Chapter 7: 06 | Drinks
Winter caught his phone midair before it landed on the floor. It was by a thread he did it. He angrily placed his phone against his ear and yelled, "What do you mean!?"
There was shuffling on the other side of the phone, showing that Logan must have dropped his own phone as well due to Winter's sudden increase in volume.
"What are you talking about!?" Logan fired back.
Winter was about to yell again when a few people returned to the back of the stage and spotted him. A warm smile made its way to his lips as he waved at them shyly and gestured that he was talking to someone on the phone.
The two girls and one boy blushed at his gesture. But they didn't immediately leave. The boy, seeming to be a Beta, was the one who stepped forward and whispered to Winter, "Excuse me, sorry to disturb you. The president is taking everyone in the club out for drinks. He wanted us to pass the message to everyone."
Winter paused for a little bit, then he asked, "Everyone?"
Winter had wanted to ask, "Everyone, including Blue?"
But it would be awfully weird if he did that. He couldn't let people know that he wanted to associate himself with Blue at the moment. The latter had a very bad reputation. Whereas, Winter was the visual role model of every student at Chestfield.
Unless Winter was sure that he would succeed in his hunt, he couldn't be mingling around Blue in public just yet.
The Beta boy nodded vigorously, not finding anything wrong with Winter's question as he said, "Yeah. The prez told everyone to cancel any plans they had for tonight."
The smile on Winter's face almost transitioned into a smug smirk, but he caught himself before that happened.
Then he politely said, "Alright then. I'll meet you guys outside. Let me wrap this up," Winter pointed to his phone, then added, "Thank you for telling me."
The Beta boy blushed as he nodded, then left with the two girls.
"Wrap what up? What's going on?" Logan questioned Winter through the phone.
An irritated expression made its way to Winter's face as he heard Logan's voice.
"Shut up. I'm going out now. Don't call me." Winter said in annoyance, then terminated the call. He placed his phone on airplane mode to prevent Logan from spamming him with calls.
All Logan ever did was deliver bad and wrong news, Winter thought. How could someone like Blue have a friend with benefits?
Though Winter was not foolish enough to believe that an Omega like Blue was a virgin, he also didn't believe that Blue could be so wayward. In Winter's eyes, beneficial relationships were 'wayward' and 'inappropriate'.
Winter quickly walked out of the community center to meet up with the other club members. Almost everyone decided to wait for him while the few members of the club who were either jealous of him or disliked him had already left for the pub.
"Hi, guys. I'm sorry for keeping you all waiting." Winter apologized, announcing his presence.
Winter stood almost a foot taller than everyone around as they moved over to him to dish out empty reassurance. Winter only smiled through it all and pretended to be the golden and polite kid that he was in their eyes.
After a round of making Winter feel comfortable, everyone began making their way to the pub where Adam instructed them to meet up. It seemed like Adam had booked the entire place just for them.
The present members of the Empowerment club were almost thirty today. During club meetings, they were twice that number. And during exciting activities, they were almost a hundred in number.
Winter wasn't at all interested in how many people were present. As he exchanged greetings with people who came up to him, he used his eyes to search for Blue.
He couldn't find his little Omega anywhere. Winter started to think that if Blue wasn't in attendance tonight, he would make up an excuse of having a stomachache, then leave.
Just as he had that thought, Blue popped up from the restroom with a slight frown on his face. Winter wanted to walk up to him and 'accidentally' bump into him, but someone called out to Winter at that moment.
"Hey! Sunshine Prince! Come over here!"
Winter didn't even think twice before responding to the name, 'Sunshine Prince'. He was more than used to being referred to in that way.
He turned to the owner of the voice who called him and saw that it was Adam himself. He was seated in a booth with a girl across from him. Winter internally shoved down his annoyance at the hitch in his plans, then painted a broad smile on his face and walked over to the booth.
When Winter reached the booth, he greeted the girl first before he fixed his eyes on Adam and said, "Can I have a seat here?"
He pointed at the space next to Adam, but the latter shook his head negatively. He gestured for Winter to sit next to the girl.
Then Adam looked behind Winter and said, "I saved this space for you. Sit your ass down."
The tone Adam spoke with wasn't rude or polite, it was somewhere in between. Winter looked behind himself to check who Adam was talking to and he saw Blue.
The latter was still wearing a frown on his face, but this time, it was directed towards Winter alone.
Blue wanted to protest against sharing a table with an Alpha, but facing Adam's slightly pissed off expression, he clamped his mouth shut and sat down.
Winter also settled down, directly across from Blue. Someone immediately came to take their orders and Adam chose a variety of alcoholic drinks for everyone as well as side dishes.
Once that was out of the way and the drinks were served with every member of the Empowerment club settled comfortably, Adam stood up and addressed everyone.
"First things first, I want to apologize for suddenly taking up your time this night. I'm sure some of you had 'important' things to do." Adam glanced at Blue when he spoke his last sentence.
Blue didn't even bother giving Adam any face as he rolled his eyes in annoyance.
Adam continued speaking as he said, "The reason for this is to relax after a long day of work. And also to give you all the opportunity to get to know each other. I believe that some people in the club have been around for years but still aren't aware of the basic "do's and don'ts" of it."
It was very clear why Adam decided to do this.
"And what better way is there to get familiar with something than through a few glasses of alcohol?" Adam said.
Everyone hollered in agreement. Winter was tempted to facepalm himself.
"So, my fellow club members, let's make the most of tonight!" Adam yelled and raised his glass of beer.
Everyone began to pick up their own glasses to raise a toast as well. Winter had no choice but to follow suit and put on a cheerful expression as he clinked glasses with those who came to him.
Winter had no problem with drinking since he had a relatively high tolerance, and he also didn't come with his car. But he didn't plan on drinking too much. This was because he wanted to put on a very responsible air to everyone, especially Blue.
As Winter took his first gulp of his drink, the girl next to him spoke up.
"Wow, I can't believe I'm seated next to 'The Sunshine Prince of Chestfield'." She emphasized shyly.
Winter glanced at her and suddenly sensed that she was an Omega. She also wasn't his type, though she had a pretty face and delicate appearance.
"Haha," Winter forced out a convincing shy laugh.
"By the way, I'm Victoria Mendes." The girl introduced herself.
As it was the proper thing to do, Winter said, "I'm Winter Dumont."
Two people laughed at his words.
"You don't need to introduce yourself." Adam inserted himself into the conversation as he spoke to Winter.
"Yeah, everyone knows who you are." Victoria added.
At that moment, someone slammed their glass on the table a bit too loudly. Victoria, Winter, and Adam turned to look at Blue.
He had an uninterested look on his face as he said, "I don't."
If it were to be any other person, Winter would think they were flirting while trying to put on an aloof air for the purpose of playing hard to get. But this was Blue Kent. Winter sensed that the only reason why Blue spoke out was to say something negative about him.
So Winter put on a very bright smile on his face and said, "Well, in that case, let me introduce myself to you. As I said earlier, my name is Winter Dumont. I'm a third year business admin major and—"
"Don't care." Blue cut Winter off.
Winter swallowed back the cuss word that almost slipped out from his mouth after that abrupt interruption.
Adam nudged Blue with his elbow and said to him, "Stop. Be nice."
The sides of Blue's mouth tugged up in irritation, but he didn't say anything. He only lifted his glass and took a sip of his beer.
The atmosphere grew awkward. Victoria was a very sociable person, so she decided to liven up the place (Blue's mood) by asking Blue:
"So, I heard you're working on a new book. Can you tell us what it's about?"