Beginners guide to love a nutjob

Chapter 5: Not anymore. Not even at all.

They were all having lunch in the local burger joint, they being Stiles, Derek, Erica, Boyd, Scott and Allison, heavily debating on how Bob Marley died. "I swear", Stiles heavily emphasized, "He died because he wouldn't amputate his cancer infested toe because it's against his religion." Erica aggressively shook her head, "No way! He died because he smoked to many pot." Derek cleared his throat, "I'm gonna have to disagree, Ric, I'm sorry, but Stiles is right."

"Ha! Check your facts, fuck nuggets!", Stiles called out. He then looked at Derek, "Wait... Did you just agree with me?" Derek rolled his eyes, "Oh I wish I could take-" Stiles hastily covered the other boy's mouth with his hand, "Nope! You said it! No take-backs!" Derek threw him a death glare and Stiles was quick to pull his hand back before it was bitten off. " "You're an idiot", Derek said, trying to sound annoyed. "And yet you love me."

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Midterms were coming up and visibly nervous students were rustling all over campus, arms filled with course sheets. Derek was on his way to Stiles' dorm to work on their essay for English lit, they had to write their interpretation of Vladimir Nabokov's 'Lolita'. He bumped into Scott on his way inside the building, "Oh hey, Derek! Stiles is already waiting upstairs." Derek nodded, "You off to Alli?"

Scott beamed, "Yeah, we're studying for Linear Algebra together." Derek smiled and patted his shoulder, "Better you than me, buddy, I loathe math." He then proceeded down the hallway and up the stairs to Stiles' room. He knocked twice and seconds later he heard a loud thump, "Stiles?". Derek tried the door and it opened to reveal a dishevelled-looking Stiles, lying on the floor.

Derek squinted "Did you just fall?" Stiles aggressively shook his head, "No...I attacked the floor." Derek raised an eyebrow, "Backwards?" Stiles shrugged, "I'm crazy talented!" Derek chuckled, "I swear to god, you could trip over your own shadow." Stiles grinned, "My shadow's a tricky little bastard, it likes me to fall to its level." Derek shook his head and pulled Stiles up, but the other boy stumbled and ended up with his face dangerously close to Derek's.

For one tense moment they looked in each other's eyes, before Derek cleared his throat and steadied the other boy. "We should start on those essays", he said breathless. Stiles nodded, "Right! Lolita!" He flailed his arms around, flopped on his wheely-chair and rolled it towards his desk. Derek grabbed an extra chair and joined him, "I already started working on the literature study and the analysis of the characters and story. Do you want to read it?"

Stiles nodded, "Sure! And maybe you can check out the extra resources I found?" Derek agreed and they both started working. "You seem to know a lot about Lolita", Stiles suddenly noted. Derek looked up from one of the articles Stiles had found on the character arc of Humbert Humbert, "It's my favourite book, I know my fair share." Stiles perked up in immediate excitement, "No kidding! Mine too!"

Derek smiled, "Cool. These resources look great, especially the one on the psychology of Dolores." Stiles gestured to the laptop screen, "Your work so far is awesome as well, you've got a really original way of wording things." Derek flushed slightly, "Thanks... That's really nice to say." Stiles gave a dismissive wave, "It's my pleasure man. Hey, maybe you can share this document so I work on it with my laptop as well."

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Hours had passed and both Derek and Stiles were getting pretty sour and tired. "Is it okay for me to throw myself out of the window after we hand in this essay?", Stiles asked. "Absolutely not!", Derek reacted, maybe a little too fast. Luckily, Stiles didn't seem to pick up on it and continued his plea, "But I don't know if I can take three more weeks of this shit, Sourwolf... I'm like 3% human and 97% stress."

"It's not so bad", Derek reasoned with him, "You just need some distraction... Let's go take a jog!" Stiles curled up his nose, "I don't trust joggers, they're always the ones who find dead bodies, just saying." Derek rolled his eyes, "I'm a jogger. You trust me." Stiles chuckled, "Yeah, but I know you're not a cold-hearted serial killer." Derek threw him a wicked grin, "You sure, though?" Stiles shook his head, "Cut it out, I'll take a goddamn jog with you."

Derek gave him a pleased smile, "I'm gonna go fetch my sports gear and meet you here in twenty minutes, that sound good?" Stiles nodded, "Sounds great, you menace." Derek couldn't help but feel a little good about himself as he left the building, Stiles might be fricking annoying on a regular basis, but he wasn't really sure he minded that much anymore. Maybe he didn't even mind at all. 

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But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all. - Kat Stradford (10 things I hate about you, 1999)

Hello you beautiful creatures!

I really hope you enjoy this new chapter and that you guys are still healthy!

Love you guys, thinking of you guys,

XXX-HY_13