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Stiles’s fingers tightened around the strap of his bag as he pushed his way into the library. He had to hide a wince when his teeth bit through the skin of his bottom lip and he sucked it into his mouth to stop himself from biting it even worse as he peered around the room curiously. The cafeteria had been a bust and with his luck, the library would be too, but he at least wanted to try.
There weren’t a lot of people hiding out in here, but there were a few other loners that he recognized sitting about. He nodded to a few of them in loner recognition but didn’t stop to talk—not that he would have stopped to talk to them—cause he was on a mission.
He was on a mission, and he was totally not-at-all freaking out about it.
Stiles didn’t find what he was looking for at the front of the library, so he started looking through the shelves of books. When that didn’t turn anything up, he took a deep breath, told himself not to be such a freaking pussy, and forced himself to walk up the stairs. It didn’t matter if people were watching him—though he did do a quick scan to see if anyone was—because hanging out in the library at lunch was totally normal.
He reminded himself that he didn’t care what other people thought about him and kept looking.
Thankfully, he found her near the back of the library, sitting between two rows of bookshelves. Erica Reyes had her head bent over her lap where a textbook was spread across her thighs. She was nibbling on something Stiles couldn’t quite identify through the waterfall of blonde hair that was partially covering her face, and she looked really focused.
Stiles cleared his throat.
She didn’t react.
His heartbeat started echoing through his ears as his stomach dropped.
He tried clearing his throat again.
She still didn’t react.
“Hey,” Stiles called softly, swaying forward as he awkwardly leaned into the aisle between bookshelves. “Uhm… are you okay?”
Erica looked at him with wide eyes. Her cheeks were flushed red like Stiles’ got when he was really embarrassed or upset about something, but it was her eyes that Stiles couldn’t look away from. Even from down the aisle, they looked big and bright. Stiles shuffled his feet awkwardly and took a few steps forward before he forced himself to stop a respectful distance away.
He reminded himself that he totally wasn’t weird and this was totally normal.
“W-What?” Her voice was a little hoarse and quiet enough that Stiles barely heard her, so he took a few more shuffling steps forward.
“Are you okay?” he asked again, and then fell back on his heels cause he didn’t wanna loom over her.
Not weird, he told himself. Totally normal!
“Oh,” she breathed. Or at least, Stiles figured that's what she said as her lips parted in a little “O”. Stiles looked longer than he should have. “What?”
What? Stiles didn’t know what to do with What?. What? was not part of his plan!
“Uhm, because of what happened in gym class?”
Stiles wasn’t sure if it was a dick move to bring it up but he didn’t really know what else to say. He could still hear the phantom echo of laughter ringing in his ears and his fist clenched around the strap of his bag before he took a deep breath through his nose and tried to remember the bullshit his old therapist used to say about anger.
“No, uhm… why are you here?” she asked before tucking her hair behind her ear.
Stiles blinked really stupidly a few times because this also wasn’t part of his social script and because Hot Girl was happening right in front of him. Erica’s eyes were still all big and bright but now that Stiles was closer he could see just how dark they were, and there was something smudged under her eyes that made them look even bigger and brighter and, like, wow.
His heart was beating a lot. She had a lot of hair and Stiles really, really liked how it looked behind her ear like that.
“I don’t know?” he said hesitantly. He had to clear his throat. “I guess I just wanted to make sure that you were okay?”
“Oh,” Erica murmured again. Stiles rocked on his feet and was thinking about saving a little of his dignity and just walking away when she said, “N-No one’s ever done that before.”
“Checked on you?” Stiles asked incredulously. “That’s fucked. Teenagers are the worst.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me,” Erica muttered with a dark look. Stiles sent her an apologetic grin that felt awkward on his face before he (even more awkwardly) scuffed his shoe against the shiny tiled floor. Erica eyed him for a moment before she quietly asked, “Do you… do you wanna maybe sit w-with me?”
Nodding his head, Stiles closed the space between them and folded his legs under him in a single, floppy move.
“Teenagers just suck. I can’t believe they’d—” Stiles cut himself off from explaining what happened to Erica since he figured she probably didn’t want to relive the embarrassment of being laughed out of gym class, and he made a dark noise even as he rooted around in his bag for his lunch.
But thinking about it got him worked up.
“Fuck them!” Stiles said, maybe a little too loudly because Erica swayed back a bit. “Sorry, sorry, I just… fuck them! Who cares if you can’t do something other people can? I’m sure there’re things you can do that they can’t! Hell, you’re a crazy talented artist, Erica—I’m sure most of them can’t paint like you can!”
“Y-You know I can paint?” Erica asked quietly, and Stiles’ rant screeched to a halt.
His cheeks got really hot.
“Uhm, yeah, as long as that isn’t weird or anything,” he told her in a rush.
Not weird and totally normal!
“I don’t think it’s weird,” she murmured before she tucked the rest of her hair behind her other ear. It opened up her face in a way that made Stiles overly aware of the way her cheeks were flushed, and he spent a few seconds staring at the ceiling so that he wouldn't stare at her, but then realized that was just as weird.
“Uhm, anyway, I just wanted—uh, w-wanted to say I was sorry. For the way the whole class was a big bag of dicks,” Stiles muttered. He scratched the back of his neck and tried to ignore how awkward he felt since he was already sitting down and definitely couldn’t just book it now.
“Thank you, Stiles,” Erica whispered sweetly, and Stiles nodded his head a bunch to keep himself from doing something embarrassing. “Do you… do you wanna stay and eat lunch with me?”
Stiles kept nodding, because that was totally normal and not at all weird, and whipped out his packed lunch (he already had it in hand, since he’d kinda figured that’s what her first invitation was for). “Sure!” he said, maybe a little too enthusiastically, but Erica smiled at him with a small, sweet grin that made his heart literally stop, so he figured a little enthusiasm was okay.
Hell, he’d be as enthusiastic as humanly possible as long as she kept smiling at him like that.