Derek
The next day, Derek didn't feel like going to school, so he convinced his mom he was sick. He knew she didn't believe him, but for some reason, she let him stay home. Derek figured she knew something else was wrong, but she wasn't going to push him until he was ready to talk. Which would be never. He didn't want to talk about Stiles, or think about Stiles, and he definitely didn't want to see Stiles. Every time his face flashed through Derek's thoughts, he wanted to punch something, or cry, or sometimes both.
He stayed in his room most of the day, other than to use the bathroom. His mom tried getting him to eat breakfast and lunch, but he told her he wasn't feeling well enough to eat. He just wanted to lay in his bed and watch Netflix. Even though he didn't want to think about Stiles, he couldn't help rewatching the movies they watched together. He tried to stop, even turned off the tv, but he couldn't help it. He'd never gone through such a hard break-up before because none of his exes were Stiles Stilinski, the guy he'd liked since he first saw him, the stupid dorky kid who always acted like no one was watching, even in a room filled with people.
"Derek," Cora's voice called from the other side of his door. He didn't say anything because she was going to come in anyways. He hadn't looked at the time all day, but he figured out quickly that school was over when Cora came running into the house yelling, and then Laura screaming for Cora to shut up from the kitchen. "Der, I'm coming in," she said, already pushing his door open. He didn't look up from where his face was shoved in his pillow. "I brought you some hot chocolate. It's really cold in here."
"Thanks, Cor," he mumbled, turning his head to look at his little sister. She smiled warmly and sat the cup on his table next to the bed.
"I know you're not actually sick," she admitted, sitting on the edge of his bed. "But I also heard what happened, so I understand. Everyone at school is talking about it, even though you guys are upperclassmen. Everyone's calling him a fake, you know? They said he only dated you for the attention, but they didn't see you guys together. Stiles loved you, or at least cared about you." She shifted uncomfortably as Derek stared at her, waiting for her to leave, but she didn't. "I know I'm just your little freshman sister, but I'm here to talk if you need it."
"I'm fine, Cora," He assured her, even though it wasn't true. "Thank you for the hot chocolate."
"Der, break-ups aren't the end of the world. You have to get back on your feet, show him what he lost. I love you, Derbear. You gotta stop moping." She smiled softly and tousled his hair before getting up and leaving his room, shutting the door behind her.
Derek sighed heavily and sat up, grabbing the cup Cora left for him. It smelled amazing, so he figured why not drink it? He hadn't eaten anything all day, and the most he had to drink was a cup of water. He took a small sip, in case it was still too hot, and smiled thoughtfully. Cora didn't make this hot chocolate, because if she did, it'd be watery and not chocolatey enough. Derek's mom must have made it. That was the only logical explanation for the amazing taste. Still, he appreciated the thought Cora put into the whole gesture.
He sat the now half empty cup back on the nightstand and picked up his phone, expecting a thousand text messages from Lydia, or even Allison. He wasn't wrong about that. There were nine texts from Lydia, two from Allison, and one from. . . Stiles. Derek hesitated, thumb hovering over Stiles' name. He wanted to check it, but he wasn't sure what it could say, or whether or not it would make him happier, or make him mope even more.
Lydia's messages were all invitations to come over, apologies, and her asking if he was okay. Allison just wanted to know how he was feeling and if he needed someone to talk to.
Eventually, he opened Stiles' message too.
Hey, Derek. Didn't see you at school today. It's been rough, but I'm more worried about you. Are you okay?
Derek pressed his lips together as he stared down at the text, trying to understand. Why would Stiles care if he was okay? Stiles left him. He wasn't supposed to be worried about Derek, or miss Derek. Derek was supposed to miss him. Sure, Stiles had said they would be friends, but Derek didn't really expect that to work out. He took a deep breath and deleted the message, then turned off his phone and got out of bed. Cora was right. He needed to stop moping.
Everyone seemed shocked when Derek stepped into the living room, showered and dressed in a nice outfit. He smiled awkwardly and moved towards the door. "Is it okay if I go to a friend's house? I'll be home before curfew, since I have school tomorrow."
"Of course," his mom replied, smiling softly. "Have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She gave him a small wink and and laughed a little before waving and walking out the door, keys in hand. Lydia had invited him to come over, and even though it was kind of her fault Stiles broke up with him, he couldn't really blame her. She was still a good friend.
+++
Derek wished he hadn't shown up. As soon as he pulled up to Lydia's house, he considered just leaving again. He didn't know for sure if Stiles was there, but Scott's car was there and that was enough to make Derek want to leave. He almost did, but Lydia caught him before he could turn the car back on. She opened his door, smiling warmly as she gently tugged on his sleeve. "Hey, I didn't know you were coming over," she said, sounding a little nervous. He stepped out of the car, shutting the door behind him. "I have some other people over. They're all out in the backyard, so if you want to talk, we'll just go upstairs and-"
"I came to party," Derek cut her off, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"W-What?" Lydia replied, letting Derek drag her towards the back of the house. "Der, I really don't think you should be partying after what happened yesterday. I mean, you need to talk to someone and-"
"Lydia," Derek laughed, stopping to grab her shoulders. She stared back at him wide eyed, arms at her sides. "What's going on? Why don't you want me to have fun?" He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to answer. She looked down, nervous about something. The only thing that could be wrong would be if. . . "Wait," Derek mumbled, dropping his hands. "He's here, isn't he?"
Lydia bit her lip guiltily, looking towards the backyard where music was blasting and people were screaming. "I didn't think you were going to show up, Derek. I'm really sorry! I can ask him to leave if-"
"No," Derek replied forcefully, shaking his head. "Look, I'm not letting him ruin my fun. I'll just ignore him. He probably won't want to talk to me anyways." Derek knew this wasn't going to end well, that by the end of the night he'd end up either puking in the grass from drinking too much, or sitting alone in a corner moping about Stiles.
"If you say so," Lydia agreed uncertainly. She linked their arms and took a deep breath. "Let's go party then." She grinned and led Derek to where the rest of the party was. There were a lot of people, some Derek didn't recognize, but a lot of them he knew from school. Once he assured Lydia more than once that he'd be fine on his own, she finally left him alone. The first thing he did was grab a drink, even though he hadn't even seen Stiles yet.
In fact, he didn't see Stiles for at least two hours, and by then he'd already danced with sweaty, shirtless strangers and downed his first drink. When he did spot Stiles, he was letting some skinny kid grind up against him and he was working on his second drink. Stiles was talking to Scott, Isaac Lahey trailing behind them. Derek tried to look away, but he couldn't until Stiles finally saw him. At that point, Derek needed at least six more drinks.
"Sorry, dude," Derek mumbled, pushing the guy away and stumbling away from the crowd of people. By the time he got to the drinks, he'd finished his second one. After pouring the third, he took a deep breath and threw himself back into the mob of people, losing himself somewhere in the middle. There were girls dancing all over him and people dancing around him, so he just went with the flow.
Four drinks later, Derek was having the time of his life. Things may have been a little blurry and he may have been a bit dizzy, but he was having fun. He was dancing with some chick that didn't go to his school, laughing and spinning her around, until someone tapped on his shoulder. He turned to see who it was, only to find that he didn't know this guy. Derek raised an eyebrow as the guy smirked and drank the rest of his beer. "You wanna get out of here?"
Derek didn't even think about it because thinking would've hurt his brain. "Sure," he mumbled, taking the guy's hand. He wasn't sure what was going to happen, only that he really didn't feel good and having sex with a random stranger wasn't going to fix that. However, that didn't stop him.
They made it inside and upstairs after a while, despite Derek stumbling around and almost falling every now and then. The guy picked a room that wasn't full and shoved Derek inside, then shut the door behind them. Derek realized as he was sitting on the bed, letting this guy take his shirt off, that he didn't want to do this anymore.
"Wait," Derek mumbled, trying and failing to push his hands away. "Wait, stop. I-I don't want this. There's someone else." Derek tried wriggling out of the guy's grasp, but surprisingly, he was bigger than Derek. He decided he would just give in, let whatever was going to happen, happen.
Then the door flew open and light flooded into the room, so Derek had the chance to kick the guy off of him. He sat up, letting his eyes adjust. He stood, stumbling a little before the person standing the the doorway ran forward and caught him, pulling Derek against his chest and holding him there, in a sort of hug.
"God, you're so fucking stupid," he mumbled, and Derek grinned.
"Stiles," he said, squeezing him back. Then his smile faded as he remembered, he almost just had sex with a random guy and yet Stiles was still sitting there hugging him. It didn't matter that Stiles had broken up with him, because Derek wasn't the kind of guy to have a rebound. He was in love with Stiles, not anyone else. "Oh God, Stiles I'm so sorry. I didn't do anything, I swear," he cried, burying his face in Stiles' neck. "Please, I'm so sorry."
"Der, calm down," Stiles whispered, pulling away to look at him. He cupped Derek's face in his hands and smiled softly. "Hey, it's alright. I'm not mad." He ran a hand through Derek's hair and leaned forward, pressing a small kiss to his forehead. "Come on, let's get you home."