Settle Down

The next day was pretty weird.

When Avery got to the Teen Wolf set, Crystal, Holland, and Tyler were off in the corner, whispering amongst themselves, but quieted down when they saw her. It felt like high school all over again.

“Hey?” Avery arched a curious eyebrow at Crystal who avoided eye contact with her. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Tyler replied quickly, glancing over at the clock. “Well, what do you know, I need to get ready for my scene.” He immediately ran off the set towards his dressing room.

Avery turned to the two girls in front of her. “Did I miss something?” She saw Holland briefly look at Crystal, clearing her throat. They seemed to be having some strange telepathic debate from the expressions on their face, but then Crystal eventually sighed in defeat.

“Dylan and Britt are fighting,”

“Oh, everything okay?”

“Not exactly,” Crystal began, pulling her cell phone out of her purse. Rapidly typing something in, she turned her phone around, placing it into Avery’s hand. At first, it took her a good long while to realize what this was, and when she finally understood; her eyes widened in shock, mouth falling open.

There was a picture of Dylan and her standing on the sidewalk last night when he had gone looking for her, his hand cupping her chin as they gazed into each other’s eyes. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach as she read the opening line, ‘Is Dylan O’Brien cheating on long-time girlfriend, Britt Robertson with mystery girl?’ She couldn’t bring herself to read any further, nearly dropping Crystal’s phone to the ground, but being quick to react; she caught it.

“They can’t be serious,” Avery whispered, eyes bulging out of her sockets as she stared at Crystal. “They can’t possibly think that.”

“It’s the media, Aves,” Crystal’s face softened, but her tone held firmness. “They live to cause hype even when it’s not true.”

“Where’s Dylan? I need to fix this.”

“He’s in his dress – Aves? Avery!”

She was already making her way in the direction of his dressing room, ignoring the two girls calling after her when she turned the corner. Finally reaching the door, she pushed it open, causing the tall brunette to jump at her sudden entrance.

“Dylan, I’m so, so sorry,” she apologized with nothing but concern in her voice, her expression showing one of guilt. “I had no idea.”

He leaned against his chair, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “It’s okay, Avery. It’s not even your fault. I should’ve known that paparazzi’s are everywhere.”

“But you and Britt…”

A sigh escaped his lips as he rubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah, that I didn’t exactly see coming, but its nothing I can’t handle. She just needs some time to cool off.”

As if she wasn’t already feeling like crap, but hearing that just made her feel even worse. “Is there anything I could do to make this better?”

“I don’t think so,” he mumbled, staring blankly at a random spot on the floor.

She didn’t know what made her do it, but she hastily closed the gap between them, pulling him into a hug. It definitely caught him off guard because she felt his body tense and he didn’t react too quickly to it. In fact, he didn’t react to it at all.

“What are you doing?” He asked quietly after an entire minute, but she still had her arms wrapped around him, unable to find the strength to pull away even though every part of her body was screaming for her to.

“I-I don’t know,” she mumbled into his chest.

Dylan straightened his body out, gently pushing her away from him, but keeping his hands on either side of her arms as he looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry, Avery, but I don’t know if you misinterpreted my gesture last night, and I –

“Excuse me?” Avery quickly interjected; taking a few steps back as she watched his hands fall limply to his sides. “I came here to apologize for putting you in such a terrible situation with your girlfriend and the stupid media. I didn’t come here to tell you ‘I love you’.” She said angrily, feeling her face flush.

“Avery,” he took a step closer to her, but she only stepped back. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then how did you mean it?” If looks could kill, Dylan would be six feet under by now.

He took a moment to think about what to say next, running a hand through his messy hair. He still looked incredibly amazing. “It’s hard to explain.” He finally said, but it wasn’t enough.

“Oh, because it was so hard to jump to conclusion that I ‘misinterpreted’ your gesture last night as me feeling something for you.”

“I never said any of that,” he defended, but then hurriedly added, “Well, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”

“You didn’t have to,” she snapped. “It was implied either way.”

He sighed, running a hand over his face once more, looking extremely stressed out. She was starting to feel bad for being such a bitch to him, but it was never her intention for this to happen. All she wanted to do was apologize and try to fix things, but that landed her in this hot mess of what appears to be her and Dylan’s first fight. How stupid. It hasn’t even been a whole week yet since they’ve met.

“Avery, what I meant was…” he started, but struggled to form his next words. She almost wanted to wrap her arms around him again, anything to make him smile. Before she could even process what happened next, Dylan quickly closed the distance between them, pulling her roughly into him, mumbling something along the lines of, “Fuck it.”

And his lips were on hers in a matter of seconds.