Getting to Know Eli - A Scene
“That’s not how this works.”
“Oh, what?!”
“No, Stiles, this isn’t— This is not how this is gonna go.”
“Oh it isn’t, is it?”
“Yes. No.”
“That’s rich! That’s so fucking rich coming from you!”
“I had to—“
“Fifteen years, Derek. Fifteen fucking years.”
“It was for the best.”
“You don’t get to make that call, not alone.”
“I had to—“
“He is my son, too! It was my life, too!”
They’re both breathing hard by the end of that declaration, two different kinds of tears in their eyes.
.
After a moment of quiet, Derek asks Stiles, desperately.
“You were a junior in college. You had your whole life ahead of you, all of these prospects. We were…a something but nothing, a come-and-go relationship that wasn’t sure where it was going. What was I supposed to do?”
After a heavy pause, no doubt filled with things Stiles wished he could say but didn’t because he knew he couldn’t take them back, Stiles answers, still not quite withholding his seething disappointment.
“You were supposed to tell me.” Stiles says, running a hand down his face. “You were supposed to respect me enough to give me my choice.”
Cold regret and shame settle in Derek’s gut.
He watches Stiles walk away from him, listens to him slam the front door to his house shut, and wonders if it’s for the last time.
