It Hurts Because It's Real

Four days.

Scott kept telling her to talk to him, to listen to what he had to say, to let him explain. But Bella kept telling herself that if Stiles wanted to talk to her - if he really wanted to explain - he would.

So she stayed away. And it was killing her.

Bella had no idea what was going on with Scott or Isaac; she was keeping her distance from Stiles and that meant keeping her distance from anything werewolf related.

She felt like she was irrevocably losing her mind.

A rough and quick knock at her bedroom dragged Bella out of her aimless mindset. She pushed herself off of her bed to turn down the music that she was trying to drown her thoughts with.

"Come in," she called out, knowing it was Scott as her mom was at work. She wasn't looking when the door opened, so when she turned around, her breath caught in her throat.

It was Scott. But he wasn't alone.

Isaac was behind him. He looked incredibly sad. The kind of sad that pulls on your lungs and makes you feel like your heart is coming out of your mouth.

That was the kind of sad that she felt, too.

"Uh, I - we kind of need to ask you something." Scott spoke anxiously.

"Oh.. kay?" Bella responded, evidently confused, her eyebrows pulling together.

"Isaac needs to stay here for a while." Scott uttered quickly and Bella's face dropped. "Just for a while; until he finds somewhere else. Derek kicked him out." Scott justified and Bella watched Isaac's eyes avoid her's. Bella exhaled and shifted on her feet; thinking of what to say. "Come on, Bells. He has no where else to go." Scott almost whispered and Bella felt a deep ache in her heart.

"Yeah, okay, fine. Whatever." She replied, shrugging. She looked behind her brother at Isaac. He was watching her with a look of something similar to desire in his eyes. Bella sighed at him. "I'm still so angry at you, by the way." She muttered. "This doesn't change anything."

Isaac almost growled. "You can't be angry with me forever, you know."

"I can try."

"I bet you will."

-

The same evening, when Bella heard voices and the sound of the front door opening, she walked out of her room and bounded down the stairs. "Mom?... oh." When she looked up, she saw Scott and Isaac standing by the door. They both stared at her for a moment; taking in her messy bun, baggy shirt, shorts - that were practically invisible due to the shirt - and fluffy socks. She saw Isaac look her up and down and she exhaled heavily. "Where are you going?"

"Mexican," Scott nodded nonchalantly. Isaac joined in with the nodding and Bella raised one eyebrow. "We would ask you to come, but..." Scott gestured to her outfit.

"...Right. Have fun."

"Thanks." Scott replied and then knitted his eyebrows together. "Is that my shirt?"

Bella had started walking into the kitchen; she had to turn to look at him. "Hm? Oh, no. It's, um, it's Stiles', actually." She looked down at the fabric, fiddling with the hem between her fingers. It still smelled like him and she wanted to cry. She looked back up and sighed briefly, forcing a smile. Isaac swallowed and frowned at her. Scott just looked at her sadly; like the way you would look at a sick puppy.

"You're gonna talk to him, soon, right?" Scott asked, his voice laced with hope. Bella had acknowledged the fact that Scott didn't believe what she had assumed Stiles had done; not anymore. She didn't know why, or how, she just knew that he didn't. "You have to stop avoiding him at some point."

Bella nodded her head and Isaac's eyes dropped to the floor. "Sure. Yeah, I am. I will." She kept nodding her head and smiling; Scott sighed and glowered at her.

"Bella," he dragged out. "Promise me that you will let him explain."

She sucked in a deep breath and let it escape as she spoke."Yeah, I promise, Scott." Her brother smiled. Isaac moved quickly to walk out of the house; slamming the door behind him. Bella frowned at her brother and he just shrugged. "Okay, well, have a good time." She smiled at Scott and he nodded his thanks before opening the door and walking out, the door closing behind him.

Bella sighed loudly. Scott was right. He always was.

-

"I can't believe we're doing this," Bella groaned, running her hands through her hair and resting them on top of her head. "I feel like a stalker."

"It's not stalking!" Allison retorted, keeping her eyes on the bus in front of them. "We are just.. following."

Bella scoffed at her friend. She mumbled to herself, "This is ridiculous."

"Don't act like this is all me, Bella." Allison said in full awareness. "I know you want to make sure they're safe, too."

Bella exhaled silently. She had no idea what had happened the night before. No one would tell her. Not Scott, not Isaac and not Allison. And definitely not Stiles; Bella felt a tug on her heart and swallowed.

All she knew was that something had happened with the Alpha pack - and Derek was seriously hurt. So hurt that he was presumed dead; which made Bella feel that they had lost a lot of hope on getting rid of the Alpha pack. That was all Isaac would tell her.

After a few moments of silence, Allison brought up Stiles and Bella dismissed her, simply stating that she didn't want to talk about it; that she was going to talk to him soon. Allison then said that she didn't think that Stiles had cheated on her, and though this was an attempt to make Bella feel better, it just made her want to cry.

Bella fell out of her thoughts when Allison's phone started ringing. "Hey, can you get that for me," Allison exclaimed, keeping her eyes on the bus though they were stuck still in traffic. Bella reached for her friends phone and felt her heart fall into her stomach when she saw who was calling.

Stiles.

"No, I can't, Allison, I'm sorry." Bella mumbled out; her voice was evidently laced with terror. She wanted to talk to him, to hear his voice, but she couldn't and she felt like she was going to throw up all over Allison's car. It made Bella's heart ache that she couldn't even talk to the person that she was in love with.

Allison just huffed before taking the phone from her friend, muttering that she would have to talk to him sometime, Bella sighed. "Hey, Stiles. Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie, actually, so--" Allison was obviously interrupted and then exhaled before putting the phone on speaker and holding it out. Bella's eyes widened at Allison and she just shrugged in reply.

"Okay, look, Scott's still hurt." Stiles voice came through the phone and Bella was almost too distracted by his voice to realise what he was saying. She opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it; she looked up at Allison who just looked back at her. Bella couldn't believe that no one had told her what happened to her brother.

"What do you mean 'still'? He's not healing?" Allison exclaimed and Bella felt her heart skip a beat.

"No, I think he's actually getting worse." Stiles spoke, "The bloods turning, like, a black colour."

Bella looked at the girl beside her; fear and worry and hurt all visible in her eyes. Allison frowned before asking, "What's wrong with him?"

"W-what's wrong with him? I don't - do I have a PHD in Lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?"

Bella would have laughed if she didn't think she would cry straight after. Just hearing his voice reminded her that she missed Stiles like she would miss the blood in her veins, the air in her lungs. He was everything to her; she loved every single thing about him and she wanted him back in her life more than she wanted to carry on breathing.

Bella missed the rest of the conversation and was brought back by Allison's voice asking her if she was okay. She nodded slowly, her eyes vacant, Allison sighed.

"You really miss him, don't you?" Allison asked quietly, Bella just nodded because she knew that if she opened her mouth, she would start sobbing. "Do you still think he... ?"

"I don't know anymore."

-

Allison's car rolled to park behind the bus. The two girls jumped out of the vehicle, Bella running to Scott as soon as she saw him, Allison close behind her. Bella skidded to a stop when she was in front of her brother.

"Hey, Scott, it's me - are you okay?" Bella spoke frantically to her disorientated sibling as Allison put Scott's arm over her shoulder. Scott nodded slowly. Bella shifted her eyes and it wasn't until then that she fully noticed that he was there.

Stiles' was staring at her, Scott's other arm draped over his shoulder. Bella almost burst out crying right then and there. His beautiful skin was tainted with now dark purple bruises and crimson red scars. She wanted to plant delicate kisses all over his face; as if that would somehow heal him.

Stiles cleared his throat and tore his eyes away from the girl in front of him. He looked around and said that they needed to take Scott to the restroom to see how hurt he was. Bella just looked at him with her mouth open for a few moments before she shook herself out of her daze and nodded.

Bella helped her brother to rest against the bathroom wall. She lifted up the bloodied patch of his shirt and swallowed the lump in her throat when she saw the huge, deep gash that was sliced across Scott's side.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Her voice came out as a fearful whisper.

"Sorry," was all that Scott could manage to croak out.

Bella blinked quickly to push away the dampness in her eyes. She whispered that it was okay before she stood up and turned around to face the boy and girl behind her.

"This shouldn't be happening. I've seen him heal from worse than this." Allison spoke frantically.

"Okay, what do we do, then?" Stiles asked out, glancing at Bella, who was watching him sadly. He looked at her longingly before looking back at Allison. "Do we call an ambulance?"

"What if it's too late? What if they can't help?"

"Well, we've gotta do something."

"It could be psychological." Bella said under her breath; she had meant to sound confident, but her tone was dripping with nerves.

"W-what do you mean? Like psychosomatic?" Stiles spoke to her directly for the first time in almost five days and Bella felt a deep ache in her chest. They locked eyes and Bella thought she might run and jump into his arms any second.

"Somatoformic," she forced herself to say, "A physical illness from a psychogenic cause."

Stiles looked at her like she was the only person in the room. "It's all in his head." He made sense of what she was saying. "Because of Derek - he's not letting himself heal cause Derek died."

"So what do we do?" Allison asked desperately.

Bella reached into her pocket to pull out the stitching kit that she had taken from Allison's car; she didn't know how badly Scott was hurt and thought of every possible thing that they could do to help him.

"Stitch him up." Bella said and breathed out heavily. "Maybe all he needs to do is believe it's healing."

Stiles and Allison nodded. Allison then claimed that she would do it and that Scott would need another shirt. "Where's his bag?" She asked out as she prepared the needle.

"Uh, I'm gonna get it, I hate needles, anyway." Stiles said and Bella almost smiled. He went to leave but turned back; his arm brushed against Bella's and her heart started throbbing against her rib cage. Stiles voice cracked when he spoke, "Uh, do you know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, my father taught me." Allison replied sharply.

"I mean, how fast are you gonna - I mean, the bus - like, the bus could leave." Stiles spluttered out and Bella looked up at him.

"Okay, just make sure it doesn't leave." Allison responded absently.

Stiles saw Bella looking at him in the corner of his eye; he turned his head to look at her. He glanced down at her open mouth that mirrored his. Bella just darted her eyes all over his skin, having not been this close to him for too long.

Bella quickly tore her eyes away from him because she knew that if she kept staring at him like that she would do something stupid like grab him and kiss him. She looked at the ground but she could still see the look on Stiles' face; how hurt he was. Stiles nodded once and looked away before quickly walking out of the room.

Bella sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them, Allison had crouched down beside Scott and was attempting to thread the needle with shaky fingers. Scott looked up at Bella with a dazed and disappointed look in his eyes. He moved his head lazily in the direction that Stiles had gone; silently telling Bella to go after him. Bella breathed in and nodded. She looked at the pair in front of her before walking out, following the path that Stiles had taken.

Bella walked out and glanced around for any sign of Stiles. She saw him then; he was standing close to a crowd who were all gathering around in a circle. Bella moved quickly to the scene, skidding to a stop beside Stiles. His head whipped to her and she glanced at him sadly before looking back to the crowd in front of her. Bella pushed her way through the mess of people to see something that made her heart drop into her stomach.

Aiden was crumpled up on the floor, blood spilling out of his mouth, as Isaac's fist smacked into his cheek and jaw over and over again as everyone just watched. Coach called out Isaac's name and Danny tried to pull him back, but Isaac was too involved in causing the Alpha as much pain as he possibly could.

"Isaac!" Bella screamed at him. "Stop - Isaac!" When he kept throwing punches, Bella ran at him and put her hand against his chest and her face in front of his; trying to get him to look at her. "Isaac! Stop it! Look at me!" She yelled at him and put her hand on his face, making him look at her. When Isaac's eyes finally looked into her's, she pushed him away from the Alpha and stared at him with a mix of confusion, anger and hurt all over her face.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Isaac growled at her, closing the gap that she had made between them, blood dripping from his white knuckles.

Bella gaped at him. "What the hell am I doing?!" She screamed at him, pushing against his chest. "I'm stopping you from getting killed! What the hell are you doing?"

"Stopping me from getting killed?" Isaac scoffed at her. "Are you sure you weren't just protecting him?"

Now it was Bella's turn to scoff. "Okay, have you gone completely out of your mind?"

"He told me what happened, Bella!" Isaac yelled venomously and Bella's face scrunched up at him as she shook her head. "He told me that you slept with him."

Bella's jaw dropped and she didn't know whether she wanted to throw up, scream or cry. She spun on her heels to look at Aiden whose arm was draped over his brother's shoulder. His bloody mouth crawled into a smirk and Bella thought she might kill him right then and there. And then Bella remembered that Stiles was still there, still listening. She whipped her head to look at him and wished she hadn't. He looked completely and utterly heart broken - the way she had felt when she thought he had cheated on her. Bella simply shook her head at him before turning back to Isaac; still ignoring the crowd of people around them.

"And you actually believed him?" Bella spat out and Isaac just scowled at her. She turned around to face the bloodied Alpha again and wished that looks could kill. Aiden just looked back at her smugly. "If you don't tell him the truth," Bella wasn't sure of if she meant Stiles, Isaac or both. "I swear to God, I will kick you so hard in the--"

"Okay!" Coach called out. "That's enough of that. Everyone back on the bus." He pushed the crowd away but Bella, Isaac, Aiden, and Stiles didn't move an inch.

Aiden smiled, standing on his own now. "I don't know what you're talking about, Bella."

Bella stormed over to him and glared into his smiling eyes. She brought her hand up to his cheek slapped him as hard as she could before lifting her knee up to connect with his groin. The boy doubled over but she grabbed onto his shirt to pull him back up. She couldn't comprehend that she had just attacked an Alpha; at that moment she was too angry to be afraid.

"Did that jog your memory?" She whispered lowly to him.

Aiden growled out and Bella saw in the corner of her eye that Scott had walked out with Allison; they were standing beside a very taken aback Stiles.

"Fine." Aiden bit out, glaring at everyone in turn. "We didn't sleep together." He choked out and Bella gave an 'I told you so' look to Isaac before glancing sadly at Stiles. "Not yet, anyway."

Before Bella knew what was happening, Isaac had moved at the speed of light towards Aiden. But Scott was faster and moved in front of Isaac, holding him back as he thrived.

"Leave. Now." Scott growled out, struggling to hold Isaac in his place. Bella just gaped as Aiden strolled away onto the bus.

"Come on! Everybody back on the bus!" Coach shouted out of the window at the pack who were all glancing at each other in uncertainty of what to do next.

Bella closed her eyes and tried to exhale all of the anger and sadness that was clogging her lungs.