Lesson #9: I'm never wrong. . . unless it's calculus

I woke up around ten in the morning, though I stayed in bed scrolling through my phone until eleven. Once I finally managed to drag myself out of bed, knowing my dad had left for work already, I took a quick shower and dressed casually. I tried not to think about what I was about to do until I was in my car, on my way to Derek's house. I would have sat in my car contemplating what I was going to say, but Cora was outside on the porch and she was staring at me with her beady little eyes. I had no choice.

"He said not to let you in," Cora said blandly, looking away from me to scroll through her phone.

I shifted uncomfortably, glancing at the front door. Cora didn't move. "Are you going to stop me?" I asked, curiously. It didn't seem like she cared enough to try.

Her eyes drifted away from her phone to look at me again. "No, Stiles, don't go in there," she said sarcastically, her voice flat. I raised an eyebrow and reached for the doorknob anyways. She sighed. "I tried to stop you." She shrugged, looking away again. I rolled my eyes and walked inside without another word to Cora.

Since Talia's car wasn't in the driveway, I knew it was only Derek and Cora home. I already made it past Cora, so I just had to make my way up to Derek's room. I trekked up the stairs, trying to get my thoughts unjumbled. I knew I had things to say, but I wasn't sure just yet how to say them. One thing I knew for sure was that I had to apologize.

I hesitated outside of his door, but eventually worked up the nerve to knock. I knew he wasn't expecting me, so when he said the words "go away" I opened the door anyways. He glanced up and met my eyes, a pencil between his teeth. He slowly dropped it down to the calculus book in front of him. He didn't say anything, but I could tell he was surprised to see me. He looked like he was tired, which if he had been working on calculus, he probably was.

"Hey," I nearly squeaked. He licked his lips, still not saying anything. "Need some help?"

He half smiled, as if he hadn't meant to, but it slipped anyways. "That would be appreciated," he agreed, scooting over as I walked to his bed and sat down next to him, making sure to take my shoes off first. He kept looking at me and not saying anything, but I focused on reading the problems. I talked him through the first one, making sure he understood before letting him work it out on his own.

While he worked it out, I watched his pencil move, but I let my eyes wander from his paper until I was staring at him instead. He must have noticed because he looked right back at me, waiting for me to say something about why I was staring at him like a creep. "I'm sorry about yesterday," I mumbled, looking away.

He grinned, bumping my shoulder with his. "I know," he answered. "Me too." His grin made me smile too, but I tried to hide it from him. "We're still friends?"

"Of course," I agreed, pulling my knees up to my chest. "Now do your homework." He rolled his eyes, but listened to me anyways. For two hours, we worked on his calculus homework. When we finally got it done, he threw his book on the floor and flopped back on the bed. I figured I should probably get going, even though I didn't have to hang out with Scott for another few hours. Still, I meant what I said about Derek and I spending less time together.

"So are you ready for lesson number eight?" he asked, putting a pillow over his eyes to block out the sunlight. I rolled my eyes at him.

"I gave myself lesson number eight. Learn how to apologize. But I'm ready for number nine?" I replied, waiting for him to look at me, but he never did.

Derek sighed, shaking his head, which was still halfway under his pillow. "You can't give yourself lessons. That's my job," he argued.

I laid back on the bed beside him, keeping a few inches between us. "You're wrong. I can give myself lessons if I want to. Besides, mine was better than some of the ones you've given me," I retorted, which earned me a smack in the arm. I only laughed.

"Okay, fine," he grumbled. "Lesson number nine: I'm never wrong." He hesitated, finally lifting the pillow off his face as he grinned at me. "Unless it's calculus."

"That's the worst one yet," I sighed, rolling over to face away from him. I really needed to leave, but I couldn't bring myself to get out of Derek's bed.

Derek chuckled. "I thought it was good," he argued. He started to say something else, but his phone went off and he cut himself off to check the text message.

I turned back around to see if it was important. He was smiling at his phone screen, which was odd. I raised an eyebrow. "Someone special?" I teased, followed by a small laugh. Derek glanced at me, his smile fading, as if he hadn't heard the question. "Who is it?" I wondered, still lightheartedly.

He looked away, shrugging his shoulders lightly. "No one," he answered, shielding his phone from me. "Just a guy I've been talking to."

I felt my heart drop into my stomach, but I swallowed my emotions and forced a smile. "So it is someone special?" I tried to tease. He smiled a little, but shook me off. "What's his name?" I pushed, though I didn't know why. It was none of my business. I didn't want to like Derek that way, so this was a good thing. If he was seeing someone else, I'd get over my little crush and get back on track to getting Lydia.

Derek sighed, turning his phone off and setting it to the side. "His name is Brett. But it's nothing yet. We haven't even been on a date."

Derek said it was nothing, but if that were true, he wouldn't have been smiling so much at his phone screen. But again, it was none of my business. "Cute," I mumbled, sliding off the bed. "I, uh- I promised Scott I'd hang out with him today, so I'm gonna head out. I'll talk to you at school on Monday."

"Oh," Derek said, a small frown on his lips. "Okay. I'll see you."

I smiled small, shoving my shoes on quickly before rushing out of the house. I even blew right past Cora without saying a word. I drove to Scott's even though I was two hours early. He'd have to get over it. I didn't bother knocking before barging into his house. His mom was in the living room watching something on tv.

"Hey, Stiles," she greeted me, turning around to give me a warm smile. "Scott's upstairs. Are you staying for dinner?"

I was already on my way up the stairs, but I paused to answer her. "Yeah, that would be great! Thank you!" I gave her a smile in return and then continued up the stairs to Scott's room. I usually didn't knock, but I heard a voice that definitely wasn't Scott's, so I knocked loudly to let him know I was there. "Scott? It's Stiles."

I heard some shuffling around before Scott was at the door, a slightly annoyed expression on his face. It faded slowly when he took in my own expression. "What's wrong?" he asked, immediately. "You're early."

"It's a long story," I grumbled, running my hands over my face. "Am I interrupting?"

He sighed, opening the door the rest of the way to let me in. "Allison was about to leave anyways," he answered with a small smile. Allison was sitting in the middle of Scott's bed, his over-sized shirt swallowing her. She smiled warmly at me, tucking stray strands of hair from her messy bun behind her ears. "Her dad wants her home by four."

"Unfortunately," she pouted, dragging herself off Scott's bed. "I'd love to stay and hang out with you guys for a little longer. I feel like I haven't gotten to talk to you at all, Stiles. We should definitely get together sometime." She seemed genuine about wanting to get to know me, which should have made me happy. Scott's girlfriend wanted to be friends with me, so at least she wasn't going to be crazy. Or I hoped she wasn't.

I nodded, watching her put her shoes on and gather up her things. "Yeah, absolutely," I answered, faking enthusiasm. It wasn't that I didn't like her, just that I wasn't in the mood to be friendly.

"I'm going to walk her out, then I'll be back and we can play some video games," Scott promised, clapping my shoulder as he followed Allison out of his room. While they were gone, I made myself comfortable on Scott's bed. I turned on the PS4 and put in a game I knew I had a sure chance of beating Scott at, then sat back and waited for Scott to get back. I scrolled through my phone, but everything reminded me of why I was in such a bad mood in the first place, so I had to turn it off and wait in silence. Finally, Scott came back into the room, shutting the door behind him. "I brought drinks and my mom ordered a pizza. It looks like you could use it." He sat 2-liters of soda on his side table and flopped down on the bed next to me.

"Sorry I crashed your date," I said, sincerely. I never meant to cockblock him. That was one thing we promised never to do to each other if we could help it. "I could have come back later."

"Dude, you look like hell. I wasn't about to let you leave. Besides, I wasn't lying. She really did have to be home by four." He grabbed his controller and started the game. "You wanna talk about what's wrong with you? I couldn't tell if you looked angry, or sad when I opened the door. Maybe both."

"It's nothing," I lied, trying to focus on beating Scott at this game. "Like I said, it's a long story. I'm not sure I even want to get into it." To be honest, I hadn't even worked through it myself. I was upset that Derek was talking to someone. Why? I wasn't sure. I didn't have a crush on him. I was doing everything in my power to keep that from happening, so why was I upset? Maybe because this meant Derek would have less time to help me with Lydia? I didn't think that was it, but I could at least tell myself that if it made me feel better. It did, to an extent.

Scott was quite for a few minutes while we focused on the game, killing our opponents. "You know you can tell me anything," he said casually. "I mean, I'm the only person in the world who won't judge you. I might call you an idiot for doing stupid things, but I won't judge you. I know I'm not Derek's biggest fan, but if something is going on with him, you can talk to me about it."

Leave it to Scott to know exactly what is bother me without me having to tell him. Then again, there wasn't much else happening in my life. Derek was the newest, most exciting addition. "It's about Derek," I admitted, wanting to glance at Scott to see his reaction, but I kept my eyes on the game. Maybe it would be easier this way, if he wasn't looking at me. I'd be able to tell him about me if he wasn't staring directly into my eyes. I took a deep breath. "Scott, I'm bi," I blurted out, biting my cheek after I said it.

"Okay, cool," Scott answered without missing a beat. "So the problem is that you have a crush on Derek now?" he wondered, not even questioning me about my sexuality. I thought he might be even the least bit surprised, but there was nothing. Not even an "are you sure?" or anything.

"No," I answered quickly, but that answer made my stomach feel like it was in knots. "Okay, maybe. But it's not a real crush, it's just because we've been spending too much time together. And now Derek basically has a boyfriend, but I don't know why it bothers me so much. I still really like Lydia and want to be with her, not Derek."

Scott chuckled, finally pausing the game to look at me. Reluctantly, I met his eyes. "Stiles, you can have feelings for more than one person," he explained, but not in a condescending way. I appreciated that he was actually being helpful about this. "If you want to be with Lydia, then keep working towards that goal. If you decide you'd rather be with Derek, then focus on him. It's your choice. I'm just not sure it's a good idea for you to be around Derek anymore if you still want to be with Lydia."

"But he's the only one who can help me," I argued, wanting to rip out my hair. I hated this. I hated that I liked two different people, both of which would never date me. "I think if I just spend less time with him, I'll be able to get over this stupid little crush. I just want to be friends with him. Lydia is my goal. I want her."

Scott nodded as he listened. "If you think you can handle that, then go for it," he agreed, giving me an encouraging smile. "Besides, if you spend less time with him, then I get to see my best friend more often," he teased, nudging my shoulder as he turned back to face the tv.

I chuckled and rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, yeah," I mumbled. "Thanks for listening, now unpause the game." It helped to talk about it, but I still couldn't shake that feeling in my stomach. Maybe spending some time away from Derek would ease my nerves and help me feel better. I would just take a few days to get things back on track.

"Okay, but you're getting your ass kicked," Scott retorted with an evil grin. I laughed in response, because I knew he was wrong. Thanks to Scott, I spent the rest of the night playing violent video games, stuffing my face with pizza, and I hardly even thought about Derek Hale. I mean, maybe a little, but not as much as I would have otherwise.