Give Me Courage (Give Me Series #4)

24 - PSATs

Stiles' breath tickled my ear as he leaned over my left shoulder, pulling himself in closer to the side of my head, careful to not bump into the few other students in the hallway on this early Saturday morning. His eyebrows knitted together at the center of his forehead as he asked, "What does Isaac mean by he'll 'take care of it'?"

A sly grin momentarily tugged on my lips at his question. After sending a thumbs up emoji in response to my brother's text, I locked my phone screen while I glanced at him over my shoulder, slightly taken aback by how close his head was to mine. "Uh, just something we have planned for tonight," I replied with a small shrug of my shoulders, sliding my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, attempting to pass the whole thing off as nothing.

He narrowed his chocolate brown eyes at me, suspiciously. "I thought we were going to try to go on our first date tonight."

I nodded at him, excitedly, butterflies erupting in my stomach at the simple thought of having our first date together. It was still surreal to me that we were dating, that Stiles was actually into me, like I was into him.

"We are," I promised him. "Isaac and I just have something planned afterwards." The suspicious look he sent me continued to be shot in my direction, unwaveringly. I pecked his cheek, quickly, hoping to ease his racing mind. "It's nothing to worry about, I promise," I reassured him.

His curiosity washed away by the time we rounded the corner, making our way further through the school toward Mrs. Martin's classroom to take our PSATs today. As we walked through the hallway, I found my nerves kicking back in, scared of what was around the next few corners. The awful thoughts of what happened last night at the animal clinic replayed in my mind, reminding me of all the things I said to Scott, regret flooding through my entire being.

Our friends were already in line outside of the classroom, waiting for the two of us to arrive, along with Isaac and Aiden, who were running a tad late. The thing that worried me the most was knowing I would be face to face with Scott in a matter of minutes, apologies on the tip of my tongue.

What if he didn't forgive me for what I said last night? There were so many hurtful things that flew from my lips last night. My mind was a mess inside, confused at where those feelings came from, not understanding how I lost control of my body and thoughts. Sure, Scott and I had our issues-- especially past issues-- but we were letting go of all of that. We were allowing ourselves to become friends again without the constant stress of what we went through before I left for France.

Suddenly, without any warning, I began to blurt out all of my worries and stress out loud in the middle of the hallway, unable to hold any of it back for any longer. "Why couldn't our PSATs be later in the year-- or why couldn't I have taken them earlier, like Lydia did?" I demanded to know. "Why does it have to be now when we have so much to on our plates already? How am I expected to focus on what two plus two equals when I have assassins to worry about and trying to keep my pack from falling apart? Why--"

Beside me, Stiles shook his head, completely startled by my random outburst. He abruptly stepped in front of me, fingers softly pressed into my shoulders over the striped shirt I wore. "Chloe!"

I struggled to take a deep breath, stress eating me alive on the inside.

"Calm down, alright?" Stiles' voice grew softer as he saw the amount of anxiety I was feeling in that moment. His thumbs gently rubbed across my collarbones, soothingly. "You've been studying for this all week. You're going to be fine." His head bobbed to the side as he added, "And we'll figure it out about everything else. We always do."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I apologized to him, hanging my head. I nervously swallowed at the bundles of nerves building in my body. "I'm just so stressed out over everything right now, and the whole thing with Scott-- not to mention seeing my house again did not help. I mean, what if he doesn't forgive me? What if our fight ruined our friendship and the whole pack falls apart--"