As much as Joey liked having Stiles around, the longer he stayed, the deeper she slid into the friend zone; the point of no return. Sleeping in the same bed with her crush every night and not being able to touch him for fear of making things awkward grew increasingly stressful. Joey was sleeping all right, but getting there was harder.
But Stiles was her friend and he needed her. Her feelings for him didn't figure into that picture, she told herself, because he didn't know about them and he didn't need to. Stiles missed Malia and it wasn't Joey's place to put her feelings on his plate in addition. The poor kid had enough of a problem with the panic attacks as it was and if she ever slipped up about how she felt, she wouldn't just be embarrassing herself...she'd be pulling the last slice of sanity out from under him, too, and Joey wouldn't do that. She couldn't. He needed some piece of stability and somewhere along the way, she'd become that person for him. It wasn't just humiliating to put herself out there when he'd given her no reason to think that their feelings might be reciprocated, it was muddying the waters when Stiles needed something clear and safe. It would be mean and selfish.
She made her way into the townhouse and found herself hoping that it was empty so that she could lay down and hopefully fall asleep for a nap before Caroline or Stiles came home, because she was just so drained from thinking about it all too much during the abundance of downtime. Except that the house wasn't empty.
"Hey yourself," she replied with a tired smile. How Stiles's presence could manage to deflate her at the same time as it made her happy, she would never understand, but it did. As let down as she was at the lack of alone time for the moment, she was never, ever disappointed to see Stiles. "How was your day?"