𝟎𝟖 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉

tw- mentions/implications of abuse

✯☾✯

"𝑳𝒊𝒛𝒛𝒊𝒆!"

The girl's bodice was smothered within the covers of her bed, her head was sandwiched between the pillow and the mattress and her eyes were firmly screwed shut. In her half-asleep daze, she could make out the sound if a boy's voice yelling at her.

"Lizzie! Get up. Up!"

Lizzie only submerged herself further into the comforts of the duvet, desperate to be pulled back into the pleasurable rapture of sleep.

"Lizzie! I swear to God- do you know what? I'm gonna-"

There was a yelp from the girl as she felt a cold liquid spill over her head. She thrashed around on the bed, trying to get away from whatever was being mercilessly poured on her. Through the cascade of water flowing down, she cracked open her eyes the slightest bit to see a boy stood over her bed. Automatically, she recognised the erratic buzz-cut boy who had very rudley interrupted her slumber.

"STILES!" She roared and jumped off the bed, tackling him to the ground. There was a small thump as the glass he was previously holding fell onto the carpet. The boy screamed girlishly in surprise as the two crashed down. Still in a haze of sleepiness, Lizzie rolled off of him and sat on her knees next to a groaning Stiles Stilinski.

"First of all...OW." Stiles yelled as he pushed himself off and leaned back on his elbows. "Second of all, what the fuck?"

Lizzie smiled; she did not care one bit that she hurt him. She'd hurt anyone who woke her up. Sleep was one of the most precious things to her and good luck to anyone who disturbed it.

"You brought it on yourself dude."

Stiles laughed sarcastically and narrowed his eyes. "You're a really deep sleeper. Did you know that? Me and Scott have been spamming you since last night."

Groaning, Lizzie stood up from the floor and walked to her nightstand. Sure enough there was many unread messages sitting on her home screen. Too many to count from Scott and Stiles, quite a few from Kayla, some from Allison, oddly enough, and one from Isaac.

Naturally, she opened Isaac's first.

Isaac <3
one new message

Isaac <3
Hey sorry to bother you but how much do you know about the industrial revolution in England?

Then the others.

Kay Kay
seven new messages

Kay Kay
Lizzie!!
Guess what!!
Gurl pick up your phone
Bitch-
Stop leaving me on delivered
I'll kill you
Ur a dead girl

Allison A
one new message

Allison A
Hi Lizzie, it's Allison. I was wondering if you're free any time soon. Maybe we could meet up this weekend?

Batman, Spiderman and Wonder Woman
fourteen new messages

Jeep Boy :)
SOS at the video store

Scooter McCall
Wait whaat. Why

Jeep Boy :)
Lydia and Jackson were attacked

Scooter McCall
Why is that our problem

Jeep Boy :)
JUST GET HERE ALREADY

Scooter McCall
Wait- Derek asked me to come too

Jeep Boy :)
All the more reason for you to get off your ass
It's probs the Alpha. just saying

Jeep Boy :)
Lizzie where are you
istg it's literally only 10
Why do you go to bed at 10
Get your lazy ass up
Are you serious right now

Scooter McCall
Stiles actually shut up

The girl's pupils widened at all the messages. "Is Lydia okay?"

She didn't really care about Jackson.

Stiles ran a slow hand down his face as he spoke. "I think Jackson was the only one that was hurt."

Lizzie collapsed back down on her bed. Was there really any need for Stiles to wake her up just so he could tell her that Jackson was hurt?

✯☾✯

Davis had been in the hospital for over a week now and the doctors said he was in a stable condition. Every time Lizzie had visited him, he'd been in his usual perky mood. So, apart from that bit of anxiety and school stresses, Lizzie's head was a little bit clearer.

Who was she kidding?

Lizzie's head was a mess.

Little bit of school stress? Fuck no.

Not much Davis anxiety? He was all she thought about.

And as for the werewolf shit, it was only getting worse. The so-called Alpha had attacked the video store last night and killed one of the workers, traumatising both Lydia and Jackson.

Plus, Scott was now Derek's little pet-thing? Lizzie didn't know how to describe it, but he'd had now agreed to help Derek stop the Alpha before the situation got any worse and it slaughtered more innocents. And finally, to top it off, Stiles kept reminding her that her hands glowed fucking PURPLE!

With a hearty groan, Lizzie pushed through the school doors at she'd done many times before. She'd been driven by Stiles who had done a runner to God knows where and left her to enter the hell whole alone.

She watched a gleaming Kayla dance down the hall, hand in hand with another girl , Daisy. Lizzie had called Kayla on the way to school to find out why she'd sent her such frantic messages. The startling truth was the girl had only gone and bagged herself another girlfriend. This new girl, Daisy, was Kaya's seventh partner this semester and counting. Lizzie shot finger guns at her friend as she passed and Kayla returned her gesture with a wink.

Just as she was about to head to her locker, a pop of colour caught Lizzie's eye. It was balloons streaming out of one Allison Argent's locker. Was it her birthday? Due to the balloons that had happy birthday written on them with shiny gold lettering, she assumed it was. So, Lizzie made her way over.

"Happy Birthday!" She yelled and clapped her hands in glee, causing the taller girl to jump in a startle. "Sorry."

Allison smiled and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Thanks, uhm is it okay if you don't tell anyone?"

Lizzie smiled sweetly. "No of course, of course."

She peered past Allison and into her locker. "Woah, did a birthday card explode in there or something?"

Allison turned back to look at her locker herself and shook her head. "Yeah, it was Lydia. It's a nice gesture really. I'm not sure how she found out though."

"Hey, is that why you wanted to hang out this weekend? For your birthday?"

Looking to the ground bashfully, Allison shrugged. "I mean, if you're up to it. I already know Lydia can't make it and you're like my only other real friend so-"

"Sure I'll come. And I'm bringing cookies." Lizzie hugged the Argent girl's side slightly before whispering in her ear. "Look out, lover boy is coming."

Allison whipped round as fast as she could to see Scott strolling towards her. Aaaand..that was Lizzie's que to leave. She swivelled on her heel and made her way to the worst thing apart from school itself.

Chemistry.

Something about the stupid class made her feel sick and it wasn't the way Mr Harris smelt. The only thing that actually made the horrendous lesson bearable was Isaac. Staring at him, talking to him, thinking about him. Lizzie sure had formed a crush on the adorably diffident boy.

Although it pained her to do it, she took a feared step into the chemistry lab. A visible grimace displayed itself on her face. However, her expression changed when she spotted her favourite curly haired boy doodling at their desk.

Isaac's hand stopped its continuous motion on the paper in front of him when he spotted Lizzie in the doorway. His bored eyes lit up and he waved her over. The girl half-skipped, half- walked towards him and took her seat beside Isaac.

"Hey." He smiled in a way that made Lizzie's heart flutter, the light through the windows hitting his face perfectly, giving him an extra sort of glow.

"Hi." Lizzie said in a small voice. Smiling also, Lizzie began to grasp all of the supplies needed for the current lesson out of her bag. Then, in came Stiles who hit Lizzie over the head in a playful greeting which she did not appreciate.

Once the rest of the class had filed in, Harris began the torturous lesson. He stood at the back of the classroom and started to speak. His annoying voice made Lizzie want to stab herself in the eye with her pen.

"Just a friendly reminder, parent/teacher conferences are tonight. Students below a C average are required to attend."

Luckily for Lizzie, she had just managed to snatch herself a B in the lesson she hated the most meaning that she got to stay home that evening and binge The Office instead of dragging her dad back into school.

Harris continued. He made some un-funny comment completely directed at Stiles before glancing around the classroom.

"Has anyone seen Scott McCall?"

Come to think of it, where the hell was he? Lizzie took it upon herself to quickly drag her eyes over her classmates and just as she assumed, Scott wasn't there. She met Stiles' gaze, ignoring the fact he was highlighting literally every line in his textbook, and they exchanged confused looks.

But then, the door clicked open and Jackson Whittemore entered. He didn't seem at all injured from the attack the previous night however Lizzie thought he looked paler than usual and dare she say, timid. He took his seat a couple desks in front of Lizzie and Isaac, ignoring all the pairs of eyes staring into him.

Mr Harris quietly approached him and rested a sympathetic hand on his back. "Jackson, if you need to leave early for any reason, you let me know."

Jackson, obviously basking in all the attention, nodded gratefully. Lizzie scoffed and rolled her eyes. They were both dicks.

"Everyone start reading chapter nine." Harris instructed.

"Everyone start reading chapter nine." Lizzie mimicked to herself. She aggressively opened her textbook and winced at the many, many words she had to read.

"You really don't like this lesson, huh?" Isaac leaned down a little to whisper in the girl's ear. Lizzie glared up at him in an obvious way.

"You have no frickin' idea."

Isaac chuckled a little. "You still on to study after school? I can't remember any of the history stuff and I really need to pass this test."

Glad for a reason not to read the textbook, Lizzie nodded her head. "Sure. You live on Jackson's street right?"

Isaac had actually worked up the courage to invite Lizzie round to his place. He felt bad that every time they hung out it was always at her house. The reason she never came round to his was of course his father, yet he was out that evening which meant Isaac had the house to himself.

Before the boy had a chance to answer, there was a clatter to his left and both him and Lizzie turned to view the commotion. Stiles had fallen of his chair. Of course he had.

✯☾✯

Once the class was over, Lizzie bid Isaac goodbye and exited the lab with Stiles. He was currently on the phone trying to call their missing friend. There was a click noise signalling Scott had picked up. Stiles through his arms out and began his questioning.

"Finally! Have you been getting any of my texts? Or even Lizzie's weird voice notes?"

Lizzie had to walk on her tiptoes and lean right next to the phone so she could hear what Scott was saying on the other line.

"Yeah, like all nine million of them."

Stiles sighed and glanced to the side to see Lizzie who was too focused on the conversation to look where she was going. He pulled her out the way just before she crashed into some random lacrosse player.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?" He continued down the phone. "Lydia's totally MIA, Jackson looks like he's got a time bomb inserted into his face, Lizzie's hands glow, another random guy's dead and you have to do something about it."

"Like what?"

"Something."

"Okay, I'll deal with it later. Left, left, left, left, left."

Then a skirt noise that sounded like wheels and another voice.

"Sorry, sorry. I just totally soccer-mom'd you. I'm sorry."

"That's alright. I'll just pick up my masculinity on the way back."

Stiles took his phone from his ear and scrunched his face in a grimace. Scott had definitely bunked off with Allison.

"Don't look like that, Sti, they're cute." Lizzie exclaimed and pushed Stiles' shoulder.

"Cute? He dumped us to be cute with Allison?" Stiles scoffed and lulled his head back.

"It's her birthday." Lizzie tried to reason but Stiles wasn't having any of it.

"Yeah well, you know whose birthday it's not, nor will it ever be again? The guy the Alpha killed because he's dead." Stiles retorted. He didn't even care how desperately jealous he was sounding right now. All he wanted was for Scott to take everything seriously. He was always off with Allison; it was like he didn't even care.

✯☾✯

The keys rattled in the lock as Isaac fumbled to let him and Lizzie into his house. He was nervous. He'd never had a girl over. Well, he'd never really had anyone over before and to be honest, he wasn't sure how intelligent it was to be doing this. This morning, he'd gotten up early to clean all the bits of smashed glass and other broken items from fights around the house. It was in perfect condition. Perfect for Lizzie.

When the door was finally opened, Isaac ushered Lizzie into the hallway. The Lahey house was quite lovely, it was a nice size, and everything seemed to be kept spotless. Isaac guided the girl into the kitchen which was one if the smaller rooms in the house. Counters and needed kitchen appliances surrounded the room and right in the middle was a broad table. Both backpacks were placed on the surface of the table and emptied of schoolbooks.

"Do you- uh, do you want a drink?" Isaac asked timidly. He really wasn't used to having guests over. Lizzie looked up from the book she'd been flicking through and gazed at the boy in a questioning manner. She wondered why he was so uncomfortable, was it her?

"Sure, do you have coke?" She reached in her backpack again to pull out a handful of highlighters and pens along with her history notes. Isaac opened the fridge, grabbed two red cans and handed one of them to Lizzie.

Lizzie accepted it willingly and pulled at the tab on the metal top, it made a satisfying hissing sound as it opened. "Ugh, I love coke. If I could marry it, I would."

She took a long sip of the liquid and sighed in pleasure as it spilled and fizzed down her throat. Sensing she was probably being rude, she murmured a word of thanks before setting her can down. Then, she eyed the splendid kitchen around her. It really was spotless. No clutter or rubbish could be seen on the shining counters which looked like they had been drenched in disinfectant. It was almost too clean. Like something was being covered up.

Isaac must have spotted her looking suspiciously around the room because he cleared his throat and deliberately made a very audible noise as he began flipping through the pages of his textbook. "Thanks for doing this by the way."

Lizzie brushed away her extremely morbid thoughts and sat down at the table. "It's no problem, that's what friends are for."

The attempted studying lasted all of five minutes before she became completely and utterly bored. Whist Isaac was silently reading over example essays, Lizzie was trying to flick little scraps of rubber (which she'd cut up herself) into her empty can of coke. When a final titbit of greyish rubber tipped over the can, Isaac looked up to see what all the noise was.

"What are you doing?"

The boy's voice snapped her out of her strange transfixed stare on the fallen can and she met his gaze briefly. "Hm?"

"We're meant to be studying." He pointed out and Lizzie dropped her head onto the desk, closing her blue eyes as she did so.

"I am studying." She murmured defiantly against the sleeves of her denim jacket.

"That doesn't look like studying."

"Well, I am. You're the one that's not studying."

Isaac scoffed and chucked his pen at her head. "Get up, lazy, we've barley been at this five minutes."

"Five minutes too long." The sleepy girl groaned and she lifted her head off the table to send Isaac a strong death glare to which he matched her playful energy by poking his tongue out at her. The two returned to their books however it wasn't long before Lizzie spoke up again.

"Have you watched Harry Potter?" She questioned randomly. Isaac sighed and looked up at the girl once again. He noticed she had a demanding look in her eyes and decided he needed to be careful when answering the upcoming questions that he was about to be repetitively pierced with.

"I've watched all of them except the new one."

Lizzie looked at him with a mixture of distain and disappointment. "But it came out in July."

"I know."

"It's November."

"I know that also."

Lizzie scoffed. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part One had been left on such a cliff-hanger. How could anyone have possibly not given in and watched part two yet? Lizzie had watched it in the movie theatre two days after it came out, she was so itching to find out what had happened. "Well, are you going to watch it?"

Scrunching his nose thoughtfully, Isaac looked down at his book again. He wasn't really allowed to watch movies. "Probably not. I mean-"

"Fred dies."

Isaac snapped his gaze up to the girl who had cut him off with such a spoiler. His jaw dropped. "What?"

The girl nodded and pulled her face into a fake-pitiful look. He was the one who said he wasn't going to watch it and she needed to talk about it with someone. Even the geekiest geek of all geeks Stiles Stilinski had only watched up to Order of The Phoenix before he got bored.

"Mhm yep. It was awful. I sobbed my soul out into my popcorn when I watched it. Also, Remus and Tonks die."

Isaac lifted his hands over his ears. "No." He cried out, he refused to listen to any more spoilers.

Lizzie increased her volume. "Snape gets eaten for dinner by a snake!"

The curly-haired boy stood up from the table and rushed further into the kitchen. Lizzie watched with particular amusement. It served him right; he should have just watched it sooner. Isaac backed himself up against the fridge and delved his fingers into his earholes.

"Lalalalaa. Can't hear you." He shouted causing a small giggle to escape from Lizzie's mouth. It had been a while since either of them had been able to do this. Have fun and act immaturely without a care in the world. They were letting loose with each other's likeable company.

Lizzie darted up from her seat and rushed over to Isaac to try to rip his hands from his ears as she recited as many major events from the movie that she could think of. She felt an excited energy wash over as she watched Isaac's horrified face. It was priceless. She wished she could take a picture of this moment and keep it forever.

"Okay, okay I'll stop. I'm stopping." Lizzie held her hands up in surrender and back away from the boy. He eyed her carefully and slowly took his hands off his ears, ready to clamp them back on at any moment in case she decided to try something.

"That was mean." He pointed at her with a firm frown. Lizzie smiled innocently and tucked the side of her head into the crevice of her shoulder.

"You weren't gonna watch it anyway." Lizzie's eyes formed into adorable doe eyes as she gazed up at the taller boy. Her voice was fortified with an unmistakeable purity.

"I might have."

"No you weren't. You just weren't." She paused for a few seconds and the goodness in her eyes turned to mischief. "Harry was the final hor-"

Isaac cut her off by slapping a cupped hand over her mouth and his other on the back of her head causing Lizzie to squeal and writhe against him. The boy laughed at the squirming girl as she yelled and tried to force his hand off her mouth by shaking her head. After moving around wildly got her nowhere, she stuck her tongue out to meet his palm. Surprised by the sudden wetness on his skin, Isaac jerked his arm away and let go of Lizzie.

"Ew! That's gross!" He held his palm to his chest and wiped it on his shirt.

Lizzie was about to through back some form of apology/ witty remark when the sound of the front door opening echoed through the house. Instantly, Isaac froze on the spot. His demeanour completely transformed. His eyes no longer had the little spark of light and happiness anymore. His smile had also dropped, and he hunched his shoulders. It was like the flame of life inside of him had been blown out.

"Isaac?" A voice called from the hallway. It was deep and cold, it unsettled Lizzie a little.

"Isaac! Where are you boy?"

The voice got closer, and Lizzie found herself being pushed behind Isaac. Confused but not wanting to over-step anywhere, the brunette stayed put. The door to the kitchen creaked open to reveal a man in a suit. He was just short of Isaac's astonishing hight of 6,2. On his nose, rested a pair of glasses placed so firmly down it had created marks on his pasty skin. They guarded his bitter blue eyes which made Lizzie shiver just looking at them. He wore a deep scowl that produced unhappy creases all around his face. Lizzie recognised him as Beacon Hills High's swim coach. Mr Lahey. Isaac's father.

Whilst Lizzie was busy inspecting the man, Isaac grew terrified. What was he doing here? He wasn't meant to be back for another hour. His hands began to shake listlessly as the man approached the two teens.

"What's this?" Mr Lahey barked at his son and Lizzie was taken aback by his aggressiveness.

"Uhm- this is uh- we were studying." Isaac stammered uncontrollably. His dad's stare hardened on him in the way he would do whenever he was angry. Please not now, not now, Isaac silently prayed to himself.

Mr Lahey dragged his glare from his son to the girl Isaac had tried to keep behind him. "Who are you?"

Lizzie's eyes widened, this guy sure was intimidating. "I'm Lizzie. It's nice to meet you."

"Lizzie what?" The man countered harshly.

"Lizzie Brown." The girl squeaked. The recognition registered in Mr Lahey's eyes and he laughed humorously.

"I see, the one with the dead mother I assume."

Lizzie took an audible gulp and moved a slight step back. What was with this guy? Bringing up a girl's dead mom in one of the first sentences he spoke to her? Not cool. Isaac followed her actions but kept his place in front of her.

"Is this your friend Isaac?" Mr Lahey questioned, his voice thick with obvious dislike. Both teens glanced at each other before nodding.

Mr Lahey scoffed, adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and then returned his brutal watch to Isaac. "You could have picked any damned student in that wretched school to be friends with and you chose her? Her family is scum. They can barely afford a simple meal with the wage her sorry excuse of a dad can gain at that awful store he works at."

Well, that one stung. Lizzie choked on air, and she felt pathetic tears lip in the bottom of her eyes. Was that how everyone saw her and her family?

Isaac was angry. He may have been petrified of his father, but he wasn't going to let him speak to or about Lizzie like that. So, he turned his anger into as much confidence as he could muster. "Dad. No. Stop."

"Shut up!" Mr Lahey suddenly bellowed and Lizzie and Isaac flinched at the raise in level. "Why have you even brought her over? You know we don't allow her class in this house."

When Isaac didn't say anything, Lizzie spoke up. "I'm sorry, I didn't- uhm -know. I'll go."

Her voice was barley a hoarse whisper. She wanted to get out of there before her tears spilled. She didn't want that man to see her cry. How could someone like that father such a kind boy like Isaac? They completely juxtaposed each other, it was almost unbelievable.

The girl unsteadily crept past the two male's and gathered her stuff from the table, she desperately tried to stop her hands from shaking as she packed her books in her backpack.

"I'll walk you out." Isaac murmured quietly and followed Lizzie to the front door. She briskly slipped on her Doc Martins and tied the laces so she could get out of there as fast as she could. A couple of stray tears slipped down the skin of her cheek however they were soon wiped away by the sleeve of her a jacket.

Once she was ready to go, she managed to turn round and face Isaac who was stood awkwardly next to the shoe rack. Then she noticed the broken look in his eyes but it was a certain broken look which told her that wasn't an irregular occurrence. She thought back to the many bruises, cuts and marks Isaac had come into school bearing.

And finally, she connected the dots. It was his father. Mr Lahey's aggression, Isaac's immediate change in manner when his dad came home and his injuries. It all made so much sense. Lizzie's teary eyes softened at the boy. The two shared a long gaze of acknowledgement which confirmed the girl's theories.

She swore her heart broke on the spot and she threw her arms around Isaac's neck. Isaac returned the embrace by wrapping his own arms around the smaller girl's waist. He burrowed his face in the crook of her neck and her hair to hide his falling tears.

"Please don't tell anyone." He pleaded quietly and Lizzie's heart didn't break but shattered.

"I can't let you suffer like this, Isaac." She responded, her voice was muffled by Isaac's supple cardigan.

"I'm going to tell someone soon." Isaac said unconvincingly. "Just let me do it in my own time."

Lizzie pulled back from the hug to look toward Isaac once again. She reached up to cup his face as gently as she could and just stared at him. "You promise?"

"I promise."

The two slowly broke apart. Lizzie figured it would best if she left so she didn't make matters worse than she already had by being there. Slowly, she gravitated towards the front door. She really didn't want to leave him here. God, how long had this even been going on for?

"You know you're always welcome at mine if you ever need me. My dad won't mind, you would be able to stay as long as you want." She informed him in a desperate attempt to be at least a little bit of help.

"Thank you, Lizzie." He said with deep sincerity. Just having her as a friend had been the most aid to Isaac. He hadn't had someone there for him in a long time.

With those final words, the girl left. Every fibre of her being yelled at her to go back, to tell someone. But she dreaded just by coming over she'd put Isaac in his father's line of wrath and as much as she wanted to rush to the Sheriff's Station right now, she had to respect Isaac's wishes. It must have been so hard for him because deep down he still loved his father despite the monstrous things he'd been doing to him behind closed doors.

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮
edited ✓