Give Me Courage (Give Me Series #4)

16 - Cookies

In a state of shock and confusion, Stiles gawked at me, his hand still raised in the air, inches from his mouth, which was left agape. "Why can't I eat the cookie?" A frown slipped on his face. "And why did you slap it out of my hand?"

"You should have at least let him take a bite of it," my brother chuckled at the thought.

I pointed at the shattered pieces of cookie near our shoes. "We put chocolate laxatives in them."

"You what?!" Stiles exploded.

I awkwardly held my hands out in front of my body. "Uh, well, we needed to get the game canceled and when Coach laughed in my face earlier today--" I waved my hands between Isaac and I. "We didn't know what else to do."

"The idea came from a movie we watched when we were kids, where they put laxatives into cupcakes and gave to their teachers." Isaac crossed his arms, snickering. "We figured it would work the same way with the lacrosse team. We can't play in the scrimmage if most of the team is stuck in the bathroom with diarrhea."

Stiles' mouth fell open and he squinted his eyes at the two of us, unable to stop gawking. "You-- You two--" He gestured back and forth between us in disbelief. "You actually tried to drug the whole lacrosse team."

"No, not the whole lacrosse team," I told him, shaking my head from side to side. "I didn't want Isaac, Scott, Kira, Liam, or you to get sick. We just needed enough players to get sick and 'drug' is just a harsh word. It's just a laxative."

Stiles hummed in response, moving his hand to cover part of his mouth. He nodded once. "And did you tell everyone else about the cookies?" Stiles inquired, like he already knew the answer.

Gradually, Isaac and I angled our heads to the sides, making eye contact with each other, realizing we made a huge mistake in our backup plan. My brother pointed at the door, mumbling incoherently about he was going to go tell everyone else about the cookies before they had a chance to get one.

Neither of us said a word while we watched my brother run out of the room and the door slowly closed behind him, leaving just the two of us in the locker room. Not knowing what to say, we shared smiles with each other that were filled with awkwardness. My thoughts went back to what Isaac had said earlier about everyone knowing that Stiles and I liked each other.

"Oh, here," Stiles walked over to his own gym locker and fished out a black hoodie from his duffel bag. "I've noticed you've been shivering ever since the whole shower thing earlier today."

I stared at him, taken aback he had noticed my consistent shivering since then. Even when I had changed into new clothes back at home, I had a struggle staying warm, despite it being a little chilly outside and wearing long sleeves. The jacket was placed in my hands by a smiling Stiles. I couldn't stop peering down at the warm material in my hands, bewildered on how he was able to pick up on my random shivering.

"Thank- Thank you..." I frowned at the jacket as I began to pull it on over my upper torso. "Um," I pointed at the door once I had the jacket on, sleeves halfway past my hands. "We should probably go see if the rest of the team ate the cookies yet."

"Yeah, let's go." Stiles agreed, leading the way out of the locker room and to the field.

A silence fell upon us on our way outside. My hands were buried in the jacket pockets, enjoying the warmth it provided and how it smelled exactly like him. Part of me wanted to bring up what happened at the boathouse that one night, yet my tongue felt, like, lead inside of my mouth.

A hand ran across the back of Stiles' neck as he slyly peered at me from his peripheral vision. "Chloe, can I- can I ask you about something?"

"Of course, Stiles."