"Wh— What're you doing here?" I choke out. How long exactly has he been here? My heart starts racing and my breathing increases, I don't want to let on that I'm scared of him. Maybe he doesn't know exactly who he saw that night, and is here just to cover his bases. Either way I know he doesn't have good intentions. He looks down at my chest which is now heaving, as I'm trying to hide how terrified I am. I look at him, trying to calm myself. Maybe if I go through his outfit in my head, it'll calm me down; make me less afraid.
He's wearing a white snapback backwards on his head, a few strands of his dark hair sticking out the front and sides, from the angle he's sitting I can't tell what's on the hat. I look into his emerald green eyes, but don't see anything behind them... and that scares me, so I continue down his body. He's wearing a black tshirt and light washed skinny jeans, with white vans. His shoes look brand new, not a spec of dirt on them. I look up to his arms, they're covered in black and white tattoos, I can't tell what most of them are... but from here I can tell that they're done well. I can see his muscles just under the skin contracting as he tenses up, now noticing what I'm looking at. Stiles will be here soon, so he won't be able to hurt me. I have that thought on repeat inside my head to calm my nerves.
He is wearing a skin crawling grin, showing off his perfect pearl white teeth. He stands and lurks toward me, my breathing shakes. "I've heard you've been sticking that pretty little nose, where it doesn't belong." He says while poking my nose. My breath hitches... he definitely knows. "I uh —" He cuts me off before I can give him a half ass excuse. "Shhhh, I didn't say you could speak." He says. He walks away from me and toward my mirror where I have the picture of Stiles and I from that night, when we were kids. "You know, it's a shame he just can't take a fucking hint, huh? All these years watching you throw yourself at him, is actually kind of pathetic really." He says while tapping his finger on his chin. I suck in a sharp breath, if he knows how long I've been in love with Stiles... how doesn't Stiles know? I now notice the neck tattoos he has. On the side is a dead tree, and in the middle of his throat is a bull's skull. I don't know how I find the courage to speak up... but I do. "Actually he's my boyfriend, has been for a few weeks now." "Oh damn, he finally gave in huh? I also don't remember giving you permission to speak... like I just said." He wanders into the living area and I follow him, unsure of what he's trying to do. I open my mouth to speak again and he grabs my shoulders, gripping them tightly, and pushes me onto the couch. "Don't say a fucking word." He says while his face is inches from mine. I can feel myself physically shaking, which means he can too.
His face lights up as if he likes knowing I'm afraid of him. " Look, I didn't come here to hurt you." He says while pushing a fallen hair behind my ear, I feel the first tear fall from my aching eyes. He lowers himself to my ear, "Just stay out of my business and no one will get hurt." he says. The words send chills down my spine and I shiver in fear. He stands up and stalks toward the sliding glass door that I'm just now noticing is slightly open, that must be how he got in. He turns around and looks at me when there's a knock at the door from the stairs. "Hey Erin you down here?" Stiles says. Instantly I feel safe, my entire body relaxes as I hear his voice. I open my mouth to... I don't know if I was going to scream for help, or just respond but again he cuts me off. Raken pushes his finger in front of his pouty lips. "Don't say anything to anyone, I wouldn't want your..." He pauses briefly, "Boyfriend to accidentally get hurt." I hear the door open and Raken softly chuckles and walks out the glass doors, I know I'll be hearing that laugh every time I close my eyes. He is around the corner and gone just as Stiles makes his way to me.
I'm a blubbering mess now as Stiles wraps his arms around me, I don't know how I held myself together as much as I did while Raken was so close to me. I don't know what I'm saying, or if any of it makes sense as I'm word vomiting through my tears. My heart was still beating erratically, acting as if I'd just ran three miles. We sat there with his arms around me for a long time, nothing was said but his quiet "Shhh, baby. It's okay I'm here..." every few minutes. I don't know how long we've been sitting there before I can get up and go to the bathroom. I stand in front of the mirror with my head down looking at my toes. I have both arms leaning on the counter in front of me, but I'm scared to look at my reflection. I don't want to see the mess I know I am... But somehow I work up the courage and I do. My hair looks mostly fine, besides the back of it sticking out in a few different directions. I work my way toward my face and when I finally look into my reflecting eyes, I break. My entire face and neck are beet red and splotchy, I have mascara running down my face leaving streaks of black over the majority of it. I take one deep breath in and then spring into action.
After the quick work I put in to make myself presentable, I look at myself again and I smile at my own reflection. I've been faking it until I made it practically my whole life. I can do it for a little while longer. If Stiles didn't just see all of that he'd have never known it happened. After that whole fiasco he probably thinks I just had a mental breakdown and doesn't want to be anywhere near me, honestly I wouldn't blame him. I probably looked and sounded manic. I can't tell Stiles about Raken being here, I can't handle something happening to him too. Or any of my friends for that matter... I won't put anyone's life in jeopardy, I just won't. Somehow, I have to get Stiles to cool it on the investigation... I don't know how I'm going to do that, but it's my new mission. Well, at least be more discreet about it... I don't want another run in with Raken. Just thinking his name makes all the bones in my body quake.
I walk out the bathroom to find Stiles leaning against the doorframe. His left arm is gripping the top of the frame as he's leaning his body in, I almost ran right into him. If I wasn't a little startled I'd probably be turned on. "Oh thank god. I was about thirty seconds from breaking the door down." He says while pulling me into a tight hug. "It's okay. I'm okay, I just..." Thoughts of the encounter litter my brain. "I just broke, I guess." I say stifling back tears. I'm lying to him to keep him and everyone else safe, I just have to keep repeating that to myself. Even though I want to burst into tears again and tell Stiles everything. What he says next truly stumps me...
"Truth?" He says while looking down at me. I stop breathing all together when the word leaves his mouth. I nod my head and nuzzle into his chest so he can't tell that I'm lying right to his face. This is the first time that I've ever lied during a 'truth' and it makes me queasy thinking about it. For everyone's safety. "Why don't we pause the investigation, okay? We can do something with everyone? Maybe we can have a get together at my place?" He says while pulling me away from him and looking down at me. Wow... that was easier than I thought it was going to be. I nod, "okay... that sounds fun." We haven't all hung out since the night of the party, and if we're at Stiles' house something is less likely to go wrong. He walks away and pulls out his phone, I'm guessing to call Chase to get everyone together. I pull out my phone, it's a quarter to three. Wow, I must have been crying for longer than I thought, he must really think I'm psychotic. I text in the groupchat with all the girls.
Get 2gether @ Stiles 2nite.
Tristan: sooooo down
Lindsey: will b there
Court: cool
Charli: 👍🏻
Okay, I guess Charli and I are still in a feud. I'll apologize tonight, I miss her. I miss them all, I feel like I haven't really talked to them since we were all getting ready at my house before the party that night. I miss Court's moody attitude, and Lindsey having her phone stuck up her ass. I miss Tristan's well, just Tristan's aura... I love that girl. I even miss Charli, and her jealousy rampages. I miss the guys too, the way they're way too sweet for anyone's good. I can see how easy it was for Tristan and Charli to fall for their charms, they're all extremely nice to look at which doesn't hurt to be around. I'm excited to be around all of them without being at school, or a bunch of other people around us. We're the best when it's just our group of nine.
After Stiles gets off the phone he walks over to me, I'm laying on my floor with my feet kicked up on my bed. "You hungry?" My stomach growls in response. "I'll take that as a yes." He leans down and talks to my stomach, while laughing. He grabs my hands and helps me off the floor. I sit down on my bed while he talks. "Okay, here's the plan. We're going to go get something quick to eat, go get some supplies for tonight, and then go to my house for the party. We'll order pizza or Chinese whatever you want once we get there. How does that sound?" He finishes with a grin. I nod, "Sure, sounds good." He grabs my hands again and pulls me up. "Stiles..." I say while looking into his eyes. He turns his head toward me, but I don't really know what I intended on saying. "Piggyback?" I say with a childish grin on my face. He ponders for a minute, "No no piggyback. But I will hold you the other way." My face forms into a confused look. The other way? "Like a piggyfront?" I say while snorting. "Exactly, like a piggyfront." He says with the same childish grin I was just wearing. Instead of going up the stairs and through the house, he goes out the sliding doors. The same way Joey entered. I start to freak out again, but quickly ease my mind, if I were to freak out now Stiles would feel it.
We stopped and got fast food, burgers and fries. We ate everything in the ten minutes it took to get from there to the grocery store we just parked at. I get out of the car and my boot feels weird. I look down at it and the zipper is pushed all the way down, I give it a confused look and bend down and zip it up. I know both of them were zipped up, that is so weird. When I move my eyes from my shoes Stiles is standing next to me and grabs my hand and interlocks our fingers, smiles and starts walking. He's been wanting to do a lot of this holding hand stuff lately, especially in public. It's weird, not a bad weird... just he's never shown interest in me before, and now... it's like he can't leave me alone. I like it. We walk up to the sliding entrance doors and I see my smile in the reflection. I look so happy, I've been sleeping so well since staying with Stiles the last few nights, I'm sure that has a lot to do with how much better I've been looking and feeling.
Walking through the store, I'm pushing the cart and Stiles just keeps piling stuff in. So far he's thrown in: red plastic cups, clear plastic shot glasses, paper plates, plastic silverware, lemon/lime juice, rocked salt, pineapple juice, grenadine, and full limes. "Stiles, I thought this was just going to be a small thing? You have all this stuff for alcohol but... how can you be sure we can actually get any?" I say looking into the cart. "Trust me, I have my ways." He says while winking. We go to the checkout, and it's a little old lady, who is completely eyeing us the entire time she's scanning everything. You can't look at this and not know what it's for. Once we hit the parking lot I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in. "Why're you so nervous? You think she was going to call the cops on us for buying pineapple juice and limes? Plus... if she were to call the cops... my dad would be the one to show up. He already knows about the party." He says while loading everything into his jeep. I haven't driven my car in days... I like sitting in the passenger seat.
We pull out of the parking lot, I thought on our way back to Stiles house, but he turns the opposite way. "Where... are we going?" I say as it's now obvious we aren't going back to his house. "To get the alcohol..." He says as if I should already know. I just nod in response, nervous about how we're going to get it. Stiles pulls his phone out and sends a quick text, then puts it back down. We drive for a few more minutes before I realize where we're going. The town's liquor store, there's no way he's getting alcohol from there. Everyone knows he's not twenty one and knows his dad is the sheriff, they wou;dn't sell anything to him... would they? We pull in and he drives to the back of the building. We sit for a few minutes in silence, because I'm scared for one, and for two I have no idea what his plan is. The backdoor swings open and a kid around our age, maybe a year or two older, comes out hauling a twenty four case of beer and a box with multiple bottles of alcohol in it on a pulley thing with wheels. Stiles gets out and helps the guy load it in. "You put the vanilla vodka in there right?" Stiles says in somewhat of a whisper. I look in the rearview mirror in perfect time to see the guy nod in response. Stiles hands the guy some money and jumps back into the driver's seat. "Ready?" He says while putting the jeep in drive and pulling off.
***
We got back to his house and set everything up, it's currently five thirty and we're waiting for everyone to get here. "You want me to show you the surprise I got just for you?" He says after plopping down next to me on his living room couch. I eagerly nod. He grabs my hand and pulls me off the couch and keeps my hand in his until we get to the kitchen. He lets go of my hand and grabs the shaker that we pulled out of the garage from his moms stuff. He gets one of the plastic shot glasses and pours the vanilla vodka to the top and pours it into the shaker. He looks up at me and grabs the pineapple juice and eyeballs it, pouring it into the shaker. He walks to the freezer and I can't help but notice the muscles in his back moving as he's reaching inside. He's wearing a long sleeve dri fit dark grey shirt, light washed jeans and white slide on vans. His hair is laying on his forehead, even longer now than it was a couple weeks ago when I noticed it getting long. It sits right at his eyebrows and is shaggy on the sides and back of his head, not too shaggy. Maybe an inch longer than it normally is there. Wow, not creepy at all Erin... a normal person wouldn't try to guess the exact length someone's hair has grown.
He comes over and adds two big handfuls of ice to the shaker and puts the lid on top of it. He shakes it around for a few minutes joking around trying to act like a normal bartender. We both laugh as he tries to flip it and he holds on too long and spills some of it on the counter. It's an orangey yellow color, I grab a paper towel and clean it up while he pours the liquid into two shot glasses. When I make my way back over he's topping the shots off with a drop of the grenadine. He looks up at me, "The Masterpiece." He says while motioning to the shots. He slides one across the counter to me and picks his up the same time I pick mine up. We clank the glasses together and within seconds both the shot glasses are empty. It glides down my throat so smoothly I can barely tell there's even alcohol in it. It just tastes like pineapples and cherries, "Wow... that's amazing. What is that?" I say as I can still taste it on my tongue. He lifts his eyebrows, "Pineapple upside down cake." He says and licks his lips. I watch him as he does it, and get a weird feeling in my stomach. It's not butterflies like before, it's deeper than that. My entire body breaks into a cold sweat. I can't decide if I'm cold or hot at this point. He notices that I'm looking at his lips, and my phone goes off. Thank god. I break the stare toward his lips and look at my phone. As I'm reading it I say it out loud, "Tristan and Landon are here." As the words leave my mouth the front door opens.
Within thirty minutes everyone is here, the only decent Chinese place in town closes in forty five minutes so I get everyone's order and go to the phone. The line rings three times before someone picks up. I've had three or four of those tasty shots and I can't seem to remember anyone's order. I just order what Stiles and I normally get and hang up the phone. "Chinese will be here in twenty!" I say and most everyone nods.
I look around and I see Charli sitting on the living room floor by the coffee table talking to Court and Lindsey. We make eye contact but she quickly looks away. I feel myself frown, okay time to apologize... but after another shot. I do the exact same thing Stiles did just twice as much. I grab five shot glasses and fill them up. "All my girls come take a shot with me!" I yell, I hear a round of laughter from everyone but all the girls come up to the counter. Even Charli.
"To my best friends." I say while lifting the shot in the air, they all follow suit and do the same and we throw them back. Once everyone is done they start walking away, Charli is the first to make a getaway. "Wait! Charli, can we talk?" She stops walking and turns toward me. Tristan stops walking too and gives me a confused look, with a confident face and smile she turns around but lingers close enough to hear our conversation. "Hey Charli, look I just wanted to —'' I start but she cuts me off. "No. Look, I'm sorry. Everything you said that night was true. I'm an asshole and I'm so lucky to have Chase. I just love him so much Erin, more than I've loved anyone... I just don't want to lose him." She says. I look over to Stiles and respond to her without looking away, "Yeah... I know what you mean." I look back at her and continue, "I'm sorry for saying it like that... in front of everyone. It was uncalled for, and something a friend shouldn't have ever done. I'm sorry, will you forgive me?" I finished. She gives a soft smile, "Only if you forgive me too." I nod in response and she gives me a tight side hug. Everyone around us claps and hollers, I wasn't aware everyone was listening to us. I feel my cheeks heat.
The Chinese got here about twenty minutes ago and it was the same delivery driver that always delivers to Stiles' and I. Mr. You, he's about forty seven or something like that. He used to own the shop but sold it and now just works for them, he said the stress was making him resent the business that gave me everything. I thought it was very crazy when he did it, but I was only ten. Now I have a better idea of what he meant. The food is almost completely gone and everyone is standing or sitting around.
"Hey, does anyone want to play a game?" Landon says, He's sitting sideways on the recliner with his head tilted back looking at the ceiling. I'm the first to speak up, "Sure... why not." I say. Everyone follows after that, either shrugging their shoulders or giving quiet answers agreeing. We all get in a somewhat circle and Chase starts everything. "Okay to warm up... let's..." He looks around the room thinking. Charli is on the other side of Auggie and she giggles and speaks. "To warm up everyone should kiss the person next to them." She says giggling again. Nobody says anything, it's weird that the request came from Charli. Seeing as she's not anywhere close to Chase, Lindsey is right next to him. "Don't worry everyone I'm not going to freak out. I think I just wanted an excuse to see all of us randomly kissing each other." She says. "Fuck it, I'm down." Tristan says while shrugging her shoulders. I don't think this is a good idea but it's meant to warm everyone up, so this will definitely do that. "Tristan you start." Charli says.
Tristan leans over and lays a kiss right on Chase's lips, I instantly look over to Charli but she's just smiling and giggling. Chase leans over and kisses Lindsey, very briefly. Lindsey leans over putting both her arms on either side of Courtney, she plays around for a few seconds and lays a kiss on her, it gets so hot and heavy they start using tongue. "Okay okay, back off my girl." Auggie speaks up. Everyone's eyes get big and Linds giggles, "Finally he speaks up! I thought I was going to have to start fucking her." Linds says while sitting in her original seat. Everyone laughs and the game continues. Court kisses Auggie, it's gentle and short, Auggie leans over and kisses Charli. Wait... Charli has to kiss Stiles, it's almost my turn... then I'm going to have to kiss Stiles — in front of everyone. My breath quickens and my heart starts beating. Charli is leaning back on her arms with her long legs out in front of her. She doesn't put much effort into leaning over because Stiles meets her half way and gives her a quick peck. He sits back in his original position and looks over at me. I guess it's now or never, good thing we've been practicing. He leans over and crashes his lips onto mine, it surprises me. I thought we were just going to do a quick peck, but that's definitely not the case. Our kiss quickens and I sit up on my knees to reach him better, he slides his hands to my waist and grips me tightly and everything gets quiet... someone clears their throat and we break apart. Everyone is looking at us with their eyes basically popping out of their head. Without thinking I turn toward the person next to me... who I just now noticed is Landon. I lean in and kiss him, it lasts approximately fifteen seconds and I return to my spot on the floor. Tristan lays down on the floor and Landon meets her there and they full on makeout.
Chase clears his throat, "Okay now that we're all officially warmed up —" he looks over at Stiles and I and I sink my head lower. But he continues, "Who wants to start truth or dare?" Everyone looks around and Auggie raises his hand. Wow, I like when he drinks. He talks a lot more. I look up and everyone is staring at me... "What?" I say. Stiles leans over to me, "You just said that out loud..." I look at Auggie... I'm horrified... "I'm so sorr—" I'm cut off because everyone starts laughing their asses off. Including Auggie. I shouldn't drink anymore, my lips get...loose when I drink apparently.
A few dares happen and I'm not really sure who does what. I hear everyone laughing around me but my head goes back to Raken... on top of me in my house. I look around at all my friends laughing and enjoying each other, nothing can ever happen to them. I won't say anything to anyone about Raken, it's set now. I won't. When I've decided that my mind is made I hear my name get called. "Huh?" I say and everyone laughs. Cour looks at me, "Truth or dare Erin?" Without thinking I speak. "Dare." Fuck... Why did I say dare? "I dare you to take Stiles into his room and tell him how you really feel about him." She says and my heart sinks. I look over at Stiles and he's standing up, no... no. This can't be happening. My breathing starts increasing faster and faster, I can't tell him how I feel. What if he doesn't feel the same, what would this do to our friendship? I can't lose Stiles, especially right now. I can't and I won't, I'll just have to lie