Luka's POV
I sigh again and turn around to look at Stiles, leaning on the jeep. He looks at me and rolls his eyes.
"I told you you'd get bored." He says.
"But I would've been more bored at home. As I told you. Hence me tagging along." I say, reaching for the map he's currently looking at. Stiles swats my hand away.
"Stop that." He says to me. I sigh dramatically. He rolls his eyes and looks at me as if to say 'Really?'. I just grin at him. Shaking his head, he looks up at Scott, who's currently sitting on the hood of the jeep, looking at the sky. "All right, so I found some cool two bedrooms in the Mission District, but they're pretty expensive. There's a couple in Haight and Ashbury, but those are also expensive."
"What about Berkeley? Don't a lot of students live around there?" Scott says, looking at Stiles.
"Yeah, we could try Nob Hill, but the jeep would probably burn through a lot of clutches." He says. I roll my eyes.
"You're bringing the jeep?" Scott asks.
"Of course he is, Scott. You know he'd never abandon his precious jeep." I say, in a teasing tone.
"Hey! The plan is nobody gets left behind, okay? Lydia's not gonna have a problem getting into Stanford, Kira's thinking USF, Jackson...I dunno or care. Allison might also go to USF, along with Erica, Boyd and Isaac. Malia, well, she'll figure something out. The plan is perfect."
"Or we could wait until we actually get into college and then figure out where to live." Scott says.
"I agree with Scott. You guys have a whole year to figure it out. Plus, you don't even know where you're going to end up." I say.
"I have a vision you guys. And it's a beautiful vision. Don't ruin the vision." Stiles says. I roll my eyes and give him a pointed look. "Okay, we can check out the East Bay. Haven't looked at Oakland yet." Scott doesn't respond. I look at him, then at the full moon.
"You okay, Scott?" I ask.
"Are you starting to feel it?" Stiles asks, also looking up at the moon.
"Nah, I'm just thinking." Scott says.
"About?" I ask.
"Senior year." Scott says.
"Senior year? C'mon, man. That's, that's nothing. That's gonna be easy." Stiles says. I raise my eyebrows at him. Wasn't he just worrying about the same thing a while ago before Scott came over? Stiles shrugs at me.
"More like something Deaton told me. You guys ever hear of regression to the mean?"
Stiles shakes his head. "No, I don't think so."
"I have. Life can't be all good or all bad." I say. Scott nods.
"You know, eventually things have to come back to the middle. So think about the last few months. Things have been good, right? But not amazing." Scott says.
"Yeah, but nobody's tried to kill us in six months either." Stiles says.
"Right, we've pretty much been in the middle for a while. Which means-" Scott starts.
"The scale will have to tip one way or another at some point." I say. He nods again.
"Things are either going to get really good again, or really bad." Scott says. There's thunder cracking. We look up at the sky.
"Think it's been long enough yet?" Stiles asks.
"Yes!" Liam yells from the tree he's chained to.
"Hey, trying to have an adult conversation over here!" Stiles says. I scoff at that.
"Please, you guys are like, two years older than me. Except for Luka, who's seven years older. Anyway, I'm fine. Could you please let me go?" We walk over to him.
"It's not that we don't trust you." Scott says.
"It's that I don't trust you." Stiles says, raising his hand.
"And me." I say, also raising my hand.
"But after that last full moon-" Scott says.
"Oh, c'mon. It was one slip up." Liam says.
"Slip up?" I ask, scoffing.
"A dozen calls to the Sherriff's department about a 'monstrous dog-boy' running around Beacon Hills naked. That's a slip up?" Stiles asks.
"Why were you naked?" Scott asks.
"It was hot out that day. It won't happen again. Let me go."
"You sure you're okay?" Scott asks. Liam nods.
"I promise I'm fine." Liam says.
"You're in complete and total control?" Scott asks.
"Complete and total." Liam says.
"Alright, then." Scott says, undoing the chains.
"Thank you." Liam says, clasping Scott's shoulders.
"Alright, let's go get Malia." Stiles says, and we all get in the jeep.
TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW
"Is it a party?" Liam asks. I smirk.
"It's not a party." Stiles says.
"Then what's at midnight?" Liam asks.
"Your bedtime." Stiles says. I laugh and slap Stiles lightly on the shoulder. He looks at me in the rear view mirror and smirks. "It's a senior thing, alright? You'll find out when you're a senior."
"What's funny?" Liam asks me. I smirk at him.
"Oh, nothing. Just rembering when I was a senior doing this and Stiles wouldn't stop bothering me and Jesse about it. I told him the exact same thing he just told you." I say, looking out the window. I'm currently in the back seat with Liam, sitting behind Stiles.
"So you know what they're doing?" He asks me. I nod.
"Yes, I know what they're doing. And no, I'm not telling you." I say before he could start bugging me. He pouts.
"But why not?" He whines.
"You'll find out when you're a senior." I say, patting his shoulder. His pout deepens.
"But I don't want to wait until I'm a senior. I want to know now." He says, pouting. I roll my eyes. Kids.
"Haven't you heard that patience is a virtue?" I say. He sighs.
"Alright, I'll stop bugging you about it." He says.
"Finally." I say, grinning at him to let him know that I'm kidding.
"Have you spoken to Jesse since you came home?" Stiles asks me, changing the subject and catching me off guard. I lean back in the seat and look forward, narrowing my eyes at him. Why is he suddenly so curious about Jesse? I know that I just brought him up, but still.
"No." I say bitterly, hoping that he'll drop it.
"But you've been home for like, six months. You talked to Elena, why not Jesse?" Stiles asks. Scott looks back to me. I sigh. Guess he can't take a hint.
"Because I shouldn't have to. He's made no effort on his part, even though I'm sure Elena's told him I'm back, so why should I talk to him when he clearly doesn't care?" I say bitterly, crossing my arms.
"For closure?" Stiles says carefully. "And maybe because you miss him." I scoff.
"I don't care about that. And I don't miss him." I say. Stiles raises his eyebrows.
"You sure about that?" He asks, giving me a look in the rear view mirror. I glare at him.
"Of course I'm sure. Why would I miss him?" I ask.
"Because he's your best friend." He says.
"No, you are. I don't care about him. Not anymore." I say. He scoffs.
"Please. Who do you think you're talking to right now?" He asks. I don't respond. "You miss him. I know you do." I open my mouth to tell him off, but Scott interrupts.
"You guys having trouble with your phones?" He asks, looking at his phone. The engine suddenly starts to splutter.
"Oh what the hell." Stiles says.
"You out of gas?" Liam asks.
"No, it's electrical. Probably the alternator." Stiles says, getting out of the jeep with Scott. I stay put in the jeep.
"You're not going to help them?" Liam asks. I shake my head.
"I'd be useless under a hood." I say.
"Y'know, Stiles does make a good point." Liam says. I glare at him.
"Look kid..." I start angrily, but suddenly lightning clashes behind us. We both look out the window.
"Hey, guys?" Liam calls out, sticking his head out the window. I roll my window down and lean out.
"Guys!" I say.
"Give us a second, please." Stiles says. I roll my eyes and lean back in the seat.
"Liam, just stay in the car with Luka, okay?" I hear Scott saying to Liam. Liam leans back in the seat and looks at me. The engine starts up again.
"Finally!" I say, crossing my arms. "Maybe Stiles was right." Liam looks at me with his eyebrows raised.
"About what?" He asks curiously.
"I should have stayed home." I say with a little bit of bitterness in my voice. Damn it, Stiles. I was in a perfectly good mood, until he brought up Jesse. Scott and Stiles get back in the car and we start moving again.
TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW
We see Malia talking to her dad. Well, her adopted dad, Mr. Tate. Stiles honks the horn and pulls up to the curb. "Sorry we're late!" Stiles says, sticking his head out. Malia comes over and kisses him. I sigh and look out the window.
"I'm sorry too." Liam says. I look at him incredulously.
"You boys do remember that I own a gun, right?" Mr. Tate says.
"Vividly." Stiles says. Malia rolls her eyes. I scoff. Stiles turns around to glare at me. I smile innocently at him. Scott sighs, rubbing his temple.
"Okay, see you later, Dad!" She says, climbing in the jeep. I scoot to the middle so she can get in. "Hey, Luka." She says to me. I give her a small smile.
"Hey, Malia." I say. She raises an eyebrow at me.
"What's wrong?" She asks. "Usually you're the one starting a conversation with me when you see me."
"I'm fine, just not really in a talking mood." I say, glaring at Stiles. Stiles gives me a an apologetic look in the rear view mirror, but I ignore it, and look out the window.
"Okay, what's up? Why is Luka upset?" Malia asks.
"I'm not upset." I mumble. Okay, maybe I am. But she doesn't need to know about it. She scoffs.
"I'm a werecoyote. You can't lie to me." She says. Damn.
"I don't want to talk about it." I say firmly.
"Stiles?" She asks. I give Stiles a look that says I don't want to tell her about it, and he sighs, shrugging.
"It's fine." He says, and he gives Malia a curious look.
"What?" Malia asks.
"Did you find out yet?" Stiles asks her. I sigh, relieved that the subject was changed, and go back to looking out the window.
"They said they would email me." She says.
"Is this about summer school?" Liam asks.
"You told him?" Malia says, slapping Stiles on the shoulder.
"Uh..." Stiles says.
"Oh, no, all they said was you had to go to summer school 'cause the principal said your test scores weren't good enough and you might have to repeat junior year." Liam says. Malia glares at Stiles. Stiles sighs.
"We should've left him chained to the tree." Stiles says to Scott.
"Why, because you have a big mouth and so does he?" I say. Stiles inhales sharply, but doesn't reply. Liam makes a noise of protest, but I glare at him harshly, effectively shutting him up.
"Oh, I know, because you have a tendency to talk about things you shouldn't talk about." I say angrily. Stiles grips the steering wheel tighter. Scott looks back at me with a worried look, but doesn't intervene. Yet. Malia just looks at us, confused.
"I'm sorry, Luka." Stiles says. I sigh. I'm overreacting, damn it. Or I'm letting this issue with Jesse get to me. Either way, Stiles didn't do anything wrong. I shouldn't be taking my anger out on him.
"No, I'm sorry, Stiles. That was uncalled for. You didn't do anything. I guess I'm still angry at him, not you. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." I say, giving him a little smile. He grins at me.
"I still shouldn't have been pestering you about it." He says.
"Are you guys seriously going to start arguing about who was in the wrong?" Scott asks incredulously.
"Maybe." Stiles and I say at the same time.
"Okay, that's still creepy. You guys need to stop doing that." Liam says. We just laugh.
"You should really be used to it by now. I mean, it's been seven months." I say.
"It's creepy. I can't get used to it." Liam says.
"Well, sucks for you then, huh?" I say. Stiles laughs.
"Hey, we can't help that we're so close that we say things at the same time and finish each other's sentences." Stiles says.
"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that." I say.
"Nothing at all." Stiles says, nodding in agreement.
"I didn't say that there was anything wrong with it. I just said that it was creepy." Liam says.
"Same thing." I say.
"No, they're not. They're totally different." Liam says. I chuckle.
"Whatever you say, Kid." I say.
"Will you stop calling me kid?! I'm not a kid. I'm fifteen!" Liam says angrily. He flashes his werewolf eyes at me.
"Okay, jeez, I'm sorry. I won't call you kid again if it bothers you that much." I say. Liam's eyes go back to normal. We pull up to the hospital and go inside after we park.
TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW
"Still can't reach Kira." Scott says, coming out of the elevator.
"Okay, you reminded her about tonight, right?" Stiles asks.
"I think so. She only texted me once this week." Scott says. I raise my eyebrows at that.
"Once? How were things when she left?" I ask him.
"Fine. I just said, you know, 'Don't worry about anything. Just have fun.'" Scott says.
"No." Stiles and I say at the same time.
"You told her to have fun?" Stiles says.
"Why? What's wrong with that?" Scott asks.
"Nothing, per se. Just that... That can be taken different ways." I say.
"We are so in tune." Stiles says, smirking at me. I smirk back.
"Stop that. How can it be taken different ways?" Scott asks.
"Well, like, 'Don't worry, we're not exclusive. Go have fun with other guys.'" Stiles says and I nod in agreement.
"No. No way." Scott says. We go up to Malia.
"Malia, if you went on a vacation somewhere, and I say 'Don't worry, go have fun', what would you think I was talking about?" Stiles asks her.
"Fun like bowling? Or sex with other guys?" Malia says, leaving us again. Stiles and I give Scott a pointed look.
"Okay, now I'm worried." Scott says.
"As you should be. What's wrong with you?" I ask him, smacking the back of his head playfully. A few doctors and Mrs. McCall walk past us pushing a man in. I look around curiously.
"Hey, Mom, where is all this coming from?" Scott asks his mom.
"A jackknifed tractor-trailer on 115, caused a major pile up." She answers him, walking away with the doctors.
"Scott, there's only one way back into Beacon Hills from the airport." I say.
"Kira's never gonna make it." Stiles says.
"I can get her." Scott says. "You guys head to the school, we'll meet you there."
"How are you going to get her in the middle of a traffic jam?" Stiles asks.
"We'll be there. Trust me." Scott says, leaving. I shrug at Stiles.
"Trust him." I say.
"Yeah, yeah." He looks at his phone. "Luka, I'm sorry, but I'm not sure we'll have enough time to take you home. You mind waiting here?" He asks, looking behind me. I raise my eyebrows at him.
"I guess not." I say.
"Alright, I'll be back to get you. Maybe in the meantime you can get some things off your chest." He says. I give him a confused look. What the hell is he going on about now? He points behind me, and I turn around, curious. Sure enough, Jesse's leaning on the receptionist desk, talking to a nurse. I turn back around to face Stiles.
"Uh, on second thought, are you sure that you won't have enough time to take me home?" I ask him. He rolls his eyes.
"Seriously, Lu? C'mon, bro. You're going to have to talk to him sooner or later. Might as well be sooner." He says.
"But I don't want to." I say childishly. I really don't want to talk to him. He sighs.
"You won't be able to avoid him forever." He says. Stiles pats my shoulder and leaves. I sigh. Stiles is right. I should do this. After a few minutes debating with myself, I walk over to where he is.
"-think I can see him sometime soon?" He asks the nurse.
"I'm sorry, Jesse, but he's still in surgery. It may be a while. Please have a seat." She says, pointing to the chairs. Jesse sighs and sits down. I go an sit next to him.
"Everything alright?" I ask.
"My dad-" He stops and looks up at me, surprise clear on his face. "Luka. I didn't know you were back." I scoff at that. Yeah, right.
"Either you've been living under a rock these past six months or you haven't talked to Elena." I say.
"I've been taking care of my dad. I haven't had time to listen to small town gossip. Not that I did, anyway. And I haven't talked to Elena since we broke up." He says.
"Oh." I say. Okay, maybe that explains why he hasn't tried to talk to me.
"Yeah." He says. He sighs. "So... How have you been?" He asks awkwardly.
"Fine, fine. Just been catching up with my dad and brother." I say. "You?"
"Okay. If you count Dad getting sick okay." He says, his voice breaking at the end.
"I'm sorry to hear that." I say. He nods. We sit in an awkward silence for a while.
"Look, Luka, I'm sorry. I screwed up. Elena cheated on me, too. That's why we broke up. That... and she caused me to lose my best friend. We were rocky after you caught us. You might not believe me, but I regretted those things I said as soon as I said them." Jesse says. I raise an eyebrow at that. He's right, I do find that hard to believe.
"Why didn't you call me then?" I ask.
"I did. Well, I tried. I called your brother after I found out that you changed your number. But, Stiles said you went to college, and said that you wouldn't like it if he gave your new number out." He says.
"You talked to Stiles?" I ask. He nods. Strange. Stiles never told me about this. He told me that he talked to Elena, but not Jesse.
"He didn't tell you?" He asks. I shake my head. "I told him to have you call me next time he talked to you. I just figured you didn't want anything to do with me, which I didn't blame you for, I wouldn't have wanted anything to do with me either, not after what I said and did." He says.
"I didn't know you wanted to talk." I say honestly. He smiles sadly.
"Don't worry about it." He says. He looks at the floor. "I know I don't deserve it, but do you think there's a chance you might forgive me? Maybe we can put this whole thing behind us?" He asks uncertainly.
I sigh and lean back in the chair and close my eyes, thinking. I honestly don't know why I'm even considering this. He's right, he doesn't deserve it. Maybe it's because I know that if his dad dies, he won't have anyone. He's an only child, and he lost his mom after she gave birth to him.
"I don't know, Jesse." I say after a while. He sighs.
"Yeah, thought so." He says sadly. "I broke your trust, in more than one way. Guess it was wishful thinking, hoping you'd give me another chance." I sigh, already regretting my decision to forgive him. I should make him work for it. I think I'm getting soft, feeling sorry for this guy and all when I shouldn't even care. Guess I miss talking to him more than I thought.
"I... guess we could work on being friends again..." I say, uncertainly. He looks at me surprised.
"Really?" He asks, excitedly.
"On a trial basis. I still don't trust you." I say. His face falls.
"I understand. Thank you for giving me another chance." He says.
"Sure." I say. We sit in silence for a few more minutes.
"What did you talk to Elena about?" He asks me.
"Huh? Oh, she wanted to get back together. I basically told her to go to hell, and called her a slut, well, sort of." I say. He laughs.
"How do you 'sort of' call someone a slut?" He asks.
"Well, she made a comment about getting back to how we were, and I said, 'yeah, until you cheat on me again.'" I say. He laughs again, and I grin.
"I'm glad you told her no, though. She would have just hurt you again." Jesse says.
"I know." I say. "I somehow knew she was lying when she told me that you guys broke up because you wanted different things from the relationship." He scoffs.
"Yeah, I wanted her to be faithful. Guess that was too hard for her." He says dryly. "Bit hypocritical of me, huh?" He asks after awhile.
"You think?" I ask sarcastically.
"Sorry." He says, smiling sheepishly. I shrug.
"It's fine." I say.
"Guess it's true what they say about karma." He says.
"Yeah." I say, pulling out my phone to check for any missed calls or texts from Stiles. Or anyone from the pack, really. Nothing. I sigh.
"Everything alright?" Jesse asks.
"Yeah. It's just... I'm expecting Stiles back to get me." I say.
"Why? Where's your car?" He asks.
"Home. I rode with Stiles to meet with his friend Scott, and, well, we came here, and he left for the school, leaving me here." I say.
"Ah. Well, if you'd like, I can take you home." Jesse offers.
"You should wait until you get word about your father, besides, I'm sure he's on his way." I say.
"It's going to be a while before I here something on my dad. You should call Stiles." He says.
"Yeah. You're right, let me try him now." I say. I call Stiles. He answers after a few rings.
"Hey, bro. Sorry, we got a little tied up. I'll explain later, but I promise I haven't forgotten you. I'll be on my way soon, I promise." He says, and with that, he hangs up. I blink.
"He hung up on me." I say, incredulously.
"Well, what did he say?" Jesse asks.
"That he'll be on his way soon." I say.
"Good." He says. A doctor comes out and stops to talk to the nurse at the desk, who points at Jesse. The doctor nods and comes over.
"Jesse?" The doctor asks, and Jesse stands up.
"Is my dad okay?" Jesse asks, worry clear in his voice.
"I'm happy to give you good news. The surgery went well. He's expected to make a full recovery. He's resting now. We don't expect him to be fully awake and aware until morning, so you should go home and get a decent night sleep." The doctor says, looking at Jesse pointedly. Jesse smiles sheepishly.
"Okay. You'll call me if something changes?" Jesse asks.
"Of course. Now go get some sleep. Doctors orders." The doctor says, patting Jesse's shoulder and leaving.
"I'm glad he's gonna be okay." I say. Jesse turns to face me and grins.
"He's going to be okay!" He says happily.
"I heard. I'm happy about it too." I say. He grins.
"You know, Dad always liked you. When I told him what happened between us, he called me an idiot and told me that I'll never find a good friend like you again, and he told me that I'm a moron for letting a girl destroy our friendship." He says. I grin at him.
"Well, you are an idiot." I say. He rolls his eyes and pulls out his phone.
"Here, give me your number, okay?" He says, handing me his phone. I nod, and enter my number in his phone and send myself a quick text so I have his number.
"There." I say, giving him his phone back.
"Thanks, Luka." He says, smiling at me. I nod.
"Sorry, sorry!" Stiles says, running in.
"No running in the hospital." I scold him. He scoffs.
"Sorry, I'll explain everything, I swear." Stiles says.
"Okay, well, now that your ride's here, and my dad is okay, I am going home." Jesse says. Stiles glares at him. Jesse just raises an eyebrow. "See you later, Luka." he leaves. I turn to Stiles and smack him upside his head playfully.
"Ow! What was that for?!" He says, rubbing his head where I smacked him. I shake my head.
"I didn't hit you that hard, stop exaggerating. Anyway, you told me that you ran into Elena, but you didn't tell me Jesse called. Why didn't you tell me?" I say. Stiles smiles sheepishly. We leave the hospital.
"Sorry, guess I forgot. So you talked to him?" He says. He's seriously going with 'I forgot'? Does he not realize who he's talking to? There's more to it than that. I narrow my eyes suspiciously, mostly just to let him know that I don't buy it. He looks away. So he is lying. I can tell when he's lying to me. He has these ticks. You wouldn't know about them unless you know him really well, because he's usually good at not letting them show. But when it's just us, he drops his guard. Plus I know him better than anyone, so I know what to look for.
"Yeah. It went good. We're back on speaking terms. Obviously." I say.
"You're... friends again?" Stiles asks uncertainly. I raise an eyebrow. Something's definitely upsetting him.
"Sort of. It's a trial basis thing." I say. I'm confused. I thought this was what he wanted.
"Oh." Stiles says, causing me to look at him confused. Okay, enough beating around the bush, damn it. I'm gonna get to the bottom of this.
"Oh? What, what oh? What's wrong?" I ask.
"Nothing." Stiles says. I scoff.
"Obviously you're forgetting who you're talking to. What's wrong?" I ask. I don't buy his nonchalant act. There's something wrong.
"Nothing." Stiles says. We sit in silence the rest of the ride home.
"You can be stubborn all you want, but I'll get it out of you eventually. I always do." I say as we pull up to the house.
"Luka, nothing's wrong. I'm fine." Stiles says. I narrow my eyes at him.
"Why do you insist on lying to me?" I ask.
"I'm not lying!" Stiles says. I'm not buying it, definitely not. Like I said, I know this boy better than anyone, even Scott. I can tell when there's something wrong.
"Yeah sure. And the sky is green." I say dryly.
"Could we please drop this?" Stiles exclaims.
"Fine." I say. I don't want this to escalate into a fight, so I' ll drop it. For now. "So what took you so long?" I ask, opening the door and going inside. I go into the kitchen and grab a glass of water. Stiles follows me, and we sit down at the table.
"Some dude with talons was trying to... well, he wanted Scott. I think he was trying to drain Scott's power. There was a fight, oh, and Theo Raeken from fourth grade is apparently a werewolf now too, because he showed up out of nowhere to help Scott." He says.
"Talons?" I ask incredulously.
"Seriously, that's all you get from that? Talons, y'know, eagles have talons, uh, well, any bird actually." He says.
"Hm. Weird. Well, night." I say, heading to my room.
"Wait!" He says. I stop and turn around. "Did I mention Theo wants to be part of the pack?"
"And? That's up to Scott." I say.
"Yeah, with votes from the rest of the pack." He says.
"So?" I say. Stiles sighs.
"Never mind. Malia's officially a senior." He says.
"Good for her." I say. He nods.
"Yeah, I'm proud of her. Now everyone is together for senior year. Oh, and Derek took Braeden somewhere. Something about looking for the Desert Wolf." He says.
"Malia's mom?" I ask. He nods.
"Yeah, they'll be gone for a while, but he said that he'd call every now and then to check in and fill us in on what they find." Stiles says. I hum.
"Anything else?" I ask, giving him a pointed look. He raises his eyebrows.
"I'm fine," He says, annoyed. "Stop asking me what's wrong, because there's nothing wrong."
"I didn't say anything. I just asked if there was anything else." I say.
"Right, but you gave me a look." He says. I roll my eyes.
"I give you a lot of looks, Stiles." I say.
"The look that says, 'I know something's upsetting you, and I won't stop bugging you about it until you tell me what's wrong.'" He says. I smirk.
"So long as we're on the same page." I say, patting his shoulder and heading to my room. "Good night, Stiles."
"Yeah, yeah. Good night, Luka." Stiles says.