Chapter 13

"I cannot believe you didn't tell me straightaway," Lydia was furious. It was Monday and they were having lunch at school. Stiles had finally told the group about the previous night's escapade, although she had tweaked some of the details.

"I said I'm sorry," Stiles said, half-heartedly. She knew Lydia would get over it soon.

"So who was this guy?" Malia asked.

"Just one of my online gamer friends," she lied, staring at her food. "I went over his house to trade games and one thing led to another."

Scott was the most suspicious. They all knew Stiles' had online friends from World of Warcraft and Skyrim, but she never really talked about them. She hadn't ever met any of them; it had just seemed like a foolproof lie to tell her friends.

"Are you going to see him again? Do you like him?" Kira asked.

"No, I don't like him, it was just a one-time thing," she answered. "I might see him around but I doubt anything will happen again."

Lydia was still fuming, yet she wanted all the details, she couldn't resist.

"So what was it like? Did it hurt? Was he hot? You owe met his," she barked. Stiles' laughed. Scott make a sickened face and said, "I don't really want to hear about this, I'm going to talk to Liam and Mason", and then he left. Scott and Stiles were basically unbiological siblings, so it would have been for him to imagine someone deflowering his sister. Stiles understood, she too scrunched up her nose at the mention of Scott being intimate with anyone. Ew.

They spent the rest of their lunch break going through the details. She had to be extra careful of what she said in case she contradicted herself, but she thought she got away with it.

She was still glad it had happened, though a part of her was thinking of Derek and how he felt. Was he regretting it? Would he avoid her? Should she contact him? It wasn't as if he was some regular high school guy… this was Derek Hale, she would never be able to decipher him. She concluded that if he wanted to talk to or see her, he would come to her.

….

Stiles did not see Derek for a long time, but it didn't bother her. She'd gone months without seeing him before, why should it matter now? School was getting intense and they had won their State Lacrosse Semi-Finals, moving them into the Grand Final. She received two more college acceptance letters – one from a college in San Francisco and one in Sacramento, bringing her total up to four choices. She only told her Dad about the Beacon County Community College letter. He was happy she had been accepted, but told her to wait until the May 1st deadline before she made a decision, just in case she got any other offers. All four had the same deadline so she had to make her choice. She considered not telling her Dad about UCLA, and admitting to the other three. That way she could rule it out without upsetting him, though she would have to live with the guilt. Sacramento was the closest, only two and a half hours away, so that was her favourite choice. She wasn't a big fan of San Francisco, it was too hilly and busy. She was used to the smaller sized Beacon Hills, and the thought of living in a place as frantic as SF shot her anxiety to new levels.

Overall, she was worn out. Between lacrosse practice, homework, school, friends, lying to her Dad and pulling her hair out over college applications, she was beat. She'd started napping every day for the past few days, she couldn't stay conscious without at least a 1-hour rest after school, and her body was so weak and tired all the time. Even her Adderall wasn't helping.

3 weeks after having sex with Derek, Stiles spent the weekend in bed, studying and playing games. Scott had invited her to practice for lacrosse with Kira but she was just too tired and she needed to rest. She had a big week coming up, her college deadlines were on Friday – so she would have to talk to her Dad before then – and the lacrosse final was next weekend. She couldn't understand what was wrong with her. She'd juggled a lot more responsibility before and had been fine, so what had changed? She couldn't believe the level of exhaustion she felt, no amount of sleep could cure it. Maybe she was sick, her body didn't feel 100% right and it had been a while since she'd had anything resembling a cold. She took her temperature, it was a little above normal, though not alarming. She would have to give it a few more days and see if her symptoms subsided.

They didn't.