Translucence

29

Allison was close to tailing the bus. "Am I getting too close? I'm getting too close, aren't I?"

Lydia glanced up from her book and shrugged. "That depends. Are you just following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point."

"You're gonna make them suspicious," Kya stated bluntly.

Allison nodded. "Yeah, I should back off."

Lydia sighed. "Well, that also depends. Oh, do you mean the bus, the ex-boyfriend you're currently stalking?"

Allison snuck a glance at Lydia in the rearview mirror. "Well, after it happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight."

"Hm," Lydia hummed.

"And by the way, this all started when he came knocking at my door."

"For what?"

Allison didn't answer, and Lydia leaned forward, closer to Allison. "Are you going to keep following that bus? You're taking the "not letting them out of your sight" literally."

"Why?" Allison questioned.

"You're gonna run out of gas," Lydia and Kya told her bluntly.

Allison groaned. "Ugh."

Lydia nodded. "Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that bus hold a lot more gas than this Toyota."

Allison glanced to Lydia a second time. "What if we stop?"

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, so we lose them. We know where they're headed."

Kya frowned. "Uh, yeah, leaving Stiles alone equals something stupid happening."

Allison nodded. "You didn't see what happened."

"I know who started it," Lydia said.

"Is that what Aiden told you?"

"Aiden?" Lydia asked in an innocent tone. She glared at Allison. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. Is that why you invited me on this whole little road trip thing? Oh, my gosh. You're keeping an eye on them and me."

"So there's nothing between you two?" Allison asked.

Lydia pursed her lips. "I'm appalled by the insinuation."

"Nothing?"

Lydia shot her a look. "Nothing."

Traffic stopped and Kya let out a light groan.

Lydia's phone started ringing and she answered. "Hey, Stiles. Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie, uh, you know, the popcorn and..."

"I know you're following us."

"Okay."

She put her phone on speaker and Stiles' voice resounded. "Okay, look, Scott's still hurt."

Allison frowned. "What do you mean still? He's not healing?"

"No, he's not healing. I think he's actually getting worse. The blood's turning, like, a black color."

"What's wrong with him? He was injured hours ago. He should be healing, if not healed."

Stiles said, "I don't... do I have a PhD in lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?"

Allison sighed and thought for a moment. "We need to get him off the bus."

"And take him where? A hospital?" Stiles shot back sarcastically.

Allison let out another sigh. "If he's dying, yeah. Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell the coach to pull over."

Stiles scoffed. "Yeah, I've been trying."