Chapter 33
The next day, Lydia and I got a ride to school from Allison, since Allison had already planned to pick Lydia up and I was already there from our sleepover from the night before. It felt like old times. Like Peter never happened or like Jackson never became a huge asshole. Just like how Lydia and I used to hang out before anything became a thing to worry about. It felt peaceful even if it was ignorant for me to think that way.
I was walking to the lunchroom with Stiles. We were heading over to Boyd in order to get our hands on the ice rink keys. Stiles tried to keep it a secret from me, but I was able to get it out of him when he planned it. That's how I was able to convince Lydia to join us. She needs a good distraction. Why not enjoy some spins on the ice. I mean she used to be on the ice skating class when we were younger.
"Hey Boyd," I smiled over to him as Stiles and I sat across from him.
Boyd returned the smile before Stiles caused him to drop it, "You got the keys?"
Boyd nodded and presented the keys to us. Stiles smile like a kid in a candy shop as he reached for it. I watched as Stiles tried to take them, but Boyd kept a stronghold on them.
"This isn't a favor," he finally spoke, "it's a transaction."
"Right," Stiles finally let go of the keys and reached for his wallet, "Yeah. Absolutely."
Stiles pulled out a twenty and presented it to Boyd. The look from Boyd was evident enough top know that wasn't what they agreed upon. I turned to Stiles and gave him a look as Boyd made his point clear.
"I said fifty," he stated.
"Really?" Stiles asked, playing dumb, "I-I remember twenty."
"Stiles," I sighed, "Give the man his money..."
"I don't know," Stiles sighed, "I have a really good verbal memory, and I remember that distinct 'twa' sound, 'twa'-enty."
I sighed and rolled my eyes at what he had just said.
"I said fifty," Boyd answered with a serious look on his face, "With a 'fa' sound. Hear the difference? If you can't, I can demonstrate some other words with the 'fa' sound."
"That won't be necessary, Boyd," I gave him a smile but then turned my head to glared at Stiles.
"Uh," stiles gulped once he same my face, "No, n-no. I think I'm recalling it now. Maybe I just got it confused with 'for' ty."
I slapped my forehead. My message was not received and now Boyd is starting to rethink his decision on this exchange. Tired with all of this, I got up and pulled out my wallet from my bag. Both boys looked over to me as I took out a hundred out of my wallet as well as swiping the forty that Stiles was holding out to Boyd.
"How about a hundred forty," I slapped the cash on the table.
Boyd smiled over to me and handed me the keys to the ice rink. I thanked him as I pocketed the keys into my bag along with my wallet. I began to walk away from the two boys. It didn't take long for me to hear Stiles stumbling out of his seat and giving chase over to me. Scott smiled at my arrival at his table as I sat across from him.
"You just pulled a hundred out of your wallet?" Stiles asked as he took a seat beside me.I nodded as I began to open my lunch, "That was my allowance for the week."
"What?" both boys exclaimed before Stiles continued, "You get a hundred a week?"
"No," I paused to take a bite of my pasta, "That's just my mom's allowance to me. I get a thousand into my savings account every month. That's the only good thing I got from Peter."
"I don't even have more than fifty in my wallet," Stiles groaned.
"Well, only ten now," I joked, smiling at the face he gave me.
"Whatever," he huffed and turned to look at Scott, "I'll pick you up right after work tonight, we'll meet up with Juliette and the girls at the rink, cool?"
Scott and I nodded, but I noticed Scott take a pause. I gave him a look before both me and Stiles turned around to see what Scott was looking up. What I saw was a blow to my ego. I mean, I have confidence in both my look but seeing the now new and improved Erica before us, made me feel insecure.
"What the holy hell is that?" I made out Lydia's voice as she walked over to me.
"It's Erica..." I announced in a low voice.
Both Scott and Stiles gave chase after her when she walked out of the cafeteria. I rolled my eyes as I turned around to continue eating my meal. Lydia took a seat beside me with her own tray. As much as I tried to enjoy my meal, I couldn't. My mind was running laps as it threw me into an insecure circle.
I looked down at my outfit. I had decided to wear one of my many jeans with a black crop top that hung off my shoulders. It was a bit cold to wear this outside, but it was a cute look. It allowed me to wear one of Lydia's warm sweaters to keep me warm. I even went with a pair of converse that I had at Lydia's place.
The worst part about all of this, was Stiles' look when he saw Erica.
—
Lydia and I were on Allison's bed as we waited until around the time Allison and I knew that Scott got out of work. Allison was going though he closet to get a jacket and beanie when his father came into the room. We all looked to look at him, but his eyes were trained on Allison.
"Headed out?" he asked her before glancing over to Lydia and myself on the bed.
Lydia nudged me for a picture as we both began to pose. Thank god Lydia was being her normal self, or I would have been struggling to act normal. I mean we looked ridiculous in making our funny faces or duck facing but it was a good distraction with the current situation and conversation.
"Studying," Allison answer but elaborated when she noticed that her father wasn't buying it, "Just studying, dad."
"I get it," Chris smiled at her but I noticed his side glance over to us on the bed before he continued, "But we need you to remember what happened."
"You want me to stop being friends with them?" Allison whispered, even though she knew very well I can hear thanks to Scott's big mouth.
"Actually," Chris looked straight at his daughter, "We want the opposite. I know how this might sound, but we need you to keep an eye on them."
"You want me to spy on them?" Allison clarified the indication for me.
"We want you to look out for your friends to make sure every thing's okay with them," Chris told her as both him and Allison looked over to us on the bed.
Lydia was now taking selfies as I was texting with Stiles. He was trying to be cute and sweet, which only pulled a smile on my face. Of course, I still feel the hurt from what happened earlier, but he seemed to be doing fine.
"They seem to be okay to me," Allison smiled at us.
"Call me if anything happens," he gave his final statement before heading out.
Once I knew he had truly walked away, I look over to Allison as she sighs. It was clearly hard for her to be doing this on top of trying to keep my identity a secret. Then again, this could have been avoided if Scott didn't go ahead and actually tell her everything. Well, it's Scott we're talking about, of course, he would open his mouth to keep him from losing her. Really it wasn't his decision to tell her, but what's done is done.
"Well that wasn't reassuring," I announced as I placed my chin on my palm, "No offense."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Lydia asked as she placed her phone down.
Allison glances over to me as if she didn't know what to say to her, but I just sigh and looked over to the strawberry blond, "Nothing, I was just voicing my opinion on something Stiles sent me. So, are we ready to go?"
"Yeah," Allison smiled nervously, "Let's go."
The three of us climbed the stairs and toward the front door as Allison called out to her family that we were heading out. I decided to glance back to see what they would do or say at this point. That only earned me to notice Gerard staring right at me. It was a challenge, but I just nodded toward him in farewell and followed Lydia out of the house with Allison behind us.
We all got into Allison's car. I sat in the back. I wasn't feeling like sitting in the front as I looked down at my phone. During the whole right, I couldn't get the feeling that Gerard knew more than he was leading on with. He was planning something, but whatever it is, I had to keep myself on my toes. I am not going to allow him to just walk about this town as if it is his own and hurt my friends and family. If anything, this town is the Hales. I might not have their name, but to my misfortune, their blood runs through me and I will use that claim to keep this town safe.
"Juliette!"
My head popped up as I looked at the two girls in front of the car as they both looked back at me. Blinking a bit, I looked behind them to see that we had made it to the Ice rink. I must have allowed my thoughts to distract me, but I didn't let it show I was worried at all by smiling over to them.
"Sorry," I laughed, "I guess I was thinking too hard."
Lydia just rolled her eyes and exited the car. Allison looked over to me once more and gave me a worried look. I reassured her I was okay and just followed Lydia's lead. I got out of the car and looped my arm through Lydia's arm as I began to drag her over to the building where Stiles and Scott were waiting for us, outside.
"Why am I the fifth wheel?" Lydia asked.
"Oh come on," I laughed, "It will be fun. Besides, after what happened I think this will be a good distraction to what happened yesterday. Come on, let's show these people how amazing we are on the ice."
Lydia smiled as she walked with a bit of pride in her step. I smiled at my accomplishment. Once we made it to the door where Stiles was waiting for me, Lydia let go of my arm and walked right in, allowing me a moment with Stiles. He smiled down at me and gave me a quick but sweet kiss on my forehead before draping his arm over my shoulder to guide me inside.
Stiles and I went ahead and collected out skies, along with Lydia's as she waited of us on the stands. Stiles held my hand as we walked over to Lydia. I sat side her as I handed her her skies which she took with a grin. Stiles was focused on tying his skies to even notice that Lydia and I were done way before him. Lydia and I used to take classes together when we were in fourth grade, but I stopped once we got to middle school.
Now that I think about it, it was around the time I started to date Jackson.
"Could it be any colder in here?" Lydia announced, pulling me out of my thoughts once more.
Stiles dug through his backpack to produce an orange zip-up hoodie, "Here."
"I'm wearing blue," Lydia scoffed, looking at the article of clothing in Stiles' hand in disgust, "Orange and Blue, not a good combination."
"But it's the colors of the Mets," both Stiles and I commented.
We both looked over to each other as we smiled at each other. Lydia rolled her eyes at her, but I recovered quickly by taking Stiles hoodie he was offering her. They both looked over to me as I began to shrug off the coat that Lydia allowed me to borrow this morning and handed it to her. Lydia looked down at the brown coat but took it with a small smile. With a simple thanks, Lydia put it on over her own giving her even more warmth than she granted.
As Lydia began to head into the rink, I pulled the orange hoodie on. Stiles watched as his eyes landed on the small exposed skin of my mid rift. When I noticed his looking, I laughed, causing his eyes to shoot up to my own.
"Are you mad at me?" Stiles asked, causing me to stop laughed so abruptly.
I took a moment to think about his question but decided to shake my head, "No... I just have things running on my head. Nothing to worry about."
"It's just," Stiles explained his question, "Ever since Scott and I came back from running after Erica... you seem to be acting strange. Like you are scared of what people will say."
"What do you mean?" I gave him a confused looked.
"I noticed when you got to our next class you were wearing the coat," he explained, "You were so excited to wear your top that you left the coat in your locker, but then you were wearing it tightly on yourself. Like you were trying to keep it from revealing it..."
I sighed, "I just... I just felt like you would have preferred to look at Erica... I mean she looked amazing, which it just felt like she was attacking my self-esteem."
"Hey," Stiles spoke up as he used his finger to tilt my head up, "Who cares what anyone thinks about you or Erica. All that matters is that you are happy. Besides, I like how you look in your top."
"Really?" I asked with a smile.
"Yeah," he grinned, "I might not have said it, but I actually think it looked really hot on you."
I pulled Stiles into a kiss. I didn't have anything to tell him, but I knew that my love for him would say more than my mind could at that moment.
We pulled away from each other and got up. Hand in hand, we entered the rink as we just enjoyed our moment together. It was sometimes interrupted by Lydia's sheer skill she was demonstrating or when we laughed at how back Scott was doing at the whole skating aspect of tonight.
I was showing Stiles my own skill I could remember from my classes when I began to hear this tapping on ice. I almost lost my balance but I caught myself as I stopped to listen closely. The tapping slowly became scraps against the ice, but it sounded like it was inside my head. Like nails on a chalkboard. I closed my eyes in pain when it got louder. It was when Lydia's scream caused me to cry out in pain.
Scott and Allison rushed back into the ice rink as they went to check on Lydia. I was to engulfed in pain as I held onto my ears from the ringing in my ears. My hands felt warm, and I knew very well my ears were bleeding like the night that Lydia disappeared. Stiles was trying to pry my hands away from my head but I just sobbed in pain.
It happened again. Whatever is happening, but it clearly had something to do with Lydia and I's connection to the attack that night. Maybe it was the fact that it happened at the same time, but something told me it was actually about something more. Something that I don't know answers to, just yet that it.
Once this was for certain.
I had to either have my mother finally tell me everything or find guidance from someone else that might have the answers I need.
Someone like Deaton.