Students were gathered around the bonfire, red solo cups in hand, laughing and talking louder than necessary. It was dark out, though, and no one else was by the Old Mill to hear them, much less to tell them to quiet down.
Landon sat in the loft, cradling a stolen bottle to his chest, watching MG excitedly talk about Dracula to a group of giggling vampires, the flames throwing soft, warm light over his face.
Penelope caught his gaze, followed it to the vampire, and quirked an eyebrow. Landon glanced away when he caught Penelope's look, taking a deep swig as if it could cover his cheeks burning with embarrassment with more alcohol. Before he could finish, Penelope was at his side, yanking the bottle out of his grasp and taking her own sip.
“Not that emo loner boy doesn't suit you, but are you really drinking alone at a party?” Penelope scoffed.
“It's certainly a lot less embarrassing than my previous coping mechanism of writing tragic love songs alone in my dorm -” Landon cringed when his brain caught up with his voice. “- which I wouldn’t have admitted to if I hadn’t been drinking.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Penelope said. “I just have that effect on people.”
“Yeah, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be doing magic air shots with the witches? Or making out with Josie by the fire?”
“Josie’s a little busy at the moment.” Penelope took a long drink, swallowing bitterly. “And magic air shots are only fun the first six times.”
The two of them passed the bottle back and forth for a few minutes in silence before Penelope finally spoke again.
“So, you and Hope broke up?”
“And she is handling it a lot better than I am,” Landon shared too eagerly. 
Penelope crinkled her nose teasingly. “Did she dump you?”
“It was mutual.”
“Which is exactly what every guy who got dumped says.”
Landon sighed and looked back over the party.
“Don’t worry.” Penelope followed his eyes again to where MG was acting out a dramatic scene. “You’ll find someone new.”
Penelope’s face dropped as her eyes slid over a few feet to where Josie sat on a log, smiling and talking to Rafael.
“You still have a whole two hours left,” Josie giggled.
Rafael leaned closer, laughing. “Yeah, but I only have one vote.”
“Oh … Raf …” Josie looked down in a fit of awkward giggles. “I wish I could, but witches can’t vote for werewolves -”
“I meant Hope.”
“Right. The one witch who can vote for werewolves.”
“Yeah.”
“So, she’s voting for wolves and not for -” Josie’s smile slipped as she caught herself, glancing at the starry sky and swallowing quickly. “- witches?”
“I don’t think she wanted to vote for anyone.”
“Well.” Josie dropped a hand on Rafael’s leg. “This has been nice, but I really should go find Penelope.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. And good luck with the elections.”
Josie smiled warmly. “Thanks.”