Arms Of A Stranger , Stiles Stilinski ³ ✓

[ 39 ] think of it like a game of poker

THINK OF IT LIKE A GAME OF POKER

ASPEN AND STILES finally made it to school that morning—and somehow, they were right on time, despite their temptation to just stay in bed the whole day. Aspen hopped out of the passenger side of the Jeep, as Stiles got out the other side. It was almost freaky how easily they'd slipped back into their old routine with each other. How their morning had been so much alike how they used to be, the summer they first started dating.

Before they even made it to the doors of the school—the two of them were startled by a pair of arms wrapping around the two of them simultaneously, making them jump at the surprise. They son recognised the culprit to be Scott McCall—whose arms were wrapped so tightly around them they might strangle to death.

"Look who it is!" Scott said as he planted himself between them, his arms around their necks, "it's the couple of the year!"

"Thanks, Scotty..." Aspen mumbled with a scrunched up smile, not knowing if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Okay, but seriously—" Scott continued, removing his arms from around them and stepping forward, then turning around the face both of them. "You guys have no idea how relieved I am about this—like, no frickin' idea—!"

"I think we might have some idea—" Stiles shrugged, looking to the side of him at Aspen, then back to Scott, "you know, considering—"

"No, no, no, no, no..." Scott shook his head adamantly at the pair of them. "You think your breakup was hard on the two of you? Try being me!"

"Scott—"

"I had to watch the two of you mope around in misery—all—day—long!" Scott said in a dramatic fashion that honestly reminded Aspen a bit of how Stiles acted sometimes. "All day, every day, every week—even. You made your best friend in the whole wide world constantly have to choose between you—I mean, God—it was exhausting! Watching you pretend like you didn't still love each other was excruciating—"

"Okay, Scott— we get it," Aspen cut him off with a laugh in her tone.

Scott sighed, and then laughed too—until all three of them were chuckling with laughter, smiles on their faces as they exchanged glances.

"Fuck it— bring it in, you guys!" Scott said as he wrapped his arms around them again, engulfing them in one of his signature bear hugs. Aspen and Stiles laughed and returned it, the three of them just indulging in a pure and happy moment between them. Scott was beyond happy for his two best friends—he'd been rooting for them since the day Aspen told him about her crush on the boy in the sixth grade.

Eventually, the three of them released their group embrace and made their way to the doors of the school. Aspen and Stiles may be back together, meaning something in the midst of their fucked up lives was finally looking up—but they couldn't afford to forget about the imminent threads around them.

The worst threat of all having been under Aspen's nose the entire time.

***

The first few classes went by quickly. Aspen hadn't seen River or Raven all day, the last time she saw them was when she walked, well, more like ran out their haunting mansion the day before. She was shamelessly grateful for their lack of presence so far—she needed more time to figure out how she was going to approach them now that she knew all that she did. She needed time to come up with a plan.

Soon enough, it was lunch period and Aspen was putting her books away in her locker and in a hurry to be able to catch a break finally. She needed to voice all of the thoughts that had been running wild inside her head all morning. So with that, she slammed her locker shut and made her way to the canteen, firing away a few texts to Scott and Stiles for them to meet her there.