Lesson #13: Party Etiquette (High School Style)

With the party coming up tomorrow, Derek was finally making good on his promise to teach me how to dance. After school, Derek was supposed to come over and teach me some more moves, other than the ones he taught me the other night, after he took me home from Scott's. If these dance moves were anything like those ones, I was in for a very awkward night. Derek was supposed to be over around six, because he had promised Brett they would hang out for a few hours. While it bummed me out knowing there were together, doing god knows what, at least he was still helping me get Lydia. Focusing on her took my mind off him, sorta.

I planned on lounging around for a few hours, playing video games to take my mind off of certain things, but those certain things changed all of that. I got up to answer the door, not expecting any company, so it was more than a little surprising to see Derek standing there at only 4pm. He gave me a guilty smile, holding up a bag of takeout food from the cafe downtown. "I got rainchecked," he shrugged. "I knew you'd be okay with me coming over early, right?"

"I was just playing some video games. Wanna play?" I offered, waving the controller in front of him. He grinned, following me inside where we settled on my bed in front of the tv. "So Brett cancelled, huh? What was his excuse?" I wondered, trying to make conversation.

Derek shrugged, his focus on the tv as he shot at the enemies. "Something about practice going a little late, and his buddies wanting to do something afterwards. It's whatever. I get to hang out with you instead. A fair trade, if you ask me."

I  chuckled, shaking my head. "A fair trade? You can't even have sex with me, so how is that a fair trade?" I teased, making Derek laugh.

He glanced at me, just as I happened to be looking at him. "I mean, I could have sex with you, but we'd both have to consent for that to happen," he shot back, knowing he had won as I shifted uncomfortably next to him. I felt the heat creeping up the back of my neck and hoped he wasn't watching me anymore. "Besides, Brett and I just met. We haven't done that yet."

"Oh, right," I mumbled, feeling a little guilty that I had even assumed Derek had done anything like that yet. "So when do we start dance lessons?" I wondered, changing the subject from Derek's sex life to something less awkward.

"About that," he answered, his words dragging out. "I may or may not have invited Erica over at 6 so she could help with the dance lessons. Its just, having an actual girl to dance with might be easier for you, plus you two need to spend some time together before tomorrow." His words flew out of his mouth so fast, and by the time I could pause the game to glare at him, he was grinning apologetically. I couldn't even be mad.

"Fine, I guess I have no choice," I sighed, turning back to the game. It was probably a good thing that Derek wasn't going to be grinding up on me, since I was trying to get over him to avoid more heartbreak.

Derek sighed in relief, but paused the game again, before we could even continue at all. "Stiles, do you feel ready for this party? It's kind of a big step in the plan, especially since Lydia has already made it clear that she is interested."

I shrugged, setting my controller to the side. "I  don't know, Der. I've had a lot on my mind lately, so I feel like I'm out of it. What if I screw something up tomorrow? What if I ruin my chances with Lydia forever? I've never even been to a party before."

"Okay, how about another lesson?" he suggested, sitting up straight as he turned his body towards me. "What are we on? Lesson thirteen?"

"I think so," I answered, watching him curiously.

He bit his lip in thought, thinking about what he was going to say. Finally, his face lit up. "Okay, so lesson number thirteen: party etiquette, high school style." I raised an eyebrow, waiting for more of an explanation. "Okay, so basically, all of the dos and don'ts of high school parties with the popular kids. But instead of just telling you, let's role-play. I'll be Lydia, and you, well, be you."

"That sounds like something I don't want to do," I argued, laughing nervously. "Why can't you just tell me again?"

"It's not the same," Derek argued, rolling his eyes. "Now let me get into character." He took a deep breath, sat up straighter, pushed out his chest, and flipped his nonexistent hair over his shoulder. I pushed back a laugh, waiting for him to start acting. "Hey Stiles," he said seductively, batting his eyes at me. "Cool party, huh?"

I searched for a way around this, but found no way out. I had no choice but to play along. "I guess," I answered, trying to play it cool. "What are you doing over here all alone?"

He smiled, again, playing with the hair he didn't have. "Waiting for someone like you to come up and ask me dance," he replied, leaning in closer. If he hadn't been pretending to be Lydia, I could have kissed him in that moment. But I knew better, and it would ruin everything.

"Well, it's your lucky day," I said, matching his energy. "Would you like to dance with me?"

Derek suddenly broke character, shaking his head. "No, Stiles, wrong answer. Remember the lesson we had a few days ago? Playing hard to get? Not to mention, you're at this party with another girl, so you can't just go dancing up on other girls. Right?"

I sighed, backing away from him. "I guess so."

"So, alternatively, you could say something like. . ." he trailed off, waiting for me to answer.

I searched for an answer that would satisfy him, finally settling on, "I don't dance?" I suggested, and Derek rolled his eyes again.

"You were on a roll, until that line." He dragged himself off the bed, turning to face me. "I know you can be smooth, despite your natural awkwardness. You just have to try really hard to not say the thing you would normally say. If Lydia were to ask you to dance, you might say, 'not tonight, sweetheart' or 'maybe another time' or something like that. You don't just give in."

"Easy for you to say," I grumbled, watching him pace in front of me. "I'm seventeen years old, I've never been with anyone, and I'm a freaking virgin. Everything in my body screams 'give in' and it's hard to resist that," I admitted, my face growing hot. I had no idea why I mentioned the virgin part, but it came out anyways.

Suddenly, Derek was grabbing my arms to drag me out of bed, almost against his body. Our faces were inches apart and my hands naturally grabbed onto his chest, clenching his shirt in my fists. "Stiles, do you want things to change? Do you want to be with someone?" he whispered, still gripping my arms, holding me close to him.

I wanted to tell him the truth right then, that I did want someone, and that someone was him. But I didn't tell him. I couldn't tell him, even thought every part of me was screaming at me to just kiss him. The truth, with no words, but I knew it was wrong. "I-I do," I answered, trying and failing to look away from his eyes.

"I love the person that you are," he said, making the heat in my face burn even more. "But if you want the girl, you're going to have to sacrifice a part of yourself. Unless, you want to back out. It's up to you, Stiles. Either resist the parts of you that she wants no part of, or you don't get the girl." We stood there for a few very long seconds before I finally nodded, and he let me go. "Now that we've got that out of the way, do you wanna go grab a bite to eat? We still have a couple hours before Erica gets here."

"Sure," I agreed, still warm from being so close to him moments ago. He smiled in that charming way he always did, gesturing for me to follow him.

After dinner, we decided to go to Erica's house instead of having her come over, since we were already out. Derek drove us over, which took about thirty minutes because she lived in Devenford, but I wasn't complaining about the alone time with him, watching him sing along to the radio and listening to him rant about the small troubles in his life. It almost felt like, for a moment, we were together for real. That we were a couple just driving to a place for date night, having a normal conversation. Reality set in when we arrived at Erica's and there was not just one, but two cars in the driveway. "Weird," Derek mumbled, shutting off the car. "Brett's here."

"Oh," I chuckled nervously. "That is weird," I agreed, but mostly I was just dreading this even more. Brett being here would only get under my skin, watching him interact with Derek and all that. I wasn't sure how much of it I could take before I said something stupid.

Erica met us at the door, a welcoming smile on her face. "Derek, look who I invited to the party?" she said, gesturing to Brett standing behind her. The tall boy smiled, an infuriating sight, and all I wanted to do was grab Derek's hand and drag him out of there. "I know you were bummed that his practice ran late earlier, so I called him up and had him join us. Is that okay with you guys?"

Not that I had much say in it, but no, it wasn't okay with me. "The more the merrier," I grumbled, shoving past them to get inside. Everyone followed and we settled in the living room, which had a lot more space than my own living room.

"So, you wanna learn how to get down and dirty?" Erica teased, shaking her butt in a cute, girly way. "I'm just the girl to teach you." She grabbed Brett's hand, dragging him towards her.

"Hey, woah, I came over to see Derek. I did not sign up for dancing," he chuckled nervously, letting Erica manhandle him.

She rolled her eyes, pulling him closer. "You go to parties almost every weekend. Brett Talbot, you are the best person to teach this poor soul how to dirty dance. We're going to show him, and then he and Derek are going to copy what we're doing."

Brett scoffed, shaking his head as he tried to get away from her grabby hands. "I'm not watching my boyfriend dirty dance with someone else. Let's reverse these roles." Of course, he wanted to be the one with his hands all over Derek. It wasn't like I was surprised, considering they were dating, but it still got to me.

"No, I'm teaching the lessons here. I can't teach him if I'm dancing with him. He has to watch it, then do it." She gave him a stern look, and finally, he gave in. "Okay, so let's start with something easy," she began, and thus started the weirdest night of my life. Derek's ass was all over me while his boyfriend watched, or more so, glared. Erica was grinding all over Derek's boyfriend while Derek. . . didn't really seem to mind. I wasn't reading into it or anything, but Derek seemed to be having fun, or at least he wasn't having a bad time.

"Alright, I think he's learned enough," Brett laughed, though it was clear that he was uncomfortable. "Erica, maybe you could take Stiles home so I can spend some time with my man?" he suggested, giving Derek a suggestive look.

Derek glanced at me, then back to Brett. "I brought him here, I think it's my responsibility to take him home," Derek argued, a hint of anger in his voice. He crossed his arms over his chest, gesturing for me to walk towards the door. "Rain check," he deadpanned, leading me to the door by pushing my arm lightly. "And Erica, thanks for the dance lessons."

She smiled uneasily. "Yeah, no problem!" she chirped, waving as we walked out the door. Brett did not look happy, but Derek wouldn't look back at him.

Once we were back in Derek's car, he was completely silent. I wasn't sure if I should say something, but eventually, the silence became too uncomfortable. "So, what was that about? Before we left? Erica probably would have taken me home-"

"No," Derek cut me off, shaking his head. He sighed heavily, glancing at me briefly with an apologetic look on his face. "I don't know, the way he talks to me, or about me, sometimes I feel like he just wants to get in my pants. I don't do relationships like that. It's why Garrett and I broke up. Anyways, you're my friend, and I wasn't going to just ditch you for a quickie in Brett's rich boy car."

I didn't exactly know how to respond to that, but I couldn't tell him what I really wanted to. The truth. I searched for something I could say, but I kept coming up blank. "Thanks for not ditching me," I mumbled, though it was a lame response. "And I'm sorry that most guys are pigs."

Derek chuckled, ruffling my hair with his free hand. "Yeah, most guys. But not you. Thanks for not being a pig, Stiles. I really appreciate you. You know that, right?"

I felt the blush on my face and thanked god that it was dark outside. "I really appreciate you too," I admitted, staring out the window. There was a lot to think about before the party tomorrow. Everything Derek had said to me in my room earlier, about changing myself. . . did I really want that? I wasn't sure. If I couldn't have Derek, I still had a chance at Lydia. No matter what I had to do. Besides, we'd put in a lot of work to get this far. I didn't want it to all be for nothing. This party tomorrow was going to be a big deal, and I wasn't sure if I was ready.