Lily woke up to a headache with pounding so intense it felt audible. She threw her duvet over her head and squeezed her eyes shut to try and get more sleep, but it was useless. The pounding was audible and was coming from her bedroom door.
"Lily!" she heard her roommate Mary call. "Come on, it's almost noon, you have to get up!"
Lily could only groan in response. She heard her bedroom door open and then felt her mattress dip as Mary climbed in next to her. Lily buried her face in Mary's side. "Oh my gosh, what did I drink last night?"
Mary laughed and pushed some aspirin in to her hand. "Sit up and this might help."
Lily thanked her and grabbed the water off her nightstand.
This was Mary and Lily's post night-out ritual. They would go over the night in detail together in bed as they waited to feel the effects of their hangovers become bearable enough to go get brunch.
Lily sat back against her headboard and closed her eyes. "It was a fun night, wasn't it?"
Mary hummed her agreement. It was a party to mark the start of the school year at a friend of a friend's house just down the road.
"I got a lot of good content." Mary said.
Lily snorted. "Really? At a frat boy's house?" Mary had spent the past year in quarantine very active on TikTok, and had a couple thousand followers to show for it.
"Yes!" Mary protested. "I brought my fun turquoise sunglasses, and I got a ton of people to pose for a picture in them!"
"Are you sure your followers want to see anybody in those hideous sunglasses?" Lily said, eyes still closed.
Mary elbowed her. "They aren't hideous! They're unique. And anyway, it's a viral trend right now."
"You know, I will agree with you on their uniqueness. I don't think I have ever seen another pair of chunky turquoise sunglasses covered in sunflowers and jewels."
"You didn't even mention the pink lenses!"
Lily laughed, "I don't believe that you got even one boy to put those on."
Mary grinned. "Well, you don't even have to take my word for it. I have 60 full seconds of proof right here." Mary shook her phone in front of Lily's nose. "While you were asleep this morning, I was working with my nose to the grindstone on compiling all the best pictures I took last night in to a very premium TikTok."
"Well let's see it!" Lily said.
Mary unlocked her phone and brought up her latest video. It started on a selfie of Mary with the gaudy sunglasses on, set to a popular party song. Lily recognized herself behind the sunglasses in the next photo, mouth open, reaching out, definitely yelling at Mary behind the camera. Second after second, the pictures changed, Lily recognized her friends all striking poses with the sunglasses on, interspersed with some people she didn't know the names of, but definitely knew from around school. Mary had edited the video so the sunglasses stayed in the relative center of the screen and that the photos changed to the beat of the song. Lily had to admit, TikTok novice that she was, that it was a fun concept. It captured the energy of the night, and the personality of each person pictured. The song began to fade out, and Mary was bringing her phone back to her side of the bed when Lily caught sight of possibly the most beautiful man she had ever set eyes on- even with the terrible sunglasses on.
Lily reached out and grabbed Mary's wrist and screeched, "Wait!"
Mary jumped and almost fell out of Lily's bed, "What!"
"Who is that?" Lily tried to grab Mary's phone out of her hand, but Mary held it away from her.
"Hold on a second." Mary said, grabbing her heart. "You almost gave a heart attack."
The video had restarted from the beginning and was cycling through all the faces Lily had already seen. She squinted at the screen and motioned for Mary to bring it closer.
"Okay, okay." Mary said, bringing her phone in-between her and Lily. "Just tap the screen when it gets to who you're talking about, and it will pause the video. Try not to burst my eardrums this time."
Lily leaned into Mary's shoulder, concentrating all her energy on the video. It flipped back to Beautiful Man, who was smiling at the camera like he was having the time of his life, and Lily slammed her finger down on to the screen to pause it. "Him!"
"Lily! Please try not to crack my screen."
"Sorry, sorry!" Lily said, sheepishly. "But, do you know who that is?"
Mary looked between the guy on the screen, and Lily several times with an unreadable expression on her face. Lily felt like shaking Mary's shoulders. "Yes, I know who that is." She finally answered. "And I think you know who that is too."
Lily couldn't shake her head no fast enough. "No, no, I definitely do not know that man. I would've remembered that face anywhere."
Mary's face quirked into a smile. "Well, that's the thing about having online school for all of last year, isn't it?"
Lily scrunched her eyebrows together. "How do you mean?"
"We didn't have to have our cameras on, did we?"
"Okay? So?" Lily said, not understanding her roommate in the slightest. "What does that have to do with Beautiful Man?"
"Your 'Beautiful Man' is James Potter, Lil." Mary said, grinning.
Lily felt the blood rush out of her face. "No," she whispered. "You have to be mistaken. Not my mortal enemy number 1."
"The very one." Mary leaned back on the headboard and started to scroll through TikTok looking satisfied. "You know, I think this is going to be one hell of a year."
Lily could only stare at her in horror.