CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Pretty soon, Jane could be seen walking through the castle, hand-in-hand with Aaron. It was exciting, having a boyfriend. He was always so sweet to her; he always offered to carry her books and was telling her how pretty or beautiful she was. She caught on quickly when it came to snogging, it came naturally to her now.
Jane felt as though everything was going great. And it was. Aaron was amazing and gorgeous. James and Sirius were behaving themselves. All her other friends liked him. Other girls were jealous of her. Everything was perfect, and Jane was so happy.
But James was wary. His hate for Ashby still continued, though, admittedly, he had seen how happy Jane was around him, and it lessened the anger he felt towards the guy. But he couldn't stop the nagging sensation telling him that something was still wrong. There was something in the way that Ashby talked when he was around James that made him feel uneasy, as though he were only using Jane to get to him. Something about his demeanour was still disturbing to James.
James had even gone so far as to tag along on Jane and Ashby's first date in Hogsmeade. He and Peter, whom he had dragged along for company, had sat in a corner booth of The Three Broomsticks under James' invisibility cloak. From there, James kept a watchful eye on Ashby and Jane as they enjoyed their tea. After a while of nothing untoward happening, Peter had suggested that they leave.
"Maybe you're wrong about him, mate," he had said. "He seems really polite and everything. Maybe you were just overreacting."
However, James had refused to leave until the date was over, no matter how much Peter protested. And nothing happened. Maybe he was just paranoid.
On Valentine's Day, Aaron had bought Jane a bouquet of red roses and a large box of chocolates. Jane and her roommates had stayed up that night talking about how thoughtful and wonderful he was as they giggled together.
On the sixteenth day of February, Aaron cheered Jane on in Gryffindor's match against Hufflepuff. She went on to score seventy points that game, only ten less than James did. And she did it without being injured. When Brenton had caught the Snitch that game, Jane felt as though she were invincible.
At the after party, though she didn't drink, Jane still had fun and interacted with people. Then, she had snuck out down to the Black Lake with Aaron, this time without getting caught. Jane remembered looking up at the night sky, Aaron's cloak wrapped tightly around her. Her bum had gone numb from sitting on the frosty ground, but she didn't complain. She was happy.
"You are so beautiful," Aaron had told her.
Jane had smiled and blushed. She still wasn't used to the daily flow of compliments.
"You always say that," she had said.
Aaron had laughed before cupping her delicate chin with his hand.
"And it's always true," he had replied before leaning in to kiss her gently.
What was a gentle kiss had quickly turned into a heated one. His hands had moved from her chin. Jane had remembered his hands traveling lower and lower until they had reached the hem of her shirt. Her heart had pumped hard in her chest, especially when his fingertips had grazed over the bare skin under her shirt as they had travelled back upwards.
Jane had been frantic. Was she ready for that just yet? She was only thirteen; next month, she'd be turning fourteen. She pushed his hands back down slightly as they continued to snog. She was still deciding.
His hands slowly crept back up, fingertips now grazing the bottom of her bra. Nope, she was not ready. Her eyes shot open, and she pulled away from him.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
At first Jane didn't say anything. Hopefully, he'd come to the conclusion by himself. But no such luck.
"Well?" he asked.
"I-I, um," she started nervously, "I'm not really ready for that just yet."
Her voice was timid, and she didn't look at him.
"It'll be okay," Aaron coaxed as he tried to go back to snogging her.
However, Jane pushed away from him again, not comfortable with this in the slightest.
"Oh, come on, it'll be okay," he said to her, but she just shook her head.
"I don't—I'm not ready for that," she told Aaron again. "Maybe later, but right now, I just—I'm not really comfortable with it."
Aaron stared at her, his lips pursed. Jane didn't look at him. Was he mad at her? She didn't want him to be mad at her. God, he was going to think she was a prude. Why did she even have to say anything? Why was she always ruining things? Big deal if he touched her breasts. It wasn't like they were about to shag right there on the ground.
Jane felt as though she were going to have an anxiety attack before he finally spoke.
"All right," Aaron said.
Jane snapped her head up to look at him. Did she hear him right? She had heard horror stories of guys breaking it off with girls because they had refused to put out; she really didn't want him to break up with her.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said.
"So, you-you're not mad at me, are you?" Jane asked.
He didn't say anything at first, and Jane's heart almost stopped.
"No, of course not. Don't be silly," Aaron said, standing up and helping Jane to her feet.
"I was just worried that, um—"
"Jane," Aaron said.
She looked up at him.
"I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do," he said. "So you're not ready. It's okay."
Jane let out a nervous laugh.
"You're a really great person, you know that?" Jane said, relieved.
Aaron smirked.
"Of course I know that," he said as they started to walk back up to the castle.
When Jane got back to the common room, the victory party was coming to an end. She saw the Prewett twins gathering up all the remaining Firewhiskey bottles and talked to them for a while before heading up to her dorm.
Marlene was the only one awake when she got back.
"You're in late," Marlene stated, staring at the canopy of her bed.
"I was out with Aaron," Jane explained. "Why are you still up?"
"Thinking," Marlene said. "I snogged Sirius Black."
Jane gave Marlene an incredulous look.
"Really?" Jane asked. "Why?"
"What do you mean, 'why?' He's so handsome and—"
"No, he's so arrogant and so, well, him," Jane said.
Marlene sat up in her bed and looked at Jane.
"You can't tell me that you don't think he's cute," she said.
"I have a boyfriend," Jane replied. "And even if I didn't, I still wouldn't snog Sirius of all people."
"Why not?" Marlene asked.
"I don't know, he's just—I don't know," Jane said, not really able to think of a good reason.
"So, are you two, like, together now or what?" Jane asked as she changed into her pyjamas, even though she already knew the answer.
"I don't think we are," Marlene said. "I kind of want to be though."
Jane wanted to tell her that Sirius wasn't really the boyfriend type. He was too full of himself to really have feelings for someone else. However, she stayed quiet. No need to crush Marlene's hopes, though she knew Sirius would.
Jane crawled into bed after saying goodnight to Marlene, and curled up into a ball. In the back of her mind, though Aaron had said it was okay, Jane couldn't help but feel upset. What if he didn't really want to be with her anymore because she wasn't ready? In the back of her mind, she could hear this voice telling her that if he did that, then she shouldn't want to be with him, but she couldn't help it. She really wanted things to work out between them.
Jane really hoped Aaron had been telling her the truth. She really hoped it was all right to not be ready.