Okay, I know I haven't updated in awhile, but I couldn't stop thinking about Theo so I thought I'd try to finish this chapter.
So here's a sneak peek at the next chapter of "I Hear You're Looking For An Anchor"
Also I would really love some feedback. Is it too boring? Too ooc? I think I use too many proper nouns. Should I just stop writing this and work on something else?
Anyway, here's some more human!Theo and Liam being dumb in denial.
“So, they’re burying the bodies. Do you know who’s doing it?” Mason asks as they leave history class. Liam could tell he’d been itching for information since last night. The whole thing feels so surreal. He was worried something big was coming.
Liam shakes his head as they walk down the hall together. “No, Scott’s figuring it out,” he sighs. “He told me not to worry about it.”
“Then don’t. Look, why don’t you come out to Sinema with me tonight?”
“Do you really think a movie night is a good idea right now?” Liam looks at him, conventually concerned, as he dodges out of the way of the rowdy hallway. “What if- what if Scott needs me?”
“Not a movie, a club. It’s the club.” Mason looks at him, holding his hands up excitedly. “It’ll be fun. Hot girls. Hot guys…” Mason trails off as Liam tilts his head and his face takes up one of curiosity. It was like when your ears tingle because somebody was talking about you. Except somebody was actually talking about him. “Liam?”
He shushes Mason as he hears Theo ask Scott, “What’s his deal?” in a faraway voice.
Following the sound, Liam peeks his head around the corner behind a row of lockers. He holds his arm back when Mason tries to look, too. He sees Scott and Theo outside the Biology lab, which was an unusual sight, considering. Why would Theo be talking to Scott? Still trying to get under his good graces, probably. Liam couldn’t help it, he was curious.
Theo sighs, scratching the back of his head. “Do you think I might have a shot with him?”
A shot with whom? Liam? He flinches as Scott lets out a surprising laugh. “Oh! I mean, I don’t know, maybe.”
Theo’s eyes flicker to Liam’s and a cocky smirk covers his face. “You sure about that?” Liam glares at him menacingly.
“You should ask him,” Scott says before leaving.
Liam and Theo’s eyes don’t leave each other’s. Not even when Theo walks past him, still with that half-assed grin and Liam glaring at him like he could pretend to hate him. His eyes soften as they follow his every move until he disappears at the end of the hall. He had to be messing with Liam, right? When Liam turns his head to look at Mason, he’s met with a suspicious grin.
An uncalled for suspicious grin. Liam wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was just looking! Just looking could mean a lot of things, though. Especially in front of Mason’s eyes.
“What?” he asks innocently.
“What was what?” Liam shrugs. There was no avoiding this around Mason, though. He saw the glances between them, if that’s what you want to call it. Liam tried to convey his hatred through his eyes, but felt like he was failing big time. Of course, Mason had to see right through the façade.
“The smiles and the eyes and…” Liam’s eyes widen for a moment before he turns tail the other direction. “You like him!” he hears Mason exclaim behind him.
“Who? Theo?” Liam laughs. “Don’t you think that’s a little crazy?” he asks as they stop at his locker. He dials the lock, “I mean sure, he’s hot but…” Liam stops, staring at the lock in his hand.
But what? He saved Lydia’s life last night. He drove him home, not that he wanted him to. Is there any reason at all that says Liam shouldn’t like Theo? Maybe he wasn’t as bad as Stiles says after all. After last night, he felt like he finally got a glimpse of who Theo really was. He needs to give him some credit. At least he was trying. If Theo is so evil, like Stiles thinks he is, why would he go through all this trouble?
Liam sighs, shaking his head and pulling the lock open. “Doesn’t matter. Stiles says he’s bad news and I should stay away.” He places his history book in the back of his locker.
Mason chortles, “Since when do you listen to Stiles?” Liam would’ve replied, something along the lines that Stiles could shove it and he could do whatever he wanted. He grins instead as he sees Stiles standing behind Mason. Based on Liam’s reaction, he knew exactly what had Liam averting his eyes behind him. “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?” Liam chuckles, nodding, and Mason whips around. “Hey man, we were just—”
Stiles isn’t interested, though. He was looking down in the dumps, actually. He looked like he didn’t sleep a wink last night. He pats Mason aside. “Yeah, that’s great Mason. Liam, I need to talk to you.”
After giving each other a look, Mason leaves and Liam shuts his locker door, turning to Stiles. He was concerned about his state and knew it must’ve had to do with Lydia. Everyone knew how he felt about her.
“Hey, how’s Lydia doing?” he questions.
“I don’t know. Last I heard, she was still in surgery. I’m going to go see her this afternoon, though.” Liam nods. “Have you talked to Theo?” Stiles’ voice takes an accusatory turn, making Liam frown.
“Not since he drove me home last night. Why? Did something happen?”
“Actually, yeah. A big something— Wait, you let the enemy drive you home? He knows where you live? Liam, what exactly did he say to you?”
Liam shrugs his hands into his pockets. “Not much.” He raises his eyes, his voice cracking. “He was nice.”
Stiles’ eyebrows reach his hairline as he exclaims, “No, no! Listen to me, Theo is not nice. I was right not to trust him.”
Liam glowers at him. “He saved Lydia’s life last night. Don’t you think it’s time we give him the benefit of the doubt? He’s not the bad guy here.”
“Liam, don’t get me wrong. I am eternally grateful that Lydia is alive, more than anyone. That doesn’t excuse what he did, though.”
Liam sighs, “What did he do?”
“I was going through his medical records and—”
“Stiles, you can’t do that!”
“Well, it’s a good thing that I did because you’ll never believe what I found.”
Liam’s eyes close for a moment as the blaring school bell surrounds them. Ultimately, saving him from this conversation. “I don’t care what you found. It was Theo who saved Lydia. Just… try to have a heart and give him a chance.”
Walking past him, Liam hears Stiles mutter, uselessly, “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
Whatever Stiles found, he didn’t care anymore. Stiles can be his own problem. He was done listening to him. He was just searching for answers that weren’t there. Was it so hard to think that Theo was just trying to get through high school like the rest of them?
Liam was passing the library when he heard a distinct heartbeat. It was odd, not like anyone else’s he heard. He couldn’t detect a rhythm or pattern to it. It just was; always at a rushed pace. He planned on using his free period to practice lacrosse, but this seemed more beneficial.
Following the sound of his heartbeat, he finds Theo at the very back of the library. He was in a secluded spot where nobody could see him, hunched over textbooks and notebooks around him. Liam hid partially from view behind a large bookcase. He could see Theo’s furrowed brows pulled together in concentration. His gelled hair was in a disarray. He definitely looked like he needed a break.
Theo didn’t notice him until he’s dropped his bookbag onto the table with a small thunk. He’s startled for a moment before he realizes who it was that disturbed him. For the barest moment, Liam thought Theo looked scared, but it was quickly smoothed into his residential smirk that he always saved for Liam. He wished he wouldn’t look at him like that. It felt fake and impersonal. He wanted to see Theo’s real smile.
Liam sits down in the chair across from him and Theo caps his pen, leaning back in his seat.
“You’re not worried about being seen with me? What would Stiles think?” Liam looks around their vacant little corner pointedly. Theo chuckles, “Point taken. So, have you made your decision?”
Liam was in the middle of pulling his school work out of his bag and pauses when Theo asks this.
Theo dips his head. “Whether you like me?”
Liam scoffs, shaking his head in disbelief. Just because he was sitting with him didn’t mean anything. “You’re lucky I’m even talking to you,” he says, taking his history notes out.
“Oh, I don’t think luck has anything to do with it,” Theo smiles at him smugly.
“It doesn’t matter, anyway.”
Liam grits his teeth. “I have more important things to worry about than whether I’m caught sitting with Theo Raeken.”
Theo frowns, playing with the pen in between his fingers. Liam watches his long fingers twist this way and that. “Stiles still doesn’t trust me?”
Liam’s eyes jump to Theo’s and he replies timidly, “I don’t think so.”
He’d think after saving Lydia from bleeding out on the police station’s floor, Stiles’d be a bit more lenient. He gets Stiles has problems with what happened with the Nogitsune. He has a hard time trusting people, especially ones who get too close to the pack. Like Theo has been trying to do.
Theo leans forward on his elbows. Liam gives him a disgruntled look as he comes closer. “Do you trust me?” Theo asks.
Liam doesn’t know how to react to this. He wasn’t expecting Theo to ask him that. He wants to trust Theo. He could show Stiles how trustworthy Theo really was. Can Liam trust him, though?
“That’s a matter of opinion.”
“I think…” Liam looks at Theo, then. Looking into his eyes, he saw something. Something that made him want to trust him. Theo wasn’t the monster here. “I think, what you did for Lydia was very brave and Stiles should be thankful.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
Next scene will be Liam and Theo at Sinema :)
