Stiles and Lydia are just looking at each other, not saying a word and she doesn't know what to do now. Suddenly her mom, with the 'best' timing ever, comes through the front door. She stumbles into the living room, muttering curse words to her broken wheeled suitcase until she notices the pair sitting next to each other on her sofa.
Stiles isn't fazed; he knows that her mom didn't see them kissing. Lydia on the other hand, can feel her cheeks glowing bright red. Her mom has walked in plenty of times and caught her with a boy. Too many times.
"Lydia, sweetheart, come and help me with my case please," Natalie speaks casually and evenly, not even paying Stiles any attention. Lydia glances over at the boy, whom she can see has started to become slightly nervous, and then pushes herself off of the sofa.
They're silent as Lydia carries her mother's case up-stairs and into her bedroom for her and they're still silent as she helps her unpack. Eventually, Lydia decides to break the silence.
"I have food poisoning. The doctor gave me a note to say I can't go to school and everything," she tells her mom and the woman turns to face her.
"Lydia, I don't appreciate you bringing yet another boy into my house. I thought I made myself clear that I don't like what you get up to and I want you to stop it," Natalie mutters sternly, throwing the last of her tops into the wardrobe and slamming the door shut.
"Of course that's all you care about," Lydia laughs humourlessly, "I tell you I have food poisoning and you ramble on about boys," she purses her lips to try and stop herself from crying. More and more lately she's been having fights with her mother. Each time, both the argument and the silent treatment lasts longer and longer. The last one lasted a week.
"Yes, because I come home from a stressful school trip to see you and a boy sat on my sofa!" Natalie drags her suitcase onto the floor and kicks it underneath her bed.
"We're just friends!" Lydia growls defensively and her mother scoffs. "What? is that so hard to believe?"
"Actually it is," The older woman folds her arms and Lydia spins on her heels, heading back towards the stairs. "Don't you dare walk away from me while I'm talking to you, Lydia Martin!" Natalie screeches.
Lydia turns back around. "Stiles is my friend mom!" she yells towards her mother, "He came over because of my food poisoning. He came over because, unlike you, he actually cares about me!"
Natalie's palm slams against Lydia's face, hard enough to knock her off her feet and land against the wall. Lydia brings her thumb up to her lip and looks at the blood it leaves on her skin. She then looks up at her mother, who is staring down at her with an angry look across her features. Lydia feels hurt – she and her mom have arguments all the time but she never expected her to ever hit her.
She scrambles to her feet and races down the stairs into the lounge. Stiles looks up at her, immediately noticing the blood on her lip, and stands up. He's about to ask what happened but Lydia grabs his hand and pulls him out of the front door.
"Lydia stop!" Natalie calls from the front door as she watches the teens get into the blue 1976 CJ5 Jeep but she doesn't go outside.
Stiles takes one look at the tear stains on Lydia's cheeks and pulls the vehicle out of the drive way, away from the Martin residence. He drives silently until the house is out of view.
"Lyds, what happened?" he asks softly and cautiously, not wanting her to feel as if she has to talk about it if she doesn't want to.
"I was arguing with my mom, we've been doing it all the freaking time lately," Lydia answers in a shaky tone. She still feels shocked that her mother would do that to her, that her mother could do that to her after what had happened to her. "She hit me," Lydia concludes and then leans her head onto the cool glass of the window.
Stiles is speechless. He wants to do or say something to make her feel better but he can't think of anything. Instead, he drives her to his house without saying anything. When they get there, he notices how drained Lydia looks. Her face is pale apart from the crimson tickle along her bottom lip, running an inch onto the skin underneath. They exit the Jeep and walk to his front door.
Lydia can hear someone in the kitchen, clattering around with pots and pans and she looks over to Stiles.
"Don't worry. It'll just be my dad," he smiles softly at her and she nods. He leads her into his living room and she perches on the edge of the leather seats, looking around the room curiously. "I'll be back in a sec, I'm just gonna grab some water," he tells her and she whispers a quiet 'okay'.
"Oh, hey Stiles. I didn't hear you come in," Stiles' dad chirps happily when he notices his son entering the kitchen.
"Hey dad," Stiles replies as he grabs two glasses out of the cupboard and starts filling them with water.
"You got company?" Sheriff asks with a raised eyebrows directed at the extra glass.
"Yeah. It's Lydia. You remember, I told you about her," Stiles explains and his father nods, craning his neck and stealing a peek through the doorway.
"Is she okay?" the man frowns, noticing the deflated looks she's wearing.
"She kind of had an argument with her mom… a bad one," Stiles pulls a face, telling his dad just how bad it was. His dad gestures to his bottom lip, silently asking if Mrs Martin was responsible for the injury on Lydia's mouth and Stiles nods. Mr Stilinski shakes his head and sighs. "She's pretty shaken up about it so I thought I would bring her here for a while. You don't mind, do you?"
"Of course not. Tell her she can stay as long as she likes," the sheriff smiles sadly, "Do I need to do anything about this?"
"I don't think so," Stiles shakes his head and picks up the glasses of water, "Thanks dad," he smiles and then turns and re-enters the living room.
"Thanks," Lydia smiles weakly as she takes the cup from his hands and sips along the rim, "Sorry about this"
"No it's okay. Honestly," he reassures her, "You're just ruining what could have been the night I text Sophia and went out with her," Stiles jokes, playfully nudging her arm and she laughs slightly.
She places the glass onto the coffee table in front of her. "Sorry," she whispers as she leans her head onto his shoulder. He moves his arm around her and he forgets all about Sophia.