Stiles' breath tickled my ear as he leaned over my left shoulder, pulling himself in closer to the side of my head, careful to not bump into the few other students in the hallway on this early Saturday morning. His eyebrows knitted together at the center of his forehead as he asked, "What does Isaac mean by he'll 'take care of it'?"
A sly grin momentarily tugged on my lips at his question. After sending a thumbs up emoji in response to my brother's text, I locked my phone screen while I glanced at him over my shoulder, slightly taken aback by how close his head was to mine. "Uh, just something we have planned for tonight," I replied with a small shrug of my shoulders, sliding my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, attempting to pass the whole thing off as nothing.
He narrowed his chocolate brown eyes at me, suspiciously. "I thought we were going to try to go on our first date tonight."
I nodded at him, excitedly, butterflies erupting in my stomach at the simple thought of having our first date together. It was still surreal to me that we were dating, that Stiles was actually into me, like I was into him.
"We are," I promised him. "Isaac and I just have something planned afterwards." The suspicious look he sent me continued to be shot in my direction, unwaveringly. I pecked his cheek, quickly, hoping to ease his racing mind. "It's nothing to worry about, I promise," I reassured him.
His curiosity washed away by the time we rounded the corner, making our way further through the school toward Mrs. Martin's classroom to take our PSATs today. As we walked through the hallway, I found my nerves kicking back in, scared of what was around the next few corners. The awful thoughts of what happened last night at the animal clinic replayed in my mind, reminding me of all the things I said to Scott, regret flooding through my entire being.
Our friends were already in line outside of the classroom, waiting for the two of us to arrive, along with Isaac and Aiden, who were running a tad late. The thing that worried me the most was knowing I would be face to face with Scott in a matter of minutes, apologies on the tip of my tongue.
What if he didn't forgive me for what I said last night? There were so many hurtful things that flew from my lips last night. My mind was a mess inside, confused at where those feelings came from, not understanding how I lost control of my body and thoughts. Sure, Scott and I had our issues-- especially past issues-- but we were letting go of all of that. We were allowing ourselves to become friends again without the constant stress of what we went through before I left for France.
Suddenly, without any warning, I began to blurt out all of my worries and stress out loud in the middle of the hallway, unable to hold any of it back for any longer. "Why couldn't our PSATs be later in the year-- or why couldn't I have taken them earlier, like Lydia did?" I demanded to know. "Why does it have to be now when we have so much to on our plates already? How am I expected to focus on what two plus two equals when I have assassins to worry about and trying to keep my pack from falling apart? Why--"
Beside me, Stiles shook his head, completely startled by my random outburst. He abruptly stepped in front of me, fingers softly pressed into my shoulders over the striped shirt I wore. "Chloe!"
I struggled to take a deep breath, stress eating me alive on the inside.
"Calm down, alright?" Stiles' voice grew softer as he saw the amount of anxiety I was feeling in that moment. His thumbs gently rubbed across my collarbones, soothingly. "You've been studying for this all week. You're going to be fine." His head bobbed to the side as he added, "And we'll figure it out about everything else. We always do."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I apologized to him, hanging my head. I nervously swallowed at the bundles of nerves building in my body. "I'm just so stressed out over everything right now, and the whole thing with Scott-- not to mention seeing my house again did not help. I mean, what if he doesn't forgive me? What if our fight ruined our friendship and the whole pack falls apart--"
"Hey, hey," Stiles cupped my face in his hands, staring intently in my eyes. His thumb softly brushed across my cheek as he spoke, "Just breathe, okay? Deep breaths. You're going to work yourself into a panic attack."
I heavily gasped through my parted lips, feeling my whole body grow warm with my cheeks tingling. "I think I already am," I admitted under my breath.
Stiles tilted my head up to bring me to look into his eyes. "Hey, I'm right here." The hand on the left side of my face moved away as he reached down to grab my hand. He brought it up to his chest, placing it over the white shirt he wore under the green hoodie, directly over his heart. "Focus on my heartbeat."
My lips parted from a small exhale at the feel of his heartbeat beneath my palm.
Both of his hands covered over mine. "Let it ground you."
I took a few deep breaths, attempting to follow his instructions on concentrating on his heartbeat behind his sternum. My shoulders raise and fell with every breath I took, slowly beginning to feel more at ease with all of my focus on him instead of the troubled thoughts raging inside of my skull.
A few minutes passed of just the two of us standing in the hallway, my hand glued to his chest with both of his hands on top of my own. My eyes were squeezed shut, solely paying attention only to the feel of his heart beneath my palm, finding solace from it. Once I felt my body visibly calm down, I grabbed a fistful of the white shirt in my hand and stepped closer to Stiles, molding my body into him, thankful he helped me calm down.
Not a word was exchanged between the two of us as Stiles wrapped his arms around my shoulders, head resting on top of mine. "You're okay," he mumbled into my hair.
"Thank you," I whispered back to him. I rolled my shoulders back, desperate to regain control of my body and mind again. "Alright, let's just go take these damn PSATs already. We can figure out the pack later."
Stiles nodded, eyes slightly narrowing on my face, worried I wasn't fully okay, knowing me entirely too well.
"I do need to apologize to Scott first, though," I said, a trace of fear laced in my voice.
"He wants to talk to about last night as much as you do, Chloe." Stiles reached for my hand, slowly leading me back toward the direction we needed to head in. "It's going to be fine."
As we gradually made our way to the designated area for our PSATs, a multiple things happened before we could walk around the finally corner of the school. Stiles dropped my hand, letting his fall back to his side. The two of us shared a mutual look, one that said we understood why he did it, but that we didn't like it. We knew we had to tell our friends, but the thought of creating more drama between the pack was terrifying, especially at a times like this.
I picked up on the heartbeats and voices around the corner, zoning in on our friends. A trail of goosebumps spread across my skin at the sound of Scott's voice. A moment of stress resurfaced in my mind until I focused back on Stiles' heartbeat, knowing it was the one thing I needed to ground me in this time.
The two of us walked into the next hallway, immediately spotting our group of friends in line for the exam against the wall of Mrs. Martin's classroom. A breath was sucked in between my teeth at the sight of Scott with his back to us. Scott's head began to leer away from the rest of the group, like he had heard my gasp. His dark eyes widened with mixed emotions when he saw the two of us at the other end of the hallway, hesitantly making our way toward them.
"-- Scott!"
"-- Chloe!"
The two of us met each other in the middle of the hallway after he swiftly ditched the group to head straight for me. My body sprung forward as I felt my legs take control, striding forward to meet Scott. Our chests heaved up and down in a rapid sense, either nervous of the conversation that was to come or from our small race to each other.
"I'm sorry!" We apologized in unison.
Weak, breathy chuckles of laughter tumbled from our lips in nervousness. Stiles quietly stepped away from us, joining the rest of our friends in line.
"Scott," I began, holding my hands up in the air, prepared to apologize to him in every way I could, like I had practiced in my bathroom mirror before Stiles picked me up. "I am so sorry for everything I said last night and blowing up on you so badly--"
"No, no, Chloe." Scott shook his head at me. "You have no reason to apologize. I shouldn't have acted the way I did last night. You had every right to explode like that. I don't know what came over me. You were worried about Liam and I was just being stupid and irrational."
My eyes grew wide as I listened to him speak. "I'm not going to lie, what you did about Liam was wrong on so many levels, but I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. I was just filled with so much rage and I took it out all on you. I was pissed at you, but I didn't realize just how mad I was at you."
"You had every right to be."
"I'm just so sorry for everything I said. It was so unnecessary--"
"It was completely necessary, Chloe," Scott interrupted me. "I should have told you about Liam being missing as soon as I found out, but it was, like, something took over my mind and I thought I could find him on my own without you or the rest of the pack." He took a deep breath. "That was wrong. I didn't even sleep last night because I was going over everything I said and did in my mind."
From our peripheral vision, we noticed our friends slyly turned their bodies in our direction, watching our interaction unfold in front of them. A few other students in the line eyed our conversation, curious to know if we were fighting or not.
I peered up at Scott, noticing how disheveled his hair was, probably from running his fingers through it all morning long out of stress. "Look, Scott, you're right. You should have told all of us as soon as you found out, but how I reacted at the animal clinic was so--" I sighed to myself. "I wasn't myself. I don't know who that girl was, but I didn't like her."
Scott weakly laughed. "Yeah, I didn't really like her either. She kind of scared me." He ran his hand through his hair. "I don't even know who I was last night. That guy scared me. I deserved everything you said last night and I wish I had let you punch me instead of Isaac. I deserved it."
My hands flew to my temples, remembering that part of last night in the clinic. The memory of tapping my fist to Isaac's bicep reappeared in my mind. "Oh, my God!" I loudly exclaimed. "I forgot I made him do that." My lips pressed together as I quietly added, "I'll be honest, though. I didn't fully lose control in that moment. I wanted to punch you as myself and as the person that took control last night. You were just being a dick."
"And I deserved it," Scott nodded to himself, rocking back and forth on his heels twice. "But, I know why we acted the way we did to each other."
"Wait, what?" I gawked at him, taken aback.
He took a small step back. "Once I got home and thought about everything that happened, I realized that the person I was earlier wasn't really me, so I called Derek. It took a few tries before he actually answered me, but he thinks he knows what happened."
"What do you mean?" I frowned.
"He thinks that with two alphas in our pack all of our senses will be heightened--"
"-- but we knew that already," I interrupted him, not understanding.
"But we weren't prepared for our emotions to be heightened as well," Scott explained. "I've been bottling up a lot of my emotions since you came back and we agreed to just be friends again..."
My eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "We agreed that it was for the best, though." I quickly glanced in Stiles' direction, curious to know what he thought about all of this. "After everything that happened between us, just remaining friends is the best route for us."
"I know!" Scott blurted, quick to reassure me, noticing I was growing quite worried over his words. His hands latched onto my shoulders. "And I meant it one hundred percent. I just meant that I still had to get over you a little bit and felt guilty when Kira and I talked, so I ended up pushing her away more than I already had because I was still scared of hurting you."
Over his shoulder, Kira anxiously shifted on her feet, eyes shifting toward the ground, aware of the sudden attention on her from everyone. Her lips pressed together in a thin line as she nearly bored a hole into the linoleum floor beneath her shoes. I pulled my attention away from her to meet Scott's gaze once again, mind racing in confusion, attempting to comprehend what he was talking about.
"I know we're just friends now, but I got so close to losing you in general, that I got scared I would lose you in my life completely," Scott admitted, ears slightly turning red. "Even before we dated, you were my best friend, Chloe, and I still want you to be. So, I pushed Kira away when you came back, and all of the emotions I kept inside transformed into something I didn't recognize when we became one pack."
I gazed up at him, speechless. Of all the directions and ways I thought this conversation would go this morning in my bathroom, I hadn't predicted the two of us to talk about our emotions like we were.
"Derek thinks that since our emotions will be heightened from being two alphas in one pack, that includes anger as well."
Realization dawned on my face as I listened to him explain Derek's theory, which made more sense than I was prepared for. "So," I tentatively started to decipher the new information. "With everything heightened within us, when we get angry, it's not just us being pissed off..."
"It's us being blind with rage," Scott concluded. "Being so furious that we see red and lose control of ourselves."
"Oh, how lovely," I responded, sarcastically. My eyes shifted around absentmindedly at the open air around us as my mind thought of what this meant for us and the pack. "Okay," I heaved a large sigh. "Okay, we can work with this," I said, attempting to remain somewhat optimistic. "We just have to be careful with our emotions, especially around each other because we just seem to feed off of each other."
"How's-- How's Liam, by the way? He won't answer my texts. I don't blame him for being mad at me, but I wanted to see how he was doing." Concern brightly shined in Scott's eyes.
The corner of my lips tugged slightly upwards at his obvious concern for our beta. "He's okay," I reassured him with a small head nod. "He's just a little shaken up, which is to be expected for what he went through."
Scott breathed out of his mouth in relief, pleased.
"Well, my sister may have apologized for how she reacted last night, but don't expect that from me, McCall."
At the sound of my brother's voice, I spun around to see Aiden and him walking down the hallway, headed straight for our group. Isaac shot an annoyed glare at Scott before he draped his arm around my shoulders, edging me closer to our other friends in line instead of standing by Scott.
Isaac smirked before he added, "I enjoyed punching you."
XXXX
AHHHH AHHH AHHH AHHH AHHH
Okay, sorry for that outburst. I've just been experiencing the worst kind of writer's block lately and I really had to push myself to write this chapter, so please appreciate it. This dry spell of mine has been lasting for soooo long. Honestly, it's still kind of happening, but I think I might see the light at the end of the tunnel soon. I, also, haven't quite been in the right state of mind to write, but I'm working on that as well.
Now, all of you understand why Scott and Chloe acted the way they did before. There's still a small bit of their apology to happen, but that's coming up really soon.
This chapter was already pretty long, so I decided to just end it here and just continue on with the scene in the next chapter. I hope you guys don't mind.
Question: How do you think Chloe will react during this episode?
So, yeah!