I park down the street and find my feet led towards the dull thumping bass line coming from one of the houses. A small wind tickles my legs making me smooth down my skirt habitually and self-consciously. Isaac is by my side, and to say he seemed nervous would be an understatement.
"Hey," I stick my tongue out at him, "Let's just try to have some fun, okay?"
Isaac nods and I curl my arm around his, letting the warmth of his body sink in and sooth my chattering teeth. He glances down at our arms intertwined and takes a deep breath.

We walk around the back to the pool and bump into someone almost as soon as we enter. Lydia is leaning against a wall, with Jackson planting deep kisses on her neck and roaming his hands over her skin tight dress. She surveys us with heavy lidded eyes and tousled strawberry blonde hair before pushing Jackson away roughly. Her date stumbles back and grabs the nearest chair for support.
"Emily!" Lydia slurs, pulling me out of Isaac's arm and into a tight, alcohol tinged hug.
"Hello!" I sing at her, wincing slightly away. My hands move nervously to make sure that my skirt hasn't risen up.
"Emily," She repeats and falls out of our hug. A red painted nail points to my chest, "You. I want you to paint me an amazing picture. I'll give you as much money as you want."
I give Isaac and oh-wow-she's-wasted look and he shrugs from where he stands behind me, trying to take up as little room as possible.
"Of what, Lydia?" I humour her, as Jackson comes back over and wraps his arms around her waist.
"Me! What else! You'll do it?"
"Uh, sure."
"You're amazing!" Lydia cries and I am tugged back into another python gripped hug. The next thing I know, her lips are locked with Jackson and I'm confident that our conversation is over.

"Well that was weird," Isaac whispers in my ear.
I am about to agree when I spot familiar sleek black hair and red lips. Jane stares at me wide eyed and hurt, the red cup in her hand going ignored. She is dolled up to the nines in a golden sparkly dress that makes her dark skin glow.
"Isaac. Do you think Jane saw me with Lydia?" I ask him in a high pitched voice, grabbing his elbow.
His eyes follow the direction of mine and his face falls, "Maybe. I wasn't looking – she scares me a bit."
"I need to go and speak to her and clear the air."
Isaac understands and tells me that he'll go get a drink while Jane and I chat. Before we part, Isaac touches my arm lightly and swallows uneasily, "Don't… Don't be long, please."

My bare arms shiver once I'm away from Isaac's warmth and hurrying to the other side of the pool to where I saw Jane. I spot Summer and Michael making out against a wall and catch Sarah doing shots with some guys on the lacrosse team, meaning Jane has been left on her own. Well, at least I'm here now.

Jane is sulking, sat on a garden chair and chewing on the edge of her cup when I approach her.
"Jane," I call, and she shoots daggers at me. I see the cup is nearly empty and sigh. It's going to be harder to speak to her if she's drunk.
"I see you turned up then," She spat out, folding her legs.
"Yeah, I'm here now. Like you wanted."
"Like I wanted?!" Jane's voice raises a few octaves, "I didn't want this! I wanted my best friend to be there for me, not have her slinking into Lydia Martin's arms and cuddling up to some strange guy before even thinking about what I want."
Guilt racks through me, even though I know that Jane is hardly the victim here.
"I'm sorry, Jane," I say, thinking that apologising is probably the best route to take. I really don't want to fight with her. Isaac and I agreed to try and have fun…
"No you aren't," Jane stares right ahead of her with a drunken glaze on her face, "You aren't sorry; you just think that it's what I want to hear. You lie to people all the time. You lie to try and make them happy. You pretend that you are this selfless little saint, doing all you can to try and help people when you are actually making it worse."
She stands up, knocking the plastic chair backwards. I take a step back, my face aghast.
"You're drunk, Jane," I stammer out, trying to pretend that her words meant nothing to me.
"Maybe. But at least I'm telling the truth. At least I'm not keeping anything from my best friend."
I hug my arms to myself defensively. "Jane, I tell you everything," I manage to whisper out, knowing full well that I have kept a few things from her recently.

Suddenly, someone crashes into my back and I let out a small scream and hold my hands out. But instead of hitting the concrete, I feel warm arms catch around my waist, holding me up. Isaac's breath tickles my neck, "You okay?"
He helps me get my balance and I tuck my long hair behind my ears, "Yeah, I'm-"

Scott. He was the one who crashed into me.

I see him staggering away, arms waving blindly and I feel a current of panic shoot up and down my body. Isaac is saying my name but I can't hear it properly, like someone is holding a pillow over my senses.

Another boy bumps into me and pushes me into Isaac's arms again. I can't breathe, there is too much going on.
"Sorry, sorry, excuse me," Stiles apologises, pushing bodies out of the way to follow his best friend.
"Stiles!" I yell and take off after him without a second thought, "Stiles, wait!"
My throat begins to burn and I puff out my cheeks as I run out of the gate and out onto the street. Scott has already sped off, his foot hard on the gas, but luckily I spot a familiar jeep and sprint to stop Stiles before he drives off.

He has his keys in hand, about to open the door when I wave my arms and shout, "Stop. Stiles, wait. It's Scott. He's in danger!"
A number of emotions flash quickly over Stiles's face, "How- What- Emily?" His eyebrows raise and I realise that I must look like I am completely out of my mind.
"My painting," I pant out, clutching my side, "My painting- I painted Scott- the other night- he got bit by something- didn't he?"
Stiles glances over his shoulder before leaning in to ask, "How did you know about that?"
A cold fear pours down my back – so it was real. It did happen. The same night they found that girls body in the woods.
"I didn't! I just painted it! And tonight, listen to me Stiles! He's going to get shot! By an arrow. And there is this creepy guy in black, you just- you need to warn Scott!"
Stiles takes all the information in, as if he is used to hearing completely abnormal news like this and opens the driver's seat door.
"You can come if you like?" He offers, but I shake my head.
"I need to take Isaac home. Then I'll call you, okay? I need to know Scott is safe. I need to know that this isn't real. If you still haven't found him by the time I've dropped Isaac off then I'm going to the woods myself before I go out of my freaking mind!"
The boy nods, runs his hands over his buzz cut and starts the car.

My legs are shaking as I hurry back to the party, but someone stood on the steps to the house makes me stop dead. The other guy. The guy in black. It's him.
Instinct rather than common sense takes me over to him. "You!" I call out, marching right up to his towering, built figure.
The man looks in his late twenties and furrows his thick, dark brows at me.
"You know Scott McCall, don't you!" I stab at his chest, completely ignorant to any consequence this might have.
He folds his arms, "I'm a friend. Derek."
"Well, Derek, your friend Scott is in danger tonight and I know you have something to do with it."
Derek looks surprised but before he can reply, a girl appears at his side.

"Allison?" I stare at the girl. What the hell is going on tonight!
"Ready?" Derek looks down at her.
She nods, smiling at me. My face must have been horrified because Allison glances down the road and explains, "I came with Scott, but he left in a hurry, so Derek's taking me home. It's nice to see you again though! I kept looking out for you at school to tell you that the dog I hit the other day is going to be fine!" Allison beamed at me.
"Great. Right… Okay," I exhaled, before shooting Derek a suspicious look.
The pair strolled away to Derek's car. I find myself suddenly unable to stand and collapse on the steps, my bum hitting the stone with a thump. My pulse beats in my arms and stomach and courses through my mind as I try to even grasp at what had just happened. A small voice terrified me and wondered if I had just imagined Scott being in trouble. What if he's fine and I've just made a fool of myself? But my gut told me that there was something deeper going on and I had to find out.

"Emily?" A quiet, worried voice brings me out of my daze.
Isaac crouches next to me and holds out a glass of water. He places it in my hands and forces me to take a sip before putting it down on the step below. I notice that the top buttons on his shirt have been undone and his hair looks a bit more scruffy than usual. There is a scared look in his eyes – the one that he always tries to keep at bay. The one I noticed when he came into work with his bruised lip.
In all my exhaustion, I forget myself and lift one hand to feel his cheek, moving my thumb across his cheekbone and down his jawline. His skin was warm and soft and made my heart pound against my ribs. "Do I really lie to people to make them feel better?" I wonder out loud, remembering my conversation with Jane.
"You've never lied to me," Isaac whispers, reaching his hand up to hold mine where it rests by his face.
A small ashamed smile pulls at my face and I find that I can't look him in the eye, "Yes I have. It's stupid, but I told you that I was fine when you knocked me over after Lacrosse practice but I think I still have the bruises." A mad laugh escapes me at how stupid it sounds and I hide my face on Isaac's shoulder, "I'm sorry." I inhale his smell and relax.
He shuffles himself so that he is next to me and hooks his free arm around my back, sheltering me to his chest, "It's okay. Bruises– bruises heal." His voice sounds on the verge of breaking, so I tighten my grip on his hand.

"I don't know what's happening to me," I admit aloud as well as to myself. I didn't have a clue what was going on with Scott, or that creepy Derek guy, or why the hell I had gained the ability to predict the future with paint.
Isaac lowers his face so that his forehead rests on mine and I feel a current run through the air. An unexpected grip of fear takes a hold of my chest and I realise that I am scared. Scared of Isaac. Of what he's making me feel. I had never been this close to anyone in my life and had no idea what to do. I am just not experienced in this, whatever this is. As his breath tickled my nose, the urge to both kiss him and run away bubbled away inside me.
Like a coward, I turn my head away from him and speak in a shaky voice, "I've got to get you home. Didn't you say earlier that you had a curfew at 11?"
Isaac removes his arms and the cold soaks into my skin. "Yeah…" he says in a faraway voice before bolting to his feet and choking out, "Yes! Oh crap."
I jump up, smooth down my skirt and check my phone to read the time, "It's 10 to 11. By the time we get to yours, it'll be like 10 past ish."
Isaac is already speeding towards my car and I have to take quick steps to catch up. Once in my car, I take a glance at him and see his hands clutching at his hair. That look in his eyes is back and he stares at the road ahead as if willing it to get him home faster.
"I'll step on it?" I try to make a joke but he is clearly so far past anxious that it has no effect.

I break the speed limit a good few times, after checking that the stretch of road had no cops lurking about, and get Isaac to his house just gone 11.
Looking over at him expectedly, I turn off the engine and tell him, "Here we go. And my clock reads 11:03 so not too bad."
Isaac gulps and pulls his school bag at his feet onto his knees, "That's what I was coming to tell you – that I had to get home – on the steps. But we just – I forgot and-"
"It's fine, just go," I smile, but there is a look on his face that is worrying me.
"The lights are on in the living room. My Dad is still awake." The words made me really uneasy, especially since Isaac's voice was completely void of any emotion.
The clock on my dash clicked to 11:04. Isaac's eyes flickered to it and he flung open the door and ran towards his front door like the extra minute we had wasted meant all the difference in the world.
He gave me a quick smile and wave before putting his keys in the door and shutting it quickly as soon as he was inside.

I let go of a breath I hadn't realised that I was holding and rested my head on the steering wheel for a moment.
"Right," I say to myself and root in my bag for my phone.
Stiles picks up after two rings, "Em!"
"Please give me good news, Stiles."
I could hear him squirming, "Ahhh, well… There's... news."
"Go on," I groaned, pushing my hair out of my face.
"Well, okay, I don't know how, but you were right. Scott was shot in the arm with an arrow. Derek managed to get there in time to save him from the hunters though, so he's fine. Apparently Derek said that a weird ginger girl at the party warned him something like that would happen."
My chest felt like it was collapsing inwards, "So it all came true."
"Pretty much… yes."
"Wait- hunters?"
"Yeah… it's a long story."
Stiles waits for me to respond, but I'm having a hard time coming to terms with it all.
"Stiles?" I whisper into the phone after a while.
"Yeah?"
"Will you watch over me tonight? Just in case I paint something else. Because I never remember it happening and I'm beginning to get really freaked out."
"Sure, Em. See you in a bit."

I hang up and make my way home. For once, I actually feel so tired and drained that I am certain I will drop off as soon as I hit the pillow… and hope that I don't have any urges to paint any more of my friends getting injured.

A.N.

Eek! I loved writing this chapter, there is so much going on, no wonder Emily can't deal with it all at once! I'm going to move it on a bit quicker now, getting more into werewolves and the alpha events in Season 1. I hope you're loving the Isaac parts! I'm churning out like a chapter a day at the moment so you won't have to wait long until the next one! Please review, I want to know what you guys are thinking! :) 3