Ch 16: Doubts Near Christmas
"Yup. We'll see you guys later!" Oliver calls, as we walk into the alley-way – most likely to apparate back to the apartment.
"Don't forget, Katie! No glove no love!" One of the twins calls after me. Wonder what that means. I look up at Oliver, and I can see he's blushing.
"What does 'no glove no love' mean?" I ask. He just blushes and turns away.
"I'll tell you later," he mumbles. I huff unhappily, and we continue to walk. He stops and turns around, looking over his shoulder.
"Hurry," He says, pulling me to him. I squeeze him as hard as I can, and close my eyes, feeling the familiar rush of wind through my hair.
"You can let go now," Oliver says in a strained voice. Oh right. I have him in a deathgrip.
"Sorry," I mumble, looking away. Hum, I never really noticed the other tenants at our complex. I only see that one old woman with her pet poodle, but that's it. Maybe everyone's at work, or is snogging or something. Or maybe...They wear invisibility cloaks...OK, I'm freaking myself out now.
"Katie? You coming in or are you gunna stay out in the hall all night?" Oliver asks. I snap back to attention and sprint inside, dead-bolting the door behind me.
"Something wrong?" Oliver asks me, eyebrows raised. I shake my head no, and he grabs my hand.
"Come on," he says softly, leading me towards the kitchen.
"Wow," I whisper in awe. In front of me, the table is set with red napkins and plates with silverware that glints in the dim light. A bouquet of red roses in a big glass vase acted as a centerpiece.
Oliver steps forward and pulls my seat out.
"Milady," he says, looking at me expectantly.
"Thank you, kind sir," I say, taking the seat offered. He pushes me in and I grab the napkin off my plate and placing it in my lap. Yes, even I have manners!
"Uh...Oliver?" I hesitate. I can't see him. The vase is in the way.
"Oh, right. Stupid me," Oliver stutters, and I see two hands encircle the vase, and move it to the side.
"Much better," I say, my eyes softening when I see his handsome face. I'm such a hopeless romantic. Heheh. Not that that's a bad thing!
Dinner goes by flawlessly quick, and I sit back in my chair. That was some brilliant steak and potatoes dinner, hmm, I should tell him that.
"Dinner was bloody brilliant, Oliver!" I say, patting my full tummy happily.
"Thanks," he replies, smiling softly.
"So is there any special occasion?" I ask on a whim. Usually there's always strings attached when it came to good food.
"Well, yes and no. First of all, I made the dinner just because I wanted to...but I guess it is a good time to tell you," Oliver said, grinning lopsidedly. Oh dear. I told you there were strings attached! I told you!
"Tell me what?" I prompted. Please don't let it be bad, please don't let it be bad!
"I'll be gone for three weeks straight. The club is touring around, playing friendlies against other clubs in an exhibition sort of thing," he explains. Phew. I thought he was going to say something like he didn't love me anymore. Things like that tend to happen to me.
"I wish I could come," I mutter selfishly. But nooooo! I have to go to work! Oliver smiled in sympathy.
"But you have work, Kates," he reminded me. Not that I needed to be, of course.
"I know," I muttered.
"Well, I should get to bed. I have an early morning tomorrow. Have to be out of here by 4," he said darkly.
"Harsh," I say, wincing out of one eye. Oliver gave me a knowing look and bent over my chair, kissing my forehead.
"Night Kates," he whispered. I huffed loudly. No kiss on the lips? Wow, I'm getting selfish.
"Night Oliver," I whispered back. I hear Oliver walk off and close his door, and I sigh, slouching in my seat.
After I finished casting a cleaning spell on the dishes, I climbed into my own bed. I can't say I wasn't a bit put off by his somewhat... 'cold' attitude, because well, it wasn't cool. But eh, like always, I'm probably just over reacting.
A little over a week and a half had passed, and all I had heard from Oliver were the scores I read in the local paper. It was kind of putting me off, to be honest. But then again, it must be hard being a superstar Quidditch player. Poor bloke probably doesn't even have time to find an owl.
Or so I thought.
The day started out as many others before it had. I woke up, had breakfast, went to work, and would read Witch Weekly after Alicia had thumbed through it. Usually I just scanned the cover, looking at the various teasers and pictures, but one in particular caught my eye.
Oliver and his mates were swaying, mouthing the lyrics to a pub song (although I couldn't make out which one it was), tankards raised high above their heads and...Some brunette was latched around Oliver's waist, grinning and every few seconds would wink seductively up at Oliver who smiled down on her.
Well isn't this just a WONDERFUL surprise. I exhaled out of my nose loudly, and mentally decided to wait it out. I'd just let it turn over in my head. There had to be a logical explanation about this. I'm just being jealous and untrustworthy!
The next few days passed painfully slow. Every day, the same old thing. Wake up, breakfast, work, lunch with the girls, work, home, dinner, bed. It was a cycle that one easily tires of. Man I can't wait until Oliver gets home and when Christmas break starts. Alicia and I have agreed to take a week off for Christmas to relax with family and friends.
So here I am, sitting alone in my bedroom, reading a romance novel (my fifth this month) and I hear a familiar jingle of keys. Oliver!
I jump out of bed and run into the living room in time to see an exhausted looking Oliver dropping his massive Quidditch bag and collapse on the couch. I bounded over and sat down next to him. Oliver had his eyes closed, and his head was rolled back. Not a very promising look. I bet I can fix that though!
"Oliver," I whisper before meeting his lips in a kiss. He groaned and smiled at me through half-lidded eyes.
"Hey, Kates," he said. Wow, he sounds exhausted. Maybe I should bring the picture of him and the girl up later...Or maybe not.
"How are you doing?" I ask. Just the standard drill, you know?
"Dead tired,"
"I read about your games in the newspaper. Witch weekly said you were brilliant in every single game, especially against the Holyhead Harpies. Glad to know those beautiful chasers didn't affect your game," I say. It sounded bitter in my head, but sounded like a joke when I said it. Oh well.
"Only one chaser could throw me off my game," he said, laughing.
"I know you're tired, but can I ask you something?" I query. Oliver's eyes widen so they're fully opened, and they told me to continue.
"Accio newspaper!" I say, raising my wand towards the counter where the newspaper floats over to us. Oliver quirks an eyebrow and grabs the newspaper out of the air.
"Who is that?" I say, trying to sound calm as I point to the smiling 'couple' on the page. Oliver groans and puts a hand to his face. Uh oh. I don't like the sound of this.
"Oliver?" I say his name fearfully. He sighs and removes his hand, so he's staring at the ceiling.
"Who is that, Oliver?" I ask even more timidly than before. Please don't say what I think he's going to say...
"She's the owner of the bar," he says. Really now...
"Then why'd you hesitate to say that?" I ask, a bit suspicious. Oliver turns and meets my eyes.
"You said yourself, I'm exhausted. It's hard to think straight," he murmurs. I look at him suspiciously. He narrows his eyes.
"Why do you ask?"
"No reason," I say quickly. He narrows his eyes even more and edges closer to me.
"Katie, don't you trust me?" he asks. His eyes glisten in the light of the room and I stare back.
"Of course I trust you!"
"Then why'd you ask?"
"I was...jealous," I say, looking away. It's true. Crap, now my eyes are watering. Is it out of embarrassment? Or am I tearing up because of something else?
"Katie," he says, drawing me into a hug. He pulled the newspaper over and pointed at it.
"That's Denise Lawson, owner of the bar we were at the night. She tried to flirt with me, but I told her I was taken by a beautiful blonde chaser, so she settled for buying me and my mates a round of drinks 'cus I'm so devilishly good looking," he added, chuckling slightly. Man, now I feel like a complete bitch.
"I'm sorry," I whisper as I hug his side. He smiles and strokes my arm.
"I'm just glad to be home with my girl," he says, kissing the top of my head. I snuggle into him tighter.
"I missed you," I say loudly. I missed not being held, not being kissed, and not seeing my attractive roommate/boyfriend everyday like I had done for the past few years.
"I missed you, too," he said back. I smiled and looked up at him. He smiled back and craned his neck to kiss me. I brought my arm from behind his back and held myself up, leaning forward to deepen the kiss. He opened his mouth a little bit, and I slide my tongue in between his lips. I smiled into the kiss as our lips met in tongue tangling bliss.
"Come on, bed time," he says, separating and standing up. Blast! Just when it was getting good. I got that stupid warm flip-flopping feeling in my stomach again. I held my hand up, and he enclosed his around mine, pulling me up.
"But I don't wanna go to bed!" I pout. He pushes me ahead, and smacks me on my boxer-clad rump. I turn around in shock, and he just grins at me.
"Fine. Night night," I say, getting up on my tip toes and pecking him on the lips.
"Night Katie," he whispered, walking towards his own bedroom. I closed my door behind me and flopped on my bed. Wow...Oliver is just so...perfect. I love him so much...
I think out of all the many weeks I spent with Oliver, I've only had one bad experience, and it wasn't entirely his fault! It wasn't like a fight or anything...but well. Let's just have a wee bit of a flashback:
"Oi, another slow day as usual," I commented as I swept the floor of the shop. Alicia murmured something in response as she thumbed through a magazine.
"Well, we have our highs and our lows. We already sold a bunch of our new shipment to those veela twins the other day, so I guess it's time for us to have a low point before skyrocketing back up," Alicia said after she finished reading the magazine.
"I suppose so," I mumbled. Humph. I honestly don't see what men see in veelas! Sure, they are aesthetically pleasing, but they're about as thick as a tree trunk! The only people I've ever seen thicker, were Crabbe and Goyle. They were mates of that younger year prat Malfoy. Wonder what happened to that lot...
The soft tinkling of a bell was heard, and in walks a blonde woman, flanked by a small Asian woman – most likely Chinese. I stash the broom as Alicia greets the girls. They don't say anything, but proceed to walk in and finger some of the items. Humph, I rather dislike the silent types. It's sort of like saying that they're ignoring us, and that's not nice.
The blonde girl fingers a skirt, lifting up the pleats to see if it was a skort or a skirt, and then her eye catches mine.
"Excuse me, but you don't happen to be...Oliver Wood's girlfriend?" she asks. I blink at her, and nod. Her eyebrows furrow and she looks at me in disgust.
"How did YOU snag the hottest man in Europe?" she spits, placing her hands on her hips. Her companion sighs and sneaks out the front door. I would have laughed if I wasn't being dissed by some...random woman!
"What's that supposed to mean?" I say, narrowing my eyes. Humph. Who does she think she is? Coming into MY store and disrespecting me!
"Like you don't know,"
"Actually, I don't. Why don't you enlighten me," I suggest bitterly. Let's hear what this jerk has to say.
"I was just asking, how some filthy sewer slut such as yourself could have bagged the sexiest, sweetest man who ever lived." She did not...Oh wait...SHE DID.
"You know nothing about me OR Oliver, so I suggest you get out of my store, before you regret it," I threaten. She sneers and brandishes her wand out of her TACKY handbag and points it at me. Want to play the hard way do you? I raise my own wand out of the back pocket of my jeans and point it at her.
"I'll give you one more chance to leave my store," I hiss. She narrows her eyes and takes in a breath. Oh what's that? TOO SLOW!
"Expelliarmus!" I yell. Her wand goes flying out of her hand and smacks against the front door. She looks over her shoulder at her wand, and I put mine back in my pocket.
"Leave," I command. She turns back towards me and spits. That's it.
I stride up to the bitch and punch her as hard as I can. She crumples to the ground, clutching her nose. From the satisfying sound it made, I'd say it was broken. Heh.
"You'll pay for this!" She screeches between sobs as she crawls out my door. The door closes solidly behind her and I turn to Alicia, who had watched the whole thing in silenced shock.
"No I won't," I say, grinning at Alicia. Hmm. She's starting to look like a guppy. Maybe I should offer her some water...(End Flashback)
At last! It's here! I bound out of my room and burst through Oliver's door. He sat up, propped up on his elbows and the faint sunlight streaming in through the windows illuminated his toned skin. Oh so drool-worthy roommate and boyfriend of mine.
"What?" he asks groggily. Oh right. I came in here for a reason.
"It's Christmas!" I screamed, running over and tossing myself on his bed where I proceeded to bounce on his mattress. He laughed softly and pulled me over to him.
"Happy Christmas then," he whispered, kissing me on the lips.
"Ewww! Morning breath!" I commented playfully, waving a hand in front of my face. He smiles at me and pushes me off the bed. Hey! That actually hurt!
"Heyyyyyyy," I whine. But of course, being the spoiled brat I am, I refuse to move. Oliver kicks off the bed and stands over me, his hands on his hips.
"What am I going to do with you?" he asks, smirking. Ooh! How about you let me roam my hands over those rock hard abs of yours! Growl! Ah! Bad Katie! Bad!
"Help me up?" I prompt, grinning widely. Oliver snorts and holds out a hand. I gladly accept it and he pulls me to my feet really quickly, and wraps a hand around my waist.
"You want to go get cleaned up?" he suggests. I nod. I hate morning breath! Yuck!
He leads us into the bathroom, and I grab an alice band, securing my hair behind me. He turns on his tap, and I quirk an eyebrow at him.
Well, I won't go into detail, but three minutes later, we were both pretty much frothing at the mouth and skin. But hey, this is what you get when you have speed-brushing and face-washing races!
"So, you want to try that kiss again?" Oliver says, smiling softly. I giggle and shake my head.
"I'd rather open my presents," I admit. Hey, at least I'm being honest! And I can't help it that I'm a kid at heart! Oliver rolls his eyes and let's me run out of the room.
Underneath our modest Christmas tree (That Oliver and I decorated ourselves, sans magic), scarce few packages sat. I recognized one as the book for Oliver, but none of the others.
"What are you waiting for?" he asks. I blink at him, and then dive-tackle the presents. One particularly large present catches my attention, but Oliver coughs loudly from behind me.
"You sick or something?" I ask, turning to face him.
"No. Just open that one last," he says, sitting down on the couch and picking up a present. I nod and pick up another present.
"To TieKat, Love Gred and Forge," I read aloud. Should I be scared?
I rip open the red and gold (Ha! Gryffindor colors!) paper and see an assortment of goodies from their shop. Haha, Weasley's Wizardly Wheezes (AN: I couldn't think of the real name or if that's right or not, so bare with me please), Canary Creams, and a bunch of other things I've never heard of before. Ooh, this should prove to be fun. I look up and see Oliver holding up a similar package. Darn, there goes test subject number one. Oh well, there's always others!
I set the package aside, and turn to another addressed to me. A lumpy, purple square. I pick it up, and it wilts in my hands. Oh dear...clothes. Probably from Alicia. What?! From Ange?! Noooooo! She HAS joined the dark side! Whyyyyyyyy?!
Oh well, might as well open it. Cautiously running my index finger under the tape, the wrapping paper falls apart in my lap. Oh no. It's worse than I thought. I pick up a lacey black tank top, and eye the lacey boy short underneath. A little pink note flutters down, and I snatch it up.
'Kate-
Thought you might want a new set of jammies. I hear black doesn't show 'leaks' at all. Happy Christmas!
-Ange'
Agh! They STILL haven't forgotten about the popsicle incident!
"What's that?" I hear Oliver ask. I lower the cami and see Oliver staring at me, an eyebrow quirked. Oh dear. Blush coming on!
"Nothing!" I squeak, shoving the skimpy shirt back down into the wrapping paper and shoving it aside and picking up Alicia's present.
Yes! This gift is solid! I love solid gifts. So much better than soft ones. Hehe. Let's see what she got me.
I shred open the paper and see a stack of books. Another pink note flutters out and I peak down at it.
'Katie-
I know you were running low on romance novels, so I took the liberty to get you a few new ones. Enjoy! Happy Christmas!
Love,
Alicia'
Aww. How sweet. How did she know I was reading romance novels and that I was out? Hmm...I'll have to ask her later.
I look up at Oliver, and he's...showing me the front of some green boxers.
"What'd the girls get you?" I ask. Oliver clears his throat nervously, and turns the boxers around. I bust out laughing at the sight.
"Quidditch Studmuffin?" I ask between laughs. He lowers them onto this lap and shakes his head sadly.
"The worst thing is that's not the only one!"
"Really?! Show me!" I squeal, rocking back and forth in anticipation. He lifts up a pair of blue cotton boxers that has a little keeper flying around chasing a quaffle back and forth between three rings, then he lifts up a pair of white silk boxers and flips them around to reveal-
"Sex On Legs?! Hahahahah!" I laugh, falling over on my side, my stomach convulsing with laughter. Oliver blushes and shoves the boxers back in the box and huffs in annoyance. Poor Ollie, but I can't help it! Those girls are so bad!
I crawl up on the couch next to him and throw my arms around his shoulders.
"I'm only laughing cus those boxers were obviously made for you," I purr in his ear. Wow, I really should NOT have had that eggnog before I woke Oliver up. Tee hee.
Oliver looks at me, looking dubious of my comments.
"I'll take my kiss now," I whisper in his ear. He shivers and turns and meets my lips, his hands wrapping around my waist and bringing me on top of him. His hands roam under my loose Quidditch shirt and I feel a finger going up and down my spine. Wow, that feels really good. Mmm...
"Oliver," I pant his name against his lips. He smiles and kisses me a bit harder. I kiss him back even harder and lean away.
"More later. But can I open my present NOW?" I ask impatiently. He rolls his eyes and sighs.
"Oh alright,"
"Besides! You still need to open mine!" I say, getting up from his lap and handing him the heavy book.
"Oof!" he groans. "What'd you get me that's this heavy?" he asks. I wink and sit down on the floor. Now let's see what Ollie got me. Hehe.
"Wow, Kates! This is...wow!" He sputters. I look up and he's flipping through the book.
"Hope you like it, it cost me a fortune," I comment as I begin the slowly tear the paper open. I have to make this last so I can torture myself and make it that much better.
"Kates...you shouldn't have spent so much on me," he says softly.
"Oh come off it, Wood. You would have done the same thing!" I say. Heh, that shut him up!
Okay. First off, I'd like to apologize for that last chapter. I know it sucked, and I know it pissed off a lot of people because I wrote out ALL the lyrics. But all I have to ask is this; 'Was it THAT big of a deal to have to scroll down just a little more?' (sorry..havin a bad week again - forgive the sarcasm) and yeah...Katie is a virgin, and no, the story taint over till the fat lady sings!! And i'm not talkin bout portraits here! Hum. Onto the hall of FAME!
-PhyrePrincess (Thank you! #200!!!!)
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