Chapter 8
chapter eight
mary
The two girls left Leeds castle tired and sweaty but satisfied. The sun had finally stopped beating down on them, and a cool breeze and light mist settled over the rolling hills.
They parked the van in by the side of the road near a hill where they could see the sunset, miles of soft green grass, moss, and dandelions surrounding them. Mary sat outside the van, leaning her head against the scratchy metal wheel cover. She felt sweaty and gross, so the chilly breeze felt like a godsend.
“Hey, want some fruit snacks?” Lily asked, sitting down beside her.
“Ooh, yess!” Mary squealed, and Lily handed her a packet. She ripped it open, popping a gummy in her mouth. The sun sunk further beneath the hills, painting the sky shades of pink and orange.
“...So, did you have a good day?” Lily said, chewing on some gummies of her own.
“It was great,” Mary smiled at her. “I… know you probably wanted some of your other friends here too, but I hope you’re having a good time anyway.”
Lily turned to look at her. “Actually, this is… nice.” Her voice was soft, and maybe a bit husky. A strange, bubbly feeling swirled in Mary’s stomach. She inched away from Lily a bit, the places where their thighs and forearms were touching suddenly feeling like they were on fire.
“Well, I’m glad, because you’re stuck with me for the next week and a half,” Mary teased, trying to distract herself from the way her heart was fluttering.
“A grim sentence,” Lily said dramatically, putting the back of her hand to her head and looking theatrically devastated.
Mary laughed, whacking Lily playfully on the arm.
“So, how did you meet Remus?” Lily asked, after recovering from her bout of giggles. “He’s the reason we met at all, I suppose.”
Mary smiled, thinking back. “Mmm… tenth year… we had both snuck away from the football game Marlene and James had forced us to go to. I had seen him around before…” And Lily. She’d been noticing Lily from afar for a long time, Mary realized. “Anyway, he found me hiding underneath the stands, and offered me weed.” Lily cackled.
“I should have known! It’s so typical that you two met through drugs.”
“Hey, I’m not one to say no to a good time,” Mary smirked. “What about you?”
“Oh god,” Lily moaned. “We were at an awkward dance. It was incredibly embarrassing. You don’t want to know.”
“By the way!” Mary added, struck by the sudden desire for gossip, “What about James Potter? That boy has been hopelessly in love with you since forever! I don’t even know him that well, and I can tell.” Lily’s eyes suddenly clouded over, and Mary got the feeling she’d asked something beyond her territory as an acquaintance. This thought was incredibly disappointing, though if asked, Mary wouldn’t have been able to explain why.
“Oh, yeah.” They sat in silence for a second. “He’s okay, I guess. I’ve never really been interested in him.”
This, Mary hadn’t expected. James was the nicest boy she’d met—tooth-achingly sweet and incredibly genuine. If someone like that showed interest in you—well, that was the best possible scenario. Out of all the boys Mary might have been forced to end up with, she thought James would be the easiest choice. Because when you had the opportunity to avoid being a girlfriend to a jackass, you took it. Path of least resistance, right?
Lily looked incredibly uncomfortable. Maybe she was the kind of girl who’d never had to think about boys. Maybe she didn’t like the golden retriever type. That must be it.
Mary opened her mouth, but Lily spoke first. “Anyway, I’m sick of talking about boys. You want to go inside? We can watch cartoons on my laptop.”
Well. That did sound nice.
Mary shelved her curiosity for the moment.
They clambered through the van’s back doors, where Lily had set up a nest of blankets, pillows, and assorted stuffed animals. There was a strand of fairy lights held up by Scotch tape lining the edge where the walls met the roof, and a massive bag of snacks shoved in between their two suitcases. Lily sat on a beanbag, and Mary awkwardly squished herself between Lily’s beanbag and a massive Squishmallow. Taking out her laptop, Lily turned to look at Mary. “Okay, what do you want to watch? Adventure Time? Over The Garden Wall?”
Mary looked at her in confusion.
“Oh my god! Are you not educated in cartoons? Okay, have you watched… uh… Hilda? She-Ra? Gravity Falls? Steven Universe?”
“I recognize that last one?” Mary offered.
“This needs to be fixed immediately,” Lily said determinedly. “These are childhood. And also talk about surprisingly adult ideas. Dude, there’s no way you haven’t at least heard of some of these—What about The Owl House? Or Phineas and Ferb?”
“I dunno, we didn’t watch a lot of cartoons in my house,” Mary shrugged. She vaguely recognized a few of the shows Lily was talking about, but they so rarely had streaming services that she’d never tried to watch them.
“You’ve got years of cartoon-watching to catch up on, then,” Lily said with an air of finality. Mary sighed, smiling.
Mary would have loved to say she was paying attention, but she was mostly just listening to Lily’s little bursts of commentary. Every few minutes, she’d pause whatever episode they were watching to tell Lily something about the animation or design or how good the writing was on the show. Mary didn’t mind as much as she thought she would. She’d never notice or care about the details Lily pointed out, but coming out of Lily’s mouth, they somehow felt like the most important things Mary had ever heard.
When did Lily’s thoughts become this important to her?
After an hour or two, Mary realized that Lily had fallen asleep. She leaned over Lily to turn off the laptop, being extremely careful not to wake her up. She shouldn’t have worried, though—Lily slept like the dead. Mary wasn’t sure she could wake her up if she wanted to. She laid down among a pile of pillows, pulling a blanket over herself, and after a moment, another over Lily.
A strand of bright red hair fell into Lily’s eyes, fluttering every time she exhaled. She looked so peaceful—her hands were resting on her chest and Mary found herself noticing Lily’s eyelashes were as red as her hair.
Mary was struck with the strange urge to brush Lily’s hair out of her eyes. She leaned over the slightest bit, hand hovering over Lily’s face. As lightly as she could, Mary brushed the strand of hair away, fingers lingering on Lily’s cheek for a fraction of a second. Mary snatched her hand back, scooting into her nest of pillows. She was definitely being creepy, but…
Mary’s heart was pounding in her ears.
She was finding it hard to be worried about looking creepy, when she couldn’t shake the sudden desire to kiss Lily on the cheek, right where the strand of hair had been only moments before.
chapter eight
lily
Lily woke up in the morning to terrible back pain after sleeping on a beanbag, sandwiched between Mary and a mound of stuffed animals. She groaned, sitting up and rubbing her lower back. Beside her, Mary was (presumably) still asleep, and Lily’s laptop was carefully placed where it wouldn’t fall. Lily realized Mary must have moved it after she fell asleep, and felt a surge of affection for this girl.
She scooted towards the van’s back doors, cracking them open and slipping out into the early morning light. The grass was covered in a fine layer of dew, birds barely beginning to chirp somewhere in the distance. Lily was a chronic early riser which both meant she got to see mornings like this pretty often, but also that if she didn’t go to bed early enough, she would be irreparably cranky for the rest of the day. It’s not like she was choosing to get up this early, Lily lamented to herself. It was just some terrible byproduct of her genetics or brain chemistry or something.
A cold breeze blew past the van, and Lily shivered, suddenly desperately wanting a cup of coffee. She couldn’t really drive to a Starbucks, as Mary was still asleep. And Lily really didn’t want to disturb her.
She settled for sipping from a thermos of orange juice (Lily firmly believed that orange juice was superior to apple juice, and would be taking no questions).
After a few minutes, Mary stumbled out of the van, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “Morning.”
“Morning,” Lily said. “Important question. Do you like orange or apple juice better?”
“Uh… orange,” Mary replied through a yawn.
“Exactly!” Lily said enthusiastically, fueled by validation. “Apple juice tastes like piss.”
Mary looked at her blearily. “You’re very passionate about this. At like, six in the morning. How are you so awake?”
“God hates me.” Lily took another sip of her orange juice. “You can go back to sleep, you know. I can just drink my juice and contemplate life for a bit if you need your rest.”
Mary waved her off, stifling a yawn. “Nah, I can stay awake.” It very much looked like Mary was going to fall asleep at any moment.
Lily snorted. “If you say so.”
“Hush.” Mary waved a hand in Lily’s face, squinting at the sky, which was gradually becoming lighter. “So where are we going today?”
“Well, first, we need to get food. I packed fruit snacks and Cool Ranch Doritos, but I fear that might not be enough to sustain us.” Lily smiled at Mary. “So… pancakes?”
Mary’s face lit up, and Lily’s heart stumbled. “Pancakes!” Mary turned to follow Lily and hop into the passenger seat, but Lily stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. A patch of paler skin on Mary’s cheek revealed how red her face had gotten. Lily was suddenly terrified she’d done something wrong, and quickly withdrew her hand.
“You wanna go get changed in the van first?” Lily asked, flushed a little with nervousness herself. What had she said that had made Mary look so anxious?
“Oh, sure.” Mary replied hastily, and practically ran to get away from Lily. Sour dread pooled in Lily’s stomach. Somehow, she’d managed to fuck everything up again.
She sat outside the van for the few minutes it took for Mary to get changed, hating herself the entire time. Lily was pulled out of her spiral by Mary saying something, and Lily looked at her in confusion. “Sorry, could you say that again?”
“Are you ready? Do you want to get changed, yourself?” Mary asked, eyes no longer full of panic. Maybe Lily had imagined the entire thing? She had a tendency to make up problems. Still, Lily didn’t feel any better. She barely even noticed Mary’s pink overalls and matching bandana. Okay, that was a lie. She very much noticed, but she was too busy wallowing to truly appreciate how pretty Mary was.
“Yeah, ok.”
None of Lily’s clothes were as pretty as Mary’s, but she settled for a skort and an oversized Lord of the Rings t-shirt.
The two girls clambered into the driver and passenger seats, before Mary opened her mouth in realization and turned to Lily. “I can drive! You drove yesterday, so it’s fair.”
Lily would have protested, if Mary didn’t look so determined. So she begrudgingly let Mary take the wheel, even though every fiber of her being protested at allowing someone to do something for her. Lily pulled up Google Maps on her phone. “Okay, so the nearest breakfast place is… Jesus, what are these names? Esquires Coffee? Chiltern Hundreds? The Potting Shed?”
“Oooh, I like the Potting Shed,” Mary cackled.
“You sure you don’t want to go with Chiltern Hundreds?” Lily laughed. “Chiltren kind of sounds like a slur.”
“You’re so right!” Mary exclaimed, both girls bursting into giggles.
For a place with such a strange name, The Potting Shed was a relatively normal restaurant. Which was a relief, but also a little disappointing. What with all the… creative names, Lily was almost expecting some sort of fantasy tavern. The only place it made sense for a business to be called something like Esquires Coffee was a DnD campaign.
The young person behind the counter had bright pink, spiky hair and rainbow eyeshadow. Her name tag just read “Tonks”. Fair enough, Lily guessed.
“Hey, what can I get for you?” Tonks asked, with what Lily thought was a genuine, not just customer-service smile. They had various pins on her apron—a rainbow pin, a pronoun pin that read she/they, and a possum pin that read EAT THE RICH.
Lily instantly liked Tonks.
“Uh… the Oink and Maple?” Lily had to suppress a giggle. It was pancakes, just called “Oink and Maple”. God, this was a weird restaurant.
Mary nodded with a carefully constructed deadpan. “Same thing for me, thanks.” Lily could hear the slight lilt of laughter coloring her voice. Lily had to avoid Mary’s eyes, because she knew she would start laughing uncontrollably if she did.
“Kay, two Oink and Maples,” Tonks said, smiling like they knew what Mary and Lily were thinking. “That’ll be ready in a few minutes. Here’s your buzzer.” She handed Lily a small, blinking square labeled “31”.
Mary and Lily turned around, walking towards their table, and glanced at each other. They simultaneously burst out laughing.
Lily’s worries from earlier instantly vanished, and she couldn’t remember why she’d even been upset in the first place.
Lily supposed that was just the byproduct of spending so much time with a person as happy as Mary.
She wouldn’t mind getting used to it.