After a wild night's party at Fred's only a select few remained. Most of the school had shown up, hearing it was going to be a kegger. The party had been mental, one of the best in a while and that made Fred very happy. What didn't make Fred happy is the mess that was left afterwards.
The group that remained consisted of: Hermione Reyes, Hal Cooper, Mary Humphry, Tom Keller, Sierra Bradshaw, Alice Smith and of course FP Jones. Fred wished that it could only be him, Mary and FP but he had to be social or face the danger of becoming known as a snob.
The seven of them were fairly wasted as the end of the night drew nearer, Alice was sober as she was the designated driver. A title she was not thrilled about.
They lounged around in the sitting room, surrounded by empty beer cans, smashed up bags of chips and three or four pairs of underwear. The room looked like a bomb had hit it.
The eight were discussing various things: the boys and Alice were debating just how good the Bulldogs were doing this season, Alice didn't think that the defensive side were doing as well statistically and when Hal, the team's defensive tackle, tried to argue against she rattled off a whole load of accurate stats that left the boys confused and in awe of her. Alice tried not to giggle at their dumb expressions.
Mary, getting sick of all the male attention Alice was receiving, decided to make an announcement.
"I'm bored, we should play a game."
Hal perked up at the sound of that.
"What sort of game, what will I win at the end?"
Alice scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Not everything is a competition Harold, and she means a party game, right Mary?"
Mary smiled sweetly at her, trying to mask her blind hatred. Not that it worked.
"Yes Alice exactly, does anyone have any suggestions?"
FP stopped staring at Alice long enough to voice a coherent thought.
"We could do truth or dare!"
The second FP opened his mouth Fred started shaking his head.
"No way man, not after last time. You nearly burned my house to the ground."
"That was Alice not me!"
Before Alice could object and spark a heated debate, Fred thought on his toes.
"How about spin the bottle instead?"
Sierra laughed
"You mean spin the rapist? Nuh uh I don't want to be defiled in a closet Andrews."
It was Hermione's turn to pitch in
"We should set restrictions, nothing past second base."
Fred looked at Sierra in appeal
"Is that alright?"
She shrugged
"If anyone tries anything else I wouldn't like to be in their shoes lets just leave it at that."
"Okay great, I'll get a bottle."
The eight of them sat in a circle on Fred's sitting room floor. No one made a move to go first until Hal Cooper said "Fuck it" and spinned.
It landed directly on Sierra and he gulped, clearly remembering her earlier warning.
She raised her eyebrow at him and stood up.
"Lets get this over with Cooper, you have five minutes."
FP tried not to laugh as Hal followed obediently like a dog on a leash. He really, truly hated Hal Cooper. While they were waiting for the two to arrive back they chatted some more about irrelevant school gossip.
FP really wasn't interested in whether or not their Spanish teacher had a bun in the oven, he was worried that maybe he'd sat in the wrong place. He was right beside Alice and it seemed impossible that the bottle would land on her. Judging by his calculations he had the most chance of landing on Mary or Fred, neither of whom h wanted to get frisky with.
Alice was having the same crisis next to him. It would have seemed odd not to sit beside each other, they literally sat next to each other all the time. If she had distanced herself from her best friend in the circle it would have seemed downright suspicious. But she decided eventually that if they were meant to kiss, fate would make the bottle land on him.
Sierra and Hal emerged looking about the same as they had when they'd entered. Tom's face brightened when he saw that the two had barely touched each other. He had fancied Sierra for a while now and had intended to make his feelings known that night. He hadn't, so he was praying that his bottle would land on her.
It was Fred's turn next and his bottle landed on none other than FP Jones.
FP winked at him and stood up "Are you ready Freddie? I'm about to rock your world."
Fred laughed and followed him in. The two made very exaggerated sex noises that caused the whole room to erupt in laughter. They continued this for another minute before they reappeared with messed up hair.
"My God FP, where did you learn those moves?"
"This isn't my first rodeo Freddie."
Everyone laughed and they sat down again. FP was still grinning but abruptly stopped when he saw Alice reaching for the bottle. He didn't know which would be worse at this point: if it landed on him and Alice didn't do anything with him or if it landed on someone else. He prepared himself for the worst.
She spun the bottle with good force, it seemed to spin forever before it eventually landed on one FP Jones. This sent the room into a fit of laughter and they both blushed.
Fred wiped a tear from his eye
"That's so awkward wow"
The only one who didn't think it was hilarious was Hermione Reyes, who had been wanting the two to get together for a long time
"Go on you two, you have five minutes."
FP looked at Alice but Alice ignored him and stood up. FP followed suit and they both went into the closet.
FP shut the door gently and turned towards Alice.
"We don't have to do anything Ali, don't worry."
"Why would I be worried? You don't think I could handle you?"
FP laughed "That's not what I meant and you know it."
They stopped talking and just stared at each other. Things were quickly becoming awkward. Alice spoke up
"Do you not want to do anything?"
"Well I mean, not if you don't want to."
"Yes but I want to know if you want to."
"I don't know what you want me to say."
"You know what Forsythe? I'm sick of you playi-"
FP didn't know what else to do to shut her up but kiss her. She was surprised at first but then started kissing him back, matching his rhythm. Things heated up pretty quickly and FP backed her up against the wall, causing some books on a shelf to fall down.
Hearing this commotion, Fred perked up, looking worried.
"Are they alright? Did you guys hear-"
Hermione smiled at him
"Don't worry Fred I'm sure they're doing fine."
Fred was confused for a second but then understood what she was trying to say.
"You don't think they are?"
A stifled moan coming from the closet answered his question.
"Oh my God, that's disgusting!"
"How so? It's been a long time coming for those two."
"But they're….FP and Alice."
Tom jumped in with his opinion
"They make perfect sense if you think about it."
Hal piped up with what he obviously thought was an intellectual statement
"They're both serpents, don't they usually breed together?"
Mary scowled at him
"No, numbnuts. That's just your Northside old wives tale."
Two loud moans came from the closet, which made everyone cringe.
Sierra looked at her watch
"I really must get going. Tom, could you walk me home?"
He followed her out of the door like his ass was on fire.
Hal cracked a very unfunny joke about him needing his beauty sleep and he too left.
Hermione and Mary stood up to leave, which sent Fred into a panic
"Don't leave me with them! Please!"
They cackled at the sight of him
"Come on, the three of us will go to Pop's, they'll be finished when you come back."
Fred looked shellshocked
"I can't believe I'm being forced from my own home."
The three left and Fred made a point of slamming the door after him.
When FP and Alice eventually emerged from the closet they were surprised to find themselves alone.
"Huh. Where did everyone go?"
Alice laughed at him
"I think we were disturbing their evening."
FP grabbed her hand and pulled her against him. She smiled up at him.
"I guess we have the place to ourselves Ms. Smith."
"It would seem that way Mr. Jones."
They slept in each other's arms that night for the first time, in one of Fred's spare bedrooms. When they arrived at school the next Monday it was clear that they were a couple, a couple who, according to Fred, were way too into PDA. The whole school agreed with him by the end of the week.
It made sense to a lot of people that they'd finally started dating, not just because of their serpent ties, but because they just fit together. She was fiery with a lot of fight in her, he was calm and the only person who could reign her in. Two complete opposites who attracted in just the right way.
It certainly had been a long time coming.