Chapter Nineteen
Lily's in Love
Lily was in a completely dreamy mood and preceded to paint pictures of flowers and the sort. Then she painted another chest of drawers and a mirror. She was just in a daze over the fact that she had flirted with James so easily. Was it the same her, she wondered as she was painting sunflowers in a vase. Can't be, she decided as she tuned her mind back into her painting.
Livvy stayed at home with her family, playing cricket with her brothers and baking with her mum. Sometimes her older brother's friends would try hit on her, but she just brushed them off. She had family barbeques, trips to the beach and had many play fights with her brothers. Sam was the oldest and had come home from his job with Gringotts. He was tall and wiry with sandy hair and blue eyes. He was nineteen and was two years out of Hogwarts, where he was Head Boy. Everyone teased him because no one else in the family had a hope in hell of doing that. Livvy came next, a lot shorter than Sam but with the same blue eyes, blonde hair and tanned skin. Hamish was next, he was taller than Livvy, with the same coloring except his eyes were green. His hair refused to lie flat and was always spikey. He was two years younger than Livvy and was just about to start his fifth year. He was a bit of a trouble maker but was liked by everyone, as was every member of the Barnette family. Matt the youngest was just going to start his second year at Hogwarts. He looked just like his oldest brother Sam. That was the funny thing about her family, they all looked almost exactly the same, with minor exceptions like Hamish's eyes, Livvy's height and Matt's teeth (he had to have braces which none of the others had to have). Their parents, Claire and John were both very laid back but also very proud of their kids. John worked for the ministry in the Department of Magical Creatures and Claire was a secretary for the Ministry. They were both very relaxed parents as you had to be with four kids in the space of seven years.
They lived in a big old Victorian house in the suburbs with was surrounded with trees and grass. This house was a haven for kids and it was the favorite house of all the Barnette kids friends. Livvy's room was in a tower which looked out over the garden surrounding the house. She spent her days playing outside and writing letters to her friends and boyfriend. Sam's girlfriend Lindsay had come to visit a few days and Livvy had gotten on well with her. Her parents knew that she had a steady boyfriend but weren't quite sure if they wanted to meet him, which worked out well as Remus probably wasn't ready to 'meet the parents' just yet.
Lainie, however hadn't taking to painting or family. She hated anything arty and since she was an only child, she didn't have any brothers or sister's, James was her closest thing to a sibling. But she hadn't been in the mood to see him, or hear him rave on about Lily. She had listened to him for a couple of days, then had just started avoiding him. She was losing him, and it kind of weighed down on her, to distract herself from how she was losing him, she started working out in the small gym they had at home and writing letters to her friends who seemed to write even more frequently than usual, even Remus and Sirius were writing her weekly letters, as id trying to make sure she was alright. She didn't mind it though, it was nice to tell someone about stuff. She began to run on the treadmill for long periods of time. She would pound it out for miles and miles, while watching muggle music videos, just listening to the steady pound of her feet and the music. She would run in the morning, then swim. After the swim she was usually so knackered that she would fall asleep in the shade of the garden. After lunch she would usually do something with her parents like go shopping with mum, or practicing quidditch with dad. But today her parents were out, they had to go into town for the day. So after a juice, she changed into her running shorts and a clean tank top, laced up her running shoes, she wandered out to the gym.
She switched on the music and began to warm up by just walking for a while. Then she picked up the pace and began to pound away. After she had been running for about half an hour, James tapped on the glass and she looked up. Her heart sank, why did he have to come, couldn't he take the hint, she didn't want to hear him go on about Lily, as much as she loved her, there was only so much she could take. He came round and came in to stand beside her, he tried to talk to her but she couldn't hear him over the music and she didn't particularly want to. He turned the music down and muted the t.v. Damn.
"Lainie" he said, leaning on the window by her treadmill.
"What, James. Can this possibly wait. I'm a little busy." She said, exasperatedly.
"Fine, I'll be quick. Why have you been avoiding me?" he said, almost angrily. He couldn't understand why she had never been home when he came by, but he was sure she was there. What had he done?
"Because I'm sick and tired of you being so selfish and so self centered." Lainie exploded at him, she pounded more furiously on.
"What, I'm self centered. You, you can't even think that maybe someone else is happy so maybe you could at least pretend to be happy for them. Me, selfish, you are a complete and utter self centered......." He paused, considering whether he should actually call her the 'B' word. Lainie was so furious, angry, hurt and confused that she couldn't find words to express the anger she felt. So she just ran harder. Her footsteps pounded away on the treadmill. James started to doubt what he had said, was she so wrong in being tires of him. Sirius had told him just the other day to shut up about Lily. Maybe it was the same. He faltered.
Lainie was furious, he had taken advantage of her always having time to listen to his problems, he hadn't talked of barely anything else. Everyone else seemed so concerned about her, and she had an inkling why, but she wasn't sure she was really......, well, something. But he hadn't even noticed. If there was anything to notice. She finished running and went out to the pool. He followed her. There was no way she was speaking to him. How could he talk to her like that. She dived into the water and began to swim. James followed her from the side of the pool. She couldn't just ignore him, could he. This continued till she went upstairs into her room, she slammed the door in his face.
Then she hit her bed and took a few deep shaky breaths, she felt tears prick her eyes, what the hell was wrong with her. Why was everyone so worried about her. there must be a reason. Was she depressed or psychotic or what. She began to cry, slowly, about stuff. About Alex cheating on her, and about everything that seemed to be going strangely. And that is where she stayed till someone opened her door and sat down beside her. James gently stroked her hair and let her cry on him. This is what happened with her, you acted normal to she told you what was wrong. Push her and she'd snap. So that's where they stayed, till Lainie fell asleep and James slept on her bed beside her.
When he woke up, she was still asleep, he moved her arm and began to wander round he room. He was filing through the letters on her desk. There were heaps of them. Many of them were written in Lily's round angelic writing and in Livvy's spiky joined writing, lying in piles on her desk. He also noticed, with some, surprise, that there were quite a few written in Remus's neat capitals (for some reason he only wrote in capitals) and Sirius's barely legible scrawl, of which there seemed to be pages and pages of. This puzzled James, he didn't know those guys had been writing to her regularly. He began to read........
Lainie,
How have you been. Don't worry about the fact that people are worried about you, you scare most people so it's only natural that people are concerned about you. You get dumped and I'm the only one who saw you cry. Tell the girls you're fine. You are aren't you? Just keep on going and being yourself. That's was incredibly lame. In fact lamer than lame. Is lamer even a word......... ?
James read this with interest, he didn't know that they had been writing to them. He thought that Lainie was getting back on track, apart from the excessive exercise, she was pretty normal, well to everyone else. He padded down stairs to make her breakfast, leaving her breathing heavily into her pillow.
Hey ho all. please review, holidays start soon and i am getting a car, yay, yay, yay. awesome. thanks to all who have, i love you all so much.
anyway, r and r, i'll update soon, i promise.