Chapter Three: The Dumb Girl in the Movies

"I'm Westham 'til I die!" the men in the Abbey chanted in a respectable sync, considering their evident intoxication.

"I'm Westham 'til I die!"

Some way, somehow, Winona had ended up on top of the bar bench with Bovver. She guessed it was the adrenalin rush of being back in the Abbey. A more likely theory is that she used it as an excuse to let her hair down and go wild, a luxury she hadn't experienced for many years.

"I know I am!

I'm sure I am!

I'm Westham 'til I die!"

From the back of the Abbey, Pete, Dave, Keith and Swill watched on at Winona and Bovver, and how Bovver was loving every second of having his arm around Winona's small waist. It wasn't difficult to see the way Bovver was looking at Winona, but only Dave could see that she wasn't looking back. But, Pete - Pete was angry. He knew Bovver like the back of his hand and Bovver knew Pete farts and all. He was making this a game that Pete wasn't going to play, if he could help it. That being said, he knew if he didn't, he might not get the chance with Winona he knew he deserved.

"I'm forever blowing bubbles!"

Even in his mild frustration, Pete couldn't fight the Hammer within him.

"Pretty bubbles in the air!" he chanted along.

"They fly so high!

They reach the sky!

And like my dreams, they fade and die!

Fortune's always hiding!

I've looked everywhere!

I'm forever blowing bubbles!

Pretty bubbles in the air!

United! United!"

Winona wasn't as oblivious as Pete thought to Bovver's obvious attraction to her, which made her wonder why she had gotten on the table with him in the first place. She wasn't one to lead someone on. Yet desperate to not be the killer of her own buzz, she blamed it on the alcohol.

"Snog!" a familiar voice jeered from the crowd.

"Shut up, Swill" Pete elbowed Swill, tensing his eyebrows at him.

"Snog!" another voice carried out of Pete's reach.

"Snog! Snog! Snog!" more voices chorused. In a matter of seconds, almost everyone in the Abbey was cheering the two on; everyone except Dave and Pete. Dave saw in Pete's eyes how much he wanted to deck Bovver right there and then, but kept his mouth shut.

Bovver turned himself to Winona, wrapping his other arm around her waist. He didn't realize just how slim she was until he did this, and the alcohol eating at his liver made her glow even more; as if it wasn't enough. She had the body straight out of a magazine, and the thought enticed him even more so.

"Get 'em, Bov!" Ned called, earning a death stare from Pete.

"Get in there, son!" Keith cheered.

Winona stared at the crowd and at the table beneath them; everywhere but Bovver.

"Aye, sweetheart" Bovver said quietly but loud enough for her to hear. She finally looked up at him, and she knew that look in his eyes.

"Wh-" before she could protest, he forced his chafed lips onto hers. Her eyes were wide open for a second, and then they closed.

From the back of the Abbey, Pete gazed on at Bovver and Winona, a self-explanatory disgust on his face. The cheering and jeering had become almost non-existent to him, and it was very hard for him to feel happy for Bovver as he normally would. Pete pressed his eyes closed and tongued the inside of his cheek as he noticed Bovver's hand slowly leaving her waist and making it's way to her back jeans pocket.

Winona quickly pulled away at the feel of his hand, and Bovver knew he had crossed the line, but didn't care much.

"On ya, Bov!" drunken voices called to him. Winona jumped off the table, landing safely on the ground. Behind her, Bovver plastered a proud look on his face, nodding at his evidently impressed friends whilst Winona treaded nervously to Pete, worried about how she might appear to him after that spectacle.

"You're alright, love" Dave laughed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and making Winona feel a lot more at ease.

She avoided Pete's eyes, still tasting Bovver on her lips; an unpleasant combination of cigarettes and alcohol. To make matters worse, she could still feel him inside her mouth, forcing the passion and desperately attempting to dominate. It's ridiculous how much something as simple as a kiss can say something about a person.

...

A cold wind hit Winona on the skin of her neck and face as she stepped out onto the sidewalk. Pete laughed to himself as he already began noticing that Winona and the cold don't mix.

"Okay, well-" her voice snapped him back to reality "Enjoy the game, aye?" she smiled big, facing herself to him.

"Always do" he smiled a tight-lipped smile, the vivid image of Bovver crashing his lips onto Winona's still replaying itself in Pete's mind "You sure you're alright getting to yours on your own?"

"For the hundredth time, yes" she reassured, rolling her eyes "Is it so hard for you Dunham's to believe that I can walk around the corner without holding your hand?" she joked, nudging his shoulder with her hand.

"S'your funeral" he shrugged, simpering at her and earning a middle finger.

"Nice meeting everyone!" she beamed at all the men behind Pete, earning a jumble of indistinguishable goodbyes from them. She laughed to herself before giving a final nod to Pete and turning herself in the opposite direction.

As she traipsed along the empty sidewalk, she wondered if she would see Pete again. He was definitely someone she would be interested in spending more time with; she wondered if he felt the same about her. He was charming and down-to-Earth, as cliche as it may sound. And she had established that he was far more than a pretty face (and body), and Winona could already sense that there was more to him, again, as cliche as it may sound.

To Winona's surprise, an unnerving feeling overcame her body, forcing her to abruptly spin around to the empty sidewalk behind her. No one was there.

She shrugged the feeling off and continued walking along the pathway, subconsciously clenching her knuckles in her jacket pockets.

The unnerving feeling returned again mercilessly, and once again forced her to spin around to nothing but a soulless sidewalk.

Riddled with franticness, she chose to take a shortcut to her apartment complex. She nonchalantly treaded quick-footed through a dim alleyway, and hypocritically ignored her past rants about the 'dumb girl in the movies who always runs down the dark ominous alleyways'.

Before she could reach the familiar street at the end of the alleyway, a calloused hand collided her into the wall by her neck, a loud, piercing scream erupting from her beforehand.

"Hello, sweetheart" an ugly white man chuckled through mangy teeth, surrounded by chafed lips and a stubble-covered face "What's a thing like you doing with the GSE?"

Author's note - Thanks for reading so far and sorry it was so short. I hope you're enjoying it and chapter Four will be up soon. Also, thank you for the reviews! It means a lot J