"So I reach for your love like the moon and the stars.
Ever in my sight, ever out of reach."
-Emilie Autumn, 'Ever'
"Who are you all dressed up for?" Parvati asks, trying to keep her tone light, friendly.
It's hard to hide the hurt because she already knows. It's always him.
"Seamus," Lavender answers, grinning broadly and fixing her lipstick in the mirror. "Do you think he'll like the dress?"
"If he doesn't, he's an idiot," Parvati says, forcing herself not to linger too long on the scarlet satin that clings to Lavender's body in all the right places.
Tucking her lipstick into her purse, Lavender pulls away from the mirror. "Don't wait up," she says, kissing her flatmate's cheek before starting for the door.
.
Parvati does wait up. Not in the living room, sprawled out on the sofa with folded arms like an overprotective parent. She waits in her bed, sleepless eyes fixed upon the ceiling, still listening long after two in the morning.
The door closes, and she hears drunken giggling and two sets of footsteps stumbling through the house.
"Parvati might hear," Seamus laughs.
"Nah. She's probably already asleep."
When Parvati finally closes her teary eyes, she falls asleep to the obscene lullaby of a bedframe thudding against the wall.