Malia walked up the side walk to school, her eyes setting on Eli, who sat  on the steps. He had a pair of circular glasses on, looking down at his camera and leg tapping slightly. The red jacket he wore bounced off his hair slightly, making it give off a slightly strawberry tint. Sorta like Lydia's. "Eli."

His eyes snapped up, yanking his glasses off and staring up at her. "Malia."

She frowned her eyebrows, standing right above him as her shadow took over the sunlight in his direction. The boy swallowed with a blink. "Do you not have my number saved?"

"Bunch happened." Malia explained as she looked down at him. "Did you know?"

"Did I know what?" Eli asked her with an odd look.

Malia straightened her head as she turned to walk. "Come on."

Elks mouths dropped slightly as he grabbed his bag, standing up quickly. "You want me to skip school?"

The girl turned back, giving him a look of disbelief with a shrug of her shoulders. "Yeah."

"Malia, I have practice!" Eli called as he followed after her quickly. "That bench needs me."

Malia rolled her eyes. "You'll just be gone one period. You sound like a baby beer before it's eaten."

Eli's eyes widened as he followed her. "You killed a baby deer? Malia, that's sad. My mom and I are against animal violence. We donate money to them."

"How many times do I have to tell you? Animals don't need money! They can't buy anything." Malia huffed, grabbing Eli's wrist and dragging him away quickly.

"He kinda sounds like an asshole." Eli said honestly as he sat with Malia, the pair disappearing into the woods nearest the school. They found a small stream, Malia breaking a tree for them to sit on the bark. "Are you sure he's, like, worth it?"

"I wanna find my mother." Malia nodded her head, leaning on one knee while Eli looked over at her. "And he is."

"What?" the Foxx boy gave an odd look.

"Peter. He is an asshole." Malia agreed, making Eli laugh. "Like.... Dark Vader."

Eli looked at her in disbelief. "Is Stiles making you watch Star Wars?"

"He made me watch it the first weekend I stayed with him." Malia rolled her eyes slightly with a half grin. "Now I know you watch it too. You're just like him, you know? Makes me wanna hit you in the fact right now and poke your eyes out with my claws."

Eli rose his hands in surrender. "Well, could you make sure i'm not breathing first? I don't wanna feel my eyeballs coming out, that seems pretty gross."

Malia rolled her eyes with a half grin. "I'll make sure you're dead first."

"Lovely." Eli nodded aggressively. "So your mother, can you do the scent thing?"

"Don't know her scent yet." Malia shook her head, throwing a small pebble into the stream. "I don't like calling her that yet."

"Sorry, I mean your biological mother. Not-" Eli began to cover his tracks before stopped with a small sigh. "Your adoptive mother, was she better then Peter?"

"Yeah, I think so." Malia nodded, she squeezed a rock in her hand. "Then I killed her."

Eli frowned over at her, despite already knowing the story from spending more time with Scott and Stiles. He bite the inside of his mouth a second. "The transformation- it's not something that-"

"Before we got in the car that night I said I wished they'd all been dead." Malia dropped the rock as she turned and met Eli's eye. Hers were lighter then his, but both shades of brown. Eli, despite what he was saying, had a innocent look in his eye the majority of the time. Malia hadn't, you could see more trauma, more pain behind hers.

Eli felt guilty for not knowing what to say at first. But then he realized the amount of guilt Malia was walking around with, after that night. He couldn't imagine, couldn't even think to live with it. "Sometimes things happen after we say things we don't mean. It's the worlds cruel way of kicking us down at our worst. I think that's what happened with you, and it isn't fair. But every single person in this entire world has said things they don't mean. Maybe that doesn't help, or make you feel better, especially now that you can't take it back. But, I know your family forgives you for it."

"How could you know that?" there was a hint of anger in her tone, he tried his hardest not to back away and fear her because of it.

"Because I can see you love them. And if I can see it, they definitely could." Eli promised her with a single nod. "It's gonna be okay, Malia."

She sighed, eyes dropped as well as her face did. Her eyes went to her lap again. "It kinda does."

"What?" Eli asked her.

"What you said." Malia pointed out with a small nod of her head. "About it helping. It does. Just a little. Like...a number with a letter. A negative."

"A negative or a number with a letter?" Eli cracked her a grin.

Malia huffed as she shook her head. "I'm still not good at math."

Eli laughed as he nodded. "That's okay. I get what you mean. You could come to my study group though. Every Wednesday."

Malia rolled her eyes. "Does that actually help?"

"Oh, yeah. It's a smaller space of people that are all struggling with the same thing so no one makes you look ridiculous around you." Eli nodded as Malia gave him a questionable look. "The smart kids that think they're better then you."

Malia gave an angered look. "I hate those kids."

"Me too." Eli nodded with a crazy look. "I mean, I love Mason, but he's not like those people. He's super smart. Like, super, super smart. But more in a way that helps Liam and I with our english essays instead of giving us stupid looks for not finding a topic."

"I don't like english either." Malia pointed out, throwing the rock to the water again. "I have no good memories to write about."

"I always write the same three things over and over. My teacher gets mad at me for always rewording everything." Eli said honestly, mimicking her acting and throwing the rock into the stream. "Maybe you can write about how much of an asshole Peter is."

"Do you have a dad?" Malia asked him. Eli gave her an odd look. "Dead?"

"He's alive." Eli exhaled with a long sigh. "He cheated on my mom and made me hide it from her when I was a kid. I didn't know any better until I got older and told her. By then, she'd already known though. They got a divorce about two years ago when it continued and couples therapy didn't work."

"Sounds like an asshole." Malia nodded her head, catching the odd look in Eli's eye. "Want me to eat him?"

It made him smile slightly and look back over at her. "No. We don't really talk. He moved back to Sweden and got married to that girl. He comes back to Beacon Hills for work every three months and tries to see me but I never really wanna see him. Now, he just sends me money sometimes."

"Like for your camera." Malia pointed out, getting a nod. "How's our pictures selling?"

"Twenty bucks so far." Eli nodded his head as he sighed. "Liam and Mason bought the picture just to make me feel better."

Malia shrugged. "Still."

"Still." Eli agreed. "Twenty bucks closer to Paris."

Malia grinned. "I still wanna go."

•

kylie speaks

filler chapter but love the
shitty dad bonding they have
going on.

also, my lovely friend emily
suggested the idea i make an
au book for this one, with the
exact same lines and stuff, but
instead of the elia scenes, replace them with eliam were
in this au liam and eli are the
love story. idk, i like the idea
but i don't wanna do it unless
y'all are on board too. i feel like
i might bore you guys a bit
reading most of the chapters
same diologue but i could be
wrong. just let me know what
y'all think before i go through
with any big plans!