Heartbeat // A Derek Hale Love Story (Teen Wolf)

You Might Be Right

Stiles' POV

Even though Derek had become the biggest pain in my ass in life, there was no question that my life was a lot more interesting with him in it. I still thought we didn't need him to help with Scott's new wolfy powers but he seemed to think we did. He had just taken Scott to "Show him exactly how nice the Argents were" and I was curious to see what information that endeavour turned up.

I hadn't seen Lillian for a while since she and Derek broke up but I could tell she was sad. I was too proud to tell her that I wasn't sure that Derek had killed her grandfather anymore. Derek had no motive and based on behaviour it would be more likely that the alpha hunting Scott was behind it. I wasn't sure if I should feel bad about it. Derek as a person wasn't a good candidate to date Lillian, but the reason she broke up with him turned out to probably not be true. I did feel some regret that the debacle caused Lillian so much pain, but honestly, it was better than her being with Derek.

I should call her. Be a good friend. At least see how she was doing.

I climbed into my Jeep, settling in the driver's seat before I pulled out my phone to call her.

"Hello?"

Immediately I could tell there was something wrong. She'd been crying or something. I narrowed my eyes. "Hey, are you okay?"

She cleared her throat. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, you sound great," I drawled in an attempt to cheer her up. "Are you home?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"You sound like you could use some company?" I offered, resting a hand on my steering wheel. "I'm not doing anything right now if you want to hang out."

She didn't say anything for a moment and exhaled. "Sure."

"You don't have to say yes, dude," I scoffed. "I'm just offering."

"Yeah, I know," she said. "You can come. I've had quite the night."

I raised my eyebrows. "Perfect. So did I."

*

The barn and loft lights were on when I got to her house and parked, eyeing the number of horses chilling in their stalls inside. I approached the cobblestone aisle, watching Magellan watch me. His dark eyes seemed to follow me as I neared the stairs. "Hi there," I waved, laughing to myself for talking to him. There was another horse I didn't know the name of beside him, a monstrous brown thing. I got close enough to make out the plaque on his stall that read "Fraser".

Lillian was bundled in a huge sweater and Roots sweatpants when I got up to her room, her fairy lights twinkling from where they were snaked through the headboard of her bed.

"What's going on, man?" I asked by way of greeting, sliding her desk chair over to the side of the bed she was on and sat down.

"I'm kind of drunk, just so you know," Lillian said flatly, burrowing in her sweater and brought her finger to her lips. "Shhhhhhhh."

I held back a laugh because she was obviously upset beyond that but it did intrigue me. "Who did you get drunk with?"

"That's the thing," Lillian huffed, sipping some steaming tea she steeped. "When my grandpa owned this property, he had a ranch hand to help him named Will. He lived up here before I did. I had a huge crush on him from what I knew when I was younger. We had sex a few times."

I coughed. "That went from zero to a hundred real quick. But please, go on."

She stared at me. "We were never officially dating, and when my grandfather died, he left. Didn't see him again until a little while ago. Long story short, he came over here to ride his old horse and then we hooked up."