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Stiles was sitting on the fire escape, looking out at the busy city below him. He should be getting dressed, Lydia would kill him if he was late to the party tonight. He climbed back through the small window to his equally small apartment. If only the rent matched the square footage, he thought. He went in search of the already pre-approved outfit that Lydia had come over two days ago to see. He loved his step-sister, but sometimes she could be a bit…intense. He got dressed and looked himself over in the mirror one more time. He had to admit, Lydia did pick out the best outfit he probably owned. And he wasn’t completely mad at what this pair of jeans was doing for his butt.
He was standing on the side of the street hailing for a cab for a good 10 minutes, trying his best to not get frustrated. New York was crowded in general, but New Year’s Eve was on a whole other level of crowded. His dad normally flew out to see him for the holidays, but him and Natalie (Lydia’s mom) decided to take a cruise through the Caribbean this year and not invite either of them. So, he was stuck with a definite yes to Lydia’s party tonight.
“No cabs tonight,” he heard someone say next to him. He looked out into the streets one more time, slightly defeated.
“If there are, then they’re all hiding.”
“Perhaps the subway would be faster, what do you think?”
“I’m not entirely sure, I suppose it depends on where you’re headed. I definitely can’t get Downtown faster by the subway at this point.”
“Do you think she’s going to be mad?”
Stiles spun around, trying to figure out who was asking him this question. He didn’t know the man, he definitely would’ve remembered perfectly sculpted cheekbones with matching scruff like that. “Um, who?”
“Calm down,”
“I am calm, I am the most calm right now. How could you possibly think I am anything but calm?”
The stranger looked at him and raised an eyebrow as if asking what the hell he was talking about. His lips lifted slightly before he said, “Laura, I’m going to have to call you back.”
Stiles felt his entire body flush with embarrassment. He hadn’t realized the man was on the phone and now he just needed to hide under a rock and possibly die.
The guy smiled at him, probably trying not to laugh at his stupidity. “I’m Derek. I’m sorry, are you waiting for a cab as well?”
“Yeah, I should’ve just called an uber, but the surcharge is like five times the normal rate right now.”
“That’s basically where I’m at right now. Well, where are you headed?”
“Downtown. New Year’s Eve party. You?”
“Actually, I’m headed in the same direction,” Derek raised his hand, his long coat shifting slightly with the movement. He walked a little passed Stiles and opened up the door to a cab. “Share one?”
Stiles smiled, “Dude! You are a magician I swear!” He climbed in and waited for Derek to sit down. “I’m Stiles by the way.”
“Stiles? What the heck is a Stiles?”
Stiles went to answer his question, when his phone rang. A picture of Lydia popped up on his screen from senior year in high school. “Um, I have to take this I’m really sorry. Hey Lyds, what’s up?”
“Where are you?” she sounded a little annoyed. He vaguely heard Derek say a cross street to the cab driver, he figured he would just find his way from there.
“I have been trying to get a cab for the longest time, you wouldn’t believe what it’s like out here.”
He could practically hear the eye roll he knew she was doing on the other side. “If you would’ve just gotten an apartment in the city like I told you instead of moving into Brooklyn this wouldn’t be an issue.”
“I am not about to have this argument with you again.”
He saw Derek smile a little bit, he mouthed “Sorry” at him. Derek shook his head, pulling out his phone and typing out a message.
“Fine, but you better get here by midnight. I have a surprise waiting for you.”
He narrowed his eyes, “I knew there was a reason you picked out these jeans for me.”
“Stiles, just trust me ok. This isn’t going to be like last time.”
“Lydia, I cannot even begin to imagine how this could be any worse than the last time you attempted to set me up with someone. Literally nothing could be worse. The world could end in a burning inferno and it would still not compare to how utterly horrible that was for me.”
“Good, so you’re looking on the bright side of this whole endeavor. I’m glad.”
It was his turn to roll his eyes, “Look, I’m going to have to call you back. I promise to do my best to get there by midnight. I still have a whole two hours to go.”
“You’re lucky that they still haven’t arrived either or I would be more upset about this.”
“I love you. I’m hanging up now.”
“I love you too,” he heard her say before he hit the end call button.
“I’m so sorry you had to hear that,” he said as he turned toward Derek.
Derek looked up from his phone and shut the screen off. He smiled. “It’s ok. I’m assuming it was your sister. Most of my interactions with both of my sister go something along those same lines.”
“Uh, yeah. She thinks I need her help with pretty much everything in my life.”
“That sounds about right.”
Just then, he felt the cab stop. He looked up and saw just a parking lot of cars on the bridge. “Well, let’s hope I make it by midnight.”
“What happens if you don’t?”
“This may be the last anyone ever sees of me.”
Derek let out a full laugh. “She’s that intense?”
“Oh yeah. Lydia is a force to be reckoned with for sure.”
“Well, it looks like you might be spending your last few breaths in a cab with me. Sorry.”
Before he could stop it, he heard himself say, “I guess there are worse things that I could be doing.”
“Like being consumed in an inferno?”
Stiles felt himself laugh out loud. “Ok, yes there is that. But, have you ever had a blind date so incredibly horrible that you wanted to just stab yourself and end it all right there at the dinner table?”
“I’m going to go with a hard no. I don’t think so.”
“Ok, let me paint this picture for you. This was probably about a year ago give or take. My sister, that’s Lydia, calls me up and tells me that she’s setting my up on a blind date. She gives me a name, an address, and a time and that’s it.”
“Oh wow.”
“Yeah. So I’m like, ok I can roll with this you know? I google the address and it’s this little bistro in the Upper East Side. So I get to the place and just look around, hoping I’m not the first to arrive. Because she gave me nothing about this guy other than a name: Matt. So, I’m standing there looking around and then I see a reasonably attractive guy waving at me. Clearly he knew what I looked like.”
“Reasonably attractive?”
“Well, not everyone can have a jawline like you Derek.”
Stiles saw a light blush creep up on Derek’s face. When did he get so bold? Maybe it was because it was New Year’s and he was tired of over thinking everything. Derek laughed and said, “Ok, so this reasonably attractive man was waving at you. What happened next?”
“I walk over and introduce myself, making sure it’s the right guy. You would not believe how many times I just started talking to random strangers thinking they were someone else.”
“I’m beginning to think it’s a theme with you.”
“Ha. Ha. Anyway, so I sit down and there’s already a water for me there. He lets me know that he got me the water, clearly looking for me to be impressed by this. So, the server comes around and I ask for a pop.”
“A pop? Are you from the Midwest?”
“California actually, I just like the way pop sounds better than soda.”
“I’m originally from California too. What part?”
“Beacon Hills. It’s a little bit North of –“
“I know where that is. My family had a lake house there. We would go there during Winter Break from school. We lived a little more North in Redding.”
“Oh wow. I’m surprised we’ve never met before. I was always at the lake with my friends. So many grand adventures to be told.”
“Why do I have a feeling that these grand adventures usually ended up with the police being called?”
“Well, you’re not wrong.”
They both started to laugh. “Ok, so you ordered the soda. Then what?”
“Oh! I totally forgot. This is where things start going downhill. Ok, so I order the pop,” he gives Derek an I dare you to laugh face, “and he holds his hand out to pause the waiter and asks me ‘Are we on separate tabs?’”
“No!”
“Yes! Even the server looked horrified at this question. I didn’t know what to say, so I just said yes. Like, how does one even come back from that? I decided to just write it off and give this guy another shot. So we start talking and he tells me that he’s a photography major and works for some independent newspaper.”
“Very Peter Parker of him.”
Stiles stared at Derek and felt his heart squeeze a little bit. “That’s exactly what I thought! Ok, so anyway I make the Spiderman joke and he tells me that he really liked the movies, especially the third one and that Toby Maguire was a genius as Peter Parker.”
“Oh no,” Derek said with the perfect amount of horror in his tone.
“Yes! I was floored. I almost just got up and walked out right then and there. I couldn’t handle it. But Lydia would have killed me if I didn’t at least make it through the first course. So, I persevered. I tell him that I’m going to school for writing and so naturally we discuss authors.”
“Please tell me he didn’t bring up Hemingway,” Derek said, a look of pained secondhand embarrassment creeping up on his face.
“How did you know?! He tried his damnedest to convince me that Hemingway is by far the greatest American author to date.”
Derek threw his head in his hands and just started laughing.
“It gets even better. I took my pop and just tossed it in his face. I got up and left. I didn’t leave him any money for the meal or anything. I couldn’t handle another minute of listening to him talk anymore. I was so done.”
“What did Lydia say?”
“She called me about twenty minutes later and yelled at me. We got into a super large fight which ended with both of us eating Chinese food on my apartment floor and watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s. She apologized and I swore to never let her live it down so long as there is a breath in my body.”
Derek was laughing so hard at this point. Stiles liked the way Derek seemed to look younger when he laughed like that, the crinkles at his eyes and the dimples that formed on his cheeks were just the cherry on top.
“Do you have any blind dating horror stories?”
“None quite as entertaining.”
Suddenly they were talking about all of their worst dates that they had ever been on. Stiles told him some stories about sneaking around the woods as a teenager, Derek told him about how he would cover for Laura when she would sneak out to go see a boy or attend a party that she wasn’t allowed to go to. It was weirdly comfortable to talk about all these random things with a man he just met that night.
“Looks like it’s gonna be another twenty minutes guys,” the cab driver told them.
Stiles looked at the clock. It was 11:20, which meant he would still get to the party before midnight if the driver was correct. It had started raining at some point as well.
“I should probably call Lydia and tell her,” he said.
“Yeah, I should call Laura.”
Each of them dialed their respective siblings and let them know it would be a little while longer. Stiles watched as Derek extended the phone from his ear the same time he did. Laura was probably yelling just as much as Lydia was.
“What do you mean another 20 minutes?”
“Look Lyds, there’s a lot of traffic out right now. I’m sorry. I’m going to be there as soon as I can. But definitely before midnight.”
“I swear Stiles if you aren’t standing next to me within the next half hour I will personally see to it that you –“
“Can we not with the mob styled warnings? You’re already scary enough without me thinking you’re also the Godfather. I’ll call you when I’m outside.”
“Fine.”
He hung up the phone and turned toward Derek, who looked like a kicked puppy dog.
“She mad?”
“Yeah. Apparently she also has a blind date waiting for me.”
“Oh,” Stiles felt himself deflate a little bit. He didn’t really expect anything to come of tonight, but just knowing that Derek was about to be set up and it wasn’t with him was a little more than heart breaking. “Well, that’s exciting right? She hasn’t steered you too wrong yet right?”
Derek looked at him, his grey-green eyes looking sad (or maybe that was just Stiles projecting). “Uh, yeah. She’s usually pretty good about the whole blind date thing.”
“Anyway, you were telling me about when Cora and Laura decided to play Princess Derek.”
“Um, no I was not. I would never tell anyone that story. I can’t believe I even hinted at that even being a real thing once.”
“Aw, come one Derek! I told you about Lydia making me try on her prom dresses so that she could see what they would like in person.”
Derek started laughing again, “I will never forget that one.”
And so they continued to exchange embarrassing tales some more. Stiles looked over at the clock it was 11:50 and it didn’t look like he was going to be getting to the party on time.
“Well, I don’t think we’re making our deadlines,” Stiles said, looking out the window to gage where they were in relation to the apartment he needed to get to. Maybe he could make a run for it.
“I guess not. But, it’s probably safer to just turn my phone off now.”
“Good idea!” Stiles reached for his phone and turned it off. “Ok, well what’s your resolution this coming year?”
He watched as Derek thought it over for a little bit, biting the inside of his lip in the process. “To be a little more bold.”
“Oh, originality. I like that. Do explain.”
“I think that I live my life a little too… safe. For example, I’ve never just kissed some stranger, or taken the ferry somewhere just to explore. I go running in Central Park every morning, I eat dinner at 7 o’clock every night. I don’t really do anything that’s not a part of my routine unless Laura makes me and I think I need to start doing it myself, without her nudge. You know?”
“Kind of. I’ve always been the weird kid and I always felt like no one really liked me because of how… free spirited I was. But, Lydia has definitely helped give me some more confidence.”
“Well, now that I’ve successfully made this really heavy. What’s your resolution?”
Stiles let out a small laugh, “You didn’t make it that heavy, I promise. Um, I haven’t really thought about it. I’m probably going to pull the generic get in shape and be a better me card.”
Derek looked him up and down, making Stiles blush a little bit. “You don’t look like you need to get into shape. I’m sure under that sweater and leather jacket you’re actually pretty fit. Especually if you used to play lacrosse.”
“I said I was on the team, not that I played. I was mostly there to just keep the bench warm. But, thanks for the confidence boost. I guess I’ll try my best to actually finish a piece of writing since I just have all of these half stories lying around in a dozen or so notebooks.”
“Notebooks?” Derek raised a semi judgey eyebrow.
“Yes, notebooks. You can put away your judgmental eyebrow and learn to appreciate the art of putting actual pen to paper. There’s just something more intimate about that style of writing. I feel like I write better on paper compared to when I’m typing. It just flows better.”
“That’s so clichéd writer, I’m almost embarrassed to have been witness to it.”
Stiles punched his shoulder and laughed, “Thanks asshole.”
“I never said I was a kind person,” Derek smiled at him.
“Alright, here we are,” the cab driver said to them. They both extended a little bit of cash for the fare and stepped out of the cab.
As it drove away Stiles could hear a distant counting: 10…9… He looked at Derek’s lips. 8…7… He reached into his pocket to find his phone. 6…5…4… He waited for it to turn on 3…2…1. He was suddenly meeting a pair of lips, fireworks shooting through every fiber of his being. He felt his knees buckle a little bit at the small scratch of stubble, and then the lips were moving away. He didn’t want that. He wanted the complete opposite of that. He surged forward and wrapped his arms around the other man’s neck, pulling their bodies closer together and intensifying the kiss for a moment, tilting his head so he had a better angle. He wanted to let Derek know that he wanted this, that he didn’t want whoever was waiting for him at the party because he’s never just had easy conversation with someone he met. He’s never attempted to memorize the way someone’s laugh lines formed around their eyes. He never felt something this strong before and he wasn’t about to just let it go.
When they pulled apart they were both short of breath. “Wow,” was all that they had to say.
“Well, that was definitely bold.”
Stiles watched as Derek got nervous, his hand coming up behind his neck. “Yeah, it was. Look, I would really like to see you again. I’ve never had a night like this before. And I really liked talking to you. I promise to not bring up Hemingway and I’ll even buy you a pop.”
Stiles started laughing uncontrollably. It really was one of the best nights of his life. He looked into Derek’s eyes and said, “You had me at ‘not bringing up Hemingway’.” Stiles leaned in and kissed Derek’s lips briefly before his phone started ringing.
“Duty calls,” he said with a sad tone. “Hey Lyds, I was just thinking about you.”
“I have nothing to say to you, other than you better be outside my apartment right now and not still in some cab.”
“Don’t worry, I’m headed up right now,” he hung up the phone and turned around to find Derek talking on the phone himself. He couldn’t wait for the conversation to end unfortunately. So instead he took out the pen that was in his pocket and grabbed Derek’s free hand. Derek raised an eyebrow at him while muttering to whoever was on the other line (most likely a very angry Laura). He scribbled his name and number across the back of his hand and then winked at him and started towards Lydia’s apartment.
He’d never fallen in love at midnight on a Friday, but there was always a first for everything.
Fin.