Frenemy

I go to take a late night shower before I go out to search for the kanima with Scott and Stiles. While I'm getting dressed, I can't help but think about Derek and everything else going on. There is tension between me and Isaac because of our fight. Allison had no choice but to tell Lydia everything from werewolves to the hunters to the kanima.


I put on some jeans, a hoodie and knee boots. Me, Scott and Stiles go looking for the kanima and end up at a club called Jungle. "The venom might not work when he's in kanima form but does work when Jackson is in human form," Stiles speculates.


He looks up and, when me and Scott turn around, we see the kanima go through the top of the club. "Why do you think it's here?" Stiles asks.


"To kill someone," Scott replies.


"Ah. That explains the claws, and the fangs, and all that. Good. Makes perfect sense now." We both shoot him a look. "What? Come on. I'm 147 pounds of pale skin and fragile bone, okay? Sarcasm is my only defense."


I put a hand on his shoulder. "Stiles, you are overreacting."


"Maybe you're under reacting. You know I think yo-"


I smack my hand over his mouth. "Shush." I take a small whiff of the air and catch the scent of Armani cologne. "Danny," I whisper.


We look at the line and there he is in the midst of other guys. "Wait, Danny's its next target," Scott says.


We try to figure out a way to get in without having to go through the bouncer in the front. Stiles does what he does best: try and come up with a plan. "Maybe there's like a window we could climb through... Or some kind of..." While he's talking, I grab the back door knob and break it off then I hand it to him. "Handle that we could rip off with supernatural strength. Why didn't I think of that?" he says with his usual sarcastic tone.


I clench my teeth and follow behind the two inside. I start to notice that every single person inside are guys or drags. Did we just walk into a gay club? "I think I should've stayed outside," I say over the loud music.


"Dude, everyone here's a dude! I think we're in a gay club!" Scott exclaims over the music.


Stiles is already being surrounded by drag queens as hundreds of young men dance to a pumping rhythm. "Man, nothing gets past those keen werewolf senses..." Stiles replies in his sarcastic tone once again.


"Yup, should've stayed outside," I confirm.


I see Danny at the bar and he looks somewhat rejected. I see him look over in the direction of the boy he told me he took to the dance. I decide to walk to the bar slide next to him. "Hi, there."


He looks up, surprised to see me. "What are you doing here?"


"I know when a friend needs me."


He just shakes his head and looks back down. I sigh. I put a hand on his shoulder. "Move on, Danny. If anything, I know heartbreak. Look." I point to a guy that has his eyes on Danny. "You're at a club. So have some fun. What happens when the lights go out and the music turns up, is no ones concern. Not even your own. Just let go."


He nods with a smile. "You're right, thanks."


I nod. He goes off at to the dance floor. The bartender is wiping a glass. "That was mighty nice of you."


I just shrug. "He's a good friend of mine. If I could take away his pain, I would."


Scott and Stiles walk up to the bar. They order two beers. When the bartender sees their IDs, he looks at me. I shake my head slightly. The bartender smiles and suggests Coke instead. A guy across the bar pays for Scott's drink. I can tell Stiles is jealous while Scott enjoys the flattery. I pull him by the shirt and kiss his cheek. "Better, you big baby?"


To get on my nerves, he pulls my hair out of its ponytail. "Yes, much."


We send Stiles in to go get Danny while Scott goes after the kanima. Due to the crowd, bright lights and heavy smoke, their tasks aren't easy. "Who were those two?" the bartender asks.


"My brother and his best friend."


"Your boyfriend?"


I look back at Stiles and back to the bartender. "Stiles? No, we're just friends."


"Hey, a kitty needs love too." I laugh. I sigh and look down at the counter. "Is something wrong?"


I just shake my head with my smile. "This is probably the most fun I've had in awhile."


"I'm glad I could help. Now, tell me more of this 'Stiles'. How long have you two know each other?"


I laugh at his tone. "Almost all my life. Me, him and my brother have been friends for a very long time, even after I got back."


"I know you now. You're the girl that saved the sheriff."


When I look back up, he's gesturing to a news article framed on the wall. Brave Teen Pushes Sheriff Out of the Way of a Moving Car. "Yeah, kind of stupid."


"Girl, do not beat yourself up. What you did might have been dangerous but very heroic."


"I only did it because that's Stiles' dad. It was like I was compelled to do it."


He raises his eyebrow with a devious look. "Me-ow."


I laugh again. "Since we're talking about my love life, what about yours?"


"Mine? Well, I have a girlfriend who doesn't exist."


I raise both eyebrows. "You're so attractive and work at a gay bar. You have no girlfriend...or boyfriend?"


He chuckles. "Not at all. Besides, I think that's for the best since I'm working at a gay bar. What girl wants that problem?"


"Well, I wouldn't mind. I would actually feel safer in my relationship."


"I'm Josh, by the way."


I finish off my beer. "I'm Scarlett, as you might have guessed from the news article." A sharp pain shoots through me. "Ouch," I whisper.


"You alright?"


"Yeah...I just had a cramp. Female thing."


He holds his hands up in surrender and walks down the bar to tend to others. I try to scan the dance floor with my wolf eyes to look for the danger I feel but the bright lights effect my eyes just as bad as flashbang arrows. "Scott," I whisper. "Someone is about to get hurt and the bright lights stops my other eyes from searching the crowd. Keep a look out."


"I'm on it," I hear him reply.


I leave a tip and walk to the floor. By the time I get there, I hear someone scream. Several people fall, paralyzed, onto the floor. All of them are around Danny. Derek shows up, in full wolf form, and slash the creature's throat. The creature retreats outside where Scott finds a blood trail that leads to Danny's car. "Derek actually did something useful," I say under my breath.


We follow the trail and it leads to Danny's car. Inside, we find Jackson and he's covered in blood. I look up and see a paralyzed Danny is being rolled out on a stretcher. When we approach him, he's confused to see Scott. "McCall, what are you doing here?"


"Just seeing if you're okay and wondering if anything weird happened to you today...besides being paralyzed from the neck-down."


"Is my ex paralyzed too?" he replies.


I looked behind me and back at Danny. "Um, yeah," I reply.


"Then, I'm great."


I laugh and kiss the top of his head. "Hang in there, buddy."


We keep Jackson in the back of Stiles' Jeep while Stiles went to distract his dad. Jackson begins to come around and Scott punches him in the face to knock him unconscious again. We chain Jackson up inside of a Beacon County Sheriff's Department prisoner transport van and park it inside the woods. I'm standing by the edge of a cliff, when I hear Jackson yelling threats. I huff and climb in the back with Stiles. "McCall! LET ME OUT! NOW!"


"You know, I put those pants on you. Alright, buddy?" Stiles replies. "One leg at a time. Being all up close and personal with your junk wasn't exactly a highlight of my day. So don't think this is fun for me, either. You know, we are actually doing you a favor."


Jackson holds up his cuffed hands. "So, this is doing me a favor?"


"Yes! You're killing people... to death! Yeah! And until we figure out how to stop you, you gonna stay in here. Sorry."


"I'm not," I finally say. I slap him across his face. "That's for threatening the lives of my brother and friends." I slap him again. "That's for making my life harder than it needs to be." I hit one more time, harder than both of the two times. "And that's for knocking me unconscious."


Jackson looks at Stiles like he's suppose to defend him against me and my actions. Stiles holds up two sandwiches. "You want the ham and cheese or the turkey club?"


He text Jackson's parents so they won't be suspicious. Stiles tries to explain to Jackson what he supposedly did as the kanima. "You had scales," Stiles says.


"Scales. Like a fish?"


"No. More like a reptile. And your claws have this liquid that paralyzes people. And you have a tail."


"I have a tail?"


"Yeah, you do."


"Does it do anything?"


"Not that I know of."


"Can I use it to strangle you?"


I flick out of my claws. "Maybe but I could also use these to kill you."


Stiles grabs me by both of my wrists. "Scar, why don't you step out before blood gets spattered all over government property?"


Instead of sticking around, I go to the hospital to see my mom and then check up on Danny. "So, how is he?" I ask my mom, sitting up on the front desk counter.


"Well, he's awake and he's slowly regaining the feeling of his limbs," my mom explains. "We're going to put him through physical therapy and everything will be alright."


"Will he be playing lacrosse anytime soon?"


I ask that question because I know how much Danny loves lacrosse. My mom shrugs. "Maybe sooner than later."


I go up to his room and he's sitting up, eating the lunch they give you. He's happy to see me. I sit in a chair and bring it up close to his bed. "How are you feeling, Danny?"


He shrugs and pushes his lunch tray away. "Better. You look...terrible."


"I'm not the one in the hospital bed, am I, smart ass?" We both laugh. "I feel terrible."


"What's going on?"


"I have been trying my hardest to protect everyone and I sometimes forget about myself. Danny, I don't even know who I am anymore."


I wipe the tears that blur in my eyes. This is been my the first time I've said this to anyone. "I'm leading my friends and, to make them strong, I need to show them that I'm strong."


"You're Scarlett McCall, the best damn friend a guy could ask for and a damn good sports player."


"That means a lot coming from you, Danny. Thank you. And you're the greatest gay best friend a girl could ask for."


Scott shows up to question Danny about Jackson. "Out of all people, why would Jackson be mad at you?" he asks.


"I was doing him a favor when I fixed the video for him."


"Wait, what video?" I ask, standing up.


Danny is reluctant to tell us about the video but we promise to get Danny's fake ID back from the cops if he told us. As we walk down the hospital hallway, our mom stops us. "Listen, your principal called. Scott, you are failing two of your major classes."


"Oh, mom, I-"


"Save it. If you don't shape up, you won't be going to the next grade with Scarlett in September."


"I promise I'll do better," Scott replies.


Me, Scott, Allison and Stiles go in the woods overlooking Beacon Hills. We discuss the kanima and its motives. "What if the creature wasn't actually trying to kill just us since it ran right past Allison at Isaac's house, didn't kill Stiles at the garage and might have been just trying to keep Scarlett, Derek and Stiles in the pool," Scott implies. "There is something else going on that none of us understand."


I look at the ground and sigh. When I look up, Stiles was shrugging. "I got it. Kill Jackson. Problem solved."


"Stiles!" I exclaim.


"What? It's the best solution here."


"But he still played a role in taking down Peter. He doesn't deserve to die after helping us killing the Alpha," Scott reminds


"He only helped to get Derek to bite him," he argues.


"He doesn't know what he's doing just, like me and Scott didn't when we first began to turn. We had Derek to keep us from killing, Jackson has nobody. Scott and I want to try to save him," I fire back.


Later that night, me and Stiles return to the van and find Jackson has escaped. We go to the front of the van to find Scott and Allison making out. I walk over to the driver's side of the car and open the door. I grab Scott by the ear and drag him to the back. "Ow, Scar, what did I do?"


I show him the back of the van. "What do you see here?"


"He's gone."


"Wow! You're just Sherlock Holmes today!"


Allison and Stiles decide they both should tell their fathers about what's going on. Scott offers to show his werewolf side to the Sheriff to help him understand and believe.


On the way to the sheriff station, I recall Stiles texting Jackson's parents. "Stiles!"


"What?"


"What did you send Jackson's parents?"


"That he's fine and that he loves them."


"Dude," I gasp. "I know Jackson. He has never said that to his parents."


Scott catches on. "We're dead."


We get to the police station to find Jackson there with his attorney. "Oh, crap," me and Scott mumble at the same time.

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