Aware of That

Scott McCall was in his room lacing up his lacrosse stick, his ritual before a big tryout, everything had to be perfect. His cousin Charlie sat on his bed, picking at her nails commenting on how trivial and barbaric sports were.

“Why do you want to be on a team full of neanderthals, who probably pick nats out of each others hair and eat them on a Friday night?” Charlie questioned, a teasing smile playing on her lips.

“Don’t you think you might be exaggerating?” Scott asked, a laugh forced its way of his mouth before he set back to work on perfecting his lacrosse stick. His cousin always was hilarious. She was completely unfiltered which he admired.

“I remember Jackson Whittemore, so no, I’m fairly certain that mental image was sufficiently underwhelming.” She stated getting up and leaving his room, shutting the door behind her. Charlie had gotten here about two hours ago having taken a cab from the airport, unlike her visits during the summer, this time she was here to stay. After asking his mom why she wasn’t living with her parents anymore, she simply shrugged and sped off to work. He loved his cousin and was excited for the change of pace. Nothing exciting ever really happened around here, and if Charlie was anything, exciting was first.

After finishing his lacing he set to work on his pull ups. He was disturbed when he heard a noise from outside. Grabbing his baseball bat he crept down the stairs as not to wake Charlie who’s lights were out in the guest bedroom, which was now hers.

He walked along the wrap around porch and nearly had a heart attack when he realized it was simply Charlie who was smoking a cigarette while perched on the railing in a pair of boys briefs and a tank top.

“What are you doing out here. You know my mom will kill you.” He whispered harshly, his hand still clutching at his heart.

“I’ll take my chances.” She shrugged, taking a long exaggerated puff on her smoke purely for her cousins benefit.

“Did you hear that noise earlier?” Scott asked, inspecting the lawn and the street that ran in front of their house.

“Yup. Boy wonder is on the roof.” Charlie commented dryly, pointing upwards after seeing Stiles scale the building, falling on more than one occasion and swearing under his breath quite colorfully.

It was then that Stiles dropped down from the roof, upside down in a very Spiderman like fashion.

Scott chokes back a scream and nearly swings the bat at his unsuspecting friend who comments on the blunt object with surprise. Stiles obviously hadn’t noticed Charlie yet because he hops off the roof and lands on the ground with a thud and begins to talk about how he was listening to one of his dads phone calls and now they were going to find a dead body in the woods.

“Thats the best part.” Stiles continues, still not having noticed her, “They only found half. We’re going.”

“Jesus Christ.” Charlie comments, finally making her presence known to the rather oblivious boy to her right. She took another long drag of her cigarette exhaling as Stiles attempted to fix his hair and shirt.

“Charlie.” Stiles struggled with a piece of his hair that had gone rogue from the rest, he licked his hand and patted it down, not making him look anymore presentable.

He sat down, perched rather close to her on the railing.

“Weird time for a visit, Gorgeous.” Stiles comments, throwing an arm around her while mentally berating himself for saying ‘gorgeous’. She puts her cigarette out dangerously close to his arm and stands up, creating some distance between herself and her cousins best friend.

“My parents didn’t really think SoHo and I were getting along. Looks like I’m here to stay.” She says simply, not wanting to get into the gory details about her wild lifestyle and parade of men.

“Wanna come with then?” Stiles offers, ignoring the pointed look from Scott at the invitation.

“My idea of a pleasant Sunday night doesn’t usually involve looking for a severed body. I think I’ll sit this one out. But you and Dumb have a fantastic time.” She called out over her shoulder as she headed back inside.

“Wait, does that make me dumber?” Stiles yelled to her. She stopped in the doorway and turned around with a glittering smile on her face,

“Deal with it.”

She shut the door and Stiles let out a long breath and leaned on Scott for support. “You didn’t tell me that the love of my life was here? Some friend.”

“It’s hard to keep up with who the love of your life actually is, Stiles. Lydia, Charlie, your XBox.”

The next morning Charlie was blasting music in Scott’s room with the window open. Her mouth descended over the bong as she lit the piece and inhaled, the door swung open and Scott stumbled in.

“You are one lucky son of bitch, I totally covered for you this morning with Melissa.” She said as she exhaled out the window.

“My mom is going to smell that!” Scott whispered, “God. You’re smoking pot.”

“That’s why I’m doing it in your room, Genius.” Charlie laughed, taking another toke before continuing, “Besides your mom left for work half an hour ago.”

“Perfect.” Scott deadpanned, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. Then winced as his torso started to burn. He lifted his shirt and looked at the huge bleeding bite mark.

“Woah, there tiger. What the fuck happened to you!” Charlie leapt off the bed and stumbled in her high state. She got on her knees and examined the damage.

“Something bite me in the woods.” He shrugged, pulling his shirt back down and heading into the bathroom. “Stiles should be here to pick us up for school soon.”

“Speaking of Dumber, where the fuck was Stiles when Godzilla took a bite out of your stomach?”

“Busted by his dad.”

“There it is. Want some help cleaning that?” She picked up the bong and took another hit, clearly not going to help.

“Nah, I’m just going go to get ready. You should probably try to dig up some Visine.”

Charlie left his room and walked slowly to hers. She pulled on some jeans, and a black shirt with a cut down the back, she didn’t bother to put on a bra, but she did find her leather jacket and managed to lace up her Doc Martins without a problem just in time to hear Stiles pull up in his piece of shit Jeep.

Scott was already in the front seat when Charlie walked out, walking very slowly to the car. She started to giggle at the sound the car was making and hopped in, Stiles obviously staring at her.

“I can’t wait until my parents send me my car.” She said, shrugging off her jacket and leaning up to the front to change the radio station. Her chest was pressing against Stiles and he was having a hard time concentrating on how to drive.

Stiles watches her continuously change the radio station and giggling at random intervals.

“What’s with you today, Charles?” He asked her, a little upset when she leaned back to her seat.

“She’s high.” Scott answers seeing that Charlie was too bust playing with the window.

“She makes anything look hot as fuck.” Stiles whispered, “She’s not wearing a bra.”

Stiles’ breathing was labored and he seemed to be having trouble speaking.

“Stiles. Come on, dude. Thats my cousin.” Scott groaned, covering his ears.

“Doesn’t change the fact that she’s smoking hot.” Stiles gasped, “Now, tell me about last night and the bite, what was it?”

Lydia Martin had this school wrapped around her dainty wrist like a Pandora bracelet. Perfect hair, perfect grades, perfect boyfriend. It wasn’t until she heard the rumors that a new girl was walking around here also acting like she owned the place.

It was her mission today to find her and either add her to the ranks or send her spiraling into social oblivion.

Stiles watched Lydia Martin walk by and every coherent thought in his head seemed to dissipate.

“Hey Lydia, you look -” Stiles cut himself off, muttering under his breath as he watched Charlie walk down the stairs of the school and strut out to the lacrosse field with a cigarette poised perfectly in her mouth. She was just the epitome of sex.

“Stiles?” Scott questioned.

“Great, now your cousin officially has her pick. Even Jackson is staring at her.” Stiles said, a hand on the back of neck as he watched Jackson take his sweet time starring at Charlie’s ass.

“You don’t have to worry about Jackson, she hates that kid.” Scott said, hiking his backpack up over his shoulder.

“Why?” Stiles asked, trying to tear his eyes away from Charlie.

“I probably shouldn’t tell you.”

“Dude, you tell me everything! Sometimes too much.” Stiles pleaded.

“Well,” Scott, made sure no one was around. “Two years ago when she was here visiting for that month in the summer, she lost her V card to him.”

Stiles visibly paled, that was the summer that she had kissed him on a dare. It may have been a dare but it still meant a lot to him, it was the summer he realized that he could maybe, almost, probably not have a shot with her.

“Fucking Jackson.”

Walking into her chemistry class, Charlie was at a loss for where to sit, she spotted Scott and Stiles and made a bee line for them.

“Look at all these dudes starring at her, wanting her to sit with them. Shameless.” Stiles muttered, twirling his highlighter in his hands.

Scott rolled his eyes and smiled at his cousin as she took the seat in front of Stiles. The bell rang and Mr. Hatchet droned on about the usual first day bullshit and Stiles kept trying to get Charlie’s attention.

“Charles. Charlie. Char. Charlotte.”

“Fuck off, Stiles.”

“I wanted you to come cheer me on at tryouts later.”

“I’m busy.”

“You’ve been here five minutes. You can’t be busy.”

“I have a date with Mary Jane under the bleachers.”

“Well perfect. The bleachers are where everyone will be sitting to watch the game. Looks like I didn’t even need to batt an eyelash.”

“I’m honestly too stoned to deal with you right now, Stilinski.”

Charlie was standing at her locker with her aviators on trying to look a little less blitzed than she actually was, while Scott was blatantly checking out Allison. Some random girl no one bothered to introduce her too was blathering on about how the populars heard together because they’re attractive or something.

“Ideally your cousin would be over there too, Scott. But it looks like she’s on drugs.” She commented, looking at Charlie.

“I’m sorry, who the fuck do you think you are?” Charlie stared the girl down, sliding her aviators down her nose, her red rimmed eyes were focused into a glare. “You reek of bitterness.”

Charlie simply turned around and headed out to the bleachers, she wasn’t going to wait for Scott and Stiles to be done checking out Allison and Lydia, because honestly she was convinced they would be content to stand there all day.

“Charlie! Do you want me to show you where the bleachers are? I can walk you-”

“I’m perfectly capable of locating the lacrosse field, Stilinski. It’s not exactly easy to miss.” She commented dryly. “Huge field, bleachers, about twenty or so light posts . . .”

“I know, McCall. I just want to walk with you.”

“Have it your way.”

After a rather short walk to the lacrosse field everyone was already gathered to watch or play. Girls were in the stands as well as parents and teachers, and the coach and the players were on the field doing warmups.

Stiles accompanied Charlie under the bleachers to watch her smoke weed and admired her balls because the coach and other teachers were sitting on the bleachers above their heads completely oblivious to the illicit activities going on below.

“You want some?” She offered him the little bowl and simply shrugged when he shook his head. “Straight edge, huh? Parents wet dream.”

“I resent that. You know my dad is one phone call from the school away from sending me off to boarding school.”

“Boarding school isn’t so bad. I tried out my lesbian phase there.” She took another drag and Stiles was about to go into cardiac arrest.

“L-lesbian ph-phase?” He stammered trying to eradicate the images from his mind.

“Yup,” She said, popping the ‘p’, “Wanna head up top? I think those girls there know what we’re doing.”

“What you’re doing!” He accused, following her out from underneath the bleachers, she rounded on him, catching him off guard.

“You wouldn’t take the fall with me, Stiles?” She asked, her lips pulling into an other worldly pout. She touched her hand to his face and stroked his jaw. “ . . . Stiles?”

“You’re- you’re playing with me.” He called her out, “But I don’t even care, I’d totally take the fall for you.”

He stared into her eyes totally starstruck and lost in whatever was happening. He didn’t even care if she was just proving a point, it felt just totally right.

“Come on, Batman.” She laughed, removing her hand and retreating to the bleachers, “Let’s go watch some sweaty dude tackle each other with sticks.”

They walk to Stiles seat on the bench and the coach immediately rounds on Charlie, “No, girls on the bench!”

“I really don’t care. So just for this one day, I don’t think you should either.” Charlie said lazily readjusting her shades.

“Who are you? You know what? I don’t care. Sit here. WHATEVER!” He stormed away yelling obscenities that a teacher should not technically be allowed to yell while still being employed by the school board.

“I guess I better settle in. This doesn’t seem like it’s going to be my pace.” Charlie complained, putting in her earbuds and trying to ignore the way Stiles was looking at her.

When practice was over, Scott and Stiles decided to go back into the woods to try and find the other half of the body that Scott had stumbled on as well as the inhaler he had dropped.

“Stiles, you’re my ride. Until my parents send me a car I am completely dependent on you and your ability to drive stick.” She tried to reason with the two who were walking faster than her and lugging their lacrosse gear. They hauled it in the back of the Jeep and that was when Scott turned around and suggested that she walk or catch a ride with any one of the male population who were only too eager to get to know her.

“Dude, I can’t walk home.” Charlie rolled her eyes and chose to ignore the comment about getting a ride home with one of the less than desirable lacrosse players.

“Well then it looks like you have to come with us.” Was Scott’s only answer as he opened the passenger door. “I’ll even let you ride shot gun.”

“To find an inhaler?” Charlie questioned, “In the woods, where a potential serial killer could be making camp?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Said Stiles from the drivers seat.

“Where the dead body was?”

“Yes.”

“You realize I’m stoned and that if we find a dead body I might actually go out of my fucking mind.” She said, running a hand through her blonde locks, frustrated.

Scott shoved her in the car.

As the three trekked through the woods and through puddles Stiles and Scott were commenting on his more than weird behavior lately.

“So you can smell things?” Stiles asked to clarify, extending a hand to Charlie as she tried unsuccessfully to cross the river. She squeezed his hand gratefully before returning it to her pocket.

“Like that mint gum in your pocket.” Scott said, looking to Stiles who was staring at his hand that had been holding Charlie’s.

“Sorry, what?” Stiles returned his attention to Scott and retrieved the gum from his pocket, staring at his long time friend bewildered.

“Dude thats fucked.” Said Charlie from behind them, trying to catch up with the boys who seemed to be running a head of her.

“Not helping.” Scott muttered.

Scott and Stiles continued to bicker about werewolves and bodies but Charlie was just focused on walking and not falling to be truly interested in their conversation. Yeah, sure, smelling gum was weird, but she was much too high to start delving into this weird shit. Next they’d be spewing out conspiracy theories and that was the last thing she needed.

Then she noticed a figure in the distance that seemed to be staring at the threesome, he was muscular with dark features and wore a leather jacket that screamed to Charlie’s inner rocker chick.

“Woah. You’re hot.” She complimented, not aware of the fact that his presence was very creepy and slightly serial killer-esque.

Scott and Stiles rounded to look where she was staring at and both jumped in fear, not expecting to see Derek Hale of all people taking a relaxing stroll through the woods.

“What are you doing here?” He asked in a gruff, yet commanding voice.

“Looking for something.” Scott replied, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I was just - you know -”

Derek grabbed something out of his pocket at threw it at Scott at warp speed. Scott stuck out his hand and the object hit its mark. Charlie soon realized that the object in question was Scott’s inhaler.

“Any chance you wanna throw me your number?” She called after his retreating figure, when no reply came she pouted and muttered, “No? Okay then. Rejection stings. Stiles, after all these years of watching you pine over Lydia Martin, I think I finally know how you feel.”

“Rule number one of werewolf club, don’t flirt with the enemy.” He muttered, throwing his hands in his jacket and stalking away in the direction of his Jeep.

Scott and Charlie weren’t far behind.

“She hit a dog?” Charlie asked, perched on the window sill, in Scott’s room, smoking a cigarette out the window. Scott and Stiles were seated at the computer researching Derek Hale.

“She was crying and I, I don’t know, I feel like we connected.” Scott explained, recalling two hours prior when Allison had come to the Animal Clinic.

“Well she cried, at least we know she’s not a sociopath.” Charlie commented dryly, throwing her cigarette butt out the window and closing it, she began to retreat to her room when Stiles laughed and responded,

“Or do we?” Charlie laughed and threw a wink at the two over her shoulder.

“Knock it off.” Scott muttered while Stiles simply stared after the blonde beauty.

Stiles and Charlie were sitting on the bench waiting for Scott to be done with his practice. Charlie noted that this had become a habit and a rather bad one. She had better things to do with her time than wait around for Dumb and Dumber. She had her headphones in and was bobbing to the music, taking small swigs of tequila from out of her flask.

Stiles kept poking and prodding her when Scott did something outrageous on the field, which seemed to be quite often today.

This time he full on punched her in the shoulder as Scott fancy footed his way around some offense and then did a full flip over the defensemen and made a goal.

“STILES!” She yelled, cradling her shoulder and catching his full attention, “I don’t fucking care! Okay? I’m here because you’re my only ride home. No other reason.”

She took another swig from her flask, which was half empty by now.

“Yeah. Sure. Sorry Charlie.” Stiles pulled his hands into his lap and looked at his feet.

A feeling of guilt over took her. “Stiles,” She sighed, “Wanna shot?” Offering him the flask, he smiled at her, all forgiven and shook his head.

It was becoming quite a ritual for the three to be hanging around together, they were always at Scott’s or Stiles’ house. Charlie was merely a third wheel. She didn’t add much to the conversation but they didn’t seem to mind her and she was usually blitzed or drunk anyway.

“I made first line!” Scott declared on their way up to Stiles’ room.

“I know, buddy. I was there.” Charlie clapped him on the shoulder and held the door open for Scott. She took her usual spot on the floor, leaning against the bed and Stiles was already reading intently sitting in his computer chair.

“You were chugging tequila the whole time. Were you really?” He laughed, sitting on the bed.

“Shut up McCall.”

Stiles jumped up, seeming to realize he had company and quickly shut the door. He rushed back to his computer desk and grabbed a messy pile of sheets he had printed off.

“You gotta see this, guys!” Stiles waved his arms frantically, “I’ve been up all night, reading, websites, books -”

“How much adderall have you had today?” Scott joked, but Charlie wasn’t laughing. She was starring at Stiles with a rather worried look. She never really bothered to worry about people before except for Scott but this weird kid who she had known since her infancy was totally freaking her out.

“A lot.” Was his simple answer.

“Caring is sharing.” Charlie beamed, catching Stiles off guard. He threw her the bottle.

“Didn’t think you were into this kind of substance.”

“I’m into it all.” She smiled. Taking two and popping them into her mouth.

“Stiles, is this about the body? Have they found anything?” Scott asked, seeing his friend in such a frantic state was putting both of the cousins on edge.

“No they’re still questioning people, even Derek Hale.” The words flew out of Stiles’ mouth.

“That hot piece of ass.” Charlie smiled, chuckling at her own commentary.

“CHARLIE PLEASE! THIS IS SERIOUS” Stiles wailed, throwing the stack of print outs in the air.

“Stiles what the hell man?” Scott’s brow knitted together in confusion and worry as the papers he had thrown rained down on them.

“Remember the joke from the other day? Well, not really a joke anymore.” Scott and Charlie looked at Stiles expectantly as he continued to rush words out of his mouth as if he were trying to get them out all at once to save time. “The wolf? The bite in the woods? I’ve been doing all this research -” He cut himself off, “Do you even know why a wolf howls?”

“Should we?” Charlie asked slowly.

“It’s a signal. When a wolf is alone is howls to signal its location to the rest of the pack. So if you heard a wold howling there could have been others nearby, maybe even a whole pack of them.”

Stiles finished and Charlie knew what he was getting at. How Scott hadn’t caught on by now was ridiculous in Charlie’s opinion.

“A pack of wolves?” He said, awestruck at the mere idea.

“No.” Stiles clarified, and at the same time both Stiles and Charlie finished, “Werewolves.”

Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed. Scott tensed and in response so did Charlie and Stiles.

“Are you seriously wasting my time with this? You know I’m picking up Allison in an hour.” Scott stood on his feet and made a grab for his bag.

Stiles put his hand out to stop Scott from leaving, “Listen, Charlie and I saw you on the field today Scott. It wasn’t just amazing, it was impossible.”

Charlie began to watch the two argue and stare as Stiles became increasingly more frustrated and Scott, agitated.

Stiles at sat back down, explaining that tonight was a full moon and that his bloodlust would be at its peak.

“Bloodlust?” Scott questioned, running a frustrated hand through his black hair.

“The urge to kill.” Stiles said, as though it should have been obvious.

“I’m already feeling the urge to kill, Stiles.” Scotts voice had changed. It had taken on a dangerous tone that Charlie had never known her cousin to have. It unsettled her and scared her.

Stiles began explaining that nothing raised Scotts pulse quite like Allison does and then jumped to his feet going through Scott’s backpack to find his phone and cancel his date with Allison.

Already seeing this altercation ending badly Charlie jumped in between Stiles and Scott, closing her eyes for impact when she felt Scott throw her against the wall and raise his fist at her.

“FUCKING CHRIST SCOTT!” Stiles yelled, knocking Scott to the ground. Charlie watched as Scott fell knocking over the computer chair and looking up at his two friends from his spot on the floor.

Stiles was standing in front of Charlie protectively, their hands were clasped in a show of solidarity against him.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered, his eyes cast downward. “I have to go get ready for the party.”

Scott grabbed his things leaving both Stiles and Charlie standing against the wall, hand in hand, their breathing erratic.

“Fuck.” Charlie muttered. Her mind seemed to be going 100 miles a minute and she wondered if this was as a result of the adderall she had taken earlier.

“You got that right, Char.” Stiles let go of her hand and picked up the computer chair that had fallen over. The three angry rips in the fabric were quite obviously claw marks and suddenly Stiles didn’t seem like such a crack head.

“I’m going to go keep an eye on him.” Charlie stated as she grabbed her jacket which she had shed when she walked in.

“I think you should probably stay here.” Stiles said, moving to stand in front of her. “It isn’t safe.”

“Stiles. It’s Scott. My cousin. Your best friend.” She put a hand on his arm. “He needs someone right now. I’m going to that party, you don’t have to come with, but I think you should.”

“Are you asking me out?” He smirked as she turned and walked away from him.

“I’d rather suck on my own toes, Stilinski.” Her voice rang in his ears and he threw a fist in the air, grabbing a jacket and following her to his jeep with a smile on his face.

“I’m driving.” Charlie said, smiling so fiercely at him there was no other option than to throw her the keys.

Pulling into the driveway of Jackson’s house set Charlie’s sense ablaze. Of course this asshat lived in this amazing house. It was almost unfair, that someone who was such an asshat lived a life that was so much more than he deserved. Stiles seemed to be having a relatively similar thought.

“Woah. Ritzy.” Stiles commented, stepping out of the passenger side of his car, motioning for Charlie to throw him his keys. She obliged and rolled her eyes at both the amazing house and her drunken peers that littered the front steps.

“Fucking Jackson.” Was Charlie’s only response.

“I didn’t think anyone hated him more than me.” Stiles smiled, walking up the front steps avoiding couples who were making out and girls who were throwing up into the bushes, their friends holding their hair.

“Why do you hate him?” Charlie questioned, wondering if he had as much of a right as she did.

“He’s dating Lydia.” Nope. No right.

“So you’re still hung up on little miss sunshine?” She laughed, “It’s been a while, huh?”

The two walked through the house and out the back where the patio doors were opened and music was blasting to the heavens.

Stiles eyes had been glued to where lydia and jackson were practically fornicating by the side of the pool. Charlie shrugged off her jacket, leaving her in her tight black dress, and black combat boots. Her hair was a mess of blonde tangles, only one braid across the top of her head, acting as a headband.

“Pretty much.” Stiles said, tearing his eyes away from Lydia and focusing now on his rather scantily clad partner in crime.

“God, thats nauseating.” She commented dryly, also tearing her eyes away from Jackson long enough to look at Stiles and say casually, “I’m going to go find a drink and a boy.”

“What about Scott?” Stiles said, his hand reaching out to grab hers. Charlie didn’t notice and pointed to where Scott and Allison were dancing by the pool.

“He looks fine to me.”

With stupid jackson on her mind, Charlie went to where she knew the good liquor cabinet was and grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

She parked herself on the couch and drank about half the bottle before feeling drunk enough to start mingling. When she finally managed to stand up from her spot she surveyed her surrounding and muttered more curses to Jackson who was still raping Lydia’s mouth with his by the door to the patio that she had a clear view of. Stiles was in the hallway by the staircase and she tried to ignore how he threw pointed glances her way. Scott, she assumed was still with Allison by the pool, the last time she had seen them it didn’t look like they were about to tear away from each other any time soon.

She stumbled over to the dance floor, the half empty bottle sloshing around in her hands as she found herself being pulled onto the middle of the dance floor with one of the lacrosse players. The music was slow but had a good beat and she found herself dancing too close, breathing too hard, and touching too much.

Stiles had been monitoring the blonde beauty as she slumped on the couch clutching at her bottle of liquor and chugging it like water. He knew deep somewhere void of male testosterone that the things she did were really unhealthy and as a friend he was concerned. However, as a hormonal teenage boy, he found Charlie to be utterly sexy. The way she blatantly disregarded the rules, she drank and smoked and did drugs, and sure technically that stuff wasn’t sexy but Charlie seemed badass and untouchable. That made Stiles want to touch her all the more.

He wanted to rip her away from Matt, the overly touchy lacrosse player she was currently dancing with.

He took his eyes off of Charlie for a mere second and when he looked back, both her and Matt were gone.

“Shit.”

Charlie drunkenly opened her eyes as she danced with this unknown lacrosse player only to focus on one person who she could see standing behind the fire pit. The embers illuminating his face in an eery fashion.

“Derek.” Somehow she knew he could hear her and she pulled herself away from the jock whose hard on was becoming a problem for her and the bruise forming on her hip.

“Baby, come on.” Matt whispered, pulling her closer.

“No. I’m done.” Charlie slurred, retracting her arm from his clutches.

“I’m just getting started.” He panted in her ear.

“You sound like your actually about to finish.” She quipped, pushing him away from her and stumbling towards the fire pit, only to realize that Derek was gone.

She whipped around, her intention being to find Stiles and tell him that ‘serial killer eyes’ Derek was here, but she found her body being pulled close to a hard warm torso. She looked up to see Derek staring down at her with such and intensity that her knees nearly buckled.

His hands were on her waist and they were grabbing her so hard she knew they were going to leave a bruise but she didn’t care. She fought the urge to moan at the contact. Then she felt the five long fingernails digging into her flesh.

No. Not fingernails. Claws.

She looked at him. So, Derek Hale was a werewolf, too. Things were definitely about to get interesting. What the fuck was in the water here in Beacon Hills?

When she finally found her voice she leaned up to his neck, and whispered, “Don’t you think you’re a little old to be at a high school party?”

“Don’t you think you’re a little too drunk to be making judgement calls?” He said back, staring at her.

When she didn’t answer he continued.

“Who are you?” He whispered gruffly, pulling her closer.

She let him tug her body closer to his and pressed her hips against his.

“Charlotte McCall.” He stiffened for a moment, “You can call me Charlie, or lover.”

She smirked and moved her long blonde hair off to one shoulder so her neck was exposed, her collar bones peeked out from her black dress and he stared at the newly exposed skin. In response she ground her hips harder into his.

“Charlie!” Suddenly she was jerked away from Derek and in her drunken state, she stumbled, her foot catching on something. She braced herself for impact but saw that Derek had caught her and was pulling her up to her unsteady feet.

“Fuck me.” She said, straightening herself out before glaring at stiles.

“Love to.” Derek stated, staring at her with that same intensity that made her feel weak.

“Sorry if I’m interrupting, but Charlie, are you out of your fucking mind?” Stiles rambled on, “What happened to, ‘Scott needs us, blah blah blah’.”

“That impression needs work.” She deadpanned, pulling her hair back to one side.

“So does your attitude, because Scott just wolfed out and took off.” He stormed away from her and it took her a second to realize that she was supposed to follow.

“Fucking Charlie.” He growled, stomping his way to his Jeep, and turning around to see Charlie and Derek had both followed him.

Once Charlie made it out to the driveway she pulled out a pack of smokes and fumbled with her jacket to get out a lighter.

“Scotts gone.” Came a voice belonging to Allison who stood just off to the right of the driveway. She seemed upset and was looking at Charlie in a way that made her uncomfortable, like she was supposed to empathize.

Then a new voice joined the party.

“I’m a friend of Scott’s.” That same dark intensity just underneath the surface threatened to boil out, “My names Derek.”

Charlie puffed on her cigarette watching Stiles who was frantically typing on his phone whip his head up in fear.

“Hey.” Allison said politely, “I’m Allison, and who are you?”

Charlie too her time inhaling and then exhaling, watching the smoke billow from her lips and into the chilly night air.

“Charlie McCall.”

“McCall?” Allison questioned, not missing a beat.

“Cousin.” Charlie replied simply, moving her gaze to Derek who was watching her intently.

“You know,” He said, walking towards her, “That will kill you.”

Charlie took a forward step in his direction and whispered in his ear, “They tell me you will, too.”

The pair stared at each other until Stiles awkwardly cleared his throat and grasped onto Charlie’s hand.

“Well Allison, Charlie is pretty drunk, I think I should probably get her home.” Stiles commented, then he added in parting with an accompanying nod, “Derek.”

The two were about to head to Stiles’ Jeep when they heard Derek ask if Allison needed a ride home.

“Allison, come with us. We’re headed that way anyway.” Charlie slurred her words a little in the haste to get them out before Allison had a chance to answer Derek. Sure, he was hot but she knew that he was dangerous and that Allison shouldn’t be around him if she didn’t know who or what she was choosing to be around.

“I think Stiles’ has his hands full with that one,” Derek laughed pointing to Charlie and extending his hand to Allison.

“I’ll just catch a ride with Derek, guys.” She smiled at him and it dimmed slightly when she said, “Tell Scott to call me . . . if he wants.”

The pair got into Derek’s sleek black car and Charlie and Stiles watched helplessly.

“Shit.” Said Stiles. Just standing there, his hand still firmly grasping Charlie’s.

“Fuck.” Was her response.

The iconic blue Jeep sped to a stop in front of Scott and Charlie’s house. The car ride had been filled with Charlie’s hoarse voice telling Stiles that Derek was a werewolf. Stiles skittered out of the car, stopping only to open Charlie’s door and they booth beelined it to the front door. Her adrenaline was pumping so fast she felt numb to the night air as it rushed past her on her way up the front porch, her combat boot thumping heavily on the wooden paneling.

They flew upstairs to Scott’s room and Stiles frantically hammered at the door.

“Go away.” Came from the gruff response from the other side of the door.

“Scott, it’s us.” The door opened a crack.

“It’s Derek.” Scott stammered, “He’s the one who bit me!”

“Yeah,” Charlie commented dryly, “He’s also the one who’s currently alone with your girlfriend. You really should pick up your phone.”

There was a disturbance from inside the room after Scott had unceremoniously shut the door in their faces.

“Rude,” Said Charlie, earning herself a pointed look from Stiles.

“You know, you could have broken it to him with a little bit more compassion.” He stood to look directly at her, the look in his eyes clearly trying to illicit guilt.

“I don’t know about you but this night needed some comedic relief.” Charlie smirked a tad and Stiles joined her before hearing a noise that sounded suspiciously like Scott jumping out of his second story bedroom.

“Shit.”

“Fuck.”

“Scott is all wolfed up on werewolf crack so he’s probably run after Derek in some kind of heroic move to save the girl,” Said Stiles, his foot on the gas pedal and his hands at the steering wheel. He was flying down main street on their way to Allison’s.

“So, we’re being smart here. Alert the parents?”

“Exactly.”

“Doesn’t sound like the most well thought out plan, Stilinski.”

Less than 5 minutes later they were banging on the Argents door being greeted by a stern looking woman with short hair looking expectantly at the pair.

“HI! Mrs. Argent. I’m a friend of your daughters.” Stiles was waving his arms around and clearly the woman was taken of guard by his frantic movements, “This is going to sound kind of crazy, you know what? Really crazy, uh -”

It seemed the woman had enough of Stiles’ antics because she cut him off to yell up the stairs, “Allison?”

There she was, like a beacon of light. Charlie breathed a mental sigh of relief that tomorrow the headlines wouldn’t be about Allison and her body being torn in half.

“Uh, Allison, we just wanted to see if you made it home alright.” Charlie slurred, trying to play off their arrival as something normal and not creepy or weird at all.

“Um. Thanks. Yeah. I’m fine.” Allison replied, her eyebrows quirked up in confusion and amusement.

“We see that now, so we’ll just be going.” Stiles said, throwing an arm around Charlie’s shoulders in case she stumbled in front of Mrs. Argent.

“Stiles you’ve been driving all night, stop the car, I’ll drive and you can get some sleep.”
Charlie offered, realizing that it was daybreak and the two had been searching for Scott all night.

“You only want me to fall asleep so you can smoke in my car, besides are you even sober yet. That much Jack should’ve killed you.” Stiles quipped, his grip tightening on the steering wheel.

“I’m well practiced.” She said simply.

“Apparently in more ways then one. I saw you dancing with Derek. Everyone did.” He said with an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

“I was dancing Stiles. I think you were the only one even even noticed.” She cracked the window and pulled out a smoke anyway. “I’m starting to get hungover and we’ve got school soon, I need a smoke.”

“Charlie, haven’t you noticed everyone’s reaction to you? You stroll in here with your combat boots and leather, and that look on your face like your going to conquer the fucking world. It’s not hard to believe either.” He seemed stressed out not even caring that she had lit a smoke during his rant.

“Confidence is key, Stilinski.” Charlie said, a little startled by the aggressiveness of his tone.

The pair drove in silence until they saw a figure in the distance, blue jeans, shirtless and barefoot.

“Honey, I found the dog.” Charlie said, earning a morbid chuckle from Stiles as they pulled over and Scott got in the back seat.

They were silent until Scott piped up, “You know what worries me the most?”

“If you say Allison, I’m going to punch you in the head.” Stiles was quick on the uptake.

“And I will tuck and roll out of this car.” So was she.

“She probably hates me now.” He sounded remarkably whiny and looked like a kicked puppy. Stiles looked at him sympathetically.

“I doubt that.” He pulled on his upper lip with his teeth, “But you might want to come up with an amazing apology.”

“Or you could tell her the truth.” Charlie commented, looking at Stiles.

“And revel in the awesomeness that you’re a fucking werewolf.” He finished for her.

Stiles and Charlie looked at Scott and then each other.

“Bad idea.” They said simultaneously.

“Don’t worry though,” Continued Stiles, “On full moon nights, I can chain you up and feed you live mice. I had a boa once. I could do it.”

Scott snorted in laughter.

“I had a gecko. Live crickets, but something tells me you aren’t going to be a vegetarian.” Charlie laughed and they all smiled, trying to make the best out of the situation they were all in.

“So. You’re a werewolf.” Charlie nodded, flicking her cigarette out of the open window.

“Yeah.”

“I think I’m going to need a drink.”