“That isn’t a real kiss…” He leaned forward, his face inches away from her. The stale smell of alcohol filled his nose, mixed with the sweet smell of vanilla perfume. He didn’t care though. He concreted on the sweet smell, always imaging her smelling so delicately like her soft-spoken voice. He was tempted by her proximity. “This is,” he whispered bravely. The inches of space weren’t there anymore. 

“Merlin, didn’t even hesitate. She asked for you, you know… She still wonders about you…”

“I don’t want to talk about her…” grumbled James.

“You loved her once,” pressed Fred.

“Once—” 

She was shaking her head and laughing with the glory of warts sprouted on her face. Her laugh was a drug. He could sit and hear it all day. Her laugh was one that you would stop to hear. Her laugh would ease pain. Her laugh would bring happiness. 

Aries was shaking her calendar frantically, hunched over it in a corner of the dorm. The circle of a red ink was marked around the date November ninth. “Why are you two weeks late?” she hissed at the calendar.  

“And whatever you are going through, you can talk to me, okay? It can’t be that bad right?”
He had no idea.