c h a p t e r f o u r t y o n e
a stalker
Harper's fist went up to knock the front door of the Argent household, but before she could, it had swung open and hands had grabbed her, immediately tugging her inside. Harper gasped, trying to wriggle out of the person's grip.
"Hey, hey- it's me." Allison hissed, calming her down. "I didn't want my parents or my grandfather to open the door for you."
The shorter girl nodded, swallowing thickly. "Thanks." She muttered, holding her hand on her heart as she calmed down. "Sorry for freaking out."
"That's totally fine."
To be honest, Harper had the best reason to freak out. After all, only last night the owner of the house had tried to kill her and her best friend. She didn't want to tell Allison, since Scott had told Harper not to. He said he would tell her, but they weren't really talking right now so it would be in a while.
"So, what did you have to tell me?" Harper questioned as Allison lead Harper up the familiar stairs and to her bedroom.
Harper immediately sat down on the bed, glancing around the lilac room at all of Allison's beautiful, and expensive, things.
Allison turned to look at Harper worriedly. "So... Since Scott completely ditched me last night, I got a ride home with Matt."
The Empath raised an eyebrow, willing her to go on.
"And when he got out, he left his camera in the car. I flicked through it, looking at all of the lacrosse pictures and stuff, and then there was a picture of you on the bleachers." Allison's throat began to feel tighter with every word that passed her plump lips.
Harper chuckled, "makes sense," she crinkled her nose, "I do go to every single lacrosse game and practice, you know. Coach doesn't call me their biggest supporter for nothing."
Allison shook her head quickly, "that's what I thought at first." She explained, "but he took like seven pictures of you just studying on the bleachers. And then there were pictures of you and Stiles in the hallways, by his jeep. There were pictures of you in Chemistry."
Harper's eyes widened in horror as Allison continued to list the places that Matt had taken pictures of her. Her hands shook slightly in her lap as she leaned forwards, her heart pounding quicker with every word Allison spoke.
"That's not the worst part."
Harper gulped, "how the bloody hell is that not the worst part?" She ran a hand through her smooth hair, her eyebrows furrowing together as she panicked.
"He took pictures of you through your window." The words tasted like blood in Allison's mouth as she watched her friend's face fall further. "And there were a few of you and Stiles in a very suggestive position."
Harper's mind whirled back to the night of their heated make out session, where the brunette had been straddling Stiles until her grandmother walked inside. She licked her dry lips, her eyes shining with regret and fear.
"What does he do with them? Did you ask him? Oh God." Harper rushed, overwhelmed. "He has to delete them right now."
Allison sighed, placing her hands on top of Harper's. "Harps, calm down, okay? I don't know what we're going to do, but I promise he won't leak those photos anywhere. He's not stupid, he knows what to show and what not to show."
Harper bit her lip, "I still don't like the idea of him having photos of me."
Allison shook her head, "me either," she sighed, "but we'll get through this. You and me. And we can tell Stiles and Scott, too. Maybe we could sneak his camera and destroy the card the photos are on."
"He probably has them all backed up." Harper muttered glumly, crossing her legs on the bed and pulling the skater skirt she was wearing so that she wasn't exposing her pants.
"Clear your schedules." A perky voice suddenly interrupted them. "This could take a while."
Harper glanced up to see Lydia standing in the room, holding up two very full Macy's bags in her hands. The strawberry blonde wore a grin on her face, and Harper was jealous that she was so blissfully unaware of the supernatural and Matt the freaking stalker.
Lydia placed the bags down on the bed beside Harper, shooting her best friend a grin and kissing her on the cheek. Harper simply smiled back, her mood lifting slightly from a few seconds ago.
"How many outfits do you plan on wearing tonight?" Allison chuckled as the green eyed girl began to shuffle through the bags.
"It's my birthday party," Lydia scoffed, pulling out a grey striped dress. "I'm thinking host dress, evening dress, then, mm, after hours casual."
Harper couldn't help herself and opened one of the bags, looking through it and pulling out all of the dresses that Lydia had brought for herself. Allison smiled nervously from beside the strawberry blonde.
"I noticed that you didn't send out any invites." She rubbed her hands together, looking towards Lydia for an answer.
Lydia didn't look up as she pulled out another dress. "It's the biggest party of the year, Allison. Everyone knows," she huffed as she placed another dress down on the bed, not making eye contact with either of the girls.
"I was wondering if maybe this year things, you know, might be different." Allison shrugged, watching Lydia as if she was about to burst any second.
Lydia paused what she was doing, but didn't look up. "Why would anything be different?"
Harper didn't know whether she sounded nervous or not. Her full lips had pursed together as she stared down at the outfits in front of her, waiting for the hunter's reply.
The shortest girl spoke for Allison, "I think that Allison just means that things have been different lately. Things and people."
"Like Jackson," Allison finished, searching for any signs of an emotion change on Lydia's face.
The strawberry blonde slowly looked up, but she didn't frown nor smile. "Why do you care about Jackson?" Her gaze was so intimidating that Allison felt her cheeks burn slightly.
Allison just chuckled, shaking her head. "Do you know if he's coming tonight?"
"Everyone's coming," Lydia's expression didn't change as she reached into a bag, holding a peach dress up. "This one's American Rag. Mm, I love it. For me, not for you."
Lydia grinned as she reached down, picking up a floral patterned dress. "This one's Material Girl. It's for you." She held it out to Allison.
Then she picked out another dress, holding it up for Harper. "For you," she tossed it at her, "I saw it and immediately thought of you."
Harper pulled the dress at arms length so that she could examine it properly. It truly was beautiful. It was a burgundy halter dress that came to about mid thigh. The dress reminded Harper a lot of her winter formal dress, except less far less detail.
Lydia obviously wanted to be the centre of attention at her own birthday party, so of course she was going to wear the better dress. Harper didn't mind though, Lydia deserved some attention after they had been somewhat ignoring her for the past few weeks.
There was suddenly a knock on the door, and Harper's head snapped up only to see Victoria Argent stood there. She had a forced smile on her face, sweat beading on her forehead as she looked at the girls. She avoided eye contact with Harper and Harper pursed her lips, staring intently at the woman in front of them.
"Mrs Argent," Lydia chirped, "what do you think of Harper's dress?"
The woman was forced to look over at Harper who's grip tightened on the dress in her hands. Victoria plastered a faker smile on her face.
"Oh, it's lovely." Her voice was quieter than usual. "Allison, uh, can I grab you for a moment to talk? Just the two of us."
Harper's nose crinkled up when she suddenly felt the anxiety, sadness, and desperation seep into her. She played with her own hands as she watched Mrs Argent stare at her daughter hopefully. Something was going on, but of course Allison and Lydia couldn't feel that.
"Um, can we do it later?" Allison mumbled, gesturing to the mess of dresses on her bed.
"Actually, uh, to be honest, sooner would be- would be better." She started rubbing her arm and then her shoulder and Harper frowned, wondering what the hell was going on with her.
"Party's at ten." Lydia turned from her outfits to say.
"Um, will you be around before then?" Victoria looked at her daughter expectantly.
"I think so."
"You think so?" Victoria repeated, swallowing thickly.
"I don't know." Allison suddenly frowned, dismissing her mother quickly.
Victoria just pursed her lips and nodded before turning to leave. Allison and Lydia carried on their conversation while Harper just stared after her, not being able to shake off the feeling that something was wrong with Allison's mum.
...
Harper rung the doorbell to Lydia's large house, only for the door to be opened seconds later. Lydia stood there, a smile immediately reaching her face when she saw her best friend stood in the doorway with a 'MAC' bag in her hands. Stiles stood beside her, smiling politely at Lydia who just sent him a nod.
"Happy birthday!" Harper cheered, and she would have given Lydia a hug, if it wasn't for the massive tray of drinks that she was holding.
"Thanks, Harps." Lydia leaned down and gave her a friendly peck on the cheek anyway,"is that for me?" She gestured to the MAC bag.
"Duh," Harper chuckled, "you're the birthday girl."
Lydia just smirked, "you can put it down on the presents table. It's by the kitchen."
Harper nodded, "gotcha."
She grabbed Stiles' hand gently and began to lead him towards where Lydia had instructed them to go. Along the way Scott joined them, dressed up in a mint shirt with a smart black denim jacket over it. Harper had worn the dress Lydia had brought her, and Stiles had stuck to a plaid shirt over a dark green one with some jeans.
"Have you seen Jackson anywhere?" Stiles questioned as they stopped so Harper could put her gift on the assigned table.
It wasn't that full yet since there weren't many people at the party yet. She placed the black bag beside a bunch of colourfully wrapped presents.
"No. Seen Allison?" Scott asked.
Harper shook her head, "no," she murmured, "but we should probably tell her what Stiles found."
Stiles had been obsessing over his dad's case all day, and had actually managed to find something inside the yearbook. Apparently, all of the people who were killed were on the 2006 swim team, and Isaac's dad, Mr Lahey, had been the coach for it.
"I'm still kind of not sure what we found." Scott furrowed his eyebrows together as they began to walk again.
"We figured out that it has something to do with water. You know, the fact that all the victims were on the swim team, the way the Kanima reacted around the pool." Stiles explained to Scott.
"So, whoever's controlling the Kanima really hates the swim team?" Scott summarised, looking towards the Stilinski boy for confirmation.
"Hated the swim team. Specifically, the 2006 swim team." Stiles corrected him, "so it could be another teacher. Maybe like a student back then. I mean, who are we missing? What haven't we thought of?"
They had walked outside. The pillars around them had been wrapped with fairy lights, accompanying the ivy that had already grown there. The entire garden looked like something out of some sort of teen movie- there was a massive pool there and everything.
Allison suddenly came over, sending Scott an awkward nod which he returned. "Uh, Jackson's not here."
"Yeah, no one's here." Stiles frowned.
Harper bit her lip as she looked around and realised they were the only ones out there. "It's just early," she defended her best friend, "people will start turning up soon."
Stiles shot her a look, "or maybe nobody's coming because Lydia's turned into the town wack job."
The shortest girl glared at him, her gaze softening when she saw Lydia stood alone on the other side of the garden. She was stood there with her drinks, looking around expectantly.
"We have to do something, guys." Her voice came out softly when she turned to look back at her friends.
Allison nodded in agreement, "yeah, we have kind of been ignoring her for the past two weeks."
Scott shook his head, "we don't owe her a party."
Harper blinked, "really, Scott?"
"What about the chance to get back to normal?" Allison offered.
"Normal?" The werewolf repeated, confused.
Harper scoffed, "Scott, if it wasn't for us, Lydia would be perfectly fine. I'm the reason Lydia ended up on the lacrosse field that night and ended up getting bitten by Peter, and why she ran naked through the woods all weekend and became Beacon High's biggest joke."
Stiles placed a comforting hand on the small of her back. "How many times do I have to tell you, babe?" He sighed, "it's not your fault. Peter took control of you and forced you to take her onto that field. You would never have done it if you were in control."
Harper bit her lip at his words, but it didn't stop the hot tears from pooling in her eyes. She quickly blinked them away, forcing a smile at her boyfriend. Scott noticed her fake act and sighed. He hated seeing Harper upset, it was like when his mum cried— one of the worst feelings in the world.
"I guess I could use my co-captain status to get the lacrosse team here." The tan boy shrugged in an attempt to soothe Harper a little.
Stiles nodded, "yeah, I also know some people who can get this thing going." He dug his phone out of his pocket, "like really going."
"Who?" The hunter frowned.
"I met them the other night. Let's just say they know how to party."
...
About half an hour later, the party was finally in full swing. Lydia's favourite music blasted from the speakers as people danced and spoke and drank. Harper noticed some drag queens by one of the pillars and scoffed, realising that that was who Stiles had been talking about. Just as she was about to go and talk to a girl in her German class, a hand grabbed her shoulder.
"Harper," Lydia grinned, "you haven't tried the punch yet."
The brunette looked at the cups Lydia was carrying on her tray. "Are they alcoholic?" She questioned.
Lydia giggled, rolling her eyes. "There's a little bit in there. C'mon, Harps. It's my birthday, everybody's favourite day of the year. Lighten up,"
Harper let the smile cross her face as she accepted the glass from Lydia's hands. "I guess one drink wouldn't hurt," she giggled, taking a sip of the drink. "Mm, this is actually really good. What's in it?"
The strawberry blonde just smirked. "It's a secret recipe."
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hope you liked it! i might publish the next chapter today.
only seven chapters left !! (i think)
also tysm for 900 votes! ilyasm
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