we play to win [freya, jeremy]

"Hey don't trash Gertie, she's a real looker underneath all that metal and frizz." He said as he downed another shot alongside Freya. "We might have a real future together, you don't know." He gave them both a toothy grin and munched on a few more nachos as the idea of speed dating came up. Jeremy couldn't help but perk up at the idea. Witches who were specifically going to a certain place looking to find a wizard? He had to have better chances at an event like that right? It was statistics, the more you swung the bat, the more you'd hit something right? He nodded along, sipping on the last of the foam at the bottom of his pint.

Reaching for the pitcher Jeremy didn't realize how far along he was in this drunk thing. He nearly knocked it over, but caught it, loudly, and then gave them a sheepish grin. "I can come too right?" He said, never have any issues tagging along wherever they were going. After all it wasn't like they were dating. He poured his glass full and then tilted the pitcher toward them offering to top them off if they needed.

They were going to need more shots pretty soon.

And possibly nachos.

"Wait these are wizarding things right?"

Freya hadn’t known what “numbers” were six months ago. She didn’t understand the whole phone thing. But then Duncan had slipped her his “number”, and her friends had explained what it meant. Even once she’d understood, though, there still wasn’t much she could do with them. So she’d just kept flirting until he’d asked her out outright.

“We’ll see who has more numbers by the end of the night, Willy,” Freya declared, straightening up in her seat and catching Danny’s eye. She gave him a bright grin. After a second, as an afterthought, she looked over at Jeremy. "Yeah of course," she said with a laugh. Sometimes Jeremy was the dopier one of the three of them, distracted by substances or food or just his own dopey thoughts, and Freya and Danny got ahead with the banter. “What do you think, Eddy, you wanna come compete for digits?” Another laugh.

"Oh yeah, yeah," she said reassuringly, waving a hand, "I mean, there are muggle ones but - " shudder " - definitely not my kinda thing. I don't like feeling like an undercover spy when I'm dating, no thank you." Freya looked down at her drink, the empty glasses slowly piling up at the end of the table. She pushed her glass back a little, surprised at how much they'd drank before the quiz had even started. She was babbling and laughing a lot, clear signs of inebriation.

"Of course, usually they're all like thirty seven," she added with a sigh, "ooorr you already know them from school..."

Danny nodded his head, giving his friend a 'yeah, sureee' look, grabbing another shot glass himself and downing it, stacking his little cup inside the others on the table to create a precarious leaning tower of shot glasses. "You two soul mates then? Go on, tell me her last name," Danny asked with a grin as he laughed and pulled the nachos plate closer to him. No way was he letting Jere eat all of them like last time. Dude didn't know how to share.

His heart gave a little start at they almost lost the pitcher of beer (not the beer!!) and he rolled his eyes at Jeremy as he asked to third wheel. "Well, sure, I guess, but just manage your expectations, alrigh' mate?" he said batting his eyelashes, joking that girls wouldn't be too interested in his crazy red-headed friend. Freya's boast had him looking at her with his chin tipped down, his brows high on his forehead. "Oh ho ho, is that a challenge I hear? You're on, Tricky! Girls can't resist alllll of this," he said with a hand sliding (what he thought was seductively) down his chest.

Jeremy's question about wizard vs muggle had him shrugging. He didn't even know these things existed. Jeremy didn't either otherwise they both would have been frequenting these gatherings where single chicks were looking for someone to hook up with. Freya, though, seemed to be the expert. As was usually the case when the three of them got together. "Thirty-seven?!" Danny joked into his glass as she mentioned it. Danny's eyes went right to  Jeremy with a sly grin, the corners of his mouth turning up. "Well, that's right in Jeremy's sweet spot. Did you tell Tricky about the cougar you dated?" he casually mentioned, bringing up the inside joke he always liked to mention in front of others to make his friend squirm.

"I thought Gertie was her last name..." He said popping another cheese loaded chip into his mouth. He made a mental note, that he would never remember, to find out her last name next time he saw her. "Whatever it's still more than you have." He said defiantly before laughing a little. They always teased each other but honestly Jeremy was hoping they wouldn't be this unlucky in the love category forever. Jeremy shrugged at them both, he was just fine with being their third wheel. He usually got free nachos and beer out of the deal, so he was pretty much dedicated to being right here for the rest of his life. That was just good math.

He nearly spit out the nacho he'd been chewing when Danny tried to be sexy and then shook his head, wild red curls bouncing back and forth. "Yeah, definitely do that at speed dating. It's like a chick magnet." He lied, though it was far better than he could do if he was being really honest. He was relieved to hear that these things weren't in the muggle world. Coming to trivia night was fun and all but he found it hard to do much of anything else in their world. There was really only one rule, but Jeremy still had a hard time following it. Luckily for them most of the muggles in ear shot just assumed they were crazy drunk young adults so they paid little attention to what they were saying.

"I like a woman who knows what she wants." He said proudly. "And they usually pay for dinner." Jeremy should of been more ashamed by the fact that his most recent conquests had graduated Hogwarts before he'd even entered but he wasn't. "I'd tell you all about it buuuuut~" he slid out of his chair, acting like he had a story to tell when they all knew he really didn't, and picked up the empty pitcher. "Looks like we need more alcohol." He stood up and shimmied past the groups of people that had filled into the tables surrounding them. They were a lot further along than normal but that was okay, they weren't very good at trivia to begin with. He headed to the bar and waited for another pitcher and round of shots.

"Put it on Danny's tab, yeah?"

“I dunny Danny, I reckon I could even get more girl’s numbers, than aaaaalll that,” she said, doing a circle kind of hand motion at his body. Freya just laughed as the others bantered with each other, convinced that literally everything they were saying was all talk. She oohed and aahed appropriately as they told stories.

When their redheaded friend disappeared, Freya turned to Danny, a mischievous smile gracing her face. “Is it just me, or is Jeremy a little more -” she did a quick impression of a drunk person, eyes half closed and unsteady “ - than usual?” She laughed again, bumping Danny with her shoulder. She’d already pushed her own drink away; it was far too early to be this drunk, though it wouldn’t be the first time the dingles didn’t make it to the quiz part of the night - if that was what ended up happening.

“Reckon we should, you know,” she gave Danny a look. “Give the guy some encouragement - and heeeeyyy Eddy,” Freya switched easily back away from the plotting to the group situation. “That’s a lot of shots,” she said to Jeremy, raising her eyebrows. She shot Danny a look.

Danny laughed into his beer, almost choking as Jere confessed he didn't know Gertie's name. "So what did you think her first name was?" he asked the follow up question, still laughing, as he threw a little olive from the nachos at his friend's face.

"Oh, you think?" he asked looking between Freya and Jeremy, doing his sexy move again and throwing in a little blowing kiss and wink at the end. "You think you could top allll of this?" he asked, joking, playing it up for the dramatics. If nothing else, these trivia nights gave them a chance to relax, laugh, and live it up. Plus get roaring drunk too. It was the vest of everything.

"You're shameless!" Danny accused Jeremy of with another chip flying at him as he grinned, not judging his friend in the least. Hell, if he could get a cougar and a free dinner, it'd be like winning the lottery. It was so convenient for Jere not to tell them the details and instead have to go get a refill. "Don't put it on my tab!" Danny called after him, not wanting to get stuck with the entire bill again.

Danny took another gulp of his beer finishing off the glass and burping unceremoniously before sending an apologetic look at Freya. But then he noticed that look in her eye. Something was up. He was in and he didn't even know what it was yet. He nodded repeatedly with a laugh as he glanced at his red-headed friend. "Yeah, he's not wasting any time tonight." He leaned closer to Tricky as she gave him a look and he was just smiling widely back. Just like the good ole days. He was picking up what she was putting down and he was so game.

Jeremy was back before them and Danny clapped his hands as he helped disperse them little glasses. "Shots!" he cried enthusiastically as he looked at Jere. "Are you taking it slow tonight, mate? That's so sensible of you," Danny said, as if nodding appreciatively. He shot a knowing look at Freya.

She admired Danny’s performance silently. Anyone who was paying attention would know she was up to no good; Freya Trickett had never been a very successful liar. The mischief was written all over her face. She took the tiny glass from him as he offered it, but placed it gently back down on the table in front of her instead.

Freya leaned back in her seat, reaching for her cider again so that she had something in her hands when she delivered a performance of her own. “Yeah do you have something on tomorrow, Jem?” she asked politely. “In the morning?” she clarified, holding back a smile. It came out when she made the mistake of looking at Danny though; he was positively gleeful. Freya laughed again, swaying, then placed her drink down and made herself busy fixing her hair. She wasn’t exactly sober, and she wasn’t exactly subtle, but from the looks of things, Jeremy wasn’t picking up on it.     

Jeremy returned triumphantly with the drinks with a proud smile written all over his freckled cheeks. He was a good friend, really he was, offering to get up and get them more drinks. It didn't occur to him that putting it on Danny's tab made it less of a good deed, of course. He plopped them down and then sloshed right back into the seat he'd been in only moments ago. Looking between them he gave them a wary look, assuming they had conspired something while he was gone, because that was what the group always did when one of them got up, but he soon forgot about his suspicions as the drinking started back up.

"Whaa?" He asked, grabbing his own shot glass alongside them. "Am not?" He said toughly, holding his shot glass up as they were setting theirs down. He didn't know what they were doing but also it didn't matter because he was already downing another shot. Following that he poured yet another beer and started sipping on that. "I don't have anything going on, it's Saturday. That is pajamas and cereal day." Of course he did that any day that he could, but that was here nor there. He felt like they were making fun of him, like he couldn't keep up or was being a lame adult, and he absolutely could not have that.

"I'll out drink both of you!"

As he declared that he’d outdrink them both, Freya laughed again. She couldn’t help it. She hadn't had a particularly bad week, but tonight was really making everything better. Too bad if other people came though, she thought. They'd arrive to a bunch of wasted twenty-year-olds. Freya doubted they'd even be in this pub much longer; usually when they got like this, they ended up walking. “I mean, it’s totally fine if you don’t want to,” Freya said, her tone clearly exaggerated, hiding a lot of laughing behind it. Apparently it wasn’t clear to Jeremy though.

The blonde looked down at the shots he’d gotten. “Well if you want to take us both on…” she said, trailing off and making sure not to look at Danny, for fear she’d crack up, “then how about…” The blonde moved the little glasses, two to Danny, two to her and four to Jeremy. “Hmm?” she asked, biting down on her lip as she issued the challenge.

"A nice early hot yoga class to go to, perhaps?" Danny asked, adding on to Freya's question. "Maybe gotta return some library books?" he tacked on with a laugh as he took a drink of his beer, his lips buzzing nicely as the liquid slid across his tongue. Freya wasn't exactly subtle, but he knew Jere couldn't resist rising to the challenge.

Danny made a show of counting the shots glasses and empty pints on the table in front of each of them. That he had conveniently rearranged a bit when J had stepped away. "Tricky and I are ahead of you, but it's alright if you can't keep up, bud. We're not surprised at all, are we, Tricky?" he said with a kind smile and a nod, reaching out a hand to pat his friend's.

He smiled behind his glass as Danny made his declaration and slid a glance to Freya. That seemed like a win to him. And considering how terrible they were at trivia, he was thinking that was going to be the only win tonight. But Freya was going big. Danny almost whined at having less shots, but really, they were playing the long game. "You can always back out though, Jere, if you're not up to it. No biggie if it's too much for you," Danny added, biting his lip to try to keep a serious face.

"What is hot..." he began asking Danny as he gave him a puzzled look but Freya had already made the biggest move of the night and Jeremy was powerless to resist. She moved shot glasses over to him and he counted them silently before smiling. He knew what he was getting himself into, but he didn't mind it. Being inebriated in some sort of way was kind of his resting pulse these days. More than once he showed up to work Monday morning still drunk from the night, or nights before. "Oh you shouldn't have done that Tricky." He said, warning her with a shaking of his index finger. He knew he could smoke either one of them under the table and he was pretty sure he could out drink them too. While Freya had her good looks, and Danny was hilarious, Jeremy had a bottomless pit of a stomach.

He picked up one of his shot glasses and took a deep breath. "On three." He said to them as he picked up the another one with his other hand. If he was going to out drink them this needed to be a both hands in use kind of en-devour. He bobbed his head to the beat for a second and then gave them both a motivated look. "One, two, three!" He said rapidly before downing the first glass and clinking it onto the table upside down. He downed the next, repeating the clink and setting in a line next to the first. And then the third. And then the four. And then he grimaced, it burned going down, and he burped, feeling like those nachos weren't having a great party in his tum with all the new vodka.

After a moment, and another burp, passed he nodded. "Seriously though, what is hot yoga?"

‘Library books’ almost made her snort her drink out her nose. “Yeah Jer, no pressure…” she added between giggles.

They’d just had a couple of shots, like, two seconds ago. Freya didn’t think she could do two more right now. She snuck one along the table to Danny, giving him a questioning look to see if he wanted it. The blonde wasn’t as light as she used to be, but they were drinking beer too, she’d already had nearly two, plus three shots in under an hour… she wasn’t quite looking to get as shitfaced as Jeremy was sure to be tomorrow.

Freya did her one shot and watched, rather impressed as Jeremy did his hundred. “Nice one, Jem,” she said, eyebrows raised. Freya reached over to give him a congratulatory pat on the arm. She got to her feet, then stretched her arms over her head. “You guys wanna get out of here?” she asked, feeling too energetic to be contained inside. The blonde picked her bag up from the ground and shook out her curls with one hand. “I wanna go for a walk.”

“Remember that one time I brought my hot cousin - “ one of them, anyway “- to trivia and you guys maaaade me take you along to one of our exercise mornings?” Freya leaned one elbow on the table, leaning forward. She felt good. A little unsteady, but in the good way. She kept talking as they finished off their drinks.

“And we did yoga? Like, with the mats and the stretching and stuff…” Jeremy had told her he couldn’t walk for a week afterward. “It’s like that but the room has a heating charm on it and it’s super hot.” She straightened up again as the boys got ready to leave.

"Eddy! Eddy!" Danny chanted as his friend slugged back all the shots, giving him a high five across the table and letting out a loud whooping noise that made the muggles turn in their direction, but he didn't mind the attention. Danny even dropped back another shot, nodding as he took the one Freya didn't want. It was like a challenge each weekend to see how much they could knock back and still live. Somehow, they were still breathing.

"It's yoga with hot chicks," Danny said matter-of-factly when Jeremy asked at the same time that Freya was explaining it. Then he glanced at her with a confused look and shrugged. Oh, was that what it was? Freya's explanation kind of made sense to him. "Yeah, so what I said. Yoga with hot chicks," Danny summed up as he scooted toward the end of the bench and stood up after Freya. He tugged gently on one of her curls as he said "Gotta close out the tab, be right back."

He weaved through the bar, waved a hello to Hot Duncan, closed out the tab with Gwen who wasn't surprised in the least that they had come for trivia and were leaving before it even started, and then grabbed his sock full of money from the table and shoved it in his pocket. "Where you wanna go, Tricky?"

He eyeballed them both as they explained hot yoga to him, their stories differing in a way that he couldn't quite define because he was too drunk for having only started drinking an hour ago. "Yeah I like his thing way better, lets do that." He said pointing a wobbly finger at Danny as he agreed to yoga even though that wasn't even what they had been talking about. Despite his drunkenness he certainly remembered the strained feeling that had plagued him for a week after he'd gone with Freya and her hot cousins to her version of yoga. He had not enjoyed that time, though after he stopped aching he had felt surprisingly limber. Of course he had chalked that up to his new work out regime of eating snacks while swimming in the kid pool they had set up in the back lot of the apartment building. It was actually more lounging than swimming, since there was only about two feet of water in the plastic saucer, but still.

When Freya got up he blinked a few times and swallowed, finding it difficult to follow her movements as the pounding in his head grew louder. He felt like he was a little bit underwater when really he was sort of drowning in vodka right about now. Maybe doing four shots back to back to back to back hadn't been the best plan, but he was committed to it, and there was something to be proud of in that right?

He followed the two of them and struggled to get out of his chair. He knocked it over, it clanked onto the floor loudly and he shrugged at it. Hushed whispers came from the table of grannies (a.k.a. their fiercest competitors) and Jeremy wasted no time. "Don't break a hip Agnes, it's fine." He quipped at her, a smirk on his face as he grabbed the chair and pulled it back upright. Turning he rushed ahead to lead the two of them out of the bar, instead of getting left behind, but he started moving in the wrong direction instead. He was more than a little turned about now.

The blonde shot Danny a puzzled look re: “hot chicks” but she didn’t stop talking. “Thanks, Dan,” she called to his back as he retreated to cover the drinks.

“I want cocktails,” Freya declared, grabbing her bag from the floor. “Don’t you want a cocktail, Jemmy?” she asked. Freya and the Dingles had a lot of nicknames for each other. Blondie, Frey, Trickett, Tricky, Trickster… other versions of her surname… Jemmy was one of the more
affectionate ones she had for Jeremy. It usually came out when she was drinking, or when he was being sweet.

The blonde made her way towards the exit, not noticing Jeremy knock his chair over. “D’you want cocktails, Danny?” she asked lightly, stepping out into the street with a little twirl, her curls bouncing around her shoulders merrily. She laughed for no reason, putting her hands out palms-up in the sunlight. It was getting a bit less light now, but the sun was still out. Stoke Newington high street was buzzing with people heading to and from bars and restaurants after work.