Daniel My brothers and I have a system during parties.
We always go together and we check in with Mickey every hour so that he could make sure we aren’t getting too drunk.
Alcohol doesn’t affect us as easily as it does humans, but when taken in large amounts, it makes us as vulnerable as any drunk person.
My brothers and I are allowed to drink though, except for Mickey of course, for one simple reason.
Drunk guys are not taken seriously if they start yelling that their baby brother is actually a werewolf girl in hiding.
If Mickey was to start acting like a girl, however, the truth would come out.
We can’t shift when there’s the least bit of alcohol or chemicals in our system, but all my twin has to do is take his shirt or pants off.
It’s unfair that he’s the only one who can’t drink, so we promised that we would always stop when he tells us to.
But he lets us have our fun, because he has this warped sense of right and wrong, and he thinks it’s wrong to chain us to him.
Unfortunately, the welcome party at the SMP is the first one he attends willingly and has someone to hang out with.
This makes him distracted, and I unintentionally let loose.
Thirty minutes later, I’m much drunker than I’ve ever been in my life.
“More shots!” I scream over the loud music.
Everyone cheers me on.
My vision is so fuzzy, but I feel like I’m flying and that nothing can stop me.
People love me every time I drink and announce that I’ve taken yet another one.
I like it.
Somebody hands me another shot.
Grinning, I reach for it and look up at the person to thank them.
I stop short when I see a girl.
“Why hello, gorgeous,” I flirt.
She’s really pretty; her eyes are so blue, like the ocean.
Or are they green?
I can’t tell.
I’m distracted thinking about taking a swim in the back pool soon.
“Hi,” she says back with a suggestive smile.
By now, it’s just me and her talking.
Maybe she wants to go to the pool with me.
“You want to go for a swim?” I ask.
She scrunches up her nose for a second in an adorable way, but I’m sure it’s just the fuzziness of my vision.
She purses her lips like she’s considering it, and then she leans forward towards me like she’s about to tell me a secret.
“Tell you what,” she begins, and I get closer to her, my curiosity to know her answer burning inside me.
“You finish that drink, and I’ll take you up somewhere secret.” I knew she was going to tell me a secret!
I love secrets!
People always tell them to me, and I usually keep them.
Without hesitation, I down the shot she gave me and wait for the burn.
Nothing comes.
Whoa!
Did I just develop a superpower?
Alcohol resistance!
Awesome!
“Hey I didn’t even feel that!” I exclaim with pride.
“That’s because it’s water,” she tells me with a straight face that doesn’t have a hint of the flirty expression she wore before.
“I think you’ve had enough.” I don’t understand what she’s telling me at first, and I frown to concentrate.
“You tricked me!” I finally realize, feeling betrayed.
“That’s not very nice!
I’m going to get a drink from someone who’s not mean, like you.” “Don’t you want to see my secret place?” she reminds me.
Damn it!
I love secrets.
This is too tempting!
How do I choose?
Wait, why don’t I want to see her secret place again?
I wonder.
“Okay!” I agree enthusiastically.
She holds out her hand for me and I take it immediately.
Faces of other people blur in front of me as she’s leading me upstairs somewhere.
She stops in front of a door and opens it, pulling me inside with her.
The music is more muted here, and I can hear my own breathing, but there is a ringing in my ears.
I see a bed and realize we’re in her room.
Oh!
Anticipating what she had planned, I pull her toward my chest with a grin on my face.
“What are you doing?” she squeaks.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I say back.
“Ew, no!
That’s not what I meant!
Let go of me!” she protests, sounding a little afraid.
Dejected, I do as she says.
My parents always tell me to respect girls, and I don’t want to scare her.
That has never stopped me from turning on the charm and convincing girls who’ve said ‘no’ to me before, but something about this girl makes me stop, for once.
Still, I can’t say I’m not disappointed.
“But why?” I pout.
“I’m fifteen you idiot!” she yells.
“That’s statutory rape!
Hell, that’s just rape!” My eyes widen.
Am I so far gone that I didn’t notice she’s so young?
“Then why did you bring me here?” She heaves a sigh and shakes her head with both her hands on her forehead.
“This was a bad idea.
I don’t know what I was thinking.
Of course, if he’s drunk enough not to remember this in the morning, then he’d be drunk enough to expect this!
Why didn’t you think of that?” She’s confusing me again, and I frown.
“Are you… talking to yourself?” She gives me an exasperated look.
“Yes, I’m talking to myself, you idiot.” That’s twice that she called me ‘idiot’.
I wonder why I don’t feel offended, but I’m distracted by what she said before.
“What don’t you want me to remember?” She sighs again, but this time, she slumps down on her bed and looks tired.
“My secret,” she reminds me.
I gasp in shock and kneel down in front of her.
“So there really is a secret?” I whisper with wonder.
She laughs a little and nods her head.
“Yes, there really is a secret,” she repeats.
“I can’t tell anyone I know about this, and I thought a total stranger would be a good choice.
Obviously, I miscalculated a lot of things.” She looks down with a sad expression on her face.
I don’t know why, but it makes me sad too, to see her about to cry.
“Oh please tell me!” I beg.
“I love secret, and like you said, I won’t remember this tomorrow.
Please?
I’ll tell you a secret, too!” She hesitates and does that nose scrunching thing she does before she agrees.
“Alright.” “Yes,” I quietly cheer, which takes the sadness out of her eyes.
“Do you know that my dad is not really my dad?” she begins by asking.
I blink twice.
“What?” So far, this is the worse secret ever.
“The man who raised me is not the same one who gave birth to me,” she explains.
I suppress a laugh.
“Men don’t give birth, silly… women do.” She rolls her eyes, although she’s smiling at the same time.
“Okay, fine, he’s not my biological father.
Is that better?” I put on a straight face.
“Continue,” I try to say with authority.
It only succeeds in making her laugh again.
“You’re funny when you’re drunk, you know that?” I shrug.
“I’m funny all the time,” I correct her.
“I’ve never been this drunk.” She seems a bit surprised by that.
“Really?
Why not?” I shake my head.
“Nuh-uh!
Your secret before mine.” She gives me a non-impressed look.
“That’s your secret?
That you’ve never been as drunk as you are now?
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you don’t seem like someone who can easily hold their liquor.” Coming from a fifteen year old girl, I should probably take that as an insult, but I can’t focus.
I am confused.
This girl is messing with my brain.
“But how are you sure I won’t remember this in the morning?” “I watched you,” she tells me.
“For a werewolf, you’re kind of a lightweight.
You had four beers and fourteen shots in a row.
You’re still talking normally, but not rationally.
I get the feeling you don’t generally drink a lot, because you were singing ‘We Are Family’ at the top of your lungs, and completely off key, if I may add, after just seven shots.
My sister’s boyfriend can have twice as much as you drank in total before he starts behaving the way you are now.” Only one thing in her speech catches my attention.
“Sister?” I wonder if she’s cute, too.
“Yeah,” she confirms.
“You’ve met her.
Her name is Sadie.
He boyfriend is Cade, the beta of the pack.
Remember?” I can’t remember, and it’s making me even more confused.
I need to focus, so I close my eyes shut and shake my head.
What were we talking about?
“Besides,” she adds before I can ask her out loud, “even if you do remember, it won’t be so bad to have someone to talk to.
You seem like a decent guy.
I mean, you could have just taken advantage of me even when I said no.
And you could have just left me here.” That’s when I remember.
“But I want to know the secret,” I beg her.
She shakes her head like she’s forcing herself to focus too.
“Right, that’s true, I was telling you about how my dad isn’t my biological father,” she recalls.
“Are you adopted?” I blurt out without caring.
“Technically, yes, my dad adopted me,” she tells me.
“But my mom is really my mother.
That’s not the point, though.
The point is that I found out something about him.” I prop myself up on my elbows, which I place on her knees.
This must hurt, but she doesn’t try to move me.
“What?” I ask excitedly.
She pauses before answering me.
“He had a son a few months before Sadie was born with another woman.
And my mom doesn’t even know.” My eyes go wide with my childlike excitement, and I lift my head from my hands.
“Ooh, a brother!
Brothers are awesome.
I have three of them.” “This isn’t awesome for me; my dad is a cheater,” she complains.
“I always had this perfect idea of him, you know?
That he was this great guy, and he died before I was born, but he still loved me.
But now that I know he has a kid with another woman, it’s like the whole image of him being perfect went into dust.
Is that so wrong of me?
Is it too stupid to wish that all my genes came from good people, that my parents are someone I can be proud of?” I drop my arms casually over her legs and lean my chin over them.
“No,” I tell her with certainty.
“He’s the stupid, and you’re a…
better than him.”