A Bit of Wolf in Her

3. Freddie Prince Junior

Winnie tried her best to get invested in the fun, sipping at the unknown liquid in her cup as she and Gabriela danced to the awful techno music. At one point, she took off her shoes but regretted it when she stepped on something sticky. Stella and Miles joined them, seemingly in a better mood than earlier. Or at least Miles was. He bopped awkwardly to the music and Winnie tried not to laugh at him.

"Need some liquid courage?" she asked, handing her cup with the leftover unknown liquid over to him. He gulped its contents down in one go and the three girls cheered him on. He downed a few more cups, soon bopping awkwardly, but with a smile on his face.

Out of the corner of her eye, Winnie saw Noah Delaney talking to someone, and he looked up, right at her as if she had called his name. He smiled, said something to the girl next to him, and started making his way over. When he spotted the rest of her friends, however, he slowed down to a stop. They were thinking the same thing. If he came over now, it wouldn't end well. She smiled at him as he backpedaled and he winked at her, as if it didn't faze him.

It fazed Winnie, though.

Still, she got Stella and Miles in a good enough mood to play beer pong with some of Miles' teammates and lost, but only because her drunk partner kept spilling what was in his cup on her skirt. She called a timeout, urging her friends to keep on playing while she cleaned up. There was no bathroom in sight as Winnie ploughed through the crowd.

Winnie settled for the backyard, pushing people out of her way as they knocked into her while dancing.

"Fuck!" Winnie barreled right into a brick wall of a human. She stumbled back, but a hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her forwards so she didn't land on her ass. Winnie looked up to see Elijah Delaney staring down at her. He still had his hand around her wrist. "Sorry," she said, though he couldn't hear over the roar of the music. When he finally let her go, she pushed past him first and made it the rest of the way in one piece.

The air was fresh compared to the inside, where it smelled like alcohol and sweat. Sitting down at the far end of the gigantic pool, she took off her shoes and dipped her toes into the water. With her jacket sleeve, she tried to clean whatever sticky substance had seeped through the material of her skirt and now clung to her legs. Besides the almost-fight between Miles and Elijah Delaney, nothing had warranted so much effort on Winnie's part. Whatever she expected would happen obviously wasn't going to. Winnie wondered if she'd made a mistake.

"Hey, Winnifreddie Prince Jr!" Winnie heard someone yell and rolled her eyes as Bertie made his way over from across the pool, a giant grin on his face. He chuckled at her sour expression. "You made it!"

Winnie shrugged, giving up on her endeavor to save her skirt. "I wouldn't get used to it if I were you."

He moved to say something, but shifted his focus to something over her shoulder.

"Hey Winnifred." She gestured for Noah to take a seat as he looked down at her. He sat down and Bertie studied them for a second before floating away, but Winnie didn't notice. "Need any help?" Noah asked, pointing to the sticky blue stuff still clinging to her legs. Winnie nodded, albeit hesitantly, and looked around for her friends. "Checking if Montez is on his way to kick my ass?" he joked, and Winnie tensed at the feel of his fingers against her legs. His touch was gentle and soon enough, her legs were clean once more.

"I just don't have the strength to argue about your..." she hesitated, "dynamic with my friends." As she said this, she pulled out a cigarette from her jacket pocket and Noah smiled.

"Dynamics, huh?"

Winnie patted herself down but couldn't find anything to light her cigarette with. Noah's hands left her legs to produce a silver lighter. It had an intricate flower pattern, and a name etched into the side. Winnie didn't care enough to ask why he had a lighter.