inertia || a Fred Weasley love story

thirty seven.

"Bullshite." Wilda said as I held back a scoff as Peaches reappeared on the screen.

"Um, speaking of boys." I said louder than necessary, hoping it'd diffuse the tension. Juliet seemed to let out a sigh of relief as Wilda rolled her eyes. "Speaking of boys," I continued, "Fred and I have-" But I faltered. We've... What? We hadn't started dating. They already knew that we kissed. Well, Juliet and Peaches knew, and I figured that they'd have told Wilda by now.

"Diana chose Fred!" Peaches squealed after I trailed off. Juliet let out a little oo as Wilda hummed.

"Interesting choice, Diana. Good to hear you've actually come to your senses."

"You guys could have told me you'd been in on it, you know." I grumbled. "But yeah, I did. I guess. I dunno. He's been like.... Really nice today."

"Don't accept that bare minimum, Diana." Juliet chided. Wilda scoffed again.
    "That's rich, coming from you."
    "What in the world is going on with you two!" Peaches snapped.
    "Nothing's going on with me, I don't know what crawled up Wilda's ass." Juliet snapped back.
    "Yeah? Alright. Whatever- you guys, I have to go. My family's calling me."

"Wait, Wilda-" Peaches began, but Wilda disconnected. We all sat in a moment of silence.

"Um, what the fuck was that?" I asked them, but Juliet just rolled her eyes and waved her hand.
    "It's not important." She said. "So, Fred's been nice?"

"Yeah." I said, unsure if we should stay on the topic of what was going on between Juliet and Wilda, but figured there was no point in pressing matters that didn't want to be covered yet. "Oh, except. Ugh, okay, he was a piece of shit at the party. I mean, I guess. From what I remember."

"What you remember?" Peaches gasped. I sighed, and rested my forehead on my hands, looking between my legs at the tiles. They were white, and spotless. The Potter Cottage was very, very clean.

"Yeah, I blacked out towards the end." I muttered when I finally turned back to the phone. Juliet was on pause, and Peaches was still holding the phone unnecessarily close. Her eyes blinked at me.

"Do you know what happened, though?"

"Um, apparently I yelled at Fred a bunch."

"Yelled at him? About what?"

I winced. "He was like, being really touchy with Angelina, I guess. And so then I- um, Alice had wanted to take shots because-" I waved a hand. "There's some shit going on with her and Ron."
    "Alice is drinking?" Juliet had reappeared, looking appalled.

"Drinking and involved with boys? What in the world is going on over there?" Peaches cried. I snorted, nodding absently.

"Yeah, I know. It's super weird, honestly. But like, I dunno. It's kinda fun, drinking with her?"

"I mean, is she okay though? She hates drinking." Juliet pointed out. Peaches nodded enthusiastically, and I frowned at them.

"I think she's okay." I thought of her face in the bathroom earlier. She'd looked so tired- so, young. And her behaviour last night. "Actually, nah, no, she's definitely not okay. But I mean, she's Alice, you know? She'll figure it out. She always does."

"Maybe you should check in on her." Juliet said.
    "Yeah, you're right."

"Wait, I'm so sorry like I love Alice, but I want to hear more about this whole blackout fight situation." Peaches said.

"We just- okay. I got really drunk- like, really drunk. And apparently the twins had spiked the drinks with this like, emotion booster thing? For their prank?"