The Fire Within

Chapter 18

*Third POV*

There's no answer from Stiles. All Scott can hear is heavy and slightly panicked breathing. "Stiles, are you okay?" Scott asks, his worry quickly increasing.

"Stiles, it's okay, you're safe. Just tell me what's wrong and then I can help you." Scott offers kindly. He hears Stiles sniffle on the other end of the phone.

"Scott?" Stiles asks in a wobbly voice that makes Scott's heart break. It sounds exactly like the time Stiles had called Scott in the middle of the night when he was sleepwalking.

"Stiles, buddy, what's wrong? Did you go over to Malia's house today?" Scott asks in a panic, having less and less of an idea on what could possibly be happening. He starts to pace up and down the room frantically, biting his nails nervously.

"Y-yeah, I went back to Malia's h-house..." Stiles begins, hiccuping a little. Scott assumes that Stiles must have been crying before he decided to call Scott.

"What happened?" Scott asks in a gentle voice.

"She... she broke up with me, Scott." Stiles whispers in a trembling voice.

"What?" Scott asks in total shock and disbelief.

"Malia broke up with me. We have been distant for a while I guess, but today... it all just got too much for her. She screamed at me to get out of her house. We were both crying and shouting at each other." Stiles explains, trying to keep his voice steady enough.

"Stiles, I'm so sorry..." Scott replies, feeling bad for his best friend. He doesn't understand why Malia would break up with him. If Scott were her, he would have held onto Stiles close and never let him go, loving and cherishing him forever. As it so happens, Scott isn't Malia, so he can't do any such thing. "Why did she break up with you? I always thought that you two had such a strong relationship." Scott asks curiously.

"Yeah, well, so did you and Kira." Stiles answers roughly. The comment hurts Scott a little and he feels a bit taken aback. He decides to dismiss the harshness of the comment. Stiles is going through a breakup and the full moon is getting closer, after all.

This makes Scott feel even more nervous. "Why did you guys break up, Stiles?" Scott asks again, realizing that Stiles sneakily avoided the question. There is silence on the other end for several moments. Scott can hear the smallest of sounds all around him. He can hear the clock ticking from downstairs, he can hear the cars driving by outside, he can hear the chatter of the TV and he can hear his mom's heartbeat and breathing. Scott swears that he can also hear the scurrying of mice up in the roof somewhere.

"Stiles? Are you there?" Scott asks worriedly. He didn't mean to upset his best friend. Scott hears Stiles take a deep breath on the other end of the phone. "I think we just lost our trust in each other and we slowly started apart, but they aren't the main reasons. The big reason that Malia broke up me was because... because of you, Scott." Stiles eventually answers. Scott almost drops the phone.

"W-what? Why?" Scott asks in confusion and fear.

"She saw us in Mexico. She knows what happened. She knows about my panic attack and... uh, well, you know." Stiles replies awkwardly. He feels very uncomfortable with the conversation now. Perhaps even a tad annoyed. If Scott had just gotten Malia to calm Stiles down instead, then maybe they wouldn't be here right now. Stiles grits his teeth in annoyance, clenching his fists as his emotions start to bubble over again.

"Stiles, I'm so sorry. Please don't get me wrong, it's horrible that you're breaking up, but I'm sure there would be another reason down the track that would have split you guys up anyway." Scott attempts to comfort his friend.