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CHAPTER THREE
"patterns"
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"I STILL DON'T GET why you invited her." 

Scott rolled his eyes as Stiles glared at Lex; the girl completely oblivious as she checked her makeup in a small compact mirror. He shot his best friend a pointed look, lowering his voice in attempts to keep the girl from hearing and commencing what would be a very long argument between the two. "Because, she was freaked out about what happened at the school, I didn't want her to have to stay home alone." 

 Stiles huffed, "yeah, well I still don't understand this whole relationship you two have going on. The last time I remember you having a real conversation was when she got stuck in the school with us that night and threw a vial of chemicals at you. Which brings me to my next point-" he crossed his arms, the light from the doorstep they were standing on casting an amber glow over his pale face. "Isn't she like... evil? Remember that time she shoved me in the hallway and I sprained my ankle? I will never forget that moment, it is my villain origin story." 

 Scott smiled slightly with a small shake of his head. "Stiles, that was five years ago." 

 "Well I still remember the pain!" 

 "You losers know I can hear you, right?" Lex mused, tucking her mirror into her purse and shooting the pair an unimpressed look. "I'm not deaf just because I'm not looking at you."

The boys turned to look at each other, both turning red as they tried to think of an excuse. It was Scott who spoke up, turning to his fake-girlfriend with a sweet smile on his face. "You look pretty." 

She stared at him for a moment, seemingly unimpressed, before a small smile itched onto her face and she turned her head to zip up her purse. "I know." 

 There was a pause. 

 "You look... pretty, too." 

 Stiles groaned, "I also look pretty, but no one is pointing that out. Can we go in, already? I went to nursery school with this girl and she said that she would introduce us to her friends-" his voice trailed off as he glanced over Lex and Scott, sighing. "Fine, I guess she'll introduce me to her friends, since you're already taken by the Wicked Witch of the West." 

 "You know what, Stilinski? You're the Wicked Witch of the East. And I'm Dorothy, about to run you over with my house and then tap-dance on your grave." 

 Scott furrowed his eyebrows, "I don't think that's how the story goes."

Stiles rolled his eyes, "it doesn't matter, let's just go!" 

 Scott grabbed his arm, "wait, how's my breath smell?" 

 "I'm not smelling your breath-" he gestured to Lex, "Riv, smell his breath." 

 She scrunched up her face, "gross, I would rather die." 

 Scott pouted, "does anyone have any gum or something?" 

 "No, but you can wear my strawberry lipgloss if you want." 

 Stiles finally decided that he had enough, and swung the door open, gesturing dramatically with his hands for Lex to walk in first. She flashed him a sarcastic grin, pinching his cheek as she passed. Smoothing out her skirt, she let her eyes rake over the house. It looked like every other suburban house party setting, expensive furniture that was one drunk idiot away from being ruined, and loud pop music being played from a speaker somewhere in the middle of the room. Lex smiled, crossing her arms and looking completely in her element - contrary to Scott and Stiles, both of whom were shifting awkwardly on their feet. 

 She spread her arms out, "which one of us is driving?" 

 Scott shot her a look, "You." 

 "Ugh, you're no fun." 

"Stiles! Hi!" A loud voice called, and Lex turned around in time to watch a blonde girl brush past her, a wide grin on her pretty face. 

 Stiles smiled, "there's the birthday girl-"  

 His voice was cut off when the girl reached up to grab his face, pressing their lips together in a rather aggressive moment that made Lex bark a laugh, putting her hand to her mouth as the girl pulled away. Stiles shook his head, a dumbfounded expression on his face. 

 The girl smiled, "I'm so glad you made it!" 

 Stiles spoke in a dazed tone, "uh, me too..." he cleared his throat, gesturing vaguely to Scott and Lex, "Uh, this is Scott and Riv, this is Heather." 

 Lex grinned at the girl, "do I get a kiss too? Or is that just a select few thing?" 

 Heather giggled, before walking forward with a drunken stumble to her step as she reached up, placing her hands behind Lex's neck and pulling her forward to kiss her square on the mouth. She pulled away with an exubrant spin to her step, leaving Lex to blink in confusion as she grabbed Stiles' arm. "Come help me choose a bottle of wine from the basement!" 

The boy managed a nod, before he was pulled out of sight. Scott was snickering when Lex turned to him, "she seems friendly." 

"Yeah, awfully." She crossed her arms, shaking her head with a smile on her face. "And Stilinski's about to die from a stroke, so wanna go do something fun?" 

 Scott shot her a wary glance, "depends on what you mean by fun." 

 "You're adorable, come on, let's just go get a drink or something-" she grabbed his hand to pull him along, sauntering into the living room. There was a table with various coolers around it, and Lex bent down to open one. She withdrew two Pepsi's, handing one to Scott with a grin. "Parties can be fun without alcohol, as long as you have loud enough music and a few cool people. I guess you classify as cool." 

 Scott scoffed, "I know you think I'm cool, Alexis." 

 "Well I won't if you keep calling me by my full name." 

The boy shrugged innocently, "it's a cute name." 

The girl panic-blushed, trying to hide it by taking a sip of her drink and sitting down on the nearest couch, directly next to a couple who seemed to be having an awfully fun time making out. She tapped the boy on the shoulder, making him cast her an annoyed look as he looked over at her. 

 She grinned, waving her fingers. "Hi, I don't know if you heard, but ninety nine percent of children concieved on old couches wind up depressed and alone. Might wanna change those statistics and go play suck-face somewhere else, m'kay?"

He grumbled something under his breath, but allowed himself to be dragged off by the girl. Lex grinned, crossing her legs and gesturing for Scott to sit down next to her. He chuckled; a nervous tinge in his voice as he obliged. "You're really bold, aren't you?" 

 "Well, one of us has to be." She leaned back in her chair, fixating the boy with a pointed look. "So..." She drummed her fingers against her thigh, "how are you?" 

 Scott laughed, "I'm great, how are you?" 

 "Simply stupendous," She smiled, shifting so that she could face the boy. "So, I think that now is a good time for us to make some... deals, about our situation." 

 "Deals?" Scott raised an eyebrow, "what kind of deals?"

 "Drug deals. I don't know, McCall-" she shrugged, "like, you can tell Stilinski the truth if I can tell Connie." 

 Scott smiled sheepishly, "I kind of like Stiles not knowing, it's really funny. Plus, he always knows everything about everyone... it's kind of nice to have a secret." His voice trailed off towards the end, and his eyes widened. "But like, I hate lying to him. Because he's like my brother." 

 "Don't think of it as lying, think of it as..." Lex waved her hand around, "I dunno - acting." 

 "Acting," Scott raised an eyebrow. "Like what you did in class?" 

 Lex felt her face turn red, but tried to pass it off as she rolled her eyes. "I said I was sorry, I won't kiss you anymore if you don't want me to." 

 "I didn't say I didn't want you to, just maybe give me a heads up next time."

"Deal." She gestured broadly to the boy, "do you have any more deals?"

"Um-" he pursed his lips, tilting his head back as his eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Okay, you have to meet my mom." 

 Lex almost choked on her drink. She put a hand to her chest, coughing as she tried to catch her breath. Scott nervously reached over to pat her back, "Alexis, are you dying?" 

"No, I'm-" she cleared her throat, straightening her back. "I'm fine. Just surprised, like-" she looked over at Scott, meeting his eyes as she twirled a piece of hair around her finger. "Why would you want me to meet your mom if we're not actually dating?"

Scott shrugged innocently, "because, if we're gonna be friends, she should know who you are. Plus, Stiles made a super big deal about it when we got home today, and she told me that if she didn't meet you then she would hide the keys to my bike." 

 That made Lex smile. "I think I'm gonna like your mom."

His eyes brightened, "so that means that you'll meet her?"

"Fine, I'll meet her. I'll even act nice, maybe I'll bake her a tres leches cake."

"She would love that, we're part Mexican." 

 Lex sat up, a smile itching onto her face, "seriously? You're Mexican too?"

"Hell yeah, but I'm not as good at Spanish as you are." He shot her a sideways grin. Lex scoffed. 

 "That might be because you never came to Spanish last year... I usually use it as a period to fill people's binders with glitter, but what's your excuse?"

Scott hesitated, and Lex cocked an eyebrow. She knew all about Scott and his less-than-impressive attendance record, but she never knew what the cause of his absences were. Her and Connie had an ongoing bet about it: Lex claimed that he was on drugs, and Connie thought that he had some weird medical thing going on. Lex knew that neither of them were right, but she thought that now that the two were getting closer, she would have a chance to learn the truth. 

 Alas, all he said was, "a bunch of stuff."

 "A bunch of stuff," she repeated, leaning back in her seat with a smirk. "Real eloquent, as usual." 

 He opened his mouth to retort, but before he could, the ringing of his phone cut him off. He glanced at the screen, before pressing answer and holding the phone to his ear. "Allison?" 

 Lex rolled her eyes, an action that Scott caught; as he stuck his tongue out at her as the girl spoke. He was silent for a solid minute, before finally speaking up. "She's right here, I'll ask-" he turned to Lex, "hey, can I see your wrist?" 

 "My wrist?" Increduity laced her tone as she subconsciously glanced down at her arms. "Why the hell do you want to see my wrist?" 

"Because, Allison said that you have a bruise, and I want to make sure it's not too bad." 

 Lex stared at him for a moment, before huffing and rolling up her sleeve. "That was a load of bullshit, but whatever." 

 Scott gently grabbed her arm, his finger ghosting over the bruise from earlier that had only gotten more prominent as time passed. The pattern on the skin was... a bit peculiar to say the least. Especially since it came from a handprint. Scott looked over at her, his dark eyes wide. "How did this happen?"

Lex shrugged, "you want me to explain the exact science behind bruises? I don't know, some crazy bitch grabbed onto me. She must do a lot of grip-strengthening exercises, because it actually kinda hurts." 

 Scott rose to his feet, grabbing onto her hand and pulling her towards the door. "Follow me." 

 "Like I have a choice."

 He lead her out of the door, and on the front porch where Allison Argent was already standing. Lex offered her a small smile, before her attention was diverted as her best friend stalked up the stairs. 

 "What the hell is going on?" Connie demanded, crossing her arms as her braids fell over her shoulders. "I don't know if y'all are aware that kidnapping is illegal, but-" 

 "I already apologized for that," Allison cut her off. "Plus, you willingly got into my car, so it wasn't exactly kidnapping."

 "Which brings me to my next point: why the sweet hell do you have three pocketknives in the back seat of your car? Three?" 

 Lex frowned, "I only have two."

 Scott shot her a look, so she elaborated. "One for each shoe. Or one for each side of my bra, it depends on the day." 

 "Remind me to not get on your bad side," he chuckled nervously, before turning to look at Connie. "Connie, can you please come here? I want to see your wrist." 

 "I am so suing-" the girl muttered, but obliged nonetheless. She walked over to Scott and Lex, holding up her wrist. It was harder to see the bruise against her dark skin - the porch light not providing much assistance, but Scott didn't even squint. He gently brought Lex's arm over to press against Connies, the bruises lining up. 

 Actually... lining up perfectly.

 Lex leaned closer, doing a brief double-take at the sight. When the girls held their arms together, the marks on their skin perfectly fit together; forming an odd and intricate design on the skin. She looked up at Scott, watching as he shared a nervous look with Allison. 

 "Is someone going to tell me what's going on?"