Return ↠ Argent [2]

14. Collateral Damage

"Well that's surprising; no bed bugs," he confirms before walking over to a drawer, pulling it open as he sighs a breath of relief. He grabs something before holding it up, revealing a Febreeze can. "God bless America."

He sprays the whole room down head to toe, releasing us from the smoke smell. I let out a puff of air before throwing my bag to the side, landing besides Scott's bag in the corner. Just when I was about to announce to the two of them that I was going to see what Allison and Lydia were up to, Stiles grabs a five dollar bill from his pocket and starts to head towards the door.

"I'm going to find a vending machine," he states as I start to follow after him.

"I'll go check on Allison and Lydia," I say before I'm walking out the room, leaving Scott behind. Stiles turns left as he tramples down the stairs, but I take a right instead before stopping in front of room 215, knocking to let them know I was there.

Lydia answers. "If you're looking for Allison, she's in the shower. I was about to go get some new towels."

I peak around her slightly and look into their room, seeing that it was similar to ours. I could hear the shower running in the bathroom, but instead of walking inside I looked back at Lydia. "Did they smell like smoke?"

Lydia groans as she rolls her eyes slightly. "Your room smell like it too?"

"We had to spray it down with Febreeze," I state with a smile as Lydia walks around me, closing the door behind her. I walk next to her as we head towards the desk downstairs, which had a flickering light on inside across the parking lot.

Her and I are silent for a moment as we start to walk across the parking lot, but it wasn't an awkward type of silence. However, just before we reach the lobby, Lydia turns and faces me, stopping in her tracks. I turn to face her, eyebrows furrowed at what this was about.

"What's wrong?" I ask as she stares at me, something written on her face that I couldn't read.

She licks her lips slowly as her eyes search the ground, almost as if she's looking for the words to say. "Corey, about yesterday..."

"Thank you," I cut her off, realizing then that I never said it at a time when it was just the two of us. "If it weren't for you I'd still be talking in your head right now."

Lydia's face goes white. "Wait-that was you?"

I guess Allison never told her. "Yeah, um...I was the one that was Allison's friend, remember?"

Lydia face of realization makes my face grow red, not because of me speaking to her when I was dead, but because of the fact that I had seen her naked that night out in the words. I prayed that she didn't remember, but the look on her face screamed that she did.

"Yeah, you were the one that talked to me out in the woods that night..." she drifts off, her eyes wandering around, trying not to look me in my eyes. I didn't blame her; I didn't want her to see the embarrassment on my face. "And you saved me that night in Scott's house; when Derek and the rest of his pack were after me."

I shrug my shoulders, acting as if I only heard the last part. "Guess we're even now."

Lydia smiles, revealing the dimples on her face. "I guess we are...but what I wanted to talk to you about was what Deucalion said earlier; the part about how we were connected in some way."

She wasn't the only one curious about that. I thought about it on the bus ride down here, but I couldn't come up with any solutions. "Maybe it's because you find the dead and I was the dead."

Lydia shakes her head. "Well duh, but the way he said it made it sound like there was a deeper meaning behind it. Now that you mention that you were the one in my head though, it makes me wonder..."