CHAPTER ELEVEN: RUMOR HAS IT/SOMEONE LIKE YOU
"She is a stranger
You and I have history or don't you remember?
Sure she's got it all
But baby is that really what you want?
I heard that your dreams came true
Guess [he] gave you things, I didn't give to you
Nevermind I'll find someone like you
I wish you nothing but the best for you too
Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead..."
- - -
Stretching in bed as the sunlight hit her eyes, there was a weight across her waist. Night number five this way. Days spent loving every moment of being free teens living life in France. Eden's smile would reach her eyes, something she hasn't done in quite some time. Isaac would make sure it stayed that way, often cracking a smile himself. Their afternoons were spent eating fine French food they could afford, attempting to decode French words and streets they couldn't pronounce. Nights were made for hotel rooms. Starting off innocent with a bit of room service dinner; searching through television guides for something to watch, only to be annoyed if it was either French dubbed or English subtitled which meant they had to read—that was more Isaac's complaint than hers, to be quite frank—and laying in bed. His hands would weave their way through her naturally wavy locks, eyes of blue peering down at her with a want she couldn't see at first. The movements of his fingers through her hair was something like magic, something to lull her close to sleep before she'd feel his soft lips against her forehead. Then they'd travel down the bridge of her nose, the very tip of her nose before landing completely and effortlessly to her lips.
Innocence quickly dissolving into tangled fingertips in hair, muffled moans from mouths connected so tightly it's hard to tell which mouth it came from. Clothes scattered, names called, scratches and light bite marks of the human kind made on skin. It became a cycle, something the two could expect and live like breathing.
The trip would be ending soon, in about a week and a half or at most two weeks from this current moment.
After a shower and finding a note from Isaac that while she had showered, he got up from bed himself and decided to find some kind of good food for breakfast for them that wasn't from the hotel. As it said verbatim in the note, 'the food is decent but I kind of want good shit. My stomach is kind of paying the price and it's not sexy to fart in bed with a hot chick. I don't know if that's a real rule, but I feel like its something I should abide by.'
So, here sat the huntress in one of Isaac's white tees she's stolen and slept in for nights on end, staring at a computer screen, wondering if she should call the one person she didn't want to. Eden's finger hovered over the call button, but she couldn't let him dictate her life, her running from the world as Isaac often said. She knew he was right, God he was so fuckin' right, but it's the whole point, the whole idea that he hurt her. Isaac would never understand that. But she had to be strong, because women are leaders, the strongest of their bloodlines and because of that, she needed to make sure that she had a backbone.
Eden was Skype calling Stiles Stilinski and there was no going back from it.
It rang a few times. Once. Twice. By ring number three, Eden was ready to hang up before it began to connect. The screen was a bit blurry, yet his eyes shone as brightly as she remembered them. The two smiled at each other with small smiles and small laughs before the smiles grew bigger. Wider. Heads ducking in embarrassment while laughing.
"You're a sight for sore eyes, Flores."
"It's still so less intimidating when you say my last name versus when I say yours." It's always been their thing, it's how she kept him away. Or how she just decided to completely terrify him. Whichever she decided first. "What time is it there?"
"Five AM" Stiles replied simply, for the young girl completely forgot the time difference. Eden covered her mouth, Stiles simply laughed. "Relax, I wasn't asleep. Honestly I haven't slept much lately anyway."
This made the Latina frown. Why hasn't he been sleeping much lately? "Why?"
"Just can't."
"Have you tried sleep aids and all that good stuff?"
Stiles chuckled. "Even Zzquil. It's not keeping me asleep as I used to be."
"Is anything stressing you out?"
Again, the human boy chuckled. "Life, Eden. Life stresses me out. Managed to be a villain, lose a friend, gain a new one and have my friends survive a dead pool. I also, managed to keep my solid C average in math on my own while doing all of that, so yeah. I'm stressed."
Most would say Stiles is over dramatic and makes the smallest of things the most trivial. Yet, Eden laughed immensely at it every single time. "Whoa superhero, can't take on everything at once, y'know?"
"Someone has to do it." Stiles chewed on his lip. "How's France? I know you're probably having the time of your life running around, eating croissants and drinking those really small espressos."
Eden shook her head. "I've had maybe one espresso while being here? I bounced off of walls for like ten hours. Isaac hated every second of it."
Stiles blinked, eyes of wonderful brown hooded by his eyelids and something the Latina couldn't exactly decode through the computer screen. "He's still with you?"
"Not this exact second, he's getting breakfast."
"You know what I mean, Eden..." his long fingers ran over each other. "I don't mean on the trip with you. I mean in a way where you're together."
The Latina sighed. "I don't know how that is something that matters to you."
"Is that his shirt?"
"Would you have wanted me to do this Skype call in my bra?"
This time, Stiles smirked. "Wouldn't be the first time I've seen you in just a bra." Eden kept a stone face. He obviously hit a nerve.
The two, Stiles and Eden that is, never had sex. That's something those two were sure they didn't want to do while getting to know each other. Kiss? Totally. Cuddle and sleep in the same bed? At first it was weird but after a while it became something that they were used to. They'd laugh and kiss and fall asleep until it was time for school the next day. Stiles happened to have shown up at her place a bit earlier than usual. Her ribs were hurting a little bit from all the battles they would encounter. He offered to help put IcyHot on her side, which she peeled out of her shirt. Stiles stammered the entire time, Eden laughed.
Stiles could figure out plans and want to face beasts and dead pools to save his friends but he couldn't look at the young girl who he was rubbing IcyHot on her ribs while she stood in a bra in the eyes.
Eden chewed on her lip and sighed. "I still don't understand how it's any of your concern if I am with Isaac or not."
"You know why, Eden!" For it to be a bit after five AM at this point, he was worked up. Voice raising as he spoke. "Because I care about you and we had something and because I know pretty boy Isaac! He pushes as quickly as he pulls and you'll sit there and think he's as gold as his beady little wolf eyes but he's not. He's a dickwad wrapped in a scarf with curly hair."
"You care about me so much to choose Malia over what we could have had, right?" Now Eden was sitting up straighter in her chair. "Where was she when you couldn't sleep? Where was she when you actually needed her for anything? I was there! That entire time with the dead pool, we were the dream team. She was off pushing you away, which you deserved for lying to her! Oh wait, you lied to me too and chose Malia!"
"You didn't give me a chance to explain and tell you about her and I!"
"There shouldn't have been anything to explain! I was with you and you said you liked me a lot and yet you couldn't tell her that! You couldn't push her away! You made your decision."
There was a pause. Eden could hear her heartbeat in her ears. There was an anger coursing through her veins and it felt like fire and gasoline waiting for the man on her computer screen, to ignite the inferno of pent up anger for him.
"Does he keep you safe?"
The brunette blinked. "Excuse me?"
Stiles sighed. "Does he keep you safe? In all ways possible."
Eden squinted her eyes. "Are you insinuating sexually as well?"
"You slept with him?!"
"Not the point, Stilinski!"
The human boy exhaled sharply while holding his forehead. "Oh God, you slept with him. Holy shit. This is not what I expected."
"You're the worst, stop assuming things."
"So you're telling me you didn't sleep with him?"
"I didn't say that."
"So you did?"
Eden huffed. "I didn't say that either!"
There was a small silence again. The two barely looked at each other, breathing the only thing heard with the sound of background noise. Eden counted the seconds that seemed to tick on that Isaac wasn't bursting through the door with food to save her from the crippling tugging at her heart when it came to the human on the other end of the computer screen. "How's Liam?"
"He's still fighting for control of his powers. He's pretty much a walking time bomb when you're not here to tether him down." Stiles cleared his throat, the walls being illuminated by sunlight that Eden finally noticed. "Scott and I think you might be his anchor. Not in like a romantic way, but because besides Scott, you're the first one to think that maybe he isn't as bad as he seems. Like...like he latched onto the idea of you always being his protector as much as Scott is. That you'll care for him unconditionally and stick by him. Without that piece here, he doesn't have much holding him back and down to the world." Eden smiled softly, playing with the hem of Isaac's shirt as Stiles spoke, her eyes meeting his through her lashes.
"You're just saying that. He didn't latch onto me..."
Stiles scoffed and smirked. "You're a great person, Eden. Of course he's gonna latch onto something great. Would you rather him latch onto me?"
This time, Eden laughed a bit loudly. "Oh God no. Sarcastic werewolf? No. We don't need those!" Silence fell over them again, only this time it was more comfortable and easy. "I miss you guys."
"Even me?"
The Latina smirked "I wouldn't go that far now, Stiles..." she joked with a small giggle lacing her speech. "No, I miss you too."
Stiles smirked, his lopsided smile just beaming and Eden matching his happiness. For one minute they were the old Eden and Stiles, yet so much still held them back. There was a longing and a yearning from one and the walls being built a million miles a minute from the other to keep that counterpart out. Eden mentally pieced this summer, Stiles and Eden wouldn't be on the same page for a while. But maybe they could work on it.
Then Stiles yawned.
"Go to sleep, Stiles."
"No. Tell me a story."
"Once upon a time, a small huntress from New Jersey made a tall Beta wolf eat calf pancreas and she laughed the whole night about it. The end." Eden chuckled at herself as she remembered that night of dining and dashing and Isaac spending his night complaining about his food. "Go to sleep, Stiles."
"Eden?"
"Yes, Stiles?"
"Promise me something?"
The girl chewed on her bottom lip. Promises are made to be broken. "What?"
"Promise me you'll come back to Beacon Hills?" Stiles yawned again, the Latina fighting off all urges to yawn herself. "Not just for snot nosed Liam—"
"Hey!"
"Or for puppy like Scott and your best female friend Kira. Hell, you don't even have to do it solely for me..." he continued, eyes dropping lower and lower as sleep finally caught up to him. "but because all of us as a pack needs you. Because you belong here in Beacon Hills."
"I promise."
- - -
"Wakey, wakey Stiles!" Scott called loudly into his best friend's ear. The boy was holding onto a pillow, sleeping peacefully as his laptop stayed open, Skype still open and in view. It was a bit after two PM, which usually would worry Scott but ever since he's known Stiles, he knew that boy would not wake up early in the summertime. "Rise and shine."
"Go away..." Stiles mumbled, holding tighter to the pillow and nuzzling his face into the fabric. "I just fell asleep."
"How long ago?"
"What time is it?"
"Two."
Stiles slowly opened one eye. "AM or PM?"
Scott smirked. "PM."
"Then like eight hours ago?"
Again, Scott scoffed before sitting in the chair at Stiles' desk. "Why did you fall asleep at six AM?" Before Stiles could sleepily answer, Scott's eyes landed on the laptop screen, seeing his last Skype call was from Eden. Eyes of melted chocolate brown stared at the pillow Stiles was holding on to before remembering a conversation not too long ago.
"Liam is getting harder to handle..." Scott started, huffing in exhaustion. "Who knew he'd streak down the street?" Plopping down on to Stiles' bed, he grabbed the first pillow he picked up from Stiles' bed.
"Put that pillow back."
"What? Why?" Scott laughed before thinking it belonged to Malia. Then he smelled a certain scent. It was the distinct smell of the laundry detergent the Stilinski's kept, faint smell of lavender and a body spray he only associated with one girl. It was her smell mixed with his and it all made sense. "Stiles? Is this Eden's pillow?"
Stiles let one hand fold over the other. "No it's mine. When she used to come over, that's the pillow she'd use here. It smells like her. I had Liam sneak some of her body spray out of bag and spray my pillow with it last week." He felt vulnerable and weak talking about the girl he hurt and probably wouldn't want him back. "I couldn't sleep, I haven't slept like I should or would when she was around. So I sprayed the pillow and I fell asleep fast. It's like having her here—"
"When she's physically and emotionally a million miles away..." Scott finished. He smirked at Stiles before putting the pillow back where he picked it up from.
After remembering that conversation, the smell hit him hard. Stiles sprayed the pillow.
Stiles misses Eden more than she'll ever know.