Chapter 5: Expiration Date
Chapter Song: Pretend It's Okay by Little Mix
"Nothing here, no one talking, knowing it's too late. But sometimes it can be so hard pretending it's OK. "
~
"What?" Stiles asked me with a tone of questioning as he, Scott and I walked down the sidewalk of a very fancy neighborhood. We were going to some party for someone Stiles knew. I wanted to hang out with Lydia and Allison but Scott insisted I came along with him and Stiles because he didn't want to not know anyone here.
I was not the least bit happy either. I didn't know the girl who's birthday it was and it was awkward.
I furrowed my eyebrows at him in annoyance, "What do you mean, 'what?' " I said with annoyance.
" I mean what, and you know what." He said sternly to me as the three of us continued to walk.
I stopped in my tracks causing Scott to halt as well since I was holding his hand, " What the hell are you talking about, Stiles?"
" The look you were giving. Actually the look both of you gave me." He said gesturing to Scott and I.
" We didn't give a look." Scott said as he shrugged his shoulders.
" It was a distinct look, Scott." He said raising his voice and throwing his hands in the air.
" What look?" I asked as I rubbed my forehead with my hand. He was bugging me right now by not getting to the fucking point.
" The look that says the last thing either of you feel like doing right now is going to a party." He said throwing his hand at us and finally getting to his point.
I sighed and gave him a small smile, " Stiles, it's not that. It just seems weird going to a different high schools party where we know no one."
Stiles threw his hands in the air, " Ug, oh my god! Just one drink, okay. You guys will be okay."
He then began walking again in an annoyed manner which made me chuckle slightly as Scott and I began to follow behind the four year old man child we called our best friend.
As we approached a house that looked to be the party spot because of the loud music echoing out of it and the numerous amount of people inside and outside of the house, Stiles turned to me and pointed at me with a knowing smirk, " Izzy, You can't tell me this isn't at least a little appealing. You love parties and when's the last time you actually got to let loose?"
I shrugged my shoulders and let out a chuckle, " I guess you're right. As long as it's not too crowded inside I'll admit that it does sound pretty nice to party for once."
Stiles fist pumped the air in excitement, " Yes, see that a girl. Now, Scott just calm down it'll all be okay, I went to nursery school with this girl. Plus, we all need some time to move away from the supernatural for one night, just move on."
Scott finally smiled and nodded his head, " You're right."
" You're right I'm right." Stiles said cockily.
I chuckled and pumped my fist in the air mockingly, " Moving on!"
Stiles obviously didn't take it as a joke or offensively like I hoped he actually thought I was being serious as a huge smile grew on his face and he related my action, " Onward and upward."
I scoffed playfully and swung Scott's arm in mine as we stood in front of the house hosting the party.
Stiles grabbed Scott's shoulder and smiled happily. He was obviously very excited for this party which was evident by the way he spoke to Scott as he said, " Let's do this."
Scott nodded excitedly before pulling Stiles into some weird ass bro handshake that I ever not once seen. They really did have too much time together while I was gone. If it was possible to say they got closer in my absence then it happened, I wanted a secret handshake too.
I quirked my eyebrow at them as Scott let go of my hand and the two left me behind as they walked up to front door. They completely forgot about me as they got caught up in their own conversation as they reached the front door. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest gently as I walked slowly behind them, my heels quietly tapping on the ground as I walked.
Just as I reached the boys they decided to open the door and walked in. I quietly followed behind them and I immediately regretted this, I felt out of place. This was not like Lydia's parties where I knew everyone and I was popular, here I was a nobody. Normally I didn't mind being a nobody but here I was intimidated. I looked around hoping that maybe I'd find someone like Danny, he always seemed to tell me about random parties he just shows up at, maybe just maybe he'd be here.
Stiles, Scott and I stood in front of the door for about a minute just surveying the party until a blonde girl and her friend parted through the people and approached us. Her smile lit up when she saw Stiles and I instantly knew this was who's party this was.
" Stiles!" She said eagerly and walked over to us with a blue solo cup full of what I could only guess was some hard liquor, which I wouldn't mind having right now even though it had no effect on me.
He smiled back at her with a lopsided grin, " Hey, Birthday girl!"
She reached us in a matter of seconds and did something none of us expected her to do. She instantly smashed her lips onto Stiles. My eyes widened and I couldn't help the small smile that played on my lips from the look of surprise on Stiles' face.
She then pulled away and smirked at him, " So glad you could make it."
Stiles looked at her with wide eyes and nervously stuttered out, " Yeah...me too."
I chuckled and leaned back on the door as I watched the girl who's name I had forgotten the moment that Stiles' told me it about an hour ago.
She grabbed his shoulder gently and began rubbing it, " Come downstairs with me and help me pick out a bottle of wine." She then grabbed his hand and began pulling him before he could respond.
He smiled and rapidly nodded his head, " Yes."
As she pulled him, Stiles looked back to Scott and I and gave us a nervous but yet excited smile. I chuckled and gave him two thumbs up as he got farther and farther away from the two of us. Stiles was definitely going to get some tonight. It was obvious that she was aiming to seduce him and by Stiles' emotions it was a success.
I had momentarily connected to him not only a second ago and trust me I felt all of that sexual frustration he was talking about at school the other day. I was right when I said I didn't want to feel that... it made me want to barf.
" You look like you're going to puke, are you okay, honey?" I looked around before I made eye contact with the girl that had been with the so-called birthday girl.
I waved my hand down and chuckled, " Yeah, just getting over a sickness, you know? It comes back in flashes."
She gave me an odd look but nodded awkwardly and then walked away without another word.
Scott laughed next to me which caused me to hit him in the chest and glare at him, " Its not funny."
" It really is. You connected to Stiles didn't you?" He asked with a chuckle as he ran a hand through his hair before throwing both of his hands into his pockets.
" Yes, and it was disgusting, How did you know?" I groaned out at the thought of EVER doing that again which I NEVER wanted to do.
" Your eyes, they did that weird shine thing." He said as he shrugged his shoulders, " I just assumed from that."
" Well you assumed right."
We stood there in silence kicking at the carpeted floor of this random girls house filled with unknown teenagers after my last words. I don't know why it suddenly became awkward after we had finished talking about Stiles, it had never been like this before I left.
I don't know how long we stood there but the silence was finally broken as Scott spoke up, " Izzy, I have something I want to talk to you about."
I turned to him and rose my eyebrows in questioning, " Sure, what about?"
He grabbed my hand in his and opened the door to the front that we had just barely came in through, " I think we should talk more in private."
I was even more confused now but I nodded and allowed him to pull me outside. The cold air made me shiver as my skin was exposed to it. I hadn't realized how cold it was out until I was exposed to the heat of the inside.
Scott and I walked around teenagers drinking and making out on the front lawn until we reached the cold hard pavement of the curb. He held my hand as he began to take a seat and I followed his lead as I pulled my dress down and took a seat next to him.
" So what did you want to talk about?" I asked calmly hoping that everything was okay. I knew things had been a little weird but I was hoping that we could get through that. We can, I know we can get back to how we were.
He sighed sadly and reached into his jacket, I watched as he unzipped a pocket inside of it and pulled something out. It took my eyes a second to register what it was but when I did I too sighed sadly. It was one of my letters to him. To be more specific it was the red one, the one I wrote while drunk off of wine.
I gulped nervously as I watched him turn it over in his over and over again. He didn't speak as he did so but I could feel the anguish it brought him and it hurt me to see that.
I took a shaky breath before speaking, " So I take it you read them all?"
He didn't look at me but he nodded as he continued to twirl the envelope in his hands while staring at it.
I watched him do his for awhile but the anticipation for what he wanted to say was beginning to eat away at me so I simply reached out and grabbed his hand. He immediately stopped twirling it but his eyes stayed glued to the it.
" Scott?" I asked gently hoping he'd tell me what was on his mind.
When he did turn to me I actually wished he didn't, there we're tears in his eyes and he was staring into my sole with those sad chocolate puppy eyes of his.
He softly removed my hand from on top of his and held up the card in the air, " Did you really think I was hurting less than you when you were in France?"
I shut my eyes tightly trying to hold my emotions in and I tried to push down the lump growing in my throat.
I slowly open my eyes and looked into his as soon as I felt more composed, at least enough to speak, " Yes Scott, I did. I didn't have any kind of control over my powers but I always seemed to connect to you when I didn't even mean to, you always seemed so happy every single time."
" I was doing what you wanted. You wanted me to not contact you so I had distract myself, what did you want me to do? Just be miserable all the time?" He asked me as his voice broke a bit. That wasn't even the worst part of what he said the worst was that I could sense anger growing in him with each word. This wasn't going to end well no matter what I said.
I shook my head, " No, I would never want you to be miserable, I just couldn't help but feeling you were happier without me."
He gawked and me and basically shouted in my face as I sat only about 3 inches away from him, " Happier without you? Did I not just admit that I felt as if I had an open wound because of you! I wasn't happy that you left me."
I stayed calm and spoke gently as I took a deep breath, " Yes, I get that but you couldn't have expected me not to worry. I was gone for two months, a lot can change in that time and I had no way of staying in touch to know how you felt."
He rolled his eyes, " Yeah, and who's fault was that?"
I suddenly stood up angrily and stepped away from him, I did not like him using this perfectly good night to fight about something that was supposed to be meaningful, " Are you seriously doing this right now, Scott? It was not my choice, you don't even know how many times I tried to steal my phone from Chris. How can you say that to me?"
" You could have not agreed to that stupid rule in the first place! None of this would have happened if you would stop being weak and learn to say no to Allison!" He shouted as he now stood up and threw his hands in the air.
My eyes widened in shock before my face immediately turned into a glare directed at Scott, " What did you just call me?"
Scott rolled his eyes, " Oh, I forgot! You hate being called weak, don't you?" He then continued to take steps towards me until he was right in front of me, " Well, guess what? You are! You may have bursts of courage but you've always been weak. No matter what you do you're weak. You cry about everything, I was here dealing with you leaving like a man while you cried like a child."
In this moment I had no control over myself and before I could stop myself my hand made contact with his face, " I don't know who the hell you think you are but this is not my Scott. The Scott I know would never say that to me. He would never say any of this shit. I hate you, I hate whoever this new person is."
He just stared at me and said without even blinking, " Well, I hate you too for leaving me. I guess that means we're even."
" You're a fucking selfish bastard. How can you say you hate me for leaving you when you're the one who said it would be good for me? I would have never got on that fucking plane if you told me to stay! Don't you get that! I love you even right now when I want every fiber of my being to hate you like I just said I did." I said as the tears finally flowed out and I began choking on my tears.
He didn't even look remorseful and I knew this wasn't the man I fell in love with, this wasn't my Scott.
He just shook his head and rolled his eyes, " You don't love me. You loved me, but that's all gone. I can tell."
" Oh really? Because what I thought we had was true love and I wasn't aware that true love had an expiration date. You can think whatever you want but I never stopped loving you and I don't know why you can't see that from those letters. But whatever, go fuck yourself, Scott McCall."
I then reached into my small purse hanging around my shoulder and pulled out the thing I always kept near to me. I then threw it at Scott hoping it would pierce him in the heart. Unfortunately it didn't he caught it before it could.
" You can have that pen back now. I don't want to be reminded of you anymore. I don't ever want to see you again. I poured my heart into those letters and you just regarded them as nothing. I have no use of remembering the first day I met you because right now Scott I wish we'd never met." I then turned on my heel and angrily walked down the road leaving Scott behind.
I pulled my phone out of my purse as I stomped away and quickly texted Stiles:
TO BATMAN:
Hope you're getting laid...finally. Just want you to know that I broke up with Scott, if you want you can murder him for all I care.
I then scrolled to my messages and deleted all of mine with Scott before going to his contact and scrolling to DELETE AND BLOCK CONTACT.
I stared at the words with tears welling in my eyes and the more I stared the more angry I got which resulted in me throwing my phone at the nearest tree and completely shattering it. I didn't even try and pick it up I just walked right on past and continued to walk without even caring about my abandoned phone.
~
I had been walking for an hour now and I was still nowhere close to any home. If I hadn't broken my phone and left it I could have called Allison but now I was left walking barefoot on the side of the road, I had taken my heels of 40 minutes ago.
I wanted to stop and just fall over here and die. All my emotions were on full blast and I didn't know what to do. I could run home but I had no motivation to do that, I was too hurt.
As I reached yet another unknown street sign, I let out a heavy sigh and began to cross the road. When I was in the middle of crossing a motorcycle pulled up beside me and the rider turned the bike off. I stopped in my tracks and curiously looked at the bike parked next to me.
As I looked at it curiously, the rider began to pull their helmet off their head. They gave me a small smile once their eyes met mine and I gave them a small one in return. It was the twin from the other day.
He cocked his eyebrow at me from his seat still on his motorcycle, " Tell me. What's a gorgeous girl like yourself doing out at night by herself?"
I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders, "Walking away from my problems, I guess."
"Well..." He started up his engine again before turning to me, " What do you say instead of walking away from them you get on here with me and we can ride away from them, I bet it'll be a lot faster."
I chuckled again and rose an eyebrow playfully at him, " Why do you wanna help me? You don't even know me."
" Yeah, I do. Trust me, I've had my eye on you from the moment I walked into that school. You caught my attention, Miss Hale." He said with a goofy smile.
" You know my name?" I asked as a smile grew on my face in response to his playful attitude.
" Of course, you're one of the most popular girls in Beacon Hills, or so I hear. I personally think you're the most beautiful that I know for sure." He smirked at me as he leaned foreword on his motorcycle.
I walked over to him slowly now and placed my free hand that did have my shoes in on his motorcycle seat, " If I go with you, will you tell me your name since you know so much about me?"
" I'll tell you right now. My names Aiden." He smiled at me genuinely, he then grabbed my hand in his gently, " Now, can you please let me help you and take you to your own home? No girl like you should be out here alone."
I felt my heart flutter with happiness at his words, it was so different compared to the previous conversation I had with Scott so that's what drove me to nodding my head and jumping onto the motorcycle. My arms immediately went around his waste.
I felt his body shake as he chuckled and revved the bikes engine, " Hold on tight, beautiful."
And with that we flew down the neighborhood road. I had never felt so safe but dangerous and free at the same time as the wind whipped through my hair. Usually I felt strange with new people but for some reason Aiden felt safe. I was just hoping I was right.