𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚎 | 𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚘𝚕𝚏 [2]

reassurance

—

Austin laid with his head on Ryder's chest, the sound of her heartbeat soothing his mind a lot less than it normally did.

At times when he felt off, which was rare when he was with her, he would simply lay his head on her chest and let the beating of her heart calm him. If it were a bit worse than most times, Ryder would run her fingers through his hair in hopes of easing it.

But nothing seemed to calm his unusually angry thoughts of Stiles Stilinski.

Austin wasn't a mean person by any means, but for some odd and very obvious reason, Austin wanted to be as rude as he could to knock some sense into Stiles.

Now, he wasn't going to blame Liam's injury on Stiles or Scott, but he was aware that it could have been heavily avoided if the two simply minded their business. Then again, a lot of their previous problems arose because they couldn't mind their own.

Unless Liam himself approached them with a problem, what he had going on in his life was none of their concern. He learned that at a very young age. If you go looking for a problem, you'll eventually find it.

Which leads him to his next issue.

It had to do with the beautiful girl that he had trapped under his body, her warm hands rubbing from his hair to the side of his face. Her movements tickled him a bit, leading to his single dimple flexing every time he pursed his lips. If it weren't for Ryder, he wouldn't have even thought about the dimple, but leave it to her to point out something about him that he hadn't given a second glance at.

Austin would usually be very happy any time the pad of her thumb made contact with the dent on the side of his cheek, but he was more upset than he'd like to admit.

He knew Ryder wasn't someone that pried the information out of people. She was someone that waited until the person was comfortable enough with her to express what they had going on. He only wished she wasn't that way now, as the longer his thoughts consumed his mind, the more drained and confused he felt. (A/N: i did not do that on purpose btw.)

Pulling away from her embrace, Austin looked up to see an expectant look on his girlfriends face,

"Are you ready to talk now?"

"Yeah." He said timidly, sitting up fully, pressing his back against the headboard of the bed, her following suit.

"What's going on?"

"Stiles." He simply said.

A short chuckle of disbelief left her lips, "Stiles is what has you worked up like this?"

"He's really rubbing me the wrong way, Ryder."

The mere mention of her full name had the girl taking this more seriously.

"Okay, i'm sorry. What'd he do?"

"He has a crush on you." He blurted out.

His blue eyes locked on her face, darting around as he tried to detect even the slightest hint that the cared.

She didn't.

Austin didn't know why he assumed. Ryder had mentioned plenty of times before that there were few people she cared about and Stiles wasn't on that list of people.

But he was.

"Is that what's bothering you?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." She inhaled softly, "What do you want me to do about it?"

His brows pulled in, "What?"

"Cause I have been waiting for the opportunity to cut this entire friend group off. It's a little hard, considering Malia and Kira are kind of growing on me and we're the only supernaturals in school, but i'm sure i can figure it out—"

"Ryder." He cut her off.

"What? I'm pretty good at the silent treatment."

"Yeah, I would know." He mumbled under his breath, thinking of the time she hadn't spoken to him for two days because he accidentally dropped Marco the Monkey, "What are you talking about?"

She eyed him, "If me being around Stiles makes you uncomfortable then I will happily avoid him at all costs."

"That's not what I—" He sighed, "It's not you being around him that makes me uncomfortable. I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt me. It's the way he looks at you."

Ryder watched as he fiddled with his fingers, wringing them together anxiously.

"It's the way he should be looking at Malia. Or hell, even Lydia. Not you."

Her lips twitched up at the unintentional pout that formed on his face, "Jealousy is a disease, Austin."

He rolled his eyes dramatically, adjusting himself so he wasn't hunched over.

"I don't like Stiles in any way other than the way I like Scott, which is no more than I like Lydia... which is simply just acquaintances. If that." She told him, "Believe me. If it weren't for all of us being involved in the same thing, I wouldn't be talking to any of them."

"I know."

And he did. She made sure to remind him of this anytime she could. She wasn't compatible with anyone in the friend group aside from him and maybe Malia. None of them had common interests with her. The one person that did was off in Paris living his best life. Ryder could wholeheartedly admit that if she wasn't a werewolf, she wouldn't speak to any of these people outside of a school project.

It was sad to admit but it was the truth.

Whatever friendship Ryder had with Scott and Stiles was immediately forgotten the minute they chose some popular girl over their supposed best friend. Whatever small crush young Ryder on Stiles was gone the second he mentioned Lydia's name in any conversation they had.

Austin knew this.

Scott and Stiles also knew this. The two just didn't want to admit it to themselves that they were no longer the reason behind her happiness and instead her anger.

The girl used to wear pink, purple, any color that would catch someone's eye. She wanted someone—at the time—to be Stiles. It wasn't.

And now she wore black. She chose to wear black. And now the bright thing that caught people's attention was the smile that appeared on her face anytime she was around Austin.

Austin himself took some time to realize this. But Stiles knew instantly. Maybe that's why he was so upset. He lost his opportunity and thought that he'd admire her from afar. This wasn't a problem the first time around, but Austin didn't know how much longer he could stop himself from snapping at Stiles to focus on his own girlfriend.

"I promise you, with my whole heart, Stiles is the least of your worries when it comes to me." She spoke softly, stopping his hands from shaking. She intertwined their fingers, lifting them to press a kiss to the back of his hand, "I love you and only you. There's no one else you need to worry about."

That's all he needed. Reassurance.

He hated that he needed it, but always felt better once she told him how she truly felt.

"I love you more, Ry." He smiled, leaning forward to press a gentle kiss to her lips.

What they did need to worry about, however, was a shoeless Liam Dunbar running out of a certain McCall's house with panicked tears streaming down his face.

—
A/N: my favs are forever my favs
i want to start another book but have absolutely no ideas on what fic it should be...