Chapter 10 – No More Hiding
Today's practice has not been as bad as it normally is. The coach is up a head of us a bit, yelling at the kids who slow down and are socializing instead of running. I have mixed feelings on cross country. On one hand, it actually relaxes me and calms me down. However, on the other hand it is pure hell.
"COME ON, ARE YOU A BUNCH OF GIRLS? RUN!" Coach's voice travels through the path. Even with him saying that, I keep the same pace and so does Stiles, who is running along side me.
"Some of us are girls," someone points out to him.
"Oh, uh well yeah. Keep running!" Coach replies nervously.
"You know," I laugh. "I sometimes wonder if he hates coaching anything but lacrosse because of the way he treats us at times. But then I think about it, and realize that this is how he treats us even during lacrosse."
"Yeah, I know. However, you have to admit that it is easy to get used to," Stiles replies.
"That you are right about."
"You know, he even told Scott he does care about us," Stiles casually says.
I look at Stiles in disbelief and nod for him to further explain.
"After the final game last year, he told Scott and Isaac that he does care," Stiles further explains.
"Oh. Wow."
"Yup," Stiles pops the 'p'.
"So, was this when you got kidnapped by Allison's grandfather?" I ask Stiles carefully, sensing that this was a sensitive subject for him.
"Uh, yeah," Stiles replies and looks ahead.
"Okay," I say. "You know...if you ever want to talk to anyone, you can come to me," I offer.
Stiles looks at me surprised for a moment and then grins.
"Thanks Danny boy." I smile back. Last year and even months ago, I would never have thought I would have made that offer to Stiles and more the less meant every word of it. I guess this whole thing has me realizing who has always tried to help me and who hasn't wanted to cause any harm to myself.
"Hey guys." I glance away from Stiles to see that Scott and Isaac have walked up to us.
"Hey," I reply at the same time that Stiles says, "Yo."
"You both tired yet?" I find myself teasing, which feels almost natural with them nowadays.
"Nope, Coach called a break," Scott explains. I take a look around and realize that everyone has stopped and are socializing freely now and drinking water. The cool breeze that flowed through the air felt nice on my skin. The weather seems to be getting colder at times now.
"Oh," I state and look for the twins, or more importantly, their where abouts. It takes me only a few seconds to see that they have taken a seat by a old, big tree. They seemed to be in a deep conversation about something and appeared to not be listening in on our conversation.
"So, anything new?" I ask the three of them. I didn't know what else to talk about. Lately, the only topic I find myself talking to them about is werewolves. That seems to be the only thing I talk about these days.
"No. Isaac has been around Peter a bit. Too keep up appearances."
"Hasn't our cover been blown already? He doesn't suspect anything after you guys chased him through the woods? And plus, he obviously knows we were at his apartment." Right when the words leave my mouth, Stiles' eyes widen. Aside from the chatter from the other groups of people, the four of us were silent.
"What?" Scott asks finally, turning to look at Stiles expectantly. He didn't look happy.
"Uh, I was going to tell you?" Stiles phrases his statement as a question.
"Wait, you didn't tell him yet?" I turn to Stiles.
"Never got the chance to?"
"Stiles." Stiles and I turn to see that Scott has stopped walking and has his arms crossed, waiting for Stiles to explain. Isaac stands beside him, looking a bit annoyed with us as well, but not as much as Scott does. Stiles looks at me, and it takes me a minute to realize that he is waiting for me to begin explaining.
"No. You promised you would tell him, so you are explaining," I deadpan. Stiles rolls his eyes and huffs.
"Fine."
Scott looks at Stiles expectantly.
"Last weekend, when you, Isaac and Allison went to follow Peter, Danny, Lydia and I went to his apartment to look around," Stiles explains calmly.
"You three broke into his apartment?" Isaac exclaims, his eyes widening. I happen to glance at the twins again and see that we have gained their attention and that they both appear to have become invested in our conversation. Ethan catches my eye and he seems to be in shock that I took part in the break in to Peter's apartment. After a few seconds of maintaining eye contact, longer than I should have, I turn back to Stiles, Scott and Isaac. Stiles and Scott seem to be in some sort of staring match. Scott's jaw is set and that is a sign that he is trying not to get angry at us. Isaac seems to be angry as well.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Scott asks, however I don't respond because he is directing his questions towards Stiles. He pulls Stiles off to the side, and away from Isaac and I. I assume it is to get away from hearing distance of everyone.
"Why are you yelling at me? Danny came too!" Stiles exclaims.
I snort. I can't believe he's playing the whole 'he did it too' card.
"Yeah, but you've been around this the longest," Scott retorts and lowers his voice. "You know what Peter is like and what he could do." Despite him lowering his voice, I still heard the last part of his sentence. Isaac shifts uncomfortably beside me.
"It must suck to be able to hear everything people say," I state.
Isaac glances at me and smiles. "Yeah sometimes. And sometimes it can be useful," he smirks.
"And when were you planning on telling me this?" I hear Scott ask Stiles, quite loudly. Scott seems to notice how loud his voice may have carried and clears his throat awkwardly, while avoiding the wandering eyes that glanced in our direction.
"Soon! I swear! I've been busy!" Stiles exclaims.
"Doing what?"
I look to see that Stiles has gone quiet and was seemed to be struggling with his next words. "Scott," Stiles finally says. "This hasn't been easy for me. I've been having the side effects."
I frown in confusion and glance at Isaac, however Isaac seems to be focused on the conversation as well.
"Oh."
"Have you?"
"A bit," Scott admits. "But we knew this was going to happen the moment we decided to do the sacrifice to save our parents."
I nod my head in understanding and Isaac smiles sadly at me. When Stiles told me what he, Scott and Allison did to find their parents, I found that it was really brave. Like, I have a really good relationship with my parents, but I've always admired the relationship Scott and Stiles have with their parents. Stiles will do anything for his father. I briefly remember hearing about Stiles' mom dying and the state Stiles had been in afterwards. Anybody with eyes can tell that Stiles is trying to do whatever it takes to keep his father as safe as can be with him being the sheriff and all. Then there's Scott. He seems to have lasted just fine without having a dad around. I could never imagine and understand how anyone could just leave their children and family behind. From what I've heard, Scott's dad works a lot, but couldn't he have found the time to see his son? I just don't understand it. Then there's Allison. I don't know much about her, but from what Stiles has said about her family, she seems to be a survivor just as Scott and Stiles are. All of these qualities are admirable to me.
"Let's talk about this later," Scott suggests, breaking me out of my thoughts. It was a good thing he said that because the coach begins talking, well yelling, right after. "ALRIGHT! LISTEN UP! We're heading back!"
"Finally, we're done," I hear a bunch of people mutter to their friends. I smile tiredly and walk up to Stiles and Scott with Isaac close behind me.
"I'm so glad Coach ended practice," Isaac tells us. No one gets a chance to say anything in response as we hear a snicker a few feet away. My eyes dart to the forest and I see Peter standing there, grinning right at us. I hear a low growl, and I turn to see that it has come from Isaac. I notice his eyes have turned to the golden colour I saw in the forest that night and that Scott's eyes were a pure red colour. Stiles and I both glance around quickly and sigh in relief when we see that the group has almost disappeared from sight. I turn back in time to see Peter dart off into the forest and Scott and Isaac take off after him. Seconds later, Aiden runs right by us, heading directly into the direction that Scott and Isaac went. I notice that Ethan was nowhere in sight; he more than likely went in a different direction to cut Peter off. Honestly, I hope that they catch Peter soon, so that I can be back to living a non-fearful life that seems to have taken over my life recently.
Stiles and I run to catch up with the group. We make it back to the school in record time, and I'm happy that Coach never realized we were gone, or that four members of the team are missing. Though we can just explain they went home to shower, as school has already ended for the day.
Stiles doesn't say much to me. He makes a few jokes with the Coach and then tells me that he has to get to his dad's office to meet him.
"I'll be fine," I reassure him.
"Okay... Scott just texted me and said that it should be fine to let you go home on your own. They are still following Peter."
After a few more minutes, I finally manage to reassure Stiles that I will be fine to take the bus home or to walk. I'm opting more for the bus though. It's probably safer to be around more people.
I'm one of the last people leaving the locker room. Finstock just left and Stiles left 10 minutes ago. Three guys were left behind me, in the shower and getting dressed.
The hallways were almost deserted. A few students lingered the hallways from the after school clubs or detentions they were in. After I stop off at my locker, I continue down the hallway to the doors. Suddenly, I hear echoes of feet behind me. I turn but see nobody there. The eerie feeling that I am being watched and followed comes back. I speed up my pace in order to get outside faster where I just saw a group of students walk out to. I past the library doors and I past a few more classrooms, before I hear feet move from directly behind me. I don't even have a chance to turn around because the unknown person shoves me forward into a storage closet. The room was dark and I make out the sound of the lock clicking. Great, I'm locked in and I'm in the dark. I hear the other person breathing, nearby. I'm trying to figure out where the light switch is, when it suddenly turns on and I look to see that Ethan was standing right beside me in the closet; directly in front of the door, making escape almost impossible.
"What are you doing?" I ask him, trying to remain calm. It was different talking to him with other people around. The fact that he chose to talk to me this way, means that he is not taking no for an answer.
"I wanted to talk to you," Ethan responds innocently.
"Well, what was wrong with at practice or with somewhere more public?" I ask him nervously.
Ethan raises his brow at me. "What we need to talk about is private."
I can literally feel my heart pounding at his words and by the look on Ethan's face, he can hear it too. I'm barely struggling with talking to him with the others around. I'm not ready to be near him alone just yet. I'm not prepared for this conversation.
I shake my head at him. "Let me out."
"Nope," Ethan replies. He leans against the door way, like he is making himself comfortable. He's completely caught me off guard, and by the way he is acting, he's had to have planned this.
"Danny, we need to talk."
"No we don't."
"Yeah, we do. I want to give you an explanation."
"There's nothing to explain. I was obviously only a piece in whatever game you and your brother played."
Ethan shakes his head.
I continue. "It's not just about me either. What about Lydia? You and your brother did this to her too!"
"Danny-"
"No, let me out!" I yell. I try to shove Ethan out of my way, but he's not budging. He seemed to be planted like a rock directly in front of the doorway.
"I thought you were going to leave me alone?! I don't want to talk about this!"My hands are pounding at his arms, and chest, trying to get him to budge. I don't even know if I'm angry anymore. My emotions are all over the place.
"I've tried to respect your wishes. I did. But you can't keep avoiding this talk," Ethan tells me calmly, while still allowing me to hit him and try to move him. I'm at the point where I just want to get out of the closet.
"Ethan!" I feel like I want to give up and talk. But, I don't want to face this. I know that if he wasn't a werewolf, I may have actually been causing him pain, but he doesn't seem to be affected by my movements.
Just when I'm about to keep going and make the next hit I feel him grab my wrist for me to stop.
"Let go," I find myself saying darkly, trying to tug my wrist free but have no luck.
"No I won't," Ethan retorts, unaffected by my change of tone.
"Ethan seriously I don't want to talk to you."
"Okay, then you can listen."
"Ethan!" I try to break his grip on my wrist, but he won't budge. I know he's not hurting me; his grip is gentle. I hate that his werewolf strength is making him more stronger than me.
"Please," I whimper. I try to twist my hand free, but it's not working. I only seem to be hurting myself more. I feel tears threatening to fall and I will them to stay put. But, I don't have enough energy to hold them back and they begin falling freely for Ethan to see. I feel sobs wrack my body and I want to turn away, but Ethan keeps his hold on my wrist as he pulls me into his arms. He wraps his arms around me gently, but tightly. He doesn't say anything, he just rubs my back in soothing circles as I cry about everything and let my feelings come out. I hate how comforting the gestures are that Ethan is making and I want to hate the fact that I feel the most safe than I have felt in weeks. Instead, I relax into his embrace and find myself letting him comfort me quietly.
After a few more minutes, I manage to calm down and feel the last of the tears slide down my cheek. I remain in Ethan's arms and even bury my hear further into the side of his neck, breathing in his scent. I don't have to be looking at Ethan to know that he is smiling from head to toe at my sudden movements.
"Now, I don't really want to talk in a closet, so will you come with me somewhere private to talk?" Ethan asks me quietly, his voice filling the silence in the room.
I hesitate.
"Danny, please," Ethan pleads with me. He pulls back in order to glance at me. "Do you really want to talk in this cramped closet?"
"Then why did you force me in here?" I find myself repeating my question from when he first shoved me in here.
"Well, I had to get you talking to me somehow. And this seemed to be the only opportunity I would get," Ethan says with a smirk. I glare at him, but my anger was dying down.
"Fine," I find myself agreeing.
Ethan smiles widely at me, grabbing my hand. Though it was a sudden move, and possibly too soon for us, I let him continue holding it. He unlocks the door to the closet and we step into the hallway. No one appeared to be around and the hallway appeared to be deserted. Ethan leads me down the hallway and out the doors to wear his motorcycle was waiting.
I feel sad just thinking about the fact that this was the first time I've been on his motorcycle since before we broke up. Ethan glances at me when we stop in front of the bike, and by the look on his face, I know we are both thinking the same thoughts. He gets on the bike first and reaches back to hand me the extra helmet, that was basically mine since no one else normally rode with him. I put it on and get on the bike. I wrap my arms around his waist and find myself snuggling into him, and he starts the bike and drives off.