"Wait, wait, wait," Mason spoke through the phone loudly, causing Sydney to hold it a bit away from her ear, his voice was raised in confusion. "So, you and Liam- my two best friends- kissed?"
Sydney sat on her bed, her legs crossed and a bowl of popcorn in her lap. She pursed her lips and nodded, then remembered that she was on the phone with her best friend, and that he could not see her. "Yes, we kissed," she said simply.
"Did you kiss him or-?" Though she couldn't see him, she knew that Mason was more than likely cocking an eyebrow, a smirk stretching across his lips. Him and Sydney basically told each other everything- it had been that way since the sixth grade, when they became really close friends. As soon as Sydney got away from her father and Stiles the night before- which was over an hour of listening to them scold her for not answering their texts- she immediately called Mason. Though she was unable to reach him until the next morning, which was what she was currently doing, whilst eating a bowl of Smartfood popcorn for breakfast.
"No- no, he kissed me." Sydney ran a hand through her untamed hair, a sigh of confusion falling from her lips. "I think. I mean, I guess we both wanted to, but he was the one who leaned in first-"
"Sydney," Mason's amused voice interrupted her as he chuckled lightly. "Why are you so worked up about this? I mean, I would have expected you to be freaking out in a happy way."
"I am happy," Sydney insisted and cracked her knuckles out of a nervous habit. "It's just- we're talking about a boy, whom I had only met a few weeks ago, who I have really strong feelings towards, and we kissed. I don't know if he really meant to or if he thinks it was a mistake or what. Damn, I'm being so stupid and girly right now." She buried her hand into her hands and let out a frustrated groan, drowning out the sound of Mason chuckling on the other end. "What?"
"Dude, for the past two weeks, I have been trying to get you to admit your feelings towards Liam," her best friend said, laughing. "And, just now, you did it without even realizing what you said."
Sydney immediately felt her cheeks grow hot and she grabbed a handful of popcorn, stuffing it into her mouth to hide the choking sounds that fell from her lips, "Shut up, Mase."
"Hey, I wouldn't worry about it if I were you," Mason said. "Last night, the reason I didn't and answer your calls, was because I too busy talking on the phone with Liam. And you wanna know what we were talking about?"
Sydney licked her lips, "What?"
"You, Sydney," Mason stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world; she knew he was more than likely rolling his eyes at that point. "We were talking about you, and how much he wanted to kiss you again."
Sydney couldn't help the smile that spread across her face at her best friend's words. "Honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with that," she mumbled sheepishly.
"Well, maybe you should talk to him." Just as the words left Mason's mouth, she heard a knock on her front door, which also echoed through the speaker of her phone.
"Mase, where are you?" she questioned hesitantly, cocking an eyebrow.
"Right outside your front door. And Mr. Liam Dunbar is standing right next to me." Sydney could basically see the cheeky smile that was spread across Mason's face as she groaned loudly. "Hey, Mr. Stilinski."
"Mason," Sydney groaned once more as she hopped up from her bed, grabbing a brush and running it through her hair. "I look like crap."
"Well, Liam and I are currently sitting on your couch, having a nice conversation with your dad," Mason said casually, slightly laughing. "You have three minutes to get ready before we come barging into your room- naked or not. And dress in some athletic clothes, because we're going running."
>>
"I really do hate you sometimes. I hope you know that," Sydney muttered to Mason as they walked down her street. She was dressed in her maroon and white Nike tank top, black Nike tempos and her running shoes. Overall, she might as well have been sponsoring Nike that morning.
Mason chuckled from beside her, nudging her lightly with his elbow, "And why is that?"
Liam walked ahead of them, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his athletic shorts as he trudged along, kicking at a pebble with every other step he took. Sydney's eyes were glued to him as she spoke in a quiet voice, which was useless due to the fact that Liam just so happened to have supernatural hearing.
"Because, first of all, I hate running and it is currently six o'clock in the morning," she stated with a shrug. "And second of all, you allowed me to spill all my worries and feelings about Liam to you, when he was standing right next to you and more than likely listening in on our conversation."
"Relax, it wasn't on speaker phone. I'm not that much of a bad friend," Mason said, laughing.
The trio soon arrived at the trail in which the cross country team practiced on, Sydney grumbling to herself as Mason began to do overly-exaggerated stretches. She could feel Liam's gaze on her, burning into the side of her skull, as they readied themselves to run. Part of her wanting to say something to him, but the socially awkward part of her kept her from doing so. Sydney could sense something radiating off of the boy- emotions that she almost immediately recognized as a mixture of frustration and desperation. Though she forced herself to ignore the longing she felt towards Liam as Mason's voice met her ears.
"Alright, let's do this." Her best friend's eyes traveled between her and Liam several times, sighing in disappointment at the two socially- and sexually, for that matter- frustrated teenagers.
Sydney did her best to match Mason's pace, which was way too agonizingly slow for her liking. As a werewolf, it was almost an instinct to run as fast as she could, to feel the wind blowing against her bare skin and have her feet barely touch the ground beneath herself between bounds. But she forced herself to remain at a jog, but not without a few frustrated groans here and there. Mason seemed to have taken the noises the wrong way, as if she was already growing tired after only five minutes of running.
"You can't be tired yet, Stilinski," he teased as she let out another huff of impatience. "You must be more out of shape than I thought."
"Trust me, I'm way more in shape than you think," Sydney said and laughed. She glanced over her best friend and eyed Liam, who seemed extremely distracted. His blue eyes darted around him, shining in the sunlight that shone through the canopy of trees, almost causing Sydney to become distracted herself. He had stayed silent almost the whole time, only saying a quick "hello" to her whenever they were back at her house.
Which was where she would have rather been at that moment. She knew that, without a morning practice that he had to be at, Stiles would only be just waking up at that point, meaning that Sydney would be, as well. Though Mason had woken her up at 5 o'clock that morning with a phone call, which happened to be his third time trying to get a hold of the girl since he had woken up.
"Hey, Liam!" Sydney snapped out of her gaze at the sound of Mason's alarmed voice. She shook her head, clearing her vision, and focused on a figure as it disappeared around the corner, running at an extremely fast pace. Sydney braced herself to begin running after Liam, to make sure everything was okay with him, but then she felt Mason's hand wrap around her arm.
"You're not going to leave me, too, are you?" he questioned, cocking an eyebrow.
Sydney stared after Liam, her faced pulled into a look of confusion, before reluctantly shaking her head. "No, of course not," she mumbled.
"What the hell is wrong with him?" Mason asked, though she had a feeling he was only thinking out loud.
"Maybe he just needed to let off some steam," Sydney said casually with a shrug, though she couldn't help but worry about Liam's sudden odd behavior. And she definitely didn't like the feeling she was getting in the pit of her stomach- the feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
>>
"Hey, Sydney!"
Sydney stopped short in the middle of the hallway and turned around at the sound of her name being called. She strained to see over the mass of students, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as she realized it was Scott McCall who had called her name. He approached her at a fast pace, squeezing through the mass of freshmen with the scent of anxiety almost as strong as the smell of body odor in the weight room radiating off of him.
"Is everything all right?" Sydney questioned hesitantly, shifting her backpack from one shoulder to the other.
Scott ran a hand through his hair nervously, her dark brown eyes searching the faces around him, "Have you seen Liam anywhere?"
Sydney shook her head, her eyebrows pulling together. Liam hadn't been in any of her classes, and she had only assumed that, after he went haywire and left her and Mason, he had just went home and decided to ditch. Hearing the nervousness and confusion in Scott's voice only brought up her worrying once more. "I haven't seen him since our run this morning."
Scott sighed and looked around him, "That's what Mason said."
Sydney placed a hand on her friend's shoulders, "Scott, is everything okay?" she asked hesitantly. Scott grabbed onto her arm, pulling her to the side and into the empty chemistry lab, closing the thick wooden door after them.
"Garrett called me a few minutes ago. He said the only way to get Liam back is if I give him the money back," he explained in a hushed whisper, even though we were alone in a room, with thick concrete walls around us.
Sydney raised her eyebrows, glaring at him in complete disbelief, "You took the money?"
"It's not like I used any of it. I only took it because both of our families are having money problems. I just wanted to help out," Scott admitted. Sydney could tell that he was ashamed of what he did, though she only cocked an eyebrow at him questioningly. Scott rolled his eyes, his heart sounding as if it were about to leap right out of his chest. "Don't act like you don't know about the MRI bills and the notices from Eichen House. Stiles tells me that you're the source of how he knows all this."
Sydney ignored his statement, her stomach feeling as if it had dropped to her feet, "So what's your plan?"
"Garrett also wants me to help him get Violet back. We're going to distract the transport bus tonight," Scott explained whilst shuffling his feet nervously.
"That's dangerous," Sydney stated, raising an eyebrow. Knowing that one of her best friends- the boy whom she had only just admitted to herself that she had feelings for- was missing, it made her heartbeat race uncontrollably, her head spun as she struggled to take in all this new information.
"I know it is," Scott retorted with a roll of his eyes. He placed a hand on the younger girl's shoulder, his gaze soft and comforting as he looked her in the eye. "But don't worry, I'll be careful. And we'll get Liam back, I promise."