I Take It Back

Revealed Words

"Derek Hale!", Laura gasped, pulling him away angrily before Stiles could even get a word in. Which, it's not like he was going to say anything anyways, even if he could come up with something to say. "I'm so sorry about him, we'll sign your album for you.", Issac tried to comfort Stiles a bit. Stiles just nodded silently, letting the others sign his album before stumbling away to a slack-jawed Erica and Lydia. "Stiles...", Erica started. "Let's just go back to the dorms please.", Stiles murmured. Lydia and Erica gave each other a look of sympathy before grabbing Stiles and dragging him out of there.

When they got to the dorms, Lydia finally spoke. "I know it's a little rough having your idol snap at you, but I don't think he meant it. Besides, he's not that important in the grand scheme of your life anyways!", she exclaimed. "Yes he is.", Stiles spoke softly. "What do you mean?", Lydia asked.

"Show her.", Erica started. "It'll be alright, I promise. She won't judge you.", Erica finished. "Show me what?", Lydia asked. Stiles didn't respond, he just silently and slowly pulled off his plaid shirt and lifted his arm to display his soulmate words. Lydia read the words quietly to herself before looking back to Stiles.

"Oh honey...", she sighed. Stiles could feel the tears start to roll down his cheeks. "I'll go get Scott.", Erica offered before rushing out the sort and down the hall. It only took a couple of seconds for Scott to come barging in with the most angry face Stiles had ever seen on him.

"I'll kill him. I don't care if he's a celebrity, I will kill him.", Scott said. Stiles just gave him a weak smile before sobbing silently to himself once more. Scott's expression softened and he made his way to the bed, sitting next to Stiles and hugging him. "I'm so sorry, buddy. At least you won't have to talk to him ever again. I mean, what are the chances of you running into him again?", Scott scoffed. "Well, his band mate, Boyd, is actually my soulmate.", Erica said. "And I'm going shopping with Allison tomorrow.", Lydia added.

"Okay, so maybe the chances are a little bit higher than I previously thought, but that doesn't mean you have to talk to him!", Scott tried. Stiles rolled his eyes and buried himself in Scott's shoulder more. "I just want to go to sleep and pretend like this never even happened.", Stiles said.

"Alright. We'll leave you to sleep, then."

Stiles lied awake for a while after they left. Wondering. Wondering why his soulmate snapped at him. Wondering why he beat himself up for years over it only to find out his soulmate wasn't even mad at him, just in general. Wondering how he could face him again after years of training himself to hate his soulmate. He just felt so overwhelmed.

After an hour or two he finally fell asleep. He didn't have anymore nightmares about the words etching themselves onto every textbook and chalkboard in school, he just dreamed of Derek getting dragged away over and over. It was like the moment was on loop in Stiles' brain - both to taunt him and to try to help him make sense of it all. In the end, it would only exist to taunt him as no explanation could lead Stiles to understanding what caused the man to randomly snap or why it just had to be Stiles that he snapped at. Why couldn't it have been someone else, ANYONE else? There were hundreds of other fans there for Derek to snap at, but it just had to be Stiles. It just had to be his soulmate.

Elsewhere, at the concert stadium, Laura was currently hollering at Derek like she was their mother. "You can't just snap at a fan like that! Do you have any idea what kind of a field day the press is going to have with this?! We just got you out of trouble for the incident at the airport last month when you flipped off security guards for telling you that soft pretzels weren't allowed on the plane! You have to learn how to control your temper! Mom is gonna be so furious when she hears about this, you know how important it is to her that you work through your anger issues! I can't believe you! We're gonna have to find that kid now and give him like $2,000 and a tour of your house or something!", she ranted. "Laura, calm down. None of this would've happened if you had just let me leave. You know how exhausted I was after the concert!", Derek replied.

Laura glared at him with all her might. Somewhere in the background, Peter laughed. "Shut up, Peter! Or I will send you back home, I didn't have to allow you to come along on this tour with us!", Laura snapped. "Now who has anger issues.", Derek rolled his eyes.

Peter laughed even more. Suddenly, Issac, Allison, and Boyd appeared at Derek's side. "Hey, the signing is over. What was that back there?", Allison asked. "Nothing, I'm just tired.", Derek sighed. "Well you really freaked out that kid.", Issac said. "He was like 20 something, he's not a kid?", Boyd interrupted. "Whatever!", Issac rolled his eyes. "We're all 20 something. He's probably our age!", Boyd added. "That is so not the point.", Issac snorted.

"Guys! Just drop it alright, who cares? It was just 1 fan.", Derek said. "Well, he's the friend of my soulmate, so I care!", Boyd snapped. "He's friends with that Erica girl?", Derek asked, looking genuinely surprised. "Yes.", Boyd stated.

"Crap.", Derek said.

Stiles woke up and threw on an outfit that Lydia and Erica bought for him yesterday. They had gone a little crazy. It was a white t-shirt, black jacket, baggy jeans, and a silver chain necklace. Stiles wasn't gonna lie, it was comfy and he looked good.

He looked in the mirror at his eyes, which were only slightly puffy now. He sighed and left his dorm to go get breakfast. In the café, he spotted Erica, Lydia, Scott, Jackson, and Aiden eating already. He grabbed a plate of french toast and sat down with them. "You're back.", he said to Aiden. "Yeah, Ethan missed Jackson and I missed Lydia. Besides, the tour finished up early.", the twin replied. "Where is your brother?", Scott asked. "Asleep in my bed.", Jackson answered, reaching for the pitcher of orange juice.

"Of course he is.", Erica laughed. Lydia stared at Stiles for a moment. "You okay Stiles?", she asked. "Not really but I'll get over it.", he replied. "What happened?", Jackson asked. It was odd to see him actually concerned for Stiles. "His soulmate's a douchebag.", Scott said for him. Stiles just shrugged and dug into the communal fruit bowl. "Do we get to know what your words are now, or is that still a secret?", Aiden asked.

Stiles looked up and sighed. "C'mon.", he said, getting up. The others followed him to his dorm and Jackson and Aiden looked on curiously, along with Ethan who joined them last minute, as Stiles revealed his soulmate words. "Get out of my face before I kill you.", Ethan read. "What an ass. And that's coming from me.", Jackson quipped. Stiles laughed softly and the others gave him putting glances. "Just don't tell anyone else.", he said. "Oh they would never dream of it, would they?", Lydia asked, turning to the three boys. "Never.", Aiden said.

Scott snorted and they all left the dorm, heading out for the day to make the most of their time together before Lydia went shopping with Allison and Erica called Boyd up.

They went to all the local tourist spots around campus, even though they'd been there before, and they grabbed lunch around 1:00 pm (13:00).

At 2:00, Allison picked up Lydia and Erica skipped off to go chat with Boyd over the phone and ask him to dinner later that night. That left the guys to try and cheer Stiles up. Unfortunately, the guys had some odd ideas for how to cheer him up. First, they went to a paintball range which wasn't so bad until someone shot Stiles where the sun doesn't shine by accident. Then, they hit the game store, which made Stiles even more upset because a video of Derek last night on stage kept playing on the big screens. Next, they tried to drag him to a game of lacrosse on campus, which ended in Scott having an asthma attack and Stiles freaking out. So it wasn't going well. But then, Jackson had the bright idea, which was code for the dumbest idea ever, to take Stiles to a strip club.

Nice going Jackson.

Stiles spent the whole night avoiding the bartender's creepy gaze and Ethan spent the whole night glaring at Jackson. Aiden and Scott sat in a corner trying to look as plain as possible so guys wouldn't hit on them. After all, Aiden was already with his soulmate and Scott had raging social anxiety. In the end, they left unhappy. And Stiles left with creepy bartender Peter's number and feeling even worse.