Doubles

Chapter Ten

Minho

Minho followed the others out of the ice cream parlor, making sure Malia wasn't behind him. He was alright with everybody else, even Stiles, but he still didn't trust that girl.

   And from the way she glared back at him, he knew the feeling was mutual.

   Then Newt shot him a warning look and Minho read it perfectly: don't cause problems.

   He almost scoffed at his friend. It was as if Newt thought Minho were the one who punched Thomas in the first place.

   Nevertheless, he didn't say anything to cause problems as they left the building. Then they walked around towards the back, close to the forest behind the ice cream parlor. Just before stepping into the grass, Scott stopped and turned around to face everyone, his group of friends following suit.

   "So who wants to go first?" Stiles asked, clasping his hands together as he looked at Scott and Malia.

   Scott stepped forward, evidently volunteering.

   Then, he let out a long, low whistle that vibrated through Minho's skull. If this is how werewolves shift, it was a lot less cool than he thought.

   Suddenly, something appeared in the thicket of the trees. It was running towards them. And, upon looking harder, he realized that the thing was huge.

   Minho fought the urge to cower or run away in fear. There was no way he was making a fool of himself now.

   Luckily, Thomas did made a fool out of himself instead, stumbling backwards and giving a terrified scream. Minho would've laughed if he wasn't so terrified himself.

   Newt, for some reason, was the only one who didn't flinch at all. Not even when the largest dog Minho had ever seen came bursting out of the trees.

   No, not dog.

   A wolf.

   A huge, shaggy black wolf. As soon as it left the trees, it trotted over to Scott and sat down on its haunches.

   "Guys," Scott said, scratching the wolf behind the ear. "Meet my wolf, McCall. He takes the place of me being a werewolf in real life."

   "McCall," Newt repeated. "Isn't that your last name, Scott?"

   "They all named their animals after their last names," Lydia explained. "It was just easier to correspond with the dreams."

   "It was extra weird for me," Malia said. Then she let out a loud whistle, sharper than Scott's, and a gray coyote came out of the woods and trotted over to her. "Since I was a literal coyote in my dreams, I ended up living with coyotes in real life."

   "That must've been nice," Minho said flatly, not really caring. So what if this girl had to live in the woods or some klunk? She's fine now so it doesn't matter anymore. He gestured to the animals. "They just wait around for you guys or something? How do they know where you'll be?"

   "They follow us," Scott answered, looking down at his pet. "But in secret. We learned the hard way that the public isn't very found of wolves."

   "Or coyotes," Malia added.

   "These two follow them in secret," Stiles explained. "Same thing for the rest of our friends back in Beacon Hills. They're all like that except for my cat." He let out a curt whistle and a black and white cat trotted over to him. "Stilinski does whatever he wants, whenever he wants." He bent down and gave the cat a light scratch. "I'm honestly surprised he showed up when I called."

   "Well, that's bloody great," Newt said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "But don't you think we have more important matters going on right now?"

   "Yeah," Scott agreed. "We should find out what's going on with Stiles and Thomas. Because we don't know what this meant for the future."

   "Why?" Minho asked suddenly.

   Everybody turned to him.

   "Minho, what are you talking about?" Thomas asked, confusion clear on his face.

   "We never tried to figure out why the dreams were happening," he explained.

   "Yeah," Malia said flatly. "Because we were too busy trying to protect our animals and keep our friends alive."

   "Exactly," Minho agreed. "The 'why' never mattered then. There's no reason it should matter now."

   "What?" Lydia asked. "So you're telling me you aren't even a little bit curious?"

   "Not really, no," he answered, making Thomas and Newt snicker. An unused quote from the dreams. Apparently, it will always be funny to those two. Nerds.

   "Run this by me again" Stiles said, scrunching his eyebrows as he tried to understand. "You want us to just forget the fact that Thomas and I are literally the exact same person going through the exact same thing and be all happy dandy with this?"

   "Yup," Minho answered confidently. "It'll make some pretty good pranks too."

   Stiles immediately nodded at his reasoning. "Good point."

   "You're actually agreeing with him?" Malia accused.

   "Yeah," Newt agreed. "I don't think we should just ignore this."

   "You're actually agreeing with her?" Minho asked, not bothering to hide the betrayal in his voice.

   "Guys," Thomas said at the same time as Scott, both of them clearly trying to regain order. Then they chuckled at each other but Minho could only roll his eyes. Once a leader, always a leader.

   "I was just going to say we need to work through this together," Thomas said. "We don't have time to argue."

   "Exactly," Scott agreed. "And I kind of agreed with what Minho said." Malia opened her mouth to speak but he shot her a look and she shut up. Minho wished he could do that. "Kind of."

   "I think they both make good points," Lydia said slowly. "Obviously, this isn't something we can ignore, but at the same time, we're at a dead end here. I, for one, have no idea what to do next."

   "She's right," Scott agreed. "There's nothing we can do. So until anyone comes up with a brilliant idea, I say we just go about our normal lives."

   "I agree," Thomas said, nodding along. "And speaking of normal lives, I have to get home. My mom is going to freak if I stay out any later than this."

   "My mom tried to kill me once," Malia stated.

   Thomas stared at her, clearly uncomfortable and at a loss for what to say. Minho couldn't blame him.

   "Well, that's a great note to end this on," Stiles said, pushing Malia towards the blue jeep in the parking lot. "Anyway, goodbye everyone. Nice to meet you all, but it's time for us to go."

   "We should probably keep in touch," Lydia stated, not making a move to follow.

   "I'll make a group chat," Minho offered immediately. He walked around, getting everyone's numbers (which unfortunately included Malia's) and making the group chat. He named it Dream Freaks.

   "That works," Scott said, walking towards the jeep with Lydia. "I guess we'll see you guys tomorrow?"

   Minho shared a look with Newt and Thomas then they shared a look with each other, clearly in agreement.

   "Why not?" Minho asked with a grin.