I Take It Back

Mieczyslaw

Stiles' jaw dropped to the floor, his arms went slack and legs stiff. His entire chest tightened and he felt his throat close up. "Did he just-", Allison started. "Yep.", Issac cut her off. "What?", Erica asked. "You're-", Derek started. Stiles didn't wait for Derek to continue before he started sprinting away, towards the forest nearby.

He could hear the others call out to him but only one pair of feet ran after him - Derek's most likely. Stiles was never one for athletics but suddenly he could run marathons if he wanted to.

Stiles kept on running, headed nowhere in particular, and Derek kept on following. Stiles didn't look back even once. He knew if he did, he might feel guilty and try to talk to the man.

Stiles had no idea where he was now, only that he had somehow lost Derek somewhere along the way. He turned around looking at the city he was in, trying to find something familiar. He finally recognized the square he was in as two cities over from his campus. How did he manage that? The cities weren't that big, so maybe that's how. He pulled out his phone, seeing missed calls and messages from his friends. He ignored them, instead pulling up his gps and searching for the nearest hotel. He had cash on him and it wasn't like he was staying more than one night. He would just stay one night and then sneak over in the early morning to get his car and stay with his parents until spring break ended. On second thought, maybe he should just switch to online school so Derek wouldn't know where to find him.

Stiles found a nice hotel and checked in, booking a small room on the first floor. He flopped onto the bed with a sigh. What the hell was he going to do now?

Scott called him not too long after, and Stiles considered ignoring him but decided if anyone deserved to be ignored, it was Derek and not his best friend. So, reluctantly, Stiles picked up the phone, put it to his ear, and waited. And waited.

"Stiles?", Scott's voice finally asked after a minute. "Hi, Scotty.", Stiles murmured. "You actually picked up.", Scott sounded surprised, which was fair given that Stiles had been ignoring everyone else for the past hour now. "Where are you? Do you need me to pick you up?", Scott asked. "No, I'm fine. I just... need to hide out for tonight. I guess. I'm staying in a hotel, so don't worry about me.", Stiles said. "What? You're really gonna stay in a hotel? How long? When are you coming back?", Scott asked. "Just for tonight. But then I'm probably going to my parents' house. I can't... I can't do it, Scott.", Stiles sobbed into the phone.

There were no actual tears, just the ghosts of ones he shed throughout childhood. Now his eyes were all dried up, and so was his hope.

"Well at least tell me which hotel you're staying at so I can see you one more time before you go back to Beacon Hills. Once school starts up again, I won't be able to drive 4 hours to see you everyday.", Scott's tone was somber as he spoke. Somber and regretful. "Fine. I'll send you the location and room number and you can come see me in the morning before I leave.", Stiles sighed, more apologetic than annoyed. "You have to get here by 5 am. I'm leaving early so I can get there at a nice time.", Stiles said. "Deal.", Scott chuckled.

The call ended and Stiles sent Scott all the information. He got up from the hotel bed with a sigh and started drafting up a note for Scott to give to the others. Maybe he should write one to Derek... No. He didn't owe Derek an explanation after the way the older man had treated him. And he definitely didn't want to make the situation worse and dare Derek to follow him all the way to Beacon Hills.

Stiles threw away note after note; nothing sounded right. He finally settled what to say on what was probably the 20th draft of his letter.

To Erica and Lydia,

I'm sure you know you're my two of my best friends and if it weren't for my current predicament, I would never leave you. Please don't worry about me, I'll be fine in Beacon Hills. Just keep being badass women.

To Jackson,

You're an ass. But I guess I've grown to think of you as sort of a friend. You might not worry about me while I'm away, but don't forget I exist just because I'm not eating breakfast with you guys everyday anymore!

To the twins,

I'm sorry to leave you alone with Jackson, but it's for a good cause. Try to keep your sanity in tact while I'm gone. And Aiden, please don't let Lydia think it's her fault that I left. She couldn't have prevented this, she doesn't need to protect me anymore.

To everyone else,

We just met. But most of you are pretty cool. And I'm sorry for abandoning your bandmate but he's kind of a dick. And I'm just not ready to jump into the whole soulmate thing after years of living with these words on my arm. I won't bore you with the details but they're pretty bad. Derek should really learn to control his temper.

Sincerely,

Mieczyslaw "Mischief" "Stiles" Stilinski.

Incase Derek wants to know my full name to get an idea of who he lost by being an ass.

Stiles finished up the note, a little annoyed that only one line of his final remarks and the end note made it onto the other side of the page. Now it just looked stupid. He sighed and leaned back on the chair, staring at the ceiling and rethinking his plan. Maybe he should stay...

Stiles groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "Why is this so hard?", he sighed. Talking to himself probably didn't help calm him down. Kinda makes him seem crazy.

There was a knock on his door and Stiles sat up a little, confused. Maybe he forgot something at the front desk? He got up and trudged over to the door. He didn't want to deal with this right now, whatever it was. Housekeeping, dinner, the hotel manager; none of it was all that important to him at this moment.

He begrudgingly opened the door, more whipping it open than anything, and was met face to face with the one person he really didn't want to see right now. Derek.