Lesson #16: First (not)date

A/N: Another update! You're welcome :)

ALSO if anyone here is a Draco Malfoy fan, I've published the first two chapters of my Draco fic! Check it out if you're interested :) (note, it's not bxb like my other fics, but I'm still in love with it)

Monday morning, I walked into school with a mission to find Derek and ask him why he refused to answer my texts. He didn't even read them, so it wasn't like he just left me on read. I was a little worried about him because he never did anything like this. Before the first bell, I walked all the way to his locker, luckily finding him on my first try. He stood with his head in his locker, gathering his books for his first class.

"Derek," I said, slowly walking up behind him. "I texted last night, but you never answered. Is everything alright?" I asked, as he turned around to face me with an unreadable expression. We never talked much at school, despite agreeing that we should talk more now that Lydia knew we were friends. Maybe that's why he didn't look happy to see me.

"Everything's fine," he replied, offering a small smile that I didn't believe for one second. "I gotta get to class, but we'll talk later?" He started to walk away and without thinking, I reached out, grabbing his hand tightly to hold him there. Derek paused, his eyes staring at their intertwined fingers for a moment before looking up to meet my eyes again. "I guess we can talk now," he sighed, moving in closer to me. "What's up?"

"What's up?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow. "That's what I'm trying to figure out, Der. You never ignore my text messages. Did I do something wrong? Did something happen with Brett? What is it?" I demanded, trying not to get worked up over this. I realized quickly that I was still holding his hand, so I let go and shoved my hand in my pocket, putting some space between us.

Derek sighed, putting his hands on my shoulders as he leaned in closer to talk to me. Suddenly, my face was burning because of how close he was. "I know you're just worried about me, but can we not talk about this in the middle of the hallway? We can hang out after school and talk, okay?" he suggested, his fingers squeezing my shoulder as my face only got hotter.

"So there is something bothering you?" I asked, despite him telling me not to worry.

Derek smiled, this time more believable. "It's nothing too serious. I'll meet you after school, okay?" he assured me, though I didn't feel any better. I didn't have time to object to him leaving, because he was already walking away, leaving me standing in the middle of the hallway alone. I sighed, taking my things to my own locker to get things for class. The rest of the day passed painfully slow. I thought I'd see Derek at lunch, but he was no where to be seen.

After school, I anxiously waited next to Derek's car for him to meet me. Finally, he walked out of the building, Lydia by his side as they talked seriously about something seemingly important. They both had serious looks on their faces anyways, so it was only right to assume it was something bad, or important. Or maybe I was just assuming because I was worried about Derek.

"You're out here early today," Derek observed as he finally approached his car, twirling his keys on his finger. "Did you miss me?" he teased, as if he were back to his normal self.

"Well I haven't spoken to you since Saturday morning, so yeah I did kind of miss you," I mumbled, hoping it wasn't too weird of me to say that. From the grin on Derek's face, I assumed it was fine.

Lydia laughed, her eyes meeting mine knowingly. "With that, I'll leave you two alone," she said, hugging Derek's side before waving at me and walking off towards her own car.

"I hope you're ready to spend four hours teaching me how to do this calculus homework," Derek teased as we got into his car and started the drive to his house. I laughed, fully prepared to do just that, as long as it wasn't all we did. As much as I loved helping Derek, I didn't want our only time together to be spent just doing math problems. "Maybe afterwards, we can do something fun. I feel like we haven't been able to hang out in forever without other people around."

I felt my cheeks burn at Derek's words, knowing he wanted to spend alone time with me. Despite how happy it made me to see him acting like his old self again, I was still curious about what was wrong with him over the weekend. "Derek, are you going to tell me what was wrong yesterday?" I blurted out, changing the subject suddenly.

Derek's smile fell as the silence became awkward. He glanced at me for a moment, a pained look on his face. "I was just having a bad day," he said with a small sigh. "After everything that happened this weekend. . . Brett and I getting into a fight, me ruining your night with Lydia, and-" he paused, shaking his head as he took a deep breath. "I remember kissing you while I was drunk," he admitted, quietly.

I suddenly looked over at Derek, my eyes wide as I held my breath. After a very long silence, I let it out, trying to keep my composure. "You do?" I asked, calmly. On the inside, everything was screaming. My face was burning red at the memory of Derek kissing me.

"Mostly," Derek mumbled, running a nervous hand through his hair. "I'm really sorry, Stiles. It was completely inappropriate of me. Being drunk is not a good excuse. I was just really hurt after what Brett did and I wasn't thinking," he rambled on, showing so much regret for his actions that it made my heart break in two. Of course he regretted it. He didn't like me that way, so why wouldn't he regret it?

"It's not a big deal," I answered, still trying to play it cool. My mind was suddenly taken off of Derek as my phone buzzed, showing a text from Lydia. I opened it quickly to think about something other than Derek's regret for kissing me. Lydia's text read: Lesson #16- first (not)date! Ask Derek his idea of a perfect date, plan it, and eventually execute it!

I didn't realize we were planning these things over text as well as in person, but maybe she only sent it because she knew we were hanging out. Either way, I made a mental note to bring that into conversation later, if I ever got over the fact that Derek never wanted to kiss me.

"You're really not mad?" Derek asked, bringing me back to our conversation. "Honestly, I don't remember the context of the kiss much. I'm just sorry that-"

"Derek," I cut him off, followed by a nervous laugh. "Really, it's fine. We've kissed before, remember?" I reminded him, referring to the time at the mall when I had to get Garrett off his back. I was trying to get Derek to stop being so down about it, when really it wasn't a big deal. I mean, maybe it was because I wanted to kiss him, but it wasn't because he didn't need to be getting worked up about it. I wasn't mad.

"I remember," Derek said, cracking a smile. "That was on your own accord, though." He chuckled at the memory as we pulled into the driveway of his house. "Usually, I don't like to kiss people without their consent," he added, teasingly.

I rolled my eyes, getting out of his car to follow him inside. "So the only reason you're upset about kissing me is because there was no consent?" I laughed, bumping into him as we walked up the stairs to his room side by side.

"Not to be weird, Stiles, but I'd definitely kiss you stone cold sober," Derek deadpanned as we finally made it to his room and Derek shut the door behind us. I turned in the middle of his room to stare at him, completely astounded by the words the just left his mouth. Derek shrugged unapologetically. "Was that too far?" he asked, laughing nervously.

"No, you're fine," I stammered, my face hot as he walked closer to me. For a moment, I thought he was going to stop in front of me, close enough to kiss, but he only sat his backpack down before slipping around me to sit down on the bed. He patted the empty space next to him, waiting for me to sit down too. I took a deep breath, trying to regain my composure after his remark about kissing me, before finally sitting down next to him. "So I have to tell you something," I said, after a few minutes of silence as Derek scrolled through the movies on Netflix. So much for getting his homework done.

Derek glanced over at me, raising an eyebrow. "What is it?" he wondered, giving me his full attention as he readjusted to lay on his side, holding himself up with his elbow.

I sat with my legs cross, so I had to look down at him. I wasn't sure how he was going to react to this, but Lydia told me I had to tell him. "I think. . . I'm done trying to get Lydia to go out with me," I said quickly, holding my breath immediately afterwards as I waited for his reaction.

"Really?" he asked, without hesitation. He didn't seem upset at all, so I let out a deep sigh of relief. "What changed your mind? I thought you guys hit it off at the party? And Saturday, you stayed behind at her house after I left, didn't you?" He looked confused, but other than that, I would almost say he seemed happy about it. That was what I was looking for, so I hoped he was happy about it.

"Yeah, we hung out Saturday, but we talked a lot and I decided that I'm just not interested in her anymore. I think we could be friends, but I just don't see us working out romantically," I explained, hoping it made sense and that it was believable. Derek nodded as I told him, so I was sure it made sense to him. "Anyways, there's probably someone out there who will like me for me, so I don't have to change everything about me."

"There definitely is," Derek agreed, without hesitation. He smiled softly, our eyes locked for a moment too long, and suddenly my face was burning again. "I'm glad you've realized that, Stiles. You deserve true happiness."

"So do you," I replied, looking away from him so he couldn't see how red my face was. "Anyways, since we don't have to do those stupid lessons anymore, we can just hang out and do normal things, like watch Netflix, play games, stuff like that."

Derek grinned as he turned over on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "So, you're content with being single, then?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in question.

I sighed, wishing I could tell him the truth, but now was not the time. "I guess so," I answered with a small shrug. "I need dating experience though, so maybe I should keep trying," I added, looking down to see his reaction. He only shrugged, not really giving me an answer. "What's your idea of a perfect date, Derek?" I asked, trying to work in what Lydia told me to do.

Derek stared up at the ceiling, deep in though. "There is no perfect date unless it's with the perfect person," he said eventually, putting his arms behind his head. "But if a guy took me to the beach at sunset, and we walked along the shore, and then afterwards had dinner on the beach, then eventually we fall asleep after a night of talking and watching the stars. . . well, I'd probably fall in love with him instantly."

As I imagined taking Derek on a date like that, I felt a strange feeling in my chest that made me want to lean down right there and kiss him. I couldn't take my eyes off of him, even as he just laid there, staring up at the ceiling. How did I ever choose anyone else over him? I couldn't imagine being this hung up on anyone at this point, except Derek. "That guy would be so lucky," Stiles said eventually, biting his lip nervously. Working towards Lydia wasn't this nerve wracking, but somehow every moment spent trying to get Derek to like me was eating away at me. I was scared I'd say the wrong thing, or accidentally push him away instead of pull him closer.

"You think so?" Derek asked genuinely, finally looking at me again with a slight blush. I could only nod, mesmerized by his smile. "Well I haven't had the best luck with guys," he laughed.

"Me either," I mumbled, without thinking about my response. Derek looked at me questioningly, confused for a moment. "With dating, in general," I clarified, cursing myself for being careless. "Anyways, have you talked to Brett at all?" I asked, changing the subject.

Derek shook his head immediately, sitting up to face me. "I'd rather not talk about him right now. I'm not sure what's going on between us." He sighed, scooting closer to me. "Can we watch a movie before we do homework? I don't think I can focus right now," he said, his eyes glancing at my lips for a split second before he looked me in the eyes again. I swallowed hard, nodding instead of verbally replying, because I didn't trust my words right now. "Good, now come here," he commanded, laying down as he yanked me down beside him. He pulled the covers up over our legs as he turned on a movie. I wasn't really paying attention to which one. I was more concerned with Derek's hand on my thigh. Maybe he didn't realize it was there, but I wasn't about to tell him either. The rest of the night was perfectly normal, but that moment, I couldn't stop thinking about.