Title: Two's Company But Three's a Crowd
Author: SyrupandHoneybuns
Pairing: Aidan/Josh.
Rating: M
Summary: Josh is socially awkward teenage werewolf coming into his heritage and is trying to figure out who he is while dealing with the ups and down of high school.
Warnings: Clumsiness and strong language. You have been warned.
Being Human kink meme: High School Au
"Let's tell ghost stories.," Sally suggested, pushing aside her coloring book, and stretching out on her sleeping bag, her two best childhood girlfriends scattered around her.
"Ghost stories?" Josh's breath abandons him and his mouth suddenly goes dry. He huddles the half-eaten popcorn bowl to his chest and stares at Sally like she's crazy for even forming the thought.
"Ooh, that'll be fun." Bridget sits up quickly, like the idea is exciting. Her blond hair obscures her face as she rummages through her pink polka dot bookbag and pulls out a small penlight that she flashes in Josh's face.
Josh immediately puts his arm up and squints, trying to block the light from his eyes. After a couple of seconds of blinding him, she lowers it, clicks it off, and throws it at Sally, who catches it with one hand and giggles mischievously. Josh sighs and gulps back his fear. He turns and places the plastic popcorn bowl off to the side of him and scoots closer to Sally, who was ushering them to move forward with her hands.
"Okay, then, who first?" Sally clicks back on the penlight and flashes it at Bridget's chest, then Josh's.
"Wait, wait." Bridget jumps to her feet. "We have to turn out the lights before we get star-"
"The lights out? No!" Josh crosses his arms in an x-like motion, then fans them out while shaking his head. The two girls both turn to stare at Josh. He tries to say something in his defense, but his mouth is too dry. He even tries to think of something to say but his brain doesn't seem to be functioning either. Finally, after a few deep breaths, he forces a tentative smile.
"You're not scared are you?" Bridget taunts, no longer reaching for the lights.
"Why would I be scared? My big brother Ray says there're no such things as ghosts and they're just stories made up to scare little kids," Josh grumbles. He puffs his chest slightly out and mentally pats himself on the back for coming up with such a good excuse that doesn't make him sound like a chicken.
But Sally gives Josh a long, knowing look. "Do you want to do something else?" She asked gently. Josh felt like he'd just been punch in the gut. Sally was always so nice to him and here he was ruining her party. But on the other hand, if his big brother was wrong and there were such a thing as ghosts and talking about them woke them up and then they came-
Josh's eyes lock onto an empty Coke bottle on Sally's wooden toy box and his mind forms an idea. "Let's play spin the bottle," he suggests hopefully.
"Spin the bottle?" Bridget's voice holds nothing but boredom and disdain, making Josh wince. "What in the world for?"
"For fun," Josh says. "We'll spin the bottle and whoever it points to has to choose between truth or dare."
"But telling ghost stories is way more fun," Bridget whines, still standing by the light switch.
Fun? Being so scared you couldn't sleep for days was fun? Josh thinks.
"We can still do both," Sally points out, looking at Bridget. She pats the empty space next to her and ushers for Bridget to sit back down.
With a loud sigh, Bridget grabs the Coke bottle on her way over and plops down on the floor next to Sally. Josh tries not to look at the annoyance dancing clearly over Bridget's face. It would be all right. Bridget would see how much fun this was once they got started.
"Okay, here goes nothing." Josh grabs the bottle and spins it for all it's worth. Its spins so fast that it looks like a blur of red and white for a few moments before propelling forward a little. Josh bites his lower lip and wonders if he spun it too hard, because it seems like it will never stop.
But thankfully it starts to gradually slow down. It finally comes to a startling halt pointing at Sally, who was looking at her best friends in anticipation.
"Truth or dare?" Bridget asks eagerly. Josh fights the urge to roll his eyes at how excited Bridget is over a game she didn't even want to play a minute ago.
"How about, um," Sally taps her chin thoughtfully, "truth."
"Truth?" Bridget gasps in disbelief. She was completely sure that Sally was going to pick dare. "Okay then. Would you kiss Danny Burge?"
Sally shudders at the though of kissing their school bully. Every day at school Danny would throw paper balls at her back or try to steal her chocolate pudding at lunch.
"Thanks but no thanks. I don't like bad boys."
"Not even a little?" Bridget nudges.
Sally shakes her head stubbornly. "How can you even say that? Plus boys have cooties."
"Nuh-uh. Girls do," Josh cries out defensively. At the age of eight, Joshua Radcliff knows more than most people give him credit for. He knows if he plays near the forest along the empty railroad track near Keenly Moore Elementary he would get bitten by a rabid coyote, swell up and die an agonizing death, like that girl that used to live down the street next to his great aunt Lilly. He also knows that his real parents didn't love enough him so they gave him away to that nice lady dressed in a suit and carrying a leather briefcase three years ago. But most importantly he absolutely positively knows that girls have cooties.
"No, boys have cooties." Bridget raises her nose in a snobby know-it-all fashion and shakes her fist menacingly at Josh, who in turn sticks his tongue out at her.
"Girls do," Josh cries out. Taking a scoop of popcorn, he throws a couple of kernels at the girls. Sally picks up a pillow and flings it at Josh, who ducks just in the nick of time out of the way.
"Pillow," Sally begins to say, her eyes glistening with untold mischief.
"Fight," Bridget finishes while high-fiving her. Now this was a game she could totally get into to. Josh scrambles to his feet and runs out the bedroom door giggling, with Sally and Bridget hot on his heels.
Author notes: I wanted to write a prologue instead of jumping right into the story . There will still be supernatural element to my story but I wanted to do it differently than what was expected. Josh will still be a werewolf but he doesn't know he's one, Sally will still be a ghost but not in the typical way, and Aidan will still be a vampire but his blood-lust will affected him differently than it did in the series. Also Sally. Josh, and Bridget are seven years old in this chapter.