Entry for the Quidditch Fanfiction League Competition, Season 6, Round 8 – Wigtown Wanderers vs Wimbourne Wasps
Position: Captain
Prompt: Finding out your loved one/partner/family hid something major from you and left you with that something (debt/a child/a cursed object etc) and what you do about it.
Word Count:3,002
Betas: brokenbottleaurora, DinoDina
Muggle!AU
Summer Love, Summer Chaos
Katie Bell had always hated goodbyes, especially the ones holding so much uncertainty about what would happen after them, if you would really stay in contact with the person you were parting ways with. Her graduation from high school had been an endless stream of this kind of goodbye, and since then, she'd always tried to avoid them, contacting people, doing anything to keep the communication from ceasing.
However, here she was yet again.
Another goodbye.
"The summer went by way too quickly," Katie said with a heavy sigh, giving her best not to sound too emotional as she looked up at Marcus, the man who had made her summer so much more endurable. Only because of him she hadn't completely regretted agreeing to accompany her parents to a small island at the coast of Scotland — studying at the University of London and attending countless tryouts for handball teams had worn her out, and even without knowing the destination, she'd been so desperate for a free vacation that she'd said yes.
Upon arriving there, she'd realised what she'd gotten herself into; the island was beautiful, with lush green meadows, impressive white cliffs and long beaches, but it was also tiny. The wind blew so strongly from the sea, cooling the climate of the island even in summer, that staying at the beach for long wasn't possible, let alone swimming in the ocean, and there was barely anything else to do. Sure, the house that her parents had rented was beautiful, with a wind-protected deck offering a beautiful view of the ocean, but sitting there all day wasn't something she'd been looking forward to. And all the village had for shops was a pub full of local fishermen, a small café, a tiny grocery store and a bookshop — her exploration of the place had been over within half an hour, ending with the realisation that she would have to loot the bookstore to have enough entertainment for the whole six weeks because this damn place didn't have a stable internet connection.
"I can confidently take some credit for that change of mind, considering that when I first met you, you were cursing like a sailor about this place," Marcus answered teasingly, amusement shining in his green eyes as he remembered how he met her in front of the bookstore, carrying a giant stack of novels.
"I mean, I'm still fucked up about how this place has a very bad television signal and no internet. But yeah, thanks to you, I could live with that more easily."
Katie smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, wishing she would never have to let go. Thanks to him, she'd had a wonderful vacation, full of moments she would hold dear forever.
"I do my best. We should definitely meet up when I happen to be in London, have a drink, or maybe dinner."
He shrugged, as if he wasn't really expecting her to agree, his hands brushing her hips, and Katie's smile only widened. Rising to the tips of her toes, she kissed his lips gently and winked. "Yeah, maybe. Your company wasn't too bad, y'know. Might be able to endure another meeting."
They laughed together, holding each other even closer, not really wanting to say goodbye, even though they knew they had to — Katie's parents were waiting for her down by the harbour, and the ferry would leave in an hour.
She was jealous that Marcus would stay another week before he would go back to his job while her university courses would start again in only a few days. If she could, she would have spent a bit more time with him.
"We have about forty-five minutes left," she whispered when they pulled back from another kiss and bit her bottom lip, a smirk spreading on his face when he understood what she was suggesting. Maybe it was a desperate attempt to savour every single moment they had left together, but Katie couldn't care less.
While time was ticking, and the inevitable time of parting was coming closer, they started kissing again, wanting to make the best of the time they had left. Clothes were removed or simply pulled out of the way, and their last hour together seemed to honour and celebrate all the feelings they'd developed for each other during their time together.
OoO
As soon as Katie was off the ferry and back on the mainland, she and Marcus started to exchange text messages whenever the internet on the island allowed them to, and the familiar buzz of her phone never failed to make her smile. Even though they'd said goodbye only a few hours before, she started to miss his company, his dry humour, his crooked grins… she just hoped that he would come to London soon and they could meet up.
They made plans for that via text, too, and for almost two weeks, they communicated daily, sometimes scheduling calls in the evenings, and for Katie, it helped to battle the longing to have him with her.
However, it didn't stay that way for very long; after some time, Marcus' texts got sparse, justified with going back to work and having loads of meetings to deal with, he didn't have time for calls anymore, and eventually, he stopped answering altogether.
Katie felt horribly helpless as she realised what was happening, and there was nothing she could do about the growing radio silence but stare at her phone and will it to buzz, even though deep inside of her she already knew that the message wouldn't be from him. A few times she had a missed call from an unknown number, but whenever she tried to call it back, the line was busy, so she started ignoring it after a few days.
Angelina, her best friend and roommate, was the only person able to keep her from letting the negative feelings this abandoning caused consume her, and one Sunday she was finally able to admit over breakfast that she should have seen it coming.
"Summer romances never last until autumn, I guess. I just didn't want to see it, because he was a great guy, and…"
"And the sex was amazing, yeah, you said so a thousand times," Angelina teased back and poured more sparkling wine into their mugs. "But that's just how it is with men, you know. You have fun with them, they promise to call the next morning, you never hear from them anymore."
Katie sighed and finished the last bites of her scrambled eggs with an unhappy expression, so Angelina reached across the table and patted her hand. "How about we watch trashy TV all day and get drunk to make you forget about him, hm?"
"Sounds okay," Katie mumbled, even though she felt more like curling up under her blankets and eat tons of chocolate, but she knew that Angelina wouldn't let that happen. Today she wouldn't be able to acknowledge that her best friend's strategy was the right one, but she would eventually come to that conclusion and show her gratitude.
Half an hour later, they were cuddled together on the couch with snacks and another bottle of sparkling wine, switching through the TV channels in search for the worst show they could find, when the breaking news of a sports channel caught their attention — Tottenham's Surprising Last Minute Nomination.
Angelina, being as much into football as Katie was indifferent to it, made a surprised noise and mumbled something about having to check these news out. This of course earned her an annoyed noise from Katie, but a second later, it got stuck in her throat.
Blinking a few times, she stared at the TV when the press conference was shown, convinced that she had to be hallucinating. It just couldn't be…
But no matter how many times she rubbed her eyes or pinched the skin of her wrist, she could still see Marcus Flint sit at the table between some officials, and he was talking about the great opportunity he'd been offered.
"Holy fucking shit! Ange, that's… that's…"
She must have looked like a lunatic to her best friend, eyes wide open, hand shaking as she pointed at the TV, stuttering out incoherent sentences, but her brain was simply too overwhelmed by the new information and the subsequent deductions to allow any clear thought.
"That's Marcus Flint, yeah. He's the new rising star in Premier League. I'm surprised you know him. Sweetie, is something wrong?"
Angelina's voice was tinged with worry and Katie downed the alcohol that was still in her mug, willing her mind to slow down and go through every new realisation.
Marcus, her ghosting summer romance, was a rising football star.
He hadn't told her anything about it — though she realised that they hadn't really talked about jobs.
And now that he was back playing, he wasn't reachable anymore.
The expression of shock and disbelief slowly faded, and anger rose inside Katie while red crept up her cheeks.
"This damn asshole!"
"Katie?"
"That's him! No wonder he's not answering anymore — he only needed a bedmate to pass the time and got another already!"
Angelina frowned, and Katie made an angry noise. "Wait, wait… it's Marcus as in… island Marcus?"
"Yes!"
Now it was Angelina who took a big sip of sparkling wine, needing a moment to process the information, then she mumbled, almost awestruck: "Wow… you hung around with a Premier League player."
"Why do you sound so impressed about that? He lied to me about who he is, sports student my ass! I should go and kick his!"
Katie pushed herself off the couch, her temperament taking over, and Angelina hurried to jump up and follow when Katie stomped over into the hallway, grabbing her shoes. "Wait, Katie, where are you going?"
"We are going to find this douchecanoe and confront him! Women aren't things he can use for his pleasure and then drop for the next one!"
"Are you sure you're not overreacting? And how the hell do you want to find him in the first place?" Angelina asked, reaching out to take Katie by the arm, worry shining in her eyes.
"You're the one of us who's always informed about where the players live! Surely you know a way to get us there! And I'm pissed for having been played! So please, be a friend and get me there so I can kick his sorry ass!"
OoO
"I'm still not sure if this is a good idea," Angelina mumbled as they got off the tube and walked down a street lined with clean Victorian-era houses and expensive cars in the driveways. "I mean… who is going to bail you out when I'm being arrested with you?"
Katie rolled her eyes and inspected the address on Angelina's phone before scanning the numbers of the houses. "You can turn around if you want. But I'm going to give him an earful!"
"I'm not going to let you walk into your misery alone, you dumbass."
The two women exchanged smiles at the old inside joke and continued to walk up the street with its neat front gardens, until they found the number they'd been looking for, right next to a canal winding its way through the city. "Okay. Let's do this."
Katie strode up to the gate confidently, Angelina hurrying to follow, and punched the button for the bell. Her foot started tapping on the sidewalk impatiently while they waited for a response, and she glared up when the whirring sound of a camera reached their ears. "I swear, if he doesn't open up, I'll just climb over... that damn fence."
To their surprise, the buzzer sounded before she'd finished the sentence, and Katie pushed the gate open, exchanging meaningful glances with Angelina before walking up to the entrance door, only now feeling a little bit of nerves brewing inside of her.
Good thing she had a speech prepared.
She brought an angry expression onto her face, the one that could render anyone speechless, and put on a nasty glare when the door swung open and Marcus Flint was revealed. He had a smile on his face that made her even more furious, as if he was overjoyed to see her, and before he could open his mouth, she spat: "I hope you had your fun with all this shit, and that I didn't bore your esteemed ass with my ordinarity! You're a fucking superficial, spoiled brat! Did you seriously think I'd let you use me for your entertainment and then be content with being dropped like a hot potato? Well, surprise, Mr Premier League snake!"
Behind her, Angelina was contemplating stepping forward to get her best friend to slow down her rant; Katie's cheeks were red, her brown eyes gleaming with agitation, and Angelina felt like her argument was becoming more incoherent — if there had been one at all — with every sentence that she threw at Marcus.
He was, to everyone's utter surprise, standing there in the doorway quietly, listening to Katie's angry outburst patiently, like a tree that couldn't be moved by stormy weather.
Nobody knew for how long Katie spat her opinion at Marcus, but when she ultimately stopped talking, slightly out of breath, her voice considerably more hoarse than before, he showed a reaction for the first time. Marcus stepped slightly to the side, then raised one arm in an inviting gesture. "Why don't you come in? I just made some tea."
Katie's jaw dropped at the casual politeness of his offer, as if she hadn't just insulted him in a dozen ways minutes before, and she was unable to speak, her brain unable to process what was happening. Angelina blinked a few times, scrutinising Marcus' face with the suspicion of mockery, but he seemed completely earnest, so she gave Katie a push. If Katie could rant, than she could listen to what he had to say, too.
Marcus led them through a wide entrance area with a staircase of polished wood and into a giant living room, looking out into a neatly kept garden with a view onto the canal, hedges keeping curious eyes on the street from invading the privacy. Though all the furniture was obviously high-end, the room was comfy and inviting, and Angelina let her gaze wander a bit while Katie simply continued to stare at Marcus, slumping down on the couch.
A tense silence was hanging in the room as Marcus poured the tea for them; by now, Katie had managed to close her mouth, and her lips were a thin, disapproving line. Leant back on the couch, she had her arms crossed in front of her chest, but her blocking demeanor didn't seem to bother Marcus at all.
"I'm glad you came here, though I didn't think you would actually make the effort of finding me after all these weeks. I know what this looks like."
"Looks like? It's reality," Katie grumbled, and Marcus sighed under his breath, though his voice stayed calm when he continued to speak.
"I wanted to call, Katie. Actually, I did. But you never picked up."
"Nice try. I would have noticed if you'd tried to…"
"I lost my phone, and since I had memorised your number, I was able to put it into my new phone, which has a new number. I wanted to tell you about it, but I never got through to you. So I thought that I had been wrong about you not caring about who I am, that you only wanted to hang out with me to be able to say you had an affair with a celebrity."
At that, Angelina, who'd stayed quiet and had sipped her tea, couldn't help but snort. "Sorry, but Katie knows nothing about football. Absolutely zero. You could play on the national team and she wouldn't ever have heard your name."
Colour was rising on Katie's cheeks, but this time, it was the pink of embarrassment; she fidgeted with her teacup, not sure what to do or say now. All her anger had disappeared, the ideas she'd had about what had been Marcus' reasons for cutting contact with her had been proven wrong from one second to the other, and all that was left was the realisation that she was a damn idiot.
Had she simply picked up the phone when the unknown number had called her, she would have heard Marcus' voice, which would have given him enough time to explain himself and the lack of contact. But instead, her stupidity was now being exposed, and she just wanted to leave. Marcus wouldn't want anything to do with her now anyway.
As if he sensed the doubts and shame that were rising inside her, Marcus cleared his throat to catch her attention, getting up from his armchair confidently. "Katie, I've been honest about everything I feel for you, and I told you why that isn't easy for me. And nothing about that has changed. I feel comfortable and just… normal when I'm with you. Also, don't think I can't handle your little hothead moments."
"You're so arrogant," she grumbled under her breath, and Marcus smirked.
"Guess I am."
They looked at each other for a very long moment, then he reached out and cupped her cheek. "So, I'm going to assume arrogantly that you won't slap me if I kiss you now because you definitely want me to."
"Douchecanoe."
Angelina shifted awkwardly when the lips of the two met, and she stood up abruptly when Katie wrapped her arms around Marcus' neck, deepening the kiss while also pulling him closer. "Uhm… ew. I'll just go, I'm not needed here anymore, obviously. Guess we'll see each other again sometime, Marcus. Gonna ask about free cards for the front rows another time."
Her departure went unnoticed due to the determination of Katie and Marcus to catch up on all they'd missed during the weeks of separation.