Running

Chapter Twenty:

Iris's POV:

__________

What am I doing here? I ask myself. I don't know any of these people.

I'm sitting on a pool chair, sipping from a red Solo cup that smells like trash and tastes even worse. How do people drink this stuff?

"Hey, girl," Tracy plops down next to me, holding her head and giggling like a fool. "Where ya been? Will's lookin' all over for you!"

"Are you drunk?" I inquire, pulling her hands away from her messy hair and patting it down. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Maybe seven," she laughs loudly, dragging me down to where she sits. "You're eyes. They're so beautiful!" She closes her eyes. "Mine are dull, y'know. Isn't Aaron hot? I mean, I know he's your mate and all, but damn----"

"Wait," I cut her off. "Mate?"

"Well, yeah," Tracy slurs. "You know wolves have mates, right? Well, werewolves also have mates. I'm a werewolf, and so is Will, and so is Aaron! Aaron's the Alpha of our whole pack!"

I sigh. I thought she was actually going to explain. "Okay, Tracy, you're drunk. Now, goodbye." I try to pull away, but she yanks me back to where she sits.

"No," she whines. "I wanna swim."

"I don't know....."

"Pretty please?"

"Fine." I roll my eyes.

"Skinny-dip?"

"No!" I shout, startling her. I laugh at her scared expression.

"Let's just swim," I say, taking her hand and guiding her to the glowing blue pool. She smiles and giggles, racing across the edge before cannonballing into the water. I roll my eyes at et childish behavior.

"C'mon in, the waters great!" she slurs, making me chuckle into my palm.

"Fine," I sigh.

This leads up to me belly-flopping on the cement-like surface of the crystalline water.

"Ow!" my voice raises into a whine. "I think I broke, like, seventeen bones!"

It turns out I'm not so sober myself.

Tracy laughs so hard she snorts. "Oh, Irish." Hs mispronounces my name. "You're pretty dang cool after all."