Howling to the Heart || Isaac Lahey

15.

"Riah, can you just talk to me, please?" Stiles begged for the seventh time in the last two minutes, standing beside my locker. "I haven't seen you since that night with the Alpha and you haven't been answering my calls. I literally drove around looking for you and I left you a bunch of voicemails saying I was sorry."

I sighed, shoving my notes and books into my bag. "You didn't have to do that," I said flatly.

"No, I didn't," he said, leaning against the locker. "But I did because I've been stressed and going insane. Do you know how weird it is when you're not home for longer than two days? It's unbelievably weird and dad has been stressed about it too."

"I called your dad and told him I was staying with a friend," I said to him, glancing over at the bags under his eyes. "You look like you need sleep, Stiles."

"I can't sleep!" he raised his voice, muttering a quiet apology when I turned back to my locker. "Seriously, Riah, I can't sleep when I know you're sleeping in your car instead of my bed."

"Stiles, do you think I enjoy sleeping in my car?" I face him, slamming my locker closed. "I hate it, but I'm still upset and hurt about the whole Derek situation. We haven't even gone to first period yet and all I've heard is the whispers about me and my last name. I am the talk of the school and I hate it."

He dropped his head with a groan. "I know," he whispered, looking back at me. "Knowing this town, something else will come up and be the talk of the school soon."

I rolled my eyes, walking past him. "That doesn't help at all," I threw back at him, looking forward again when I saw him following after me. "I even tried to get a job, and no one will hire me because of this shit. My life in Beacon Hills is down the drain."

"I'll ask around for you, okay?" He caught up to me, walking by my side. "Maybe dad could get you some type of job at the station and you can put it on your application for collage. Can we just go back to how we were before, when you weren't pissed at me?"

"Are you going to throw me and my family under the bus again?" I asked, turning into Mr. Harris' class.

"I promise I won't," he said, looking at me with puppy dog eyes. He knows that's my damn weakness. "I'll even take you to your favourite cafe whenever you want with no complaints."

I held back a smile, sitting down at a desk while he stood in front of it, watching me carefully. "Wash my car for me this afternoon and we'll go back to normal," I negotiated.

"Done!" he said with a goofy smile, holding his hand out to me.

I laughed, shaking his hand. "You gotta clean the inside of it too."

"Sure thing," he said, pulling his hand away. "I'll even watch Harry Potter with you."

"Good," I mused. "Because me and your dad already agreed on it."

His eyes widened and he slipped into the desk next to me. "You were already planning on coming back before we agreed, weren't you?" he asked, and I shrugged my shoulders. "You're an evil woman, Riah," he chuckled, shaking his head.

The bell went and I pulled my pencil out of my bag, looking up to see Scott getting told to take a seat. I cringed, looking away. Stiles spammed me a bunch of messages about the breakup between Scott and Allison, and by the looks of it, it's worse than he said.

"You have forty-five minutes to complete the test," Mr. Harris informed us. "25% of your grade can be earned right now simply by writing your name on the cover of the blue book."

I raised a brow at Stiles who quickly wrote down his name as I wrote down my own.

"However, as happens every year, one of you will inexplicably fail to put your name on the cover, and I'll be left yet again questioning my decision to ever become a teacher. So, let's get the disappointment over with. Begin."