Lydia fell asleep in my bed that night, neither of us worried that her dad would walk in since we knew he was as the hospital with Chloe. After receiving the text message, Lydia said she needed to sleep off some of her stress and I offered to stay with her. She nodded, thanking me and then we curled up together under the sheets in her bedroom.

"Stiles," I was gently shaken from my sleep by, a very tired looking, Lydia. She had her hair scraped back in a bun and faint circles darkened the skin around her eyes. She still looked amazing though. "I'm going to take a quick shower" she told me "its 7:15," she added as I looked around for her clock.

I noticed her slightly anxious expression and I tried to make her feel better. "It'll be okay," I took her hands in mine and she smiled weakly.

"I won't be long. You can shower after me and we'll go to the hospital, yeah?" she raised an eyebrow is question, checking to see if her plan worked for me and I nodded. "Thanks for doing this," she leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. I immediately felt a pang of guilt as I thought about Cassie kissing me and how I lied about it.

I sat in the same place the whole time Lydia was showering, wondering what would have happened if Lydia had seen the kiss and seen Chloe fall. She was already feeling really down about the whole thing and I couldn't imagine how she would cope if she had to deal with Cassie on top of it. That's why I had lied but what would be worse: seeing the kiss or finding out that I had lied to her about it?

"Hey, you can use the bathroom now," Lydia's head poked around the door, thankfully, interrupting my thoughts. She then came in and grabbed the first thing in her wardrobe she could find.

I rushed in the shower, guessing that, by Lydia's lack of outfit planning, she just wanted to hurry up and get to the hospital. To make sure her step-sister was okay. I was showered in five minutes. With the time Lydia took and a further two minutes for my teeth, it gave me another eight minutes to get dressed.

Lydia sat on the edge of her bed, staring out into space, lost in thought. I slowly stepped to stand in front of her and reached out my hand for her to take. "You ready?"

"Yeah," she nodded and grabbed onto my fingers so that I could help her up. She continued to hold onto my hand until we got to the kitchen, where Amanda was making some coffee.

"Morning you two," she smiled, "Want some coffee?"

"No, we're going to the hospital," Lydia bit back bluntly and I winced at her coldness.

"Right… I'm sorry," Amanda shook her head and smiled apologetically, turning away from us to avoid any more awkwardness.

Lydia rolled her eyes and stormed outside. I followed behind her, trying to keep up. "I called a taxi while you were in the shower," she informed me, hoisting herself onto a brick wall and looking out into the road to keep an eye out for it.

I stayed silent through the journey to the hospital, letting Lydia have a moment of peace and quiet before having to face an injured Chloe. She leant her head against the window and closed her eyes but I could tell she wasn't sleeping. She was just thinking.

"That'll be nine fifty," the taxi driver suddenly called out and I realised we had arrived. Lydia reached into her bag, fumbling with the zip on her purse and practically crying with frustration as it refused to budge.

"I'll pay," I told her, placing my hand on top of hers to stop her from struggling with the zipper. She smiled at me with such appreciation that I almost keeled over (I would have if I wasn't already sitting down). Tears were brimming her eyes and she looked like she was about to break down.

I grabbed a tenner out of the wallet in my pocket and handed it to the driver as Lydia and I exited the vehicle. She grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the hospital doors before the cab guy could even say thanks.

"Uh, I'm here to see Chl-"

The receptionist, a young girl with too much make-up on, rudely held up one finger, interrupting Lydia mid-sentence and then pulling her cell out of her pocket and answering the buzzing noise. Lydia just stood back, letting the woman answer her call but I was livid. How dare she answer her own phone while at work – wasn't it a rule not to? But, I was mostly mad at how rude she had been to Lydia to do it.

"Hey," I leant over the counter so that the girl would know I was talking to her. She sighed loudly and rolled her eyes.

"Hang on a second," she muttered into the phone. "What?" she called out to me in a harsh 'don't interrupt me while I'm busy' tone. I was seriously considering re-thinking my policy on hitting a girl but I refrained.

"No, don't 'what' me!" I tried to keep my voice low but hostile at the same time and she looked shocked at my outbreak. And by the sound of the gasp next to me, so was Lydia. I glanced at her for a second, checking whether I should continue or whether it was bothering her. The slight smirk across her mouth was enough to tell me to carry on. "You know, receptionists get a bad name because of people like you. People who are so freaking rude that they ignore patients and visitors like they don't even matter"

"You can't talk to me like th-"

"Yes I can. If you think I can't, why don't you go and get your manager, huh? I'm sure he would be delighted to know how you treat the people you're supposed to be helping" I shrugged my shoulders and she opened and closed her mouth, trying to find something to say. "Or, you can tell me which room they're keeping Chloe Martin in and we can leave you to you phone call," I tipped my hands like I was weighing scales.

"Room 88," the receptionist answered after checking her computer database.

"Thank you," I took Lydia's hand in mine again and led her away from the counter. She squealed in delight next to me.

"Stiles, that was amazing!" she giggled, "That girl… I had no idea what to do, so I was just going to let her do what she wanted, but Stiles that was amazing! Thank you"

"It's no problem," I squeezed her arm gently, "She was so freaking rude, it just gets me," I rubbed the back of my neck and she leaned her head onto my shoulder.

"Well I'm glad it did," she smiled and then quickly separated from me. I followed her gaze to find her father, sitting in an arm chair with his eyes closed. I sympathetically smiled down at Lydia one last time before we headed towards Chloe's room.

I've started my new story 'Distraction' and the first chapter is up. Check it out xx Thank you !