CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
smudged lipstick and broken hearts
YASMINE MCCALL
"Hey, where's Scott?" I asked confused as I approached Stiles, who had been sitting on a bleach in his lacrosse gear. "Haven't seen him since he freaked out earlier."
Stiles scratched his neck awkwardly. "Um, he had to go ask Lydia something real quick. Why?"
My eyebrows furrowed at how tense the air was between us so I just shrugged and smiled softly before turning around and walking away, my backpack jumping a little. I sat down on a bleacher and tried not to look weirdly down at Scott and Stiles. There was this smile on Scott's face that worried me and when I saw Lydia walking out onto the field, her nude lipstick smudged, I knew something had happened.
Instead of actually asking my brother or acting on my emotions, I just decided to ignore it and smiled at Danny who'd been looking at me from the field. We'd planned to hang out later, even though tonight was a full moon, but ever since Scott had uttered that disturbing sentence in the locker room, I had to pull Danny to the side earlier and canceled our hang-out, to which he just smiled and nodded, telling me that he'd be up for hanging out some other day.
Practice began just minutes later, and as I watched Scott and Stiles walk out onto the field in each their jerseys, Lydia sat down next to me and somewhat ignored me as her green eyes stayed locked on the field. I decided not to say anything and ignored her as well, not wanting to ask why she'd sat down next to me as we weren't exactly best friend and we weren't exactly fond of each other.
When it was Scott's turn to make the goal, he was immediately blocked by the two defense players and thrown to the ground, snickers from some of the boys behind him.
"Did you know Scott just began co-captain of the lacrosse team?" Lydia suddenly spoke up.
I tried not to seem too surprised and kept a calm look on my face as I replied. "No, I didn't."
Lydia glanced over for a second before she looked back at the field. "I like your lipstick."
"Thanks," I replied nonchalantly, subconsciously running my tongue over my pink-toned nude lipstick. "I like yours as well,"
"Thanks."
That was the entire conversation between Lydia and I, and I was surprised that we were complimenting each other and not cursing one another out. We barely spoke, but when we did, we weren't exactly friendly. I didn't like her and she didn't like me, simple as that. Lydia was a bitch -- a rich, spoiled, egotistic, self-absorbed bitch who only thought of herself -- and that was my only option on her. I was pretty sure her opinion of me was somehow down the same lane, but who cares?
Coach had said something to Scott as he'd been laying on the ground and I watched as he jumped up from the ground and instead of letting Stiles have his go, Scott pushed him back, grabbed another ball and tried again. This time, he tackled both players in defense to the ground and even struck Danny in the face as he made the goal. I gasped as I stood up and ran down, pushing past some players as I ran to one of my closest friends.
I bent down and grabbed Danny's hand in support, feeling him squeeze my hand as a paramedic came running. I nodded at Stiles who walked over to Scott, and I watched them have a conversation. Feeling a slight squeeze to my hand, I glanced down and ignored Jackson's and Lydia's eyes on me as I focused on my injured friend, blood oozing down from his nose and further down his face.
"Looks like he just has a bloody nose," Jackson said as he glanced over at Lydia, his eyebrows furrowing when he noticed what I'd noticed before.
"What?"
"Your lipstick,"
Lydia pulled out a small compact mirror and corrected her lipstick, mumbling some comment that made Jackson look even more pissed than before. My eyes trailed to Stiles who'd been looking at Lydia with a hurt look, Scott nowhere to be seen.
^^^^
After Stiles and Scott had left the field, I walked Danny to the nurse's office while lacrosse practice was cut short. For the rest of the day, I hadn't seen either Scott or Stiles, but I knew that they were planning to lock up Scott in his bedroom, so I'd probably see them sooner or later.
It wasn't too serious with Danny and he was gonna be fine, but everyone liked Danny and a few people were mad that Danny had been hurt by Scott. Danny himself felt no kind of anger towards Scott and he was very forgiving, so he didn't want to stay mad for something so petty. He was convinced that Scott was just having bad and he told me that Jackson had been pissed when Scott had been promoted to co-captain and while some of the suck-ups in Jackson's little friend group wanted to block Scott and make sure he had no chance, Danny wasn't with that and decided not to be an ass to Scott just because he'd become their new co-captain.
Of course, I was shocked to learn, from Lydia of all people, that Scott had become co-captain and from Danny that Stiles was now temporarily first line alongside two other guys. Being temporarily first line was all Stiles had asked for, because Danny laughed a little as he told me how Stiles had jumped off from the bench and began screaming and cheering in happiness.
I flipped my newly dried hair over my shoulder and pulled it into an simple bun on my head as I ran a towel over my face. Danny's blood had gotten on some of my clothes and my hair was so dirty, so I decided to take a shower and relax, trying not to think about everything that had happened to me the past few days.
Correcting the simple black leggings I was wearing, I put on the lacrosse jersey Scott had given me that - surprise, surprise - said 'McCall' on the back and then Scott's number; 11. My eyebrows furrowed when I heard the front door open downstairs. I ran down the stairs, confused to see Stiles standing in the entrance with a house key in his hand and my mom standing right in front of him.
"Key," my mom said as she looked down at the key in Stiles' hand, making me wonder if I'd missed some of this conversation.
"Yeah, I had one made, so..."
My mother grimaced a little as she glanced up and saw me standing there. "That doesn't surprise me." She said as she returned her gaze to Stiles. "It scares me, but it doesn't surprise me."
Stiles dropped the black gym bag in his hands and I cringed a little as the chains in the bag made a loud noise from hitting the ground. Apparently Scott and Stiles had planned to chain Scott in his bedroom, so that he wouldn't be able to get out and hurt someone as he was worried about.
Melissa glanced at me worried and I shrugged. "What is that?" She asked Stiles.
"Uh, school project." Stiles lied after sharing a worried look with me.
Melissa hummed unconvinced. "Stiles, he's okay, right?"
Stiles overdid it as he replied, but Melissa didn't seem to notice that. "Who, Scott? Yeah, totally."
"He just doesn't talk to me that much, not like he used to." My mother stated, making my heart break a little as I looked at her, just sensing how sad that made her.
Stiles looked up at me and saw the desperate look I had on my face. "Well, he's had a bit of a rough week."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah, um, okay." My mom tried to return to her normal state, trying not to seem that sad anymore, probably because I was standing there. "Be careful tonight."
"You too,"
"Full moon."
"What?!" Stiles and I exclaimed at the same time, both in shock over what my mother had just said.
Melissa grabbed her keys from her purse and looked at us as we now stood side by side. "There's a full moon tonight. You two should see how the ER gets. Brings out all the nut-jobs." She laughed a little as Stiles and I relaxed a little. "Y'know, it's actually, um, where they came up with the word; lunatic."
I gave my mother a quick hug and she patted Stiles' shoulder just before she walked out of front door, leaving Stiles and I standing in the entree of the house all by ourselves.
Stiles snapped out of his thoughts first. "Maybe we should go upstairs to Scott's bedroom."
I nodded and began walking.
^^^^
Stiles opened the door to Scott's bedroom and as he turned on the lights to the dark room, we both jumped back in shock; Scott already sitting in his bedroom in a chair in the corner.
"Jesus, Scott! You scared the hell out of us." I stated and removed the hand from my chest that had flown up as an immediate reaction.
Stiles nodded. "Your mom said you weren't home yet."
Scott kept his eyes on us as Stiles put down the bag with chains on the floor and I sat down on the bed. "I came in through the window." He answered emotionlessly.
"Okay..." Stiles trailed off, also feeling the weird vibe coming from Scott. "Well, let's get this set up." He suggested as he bent down and unzipped the bag with the chains. "Wait till you see what I brought."
"I'm fine." My head snapped up and I looked at Scott, knowing something was not right with him. "I'm just gonna lock the door and go to bed early tonight."
"You sure about that, cause you got this kinda serial killer look going on in your eyes and I'm hoping it's the full moon taking effect, cause it's really starting to freak me out." Stiles said nervously.
Scott stayed as cold as before. "I'm fine. You should go now. Yasmine, go to your bedroom."
My eyebrows rose surprised. "Um, excuse me? You don't tell me what to do."
Stiles looked at me and I could tell from that look that he wanted me to go as well, maybe because we both felt like something was off about Scott's behavior.
I sighed, but stood up from the bed and glanced back at Scott one last time, then walked through the bathroom into my own bedroom where I took a seat on my bed and tried to listen to everything that was currently taking place in the bedroom next door. I was still curious, but I knew that if I had stayed in there, I might have made everything worse and since Scott legitimately had a serial killer look in his eyes, I'd rather not make it worse and get maimed to death by my own brother.
Hearing yelling, I ran out of my bedroom and back into Scott's, only to see that he was handcuffed to the heater with Stiles standing above him.
"Protecting you from yourself," Stiles said as I walked in and looked down at my brother with wide eyes. "And giving you some payback for making out with Lydia and lying to me about Yasmine."
My eyes widened...what the hell had just happened?