fixing a broken smile

chapter 3

The party was in full swing by the time they had gotten there. Maddie wasn't surprised, this was a Jackson Whittemore party after all. She was currently standing alone and just hiding herself away like she did at school. Stiles had left her alone a few minutes ago, telling her that it was important that he found Scott first. He had told her that it would be better if she didn't come with him. She hadn't argued with him, she'd rather not try to squeeze through all of those people. She got a little breathless when she was trapped, though she knew that that could just be considered a panic attack too. Just hanging around on the side lines, which didn't give her as much room as you would think, was making her extra jumpy.

She was about to go and find another place to hide away at, maybe somewhere where it wasn't as crowded, when she bumped right into someone. She whimpered slightly when the person wrapped their arm around her, meaning to catch her, but they had only caused her more pain then if she were to have fallen. They had pressed their hands against one of her newer bruises that ran down her back. Any normal person wouldn't have heard her whimper, especially here of all places, but apparently this person wasn't normal. "Hope I didn't hurt you." a deep, but trying to be light, voice said down to her.

Her eyes lifted up from the floor to meet the bluest of blue eyes that she had ever seen before. They contrasted with his black hair nicely, though, that wasn't what she noticed first about him. It was the bitterness and coldness inside of his eyes. He was trying to mask it, and anyone else would have believed the mask right away, but she had seen those kind of eyes before. Maybe not specifically on this man, but in her father's dark eyes. She flinched back, hurrying to move out of his hold on her, and he had let her go. He could clearly see, as well as smell, the fear that was coming off of her. "I-I-I'm sorry. Mm-m-my fault." she stuttered out as she took a slow few steps away from him.

He held his hands up in innocence, not meaning to frighten her so badly. He didn't know what he had done, but he hadn't even tried to intimidate her like he had those two idiots the other day in the woods. "Relax, I won't hurt you. You're Madeline, aren't you? You're friends with Scott McCall and Stiles?" he asked her, his smile forced and clear to her. She just hugged herself and slowly nodded her head. She was nervous as to what he wanted with her friends, and he didn't blame her. She might be jumpy, but she was smart. She knew not to trust him, and she was right not to. "Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Derek Hale, I'm a friend of Scott's. He told me about you the other day before the storm. Stiles mentioned that they would be here tonight. You wouldn't happen to know where they are, would you?" he asked her curiously, his forced smile playing on his face the entire time.

Maddie felt her words die in her throat, the sound actually going mute before it hit her mouth to speak them out to him. He didn't seem to get the hint that she didn't want to talk to him, though. He just stood there, waiting for an answer from her. "Uh, um, it-it's-it's ju-just Maddie." she said out nervously as she rubbed the side of her arm. "An-and no, I-I don't know where they are. Sorry." she told him, trying to force her voice to stop with the stuttering, but it was no use. "I, um, I've got to go. It wa-was nice meeting you." she said in a rush before she turned and hurried off past him, not even waiting for him to say something else to her. He didn't even try to stop her, he had other things to do.

Maddie was rushing past people, she didn't even realized who was who as she moved by them all. She just couldn't shake the look hidden behind that Derek guy's eyes. When she accidentally collided with someone, she let out a surprised yelp as she was spun around on her heels. Her eyes widened fearfully when she saw that it was none other then Lydia that she had run into. She stammered for words to say to her, but none of it actually came out as actual words. "Who the hell invited you here?" she snapped, clearly not pleased to see the loser next door to her boyfriend. Maddie gapped like a fish struggling for some kind of air to breath. "Did you really think that you could just crash the party and get away from it? Ha, I bet you did. Why don't you just go home before you embarrass yourself anymore? It'd probably be best." she said snidely to her.