chapter 4
Marlene, Mary, and Lily get out of the car with Kendrick Lamar blasting. Marlene has never been the biggest fan of Kendrick (she’s more of a 90s rap kinda girl) but she can vibe. James is already standing outside waiting for Lily. “Hey!” James walks up and wraps his arm around Lily’s waist and kisses her temple.
“Gross.” Mary quips as she pushes past to get inside.
“You guys are so gay for each other.” Marlene scrunches her nose in disgust. Lily and James just look at her, confused. “Oh, wait… whatever.” Marlene walks past them and into the party. She hears Lily and James giggling at her as she walks away. Assholes.
Mary and Sirius are squealing about something per usual. Sirius looks stunning. His beautiful long, black, curly hair is pulled up into a messy bun which shows off his sharp jawline. His eyeliner is thick and perfect with glitter dabbed onto his lid. He’s wearing a gorgeous velvet, crimson colored suit with a half unbuttoned black dress shirt underneath. After Marlene takes in Sirius and all his glamor, her gaze falls upon Remus. He’s drooling. She watches him look Sirius up and down multiple times before she decides to go talk to the pathetic, enamored loser.
“You know, your eyes can’t take his clothes off.”
Remus slowly tears his gaze away from his Sirius. “Shut the fuck up,” He scowls.
“Hey! I’m not the one drooling over my best friend from the corner like a stalker.”
“Whatever.” Remus rolls his eyes. “Oh! Hey, look. It’s your girlfriend!”
“I don’t have a girlfriend. What-” Marlene turns to see Barty, Evan, Dorcas, Pandora, and Regulus sitting at a table. “You’re not funny. You know how bad my crush on Pandora is.
No need to rub it in.”
“Who said I was talking about Pandora?”
“There’s no one else over there? Just Dorcas.” Remus winked at her and walked away. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Marlene walks over to the snack table to get a drink.
While she’s scooping ice into her cup someone comes up behind her. “Hey Marlene!” Oh, fucking hell.
“Hi Panda.”
“How are you?”
“I’m doing good right now actually. How about you?”
“I’m good!”
“How’s Xeno?” Why did she just ask that?
“We’re good! Probably the best we’ve been actually!”
“Oh! Good!” Fuck her life.
“I mean we had that fight last week that I told you about but we’re good now!” Marlene remembers that fight. Someone posted on the film department’s instagram asking for actors but the role required a kiss. Pandora replied to ask what they were working on because she’s also a film student and the person told Xeno about it. Xeno was super uncomfortable with the idea of Pandora kissing someone else in a film and they got into a big argument about it.
“Oh, yeah! That’s good!” Marlene should have been in the acting department.
“Anyway, I’ll see you around!” Pandora walks off with two cups of sprite. Marlene watches her walk back to the table and hand a cup to Barty. Marlene pours her own drink and tries to ignore Pandora and enjoy the party.
~•~
A couple hours later, Marlene finds herself being pulled outside by Lily. “Marls!”
“What girl? I was flirting!”
“Ok but I have tea.”
“Oh! Spill!”
“Ok so obviously you know James’s little brother, Connor.”
“Connor! My bestie. Of course.”
“Yeah well he’s best friends with Evan’s little sister.”
“He is?”
“Yeah so basically you know how we’ve been suspecting that Evan and Barty are like a thing?”
“Yeah…”
“Ok so basically he said that Evan has actually been reconnecting with Antonin. They’ve been going on coffee dates.”
“DOLOHOV?!” Lily aggressively shushes her while looking around to make sure no one can hear.
“Shut the fuck up! Yes! Dolohov!”
“Like Amelia’s ex? The awful one?”
“Yes! Like the one who became friends with Max and made him homophobic.” Marlene cringes at the mention of her ex boyfriend.
James bursts outside. “Hey girls! I’ve been looking for you.”
“Shush!” Marlene smacks his shoulder.
“Oh! Is there tea?” James lives for the drama. He’s such a queen.
“Yes! I’m texting your brother.” Lily says without looking up from her phone.
“Connor?” James walks around Marlene and peaks over Lily’s shoulder.
“Connor!” Marlene cheers, quietly.
“What tea does he have? He’s in middle school.”
“He’s friends with-” Lily is interrupted.
“Eliana.” Mary finishes for her as she walks up.
“Exactly.” Marlene looks at James as realization dawns on him. “He’s telling us about Evan’s dating life.”
“Ohhhhh,” James and Mary say in unison.
Mary continues, “Yeah, I only caught the last bit of that conversation. I didn’t know what was going on.” She giggles. “Also why are we standing here? Let’s go sit under that tree.” She reaches her arm out and points at a beautiful oak on the front lawn. The group walks over and sits down as Lily and Marlene catch James and Mary up on what they had said before.
Eventually Regulus, Alice Fortesque, and Arabella Figg join them. The conversation is lively and a little silly as they all talk about how sad and single they are. James and Lily just kind of look at each other smugly. They sit and talk about nothing and everything for about 20 minutes before their conversations are interrupted. “Hey guys!” Caradoc Dearborn sprints over. When he’s standing directly behind Marlene he announces to the group, “Sirius wants you all to come back inside. There’s barely anyone inside anymore.” The group looks around to realize that a good amount of them are out on the lawn and a few people left earlier.
They all get up and go back inside. The music is bumping and they start dancing. The Cupid Shuffle comes on. People cheer and everyone starts to do the dance. Marlene realizes she’s somehow ended up in between Mary and Pandora. Pandora clearly doesn’t know the dance and is following along as best she can. Marlene decides to be a bit bold. Marlene taps her shoulder and tells her to watch her. “Here,” Marlene shouts over the loud music. “Follow me.” Pandora watches Marlene’s feet and eventually gets a hang of the choreography. “There you go!”
When the song is over, Pandora turns to her with flushed cheeks and a shining smile. “Thank you!” Fuck. She’s gorgeous. The Wobble comes on and when Marlene kicks off her heels in order to properly wobble. Pandora watches Marlene go through the dance once and decides, “This one isn’t for me. I’m going to get a drink.”
Mary moved during the Cupid Shuffle so Marlene is now between Alice and Sirius. When she turns so she’s behind Alice, the space in between them gets smaller until Alice is touching Marlene. They don’t stop dancing for a second.
A few months ago, Alice and Marlene got into a huge fight over Frank. In November, Marlene became friends with Frank Longbottom. She had been friends with Alice since the beginning of freshman year. Alice and Frank were in film together and were friends, too. The three of them were close and talked everyday. In April, Marlene was jokingly flirting with Frank over text. Frank screenshotted it and sent it to Alice. What Marlene hadn’t known was that Alice and Frank were talking… romantically. Alice got pissed at Marlene and instead of confronting her about it and letting Marlene explain, she just cut her off. Marlene let her. She dropped Mr. Screenshot too. She hasn’t spoken to either one of them since.
However, Alice is currently dancing with her and not in an innocent way. If they were still friends, this would be normal. Alice and Marlene have always been flirty with each other. Alice was Marlene’s first kiss and her first makeout. They have a bit of a history there.
All of a sudden, Alice turns around so she’s face to face with Marlene. They stare at each other intensely. Dangerously, while still dancing. The song ends and Sirius announces that it’s time for cake. Marlene and Alice separate from each other, wordlessly splitting back to their friends.
Peter comes up to her. “What the fuck was that?” Peter is friends with Alice and Frank, too. Well, actually, Peter is friends with everyone, to be honest.
“Nothing. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”