☾

"Are you sure you're okay?" Stiles asks, following me into my room and standing a foot away from me as I sit down on my bed, not caring that my clothes are still wet and now dampening my blankets. "Because you nearly drowned three times tonight, and that's can't be healthy for your brain. Lack of oxygen can cau-"

"Stiles," I interrupt him, not even in the mood to smile. "I'd know if something was wrong with my brain. Right now, I'm just too tired to deal with this." He cocks his head to the side and presses his lips together in a straight line, moving to sit next to me. I look down, my damp hair curling even more and acting as a curtain at the sides of my faces.

He's right, I nearly drowned three times tonight, nearly got into a fight with another werewolf, and there was a possibility that the Kanima could've killed me. But I knew that I wouldn't die, not like that. There was a time where I wouldn't be afraid of dying, saying that I'd see my parents again, but I have multiple reasons to live now and the major reason is Stiles.

"Are you sure?" He asks quietly, hooking two fingers beneath my chin to gently nudge my face up, his whiskey eyes meeting my icy eyes.

My eyes fall to the rest of his face, committing every detail to memory. His upturned nose, pale skin, ridiculously long eyelashes, plump lips which the bottom one is fuller than the top, the line of his jaw and his cute moles. I can die at any moment of any day, and I want the last thing on my mind to be is that I was able to love and be loved by this handsome, sweet guy who I know I'll love for a very long time, if not forever.

I nod, biting my lip bashfully. His hand slides up to my cheek and my own hand comes up to curl around the wet material of his jacket, right at his forearm, as our bodies move simultaneously closer together. "Answer me verbally."

I swallow thickly. "Yes."

He doesn't seem convinced, but thankfully he doesn't say anything, instead, he rubs the pad of his thumb along my cheekbone. These are the moments I love with him, the ones where it's intimate in a non-sexual manner. What Allison said earlier today pops up in my mind at that.

"So you're both virgins," Allison states. "And you want to jump him. What's the problem with sex? I mean, yeah, it may be awkward at first but it'll be great."

I've always been insecure about that, which was only strengthened when I found my ex-girlfriend in bed with the guy who she made the bet with. I don't know if Stiles wants to have sex, or if he wants to wait until I'm ready. But I read somewhere that talking about this kind of thing with your partner is healthy and shows signs of mutual trust, so maybe it's time to have that talk.

"Stiles?" I whisper, earning a hum from him. "What do you expect to come out of this relationship?"

"What?" He asks, confused.

I sigh and close my eyes briefly, knowing I was a bit vague so I clarify with very red cheeks. "Do you expect... Anything concerning... Intimacy in our relationship?"

"What do you mean by 'intimacy'?" Eventually, realization spreads across his face. "Oh, you mean... Sex." His own face turns blotchy, but he doesn't break eye contact. "Why are you asking?"

"Allison asked if we did it yet and our conversation's been bugging me. I mean, I totally get it if you don't think of me in that way, like, one hundred percent," I backtrack quickly as an undecipherable emotion replaces his embarrassed expression but he quickly cuts me off by placing his lips upon mine, kissing me deeply, my lips opening almost instantly. Like it was an instinct. My hands go to his shoulders, my fingers curling into the still wet material of his jacket.

He breaks the kiss after air becomes necessary, leaning his forehead against mine, my eyes opening to connect with his. "Mary Anne, if you haven't noticed, I'm a sixteen-year-old male whose girlfriend is extraordinarily beautiful and sexy," he states. "So of course I've had those kinds of thoughts about you, like many other guys at school. But if you feel pressured or anything we don't ha-"

I'm the one who cuts him off this time with a hurried, "No, no, I'm not feeling pressured. Just curious." He searches my eyes for any hint that I was lying and he found none, so he continues.

"I do think of you in that way, baby, but I'll wait until your ready. I'll go at your pace."

I stare at him with parted lips, taken aback. Not a lot of teenage boys would say that, they'd pressure their girlfriends into this kind of thing. But then again, Stiles isn't like any other teenage boy.

"Okay," I agree but then I get an idea. "I do want to wait, but that doesn't mean we can't do other things."

He arches an eyebrow, a curious look in his eyes. "Like what?" He asks.

"There are other forms of sexual intimacy without actual intercourse," I say, using technical terms. It happens when I'm nervous. "There is a thing called 'outercourse'." His eyebrows furrow with bewilderment. "It's a non-penetrative sexual activity."

"How can you be so calm while talking about this?" He mutters, moving to prop his hand against my bed and running his other hand up and down my arm lazily.

"I'm actually flustered on the inside," I confess. "And there's making out, oral." He chokes on air on the last word, covering his mouth with the inside of his elbow. I explode in a fit to giggles, falling onto my back on my bed.

"It's not funny!" He says in a strained voice.

"Your reaction is," I retort, my giggles slowly stopping. "But I'm serious. And there's a thing called naked cuddling, or just taking a shower together without sex."

His face is as red as his jacket and I have to bite my lip to suppress another fit of giggles. "Oh, my God, I need to go before I attack you with hugs and kisses, and I'm tempted to stay the night to do just that," he says, sitting up but I stop him with pressing a kiss to his cheek, lingering there.

"I wouldn't object to that," I whisper with a flirty tone, placing a hand on his chest.

He groans. "Don't tempt me, baby girl." He doesn't seem fazed by the new nickname, which I'm slightly taken aback by it but he doesn't notice. "I need to go home and shower, and we need to figure stuff out tomorrow." I pout a little at him, feeling less anxious and more light. He chuckles and shakes his head, pecking my lips before standing up. "Good night, Mary Anne, see you tomorrow."

He starts to head to the door when he turns around and rushes towards me, cupping my cheeks and bending down to place a passionate kiss on my lips, making me lightheaded in seconds. I return the kiss just as ardently, but he ends the kiss far too soon for my liking. He makes up for it when he says three simple words that hold a lot of meaning and tenderness behind it:

"Love you, Mare."

I smile up at him, "And I, you."

He lets go of me and the smile stays on his lips as he walks to the door backward, his shoulder hitting the door frame. "Ow," he mutters, holding his shoulder with one hand and closing the door with the other. I let out a short laugh, shaking my head and getting up to take a shower.

Gods, I really do love that boy.

☾

This morning when Stiles picked me up this morning he told me that Isaac is back at school and is no longer a fugitive. Also, said werewolf is also in our class. As well as in the same period as us when we have chemistry. This fucking sucks, like I was in a good mood but then it was ruined when Stiles told me that. The only way Isaac would no longer be a suspect in his father's murder would be if Jackson retracted his statement about seeing him and his father arguing the night he died.

Fucking prick.

Scott, Stiles and I walk out of class and Stiles tells us what he found about the Kanima. "All right, I only found one thing online called a Kanima. It's a werejaguar from South America that goes after murders."

I furrow my eyebrow and say at the same time as Scott, "That thing was not a jaguar."

"Yeah, and we're not exactly murders," Stiles points to me.

"Yeah, but you did see it kill somebody, which is probably why it tried to kill you. And it's still trying to kill you, and it probably won't stop until you're dead," Scott rambles, continuing to walk when Stiles and I stop walking for a moment.

"You know, sometimes I really begin to question this 'friendship'."

We continue our way to Econ, with Stiles sitting in front of me and Scott next to him, our textbooks out when Jackson sits next to me. "Hey, testicle left and right, and Mary Anne," he hisses. I roll my eyes and I can see the two boys have similar reactions. Until the following words come out of his mouth: "What the hell is a Kanima?"

The two boys turn their heads at him while I just stare at him with wide eyes, wondering how the hell he knows about it already when we just found out about it last night. When Coach speaks up, we turn back around, still dumbfounded. "All right, listen up. A quick warning before we begin our review. Some of you, like McCall, might want to start their own study groups because tomorrow's midterm is so profoundly difficult - I'm not even too sure I could pass it. Okay, I need a volunteer at the board to answer the first question. Who's got it, huh? Come on, let's go, buddy."

We turn our heads back to Jackson as he asks, "Paralyzed from the neck down. Do you have any idea what that feels like?"

"I'm familiar with the sensation," Stiles mutters ruefully. I place a hand on his shoulder, knowing that he's talking about the mechanic - wait, hold on a second. Why would Derek test Jackson?

"Wait, why did Derek test you?" Scott verbalizes my thoughts, suspicious. "Why would he think that it's you?"

"How should I know?" Jackson says, and I instantly know he's lying. My internal lie detector is going off.

"Do they think it's Lydia?" Stiles asks.

"I don't know, all I heard was her name and something about chemistry," Jackson asks just as Coach cuts in.

"Jackson!" Coach yells, startling me and making me jump audibly in my seat and Scott raises his eyebrows at me before turning to look at Coach. "Do you have something you want to share with the class?"

"Um, just an undying admiration for my-my coach."

Coach smiles. "That's really kind of you. Now shut up! Shut it! Anybody else?"

Scott yanks Stiles over to him and I lean in. "How do we know it's not her?" Scott asks.

"I looked into the eyes of that thing, okay?" Stiles says. "And what I saw was pure evil. And when I look into Lydia's eyes, I only see fifty percent evil. All right, maybe sixty. You know, but no more than forty on a good day."

"Stiles that's not a very good argument," Scott points out and I nod to support Stiles.

"He's aware of that, but we swear it's not her. It can't be, all right?" I ask rhetorically. "Scott, she's like my twin. I know she's not the one killing people. She can't be."

However, I guess I spoke too soon.

I look up and see Lydia at the front with tears in her eyes, holding a piece of chalk and there's a bunch of words on the board. What the hell...

"Okay then, anybody else want to try answering? This time in English?" Coach asks, making nearly everyone laugh. Jerks.

"What is that, Greek?" Scott asks.

Stiles answers. "No, actually, I think it is English." He holds out his phone, a picture of the board on his screen showing what Lydia wrote. It's in English, but it was backward.

SOMEONE HELP ME

☾

"Derek is not gonna kill her without proof," Scott mutters as we walk into chemistry.

"So he tests her like with Jackson," Stiles sums it up. "But when and where?"

My eyes go to Lydia who was sitting alone at a table in front, two leather-clad werewolves entering class from the door in the back, their own eyes fixated my strawberry blonde friend. "I think here and now," I whisper.

They move to sit with Lydia but Scott and Stiles get there first, with Scott sitting next to Lydia and Stiles pulling up a stool to sit there, too. I instead sit at the empty table next to them while the other two werewolves sit behind my friends and boyfriend, and next in is Allison. When she sits next to me she looks over at her boyfriend, confused, but then looks over at Erica and Isaac, quickly understanding what's happening.

"Einstein once said, 'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.' I myself have encountered infinite stupidity," Harris says condescendingly, patting my boyfriend's shoulder and I glare at him venomously, wanting nothing more than to gouge out his sad little eyes out of his sad little head. "So to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one. Or in Mr. Stilinski's case, less than one." Again, Satan looks at my boyfriend and I curl my hands into fists on the top of my thighs.

"Erica, you take the first station. You'll start with..." And every boy in the class, except for Scott, Stiles, and Isaac, raises their hands. Ugh, horndogs. Erica smirks, seemingly proud of this. Yeah, she shouldn't be proud of that. "I didn't ask for volunteers. Put your hormonal little hands down. Start with Mr. McCall. All right, next two."

I place a comforting hand on Allison's, sensing her jealousy but sadly, she has to move to sit with Lydia and me with Stiles in front of my two female best friends, due to Harris pairing us up. "How do we stop them?" He asks quietly, watching me follow the instructions for the experiment.

"I'll break their hands if they lay a single finger on her," I bite out through gritted teeth, my hands shaking around the beaker as I pour the small amount of liquid in it from anger and heat bubbling behind my eyes. "That's my plan. No one hurts my family and gets away with it."

Stiles puts his hand on my knee, squeezing it gently and I bring my eyes to his, seeing his determined expression. "We won't let them hurt her. Or anyone. Okay?" I nod, feeling a little calmer. "Also, you may wanna put away the glowing eyes. As much as I love them, this is not the time or place to show them."

I bite my lip and close my eyes tightly, willing the heat behind my eyes to disappear. After a few seconds, the heat passes and I know my eyes are no longer glowing as I open them. Then, Harris rings the bell and says, "Switch." Stiles gathers his stuff and moves, giving me one last look before sitting down with someone else. A now-familiar tall male with curly hair and a black leather jacket plops down in the seat next to me, giving me what I think is his attempt at a seductive smirk. Yeah, he's not my type.

Instead of growling at him, I unscrew the cap from a bottle and say without looking at him, "If you harm one perfect strawberry blonde hair on her head, I'm gonna turn your little werewolf ass into a fur coat and give it to her as a birthday present."

Isaac chuckles, "Really? I've never actually been to one of her big, invite-only birthday parties. I did ask her out once though."

I roll my eyes while pouring the baking soda into the beaker. "Sounds like the beginning to a heartfelt story. I'm gonna pass, thanks."

"It was the first day of freshman year," Isaac begins, ignoring what I had said.

"And you thought everything was gonna be different for you in high school, but she said no," I interrupt monotonously.

"She even laughed," he informs me. "Told me to come back when the bike I rode to school had an engine, not a chain."

Sounds like something Lydia would say.

"Mm, unrequited love's a bitch," I say. "Maybe you should write about it in English class, you now? Channel all that negative energy."

"Nah," Isaac objects. "I was thinking I'd channel it into killing her." I snap my eyes to him, shocked at how casually he could say something like that. "I'm not very good at writing."

The bell rings again and Harris's annoying voice reaches my ears. "Switch."

Isaac gives me a smirk and his hand lands on my thigh, squeezing it and before I can snap at him, he leaves to sit next to Lydia. I clench my fists, fearing the worst but then, Erica sits down in the seat next to mine and I turn my head to see Scott with Stiles and Allison with someone else.

"Mary Anne," she greets with a fake smile, leaning her elbows on the table and her body twisted to face me as I continue following the instructions.

"Erica," I bite out, trying to control the rage inside me. First, she flirts blatantly with my boyfriend, knocks us out and is now planning on killing my best friend if she doesn't pass the test, whatever it is. "Whatever you plan on doing to Lydia, please just wait."

She gives me a weird look, eyes flickering to side, and I turn my head to follow her gaze, eyes falling onto my boyfriend and friend. "I have to say, you guys are cute together," she says, deflecting my question. It sounds like something she said before, probably to someone else. Most likely Allison. "But you know, I've always had this feeling like I'm psychic. I just don't think you're going to last."

I look away and let a very low growl leave my lips, quiet enough only the werewolves can hear me but I don't lunge at her like my body and mind is screaming at me to do. Instead, I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself and I instead find Stiles' scent. The woodsy cologne and mint calms me a bit. "You think you can hurt me by flirting with him?" I quirk an eyebrow, finishing the chemical concoction, and curl my hands into fists again, feeling my claws slide out and I don't wince as they pierce my palm shallowly. The thing is, when I retract them, the puncture wounds slowly heal, slower than normal. I mentally shake my head and file that away for later. "Honey, you're gonna have to do a lot more if you want to hurt me."

"Would you like it better if I were to flirt with you?" She asks, cocking her head with an amused smirk, and her hand slides up my thigh, squeezing like Isaac did. What is it with these two werewolves and touching me? Are they both attracted to blondes, like themselves? "Come on. Girl fight in the lab. It'll be hot." This time, unlike Isaac, her claws dig into my flesh shallowly, ripping small holes into the material of my jeans. It's briefly painful, but I know it won't last long.

Her face is close to mine, her eyes shining and I know mine is as well, but instead of responding verbally, I take her wrist with my claws still out and squeeze, crushing the bones in her wrists. A little whimper leaves her lips, masking her pain well but the gold of her eyes fades and so does her cocky expression as she removes her hand from my thigh, making me smirk in triumph. And again, the shallow holes in my thigh heal slower than normal, which I try to ignore. We have more pressing issues at hand right now.

"How many times do I have to remind you?" I scold her, a smirk on my lips. "Don't mess with me, my boyfriend, or my friends. I may be small, but I can rain down hell onto you."

Harris rings the bell again, and I turn my head to the front, my smirk now faint. "Time," Harris says. "If you've catalyzed the reaction correctly, you should now be looking at a crystal." I look down into the beaker and see a few clear crystals, meaning I did do the experiment correctly. At least that went well. "Now for the part of that last experiment I'm sure you'll all enjoy - You can eat it."

Okay, I am a little hungry, so maybe I'll eat it. Wonder what it tastes like...

My eyes go to Isaac and Lydia, the werewolf holding the crystal with a pair of forceps up to Lydia. She takes it and I can see clear liquid dripping off it. Kanima venom. No, no, no, no, this cannot be happening. If she does pass the test, she'll become paralyzed in the middle of class with no explanation of how it happened, but if she doesn't pass it, that means she's the Kanima. Derek and his pack are gonna kill her, and I'm gonna have to protect her. Homicidal lizard or not, Lydia is like my twin sister and no one messes with my family without having to deal with me.

I want to stop it, I want to so badly, but I can't, not in the middle of a class full of students who are oblivious to the supernatural.

Just as she's about to eat it, Scott gets up from his seat and exclaims, "Lydia!" I turn like everyone else to look at him.

Lydia replies with a confused, "What?"

"Nothing," Scott says, sitting back down and Lydia takes a bite out of the crystal, and nothing happens to her.

She didn't pass the test.

☾

This took a little longer for me to write than usual, but all of next week I have final exams, which actually start this Thursday and I may not be able to post at all or just not as frequently. Just letting you know.

Void_Stiles_is_Life xx