Cross Your Mind , Stiles Stilinski ¹ ✓

[ 32 ] can we not go there?

CAN WE NOT GO
THERE?

"You sure you're okay?" Stiles asked the purple-haired girl as the pair of them walked to class. Scott had disappeared to find his forbidden love, leaving Stiles and Aspen alone.

"Of course I am." Aspen smiled.

She was so far from being okay, but so far from admitting it either.

She clenched her folders and textbooks in her arms, while the buzzcut boy examined her face. She was looking straight ahead of them, the corner of her lips curled up in a small yet reassuring smile. Her ashy-lilac hair fell forward in front of her face, drawing his attention to that rather than her expression.

He didn't get it. Maybe it was because he wasn't a teenage girl, maybe it was because he never understood the allure of coloured hair. Or maybe it was because Aspen Carter was his damn brunette. That wasn't to say she didn't suit the colour, in fact he now saw her as the purple-haired beauty, she looked even more like a fairytale come to life. The hair, the pretty pink dress, the new smile, she looked like she had just walked out of a Disney princess story.

But it just wasn't her.

"So..." Stiles sighs, trying to make conversation that didn't consist of him badgering on about whether she was okay or not. "We uh... we visited Lydia in the hospital a lot over break, no one really knows what's going on with her."

Aspen was filled with a shiver of discomfort and worry. She tries so hard to erase the memories of the night of the formal out of her mind, because the memory of seeing the Martin girl's body, covered in blood with her skin fairer than usual, manifested itself in making her feel physically ill.

"She's going to be okay though, right?" she said to Stiles, still looking straight ahead of her rather than meeting his eyes again.

"That's what everyone hoping for."

From the other end of the busy, crowded hallway, Aspen's eyes laid upon the other boy she could no longer ignore, and Stiles saw him too. He couldn't deny he felt some sort of solemn at the sight of him. The only thing that kept him from breaking down Aspen's door every day was the fact that he knew the two of them weren't talking either. He didn't have to drive himself insane imagining the two of their bodies hot and sweaty under the sheets.

But Aspen and Jackson had to talk eventually. She was mad that he sold her best friend out to Chris Argent, but she had to hear him out, she had to hear his apology. She hadn't gone as far to block him, but she had muted all text notifications from him. She  really did hope that for her own sake that she could find it in herself to forgive him. Because up until he made that life-ruining mistake, Aspen had grown especially fond of the Whittemore boy, to the point where she could see herself having feelings for somebody who wasn't Stiles.

"I gotta go." says the purple-haired girl suddenly, but Stiles knew she what she really meant. "Keep me updated on the Lydia thing, I'll see you later."

And just like that, Stiles was watching the back of her walk away from him.

...

Jackson gathered his nerves together and exhaled in relief when he saw that Aspen was smiling inderely at him, rather than the look of wanting to strangle him like he had been bracing himself for.

She almost seemed to be smiling too much, if such a thing was possible.

"Jackson!" she greeted with cheer, "I missed you!" she engulfed the boy in a hug, which actually made him widen his eyes and pinch his eyebrows together. He was expecting mad, furious even, not this.