Bleeding Love // sterek short story

Bleeding Love

He wanted to pretend he was just a stellar actor with an amazing 'I'm fine' face but he knew his face was screaming 'someone for the love of god please help me!'. On Monday, sometime earlier that month, no one noticed when he showed up with a black eyes, a heavily bruised cheek and bruises littering his arms and stomach. He just wanted to feel something again, pain was the most reasonable option that he could think of and if he wore that pain on his skin, someone was sure to worry or notice. But all he got was a worried glance from Miss Morrell.

It was mid October and the most he'd gotten from Scott in the past five months were acknowledging nods from across the hall as he was walking Isaac to class and a 'bro, you're in my way' when stiles was leaning against his locker during a particularly hard day and seeking comfort from his best friend. It didn't hurt as much anymore when Scott was slowly surrounded by friends, stiles slowly being pushed a few feet back, disregarded.

He wanted to believe it was because of the infamous 'growing apart' phase of high school. But as Scott was smiling at Isaac; Kira; Lydia; Liam; or even Jackson, stiles knew it wasn't because of some stupid high school distancing. He thought after the nogistune was defeated that he'd be free of the demon, but after everything it had done, Stiles' face was a reminder of all the pain they were put through. Stiles knew that when Scott looked at him, he saw the man that killed his first love. Stiles promised himself that didn't hurt; even though it did.

But something happened, for the very first time with you
My heart melts into the ground, found something true

His dad hadn't been home in four days. He was left half-hearted, 'sleeping at Natalie's tonight' without an answer to his usual 'when are you coming home?'. Although, even when he did manage to come home, it wasn't for more than an hour before heading off to work or back to Natalie's.

It stopped surprising him when he couldn't sleep at night and it stopped hurting when he looked at Scott or Isaac or Lydia and no one looked at him. He almost missed Jackson teasing him but even the bully had forgotten about his presence. He had hope it would elicit some sort of reaction when he managed to enroll himself in an independent study program and stopped showing up at school. He thought he would get at least a halfhearted text from someone, anyone, but no one seemed to notice. There was nothing but radio silence.

It was late February and Stiles didn't care if he got hypothermia from laying on the roof in the middle of the rain, like he had been doing all month since they started getting this blissful miracle people called rain. His pajamas were already soaked through and his bones were rattling from the cold nipping at his delicate skin but he couldn't care less. His eyes were closed and he could feel the rain against his flushed cheeks; it was the first time in weeks that he felt the slightest bit content. His heart still hurt and his thoughts were hammering inside of his head but the sound of the rain beating against he roof was drowning out that incessant voice in his head and he wanted to savor this moment before he dragged himself inside and forced a couple bites of a sandwich down his throat.

He didn't know when everything went so wrong. He knew he shouldn't be thinking about it and he should just focus on the sound of the rain but everything was so quiet and his thoughts were prevailing to be stronger than auditory faculty. He knew the nogitsune screwed him over royally, but that can't be the only thing that went wrong. At some point his annoying rambling became too much or his uselessness in fighting supernaturals became apparent, whatever is was, he couldn't pin point the exact moment everything started going downhill; snowballing, if you will.

Stiles was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even hear the soft footsteps approaching him, splashing puddles of water in their wake that he was oblivious to.