She's My Winona (Patrick Stump Fanfiction)

Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner

I'll keep my jealousy close,

'Cause it's all mine.

And if you say this makes you happy,

Then I'm not the only one lying.

~

Winona Meadows is such a terrible name. I hate my name, I really do. It sounds like an old folks' retirement home. I guess my middle name, Alice, is pretty nice. Why can't that be my first name? Winona, I tell ya...

And I find the whole thing incredibly unfair because my sister has a really nice name; Daisy Grace Meadows. Daisy Meadows doesn't sound like an old folks' retirement home. In fact, it's a clever pun. Plus it's lovely. It sounds like a supermodel's name.

When I was a kid, some boy in my kindergarten class said my name was dumb and made me cry. Patrick hugged me and promised me he thought my name was the greatest, he called the other boy a bully, and I even remember he gave me his cookie. At the time, that was damn chivalrous. Knightworthy. I'm thinking of that moment right now, actually.

Currently, I am in the midst of two people with very beautiful names, Isabel Elizabeth Brook and Katie Amber Prescott. How nice are those names, seriously? This makes me very jealous. They don't know how lucky they are, being blessed not only with beauty, but also with beautiful names. That sucks for someone like me, let me tell you.

We're all snuggled up on Katie's sofa under a blanket, pyjama-clad, eating popcorn and watching one of my all-time favourite movies. It is (yes, another eighties classic, don't judge me) Say Anything. But my mind is elsewhere. I think Katie can tell, because she's looking at me funny. She pauses the film.

"Nona, you love this movie! What's up?" She asks, and I look to her, exhaling.

"What do you think's up with her, dummy?" Izzy elbows Katie. "Her crush is dating someone else. Someone sucky."

"Hey!" I defend myself. "He is not my crush."

"That's very contradictory to what you've been telling us these past god-knows-how-many years, Nones." My friends both laugh.

"You guys, he's not my crush. What is this, elementary school? Who uses the word crush anymore?"

"Well, what is he then?"

"Yeah. I mean, I guess you have a point, it's not a crush. We all know it's much more than a crush, anyway." Katie throws some popcorn at me. "You looooove him."

There are times I regret telling my friends this. This is one of those times.

"No, I don't." My ears start to burn, my face flushing in accordance.

"But you told us you officially love him. Like, literally yesterday." Izzy remarks, eyes still on the movie but obviously not watching it.

"Uh, no. I told you like, months ago. At Joe's Christmas party." I correct her.

"Whatever. You still said it."

"Well. Yeah. But I didn't, um, mean it as such―"

"Oh shut up! You love him and you know it."

"Well, well―" A-ha! I know what to say. "Well, what about you, Katie? You and your secret boyfriend. Are you in looooove with him?"

Katie's secret boyfriend is so secret that not even us, her best friends, knew who he is. We don't know how old he is, where he lives, where he goes to school. We just know that he exists, because we've seen texts and gifts from him. They'd started dating 2 whole years ago, can you believe that? She only informed us of this about two months ago. Me and Izzy have relentlessly brought this up in conversation whenever we can, in the most useful moments, and this seems like one of them.