Chapter 20

"College sucks." Paige said, sitting next to Derek on the steps of one of the English Department buildings.

"I guess I don't need to ask you how were your classes this morning." He promptly answered before continuing to shove food in his mouth at an alarming speed. He only had 25 minutes between his class on The Grotesque in Literature and his WWI Literature class on Mondays and Wednesdays. Paige had already declared her Math major and her minor in Education. She'd also decided to take as many courses as she thought was possible without thinking of the time she would need to study, or do her homework or even just eat and sleep.

Now a month after their arrival at Stanford, they had worked a schedule of when and where they could meet between classes, on Mondays and Wednesdays Paige joined Derek for a quick lunch not far from his next class, on Tuesdays and Thursdays they had breakfast together at one of the many Cafes on campus.

"So how was your class? Anything on werewolves yet?" Paige asked.

"I told you, there are no mentions of werewolves in the syllabus."

"Well that's boring. I thought something called 'The Grotesque: Aesthetics of the Bizarre and Unnatural' would cover shape-shifters."

"I'd rather not. Anyway, we're studying Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy. And yes, it is as boring as it sounds."

"Can't be worse than three hours of calculus where a disgusting douchebag kept staring at my boobs while the guy I actually have a crush on ignored me." She said, sighing deeply while staring at her untouched sandwich.

"You know, maybe he just wanted to pay attention to the class… he is the TA after all."

3 years later

'Let's go to a party!' She said. 'It will be fun!' She Said. Derek's idea of fun was definitely not the same as Paige's. He hadn't even seen his best friend for half an hour, not since they had arrived and she had run into her ex-TA/current boyfriend's arms. He didn't mind it(much), Derek knew she didn't have many opportunities to see her boyfriend, while she saw her best friend every day. They had been roommates since sophomore year; the decision was made after Derek had to sleep in her dorm for two days to avoid maiming the jerk he had been sharing a dorm with.

Living in a small apartment on campus with Paige was great, even when the TA boyfriend spent the night (Paige offered him noise-cancelling headphones one Christmas). Not so great when she decided to drag him to a frat party.

The music was way too loud, even for human ears. The house was full of people chatting, drinking, dancing and sometimes shouting for no reason. There was no theme but it had not stopped some of the girls to dress with the bare minimum of fabric, if that. Derek had stopped counting the number of people who had tried to start a conversation with him after 10 minutes and when some dudebro tried to make him do a keg stand, Derek decided to flee in the kitchen, where there was less people.

Three years of college and he was still uncomfortable among other college students. Paige berated him often for his lack of social skills; she even tried on multiple occasions to hook him up with some of the friends she'd made. And even though he would not deny missing sex, he never felt like dating or even making friends. He had a few though, mostly people from his classes. Students in the English department were not very competitive and usually maintained a healthy companionship with each other. But none of them were at the party it seemed.

"Not a fan of keg stands?" A playful voice asked behind him. When he turned around, Derek found it belonged to a young men, maybe a freshmen or sophomore, with pale skin, a few moles that were not quite where he wished they were, gelled up brown air that were a shade or two too dark and green eyes. He was wearing tight jeans and a V-neck green t-shirt that were showing off his lean muscles. He was also carrying two red cups, one of which he handed to Derek.

"No, not really." Derek answered with not a hint of flirting, just to make a point, yet still accepting the beer, their hands briefly touching.

"Yeah me neither, I've been watching those idiots for 15 minutes and I'm surprised most of them can still walk. I'm Jake by the way."

The werewolf hesitated for a second. The party was boring and he had promised to stay for at least an hour, and Paige would know if he left early, she had spies. Besides, people were supposed to have fun in college; maybe he should try to have some fun.

"Derek."

When Paige got home the next morning she found Derek lying on the couch, freshly showered and dressed in comfortable clothes. She was going to whine about his hair dripping water on the armrest but she saw that he had his "I hate the world" face, even though it was hard to notice the difference with his normal face, especially with his new found love for facial hair.

"Hey Der'. What's up?" She asked, whispering softly, kneeling on the floor next to his head and passing her hand through his hair in a soothing motion.

"I… I was with someone last night." His voice sounded hoarse and tired.

"Yeah, I heard you left with Jake. What happened? Did he hurt you?"

Derek's response was to turn his head toward her and glaring at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh come on, you know what I mean. You look like shit."

"Thanks." He said sarcastically, staring back at the ceiling.

"So?"

"I had sex with him." He admitted, his cheeks blushing slightly.

"I figured as much. And? How did it go?"

"It was okay I guess, I just…" feel bad that I imagined it was Stiles the whole time and now that it's done, I feel like I betrayed him which is stupid because he barely even knows I exist anyway. But I can't tell you that.

"What is it? You can tell me, I won't judge, I promise."

"It was meaningless. I don't… It felt good but I don't think I liked it."

"It's okay Der', some people don't like to have sex with people when they don't have feelings for them. It's not a bad thing to be a romantic guy." She told him with a smile before leaning forward to give him a loving hug.

"Now all we need to do is find you a boyfriend." She added enthusiastically.

Oh hell no.