles turned his head to the direction of the kid Scott was arguing with and saw him hurriedly walking towards them.

Before Scott could answer, the guy shoved Stiles backwards, hurling him into the lockers behind him. Stiles' rib sent pain shock waving through his whole body and if it wasn't for the kid holding his shoulders against the metal cupboards, he would have dropped to the ground.

"You touch another girl again, I will end you!" he yelled, shrugging off Scott, who was trying to pull him away.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Stiles yelled back, adrenalin rushing through his body like a tsunami.

"Like you don't know" the kid spat, roaming his eyes over Stiles' bruised face disgustedly. "Theo should have done worse!" The kid added, releasing his grip on Stiles' shoulders and waltzing away.

Scott grabbed hold of his friend's arms before he fell. Stiles gripped his aching rib and winced in pain. "What the hell is happening" he questioned.

"I've tried to tell them it isn't true" Scott rambled. "Stiles, I've tried"

"Scott!" Stiles cut in angrily. "Tried to tell them what isn't true?!"

"Malia's telling everyone that you beat her up and that Theo saved her" Scott answered slowly. He paused, letting Stiles take it in before continuing "It started after I called her about you being in hospital"

"She started a rumour about me?" Stiles shouted exasperatedly. He obviously already knew the answer.

He spun around and stormed off towards the chemistry room, ignoring Scott's pleads to stop. All he cared about right now was finding out why Malia had started the rumour. What had he done to her?