New Again (Teen Wolf)

16 - Drunk

        A silver flask is shoved underneath my nose. The strong smell of straight vodka burns my nose as I inhale. The hand holding on to the bottle is attached to Malia, who is dancing without a care in the world. I push the bottle away from me, nose wrinkled. I scan the area of the bonfire, seeing teenagers all doing the exact same thing as Malia. I didn't want to come here. I wanted to stay at home and just allow myself to think. I didn't expect to be dragged here by Malia because she thought I was too much of a downer.

        "I don't drink." I explain to her, taking a step back. 

        Malia rolls her eyes, yet keeps on dancing. "You'll be the only sober one here then."

        I shrug my shoulders. With thirty million dollars hanging over my neck right now, staying sober is one of the best things I can do. I know Scott's here somewhere, but I'm still not too thrilled to be around him. 

        "Hey, your boyfriend is waving you over." Malia shouts over the loud music. She points behind me. 

        Liam and Mason are standing near an outside table. Different bottles of alcohol are on top of the table. Liam waves me over with a pleading look. He's probably why I've been avoiding him. I saw him in the hallways earlier today and purposely kept walking past him, even when he called my name over ten times. I'm not trying to be mean about it. My mind is just so clogged with everything, that holding a simple conversation is hard for me to do. 

        "He's not my boyfriend." I shout back to Malia. I look back over to the two boys. "I'll be right back." I stroll over to them, avoiding a group of dancing teenagers on the way over. When I reach them, Mason smiles in a friendly manner unlike Liam, who just frowns. I cross my arms over my chest, weakly smiling. "Hey."

        "Yeah, I'm just going to step over there for a minute." Mason points to a tree with no one around it. He can probably feel the awkward tension between Liam and I. 

        "Why have you been ignoring me all day?" Liam's features harden a little. "I know you heard me in the hallway earlier today."

        I push my hair to the side. "Sorry. I just- I've been having a really bad couple of days."

        "So, you choose to ignore me?" Liam crosses his arms over his chest. "You know I can help you, right?"

        I give him a look of disbelief. "You can't help me Liam. No one can. I'm number one on the dead pool, my parents are both dead, I live alone, I'm a freaking lynx, and Jordan almost died today. You can't help me with any of this." 

        "And I'm worth eighteen million." Liam states, grabbing a bottle of alcohol from the table. 

        "Wow. Congratulations." I reply a little too sarcastic. "Your life must be so hard." I grimace. "Sorry. That was-"

        "No." Liam takes a sip of the alcohol. "Don't apologize. You don't need my help and I don't need yours. Next time you have a panic attack, don't come to me because I won't be there to help."

        I gawk at the boy in front of me. That's when I notice I can smell the strong scent of alcohol on him. He's been drinking already. "Liam, I didn't mean it like that, okay? It's just that my problems can't be fixed by anyone. I'm unfixable. My life is a mess. Lately, it feels like everyone I care about dies and I will literally go out of my freaking mind if I lose you."

        Liam snorts, chugging a good part of his drink. "I doubt that. You seem perfectly fine earlier today with ignoring me. You know, maybe this fight between us is good. You say you're better off on your own, but you're still clingy. You need me to calm you down all the time and it's kind of pathetic." He takes another big gulp. Liam's eyes widen when he realizes what he just said. "No, wait. Kota-"