((Sorry guys, I'm having trouble writing because I've lost a lot of confidence in my characters due to something having to do with my characters I RP with a friend. It just made me super depressed and writing Josie kinda got harder after that. Does anyone else do that? Is anyone else that attached to their characters that they become a part of them? Thats fixed now though, for the most part.
I also feel like I'm writing Josie completely different and that she's not the person she was at the first two chapters.
Yeah I know, I whine about something different every week. I'm sorry.
But! I'm almost at 50 story followers! Yaaaaay. Keep reviewing guys 3 It lifts my spirits.))
The next morning dreams of being held under fireworks were shattered by the morning sun bouncing from the snowy rooftops. Josie woke up, still in her clothing from the night before after passing out halfway into a cup of tea to stop her panic attack, to Jones pawing at her nose as her mother called from outside her door to get up. Nudging the tiny kitten off her chest, she rolled over to glance at the clock on her bedside, nearly jumping out of her skin when she looked at the time. The twins would supposed to be picked up from the portkey in thirty minutes, giving her just over an hour to get herself and her room ready.
She quickly grabbed the clothes she had chosen to wear yesterday morning, running past her mother and the basket of fresh laundry into the bathroom to quickly shower and blow-dry her hair. Throwing on her long sleeved shirt and almost tripping over the flared bottom of the dark jeans she was buttoning as she ran into her room, quickly picking up her dirty clothes hamper and the cup she drank tea from last night and ran to the put them in their desired places. Blue eyes glanced at the clock after she was through shoving her basket of clean laundry into the bottom of her closet and straitening up a few things, relieved to find she had a few minutes to spare.
Her mother joined Josie in the kitchen as she fiddled with the freshly washed dishes, quickly fixing tea and putting away anything out of place. Delephine had to have everything be absolutely perfect if people came over, thinking that she was going to be judged horribly if her home was the least bit untidy. Long tanned arms stained with paint wrapped around Josie, her mothers chin setting on the top of her hear. "About last night…" she started to say before being cut off by Josie. "I don't want to talk about it." She said softly, her stomach churning a bit. "That's fine. I'm just going to say you're not in trouble, and I'm proud that you stood up for yourself." She said, letting go of her and walking towards the living room. Josie stood there in the kitchen until she heard the key turn in the lock and her father called from the foyer. "We're here!"
Brown hair swung as she tilted her head around the corner, looking into the living area as Fred and George stepped inside. She restrained herself from wrapping her arms around them and refusing to let go until they left, instead settling on straitening her clothes one last time and hesitantly walking into the living room. Josie's day was instantly brightened when the twins turned from greeting her mother, locking eyes with her and breaking out into grins in unison. Blood rushed to her cheeks as she stood patiently beside her mother as she introduced herself and asked them questions before Fred could even set down the bag he had slung over his shoulder.
"Bonjour! It's nice to meet you. I'm Josephine's mother, and you two must be Fred and George. I'm so glad she has friends to invite over." Josie was ready to bang her head against the wall after mere minutes of her mother speaking, but the expressions the twins made while trying to understand her mother's accent were quite funny. This was undoubtedly going to be the most embarrassing day of her life.
Minutes later she was sitting on the far side of the couch away from the twins, her mother asking questions and talking to them like they were the most interesting people in the world. "So how did you meet her? I'm sure she didn't just waltz up to you and start talking to you, I'd faint from shock if she did." Her mother was saying as she twirled her wedding ring around her finger. Fred chuckled, glancing at Josie who was watching them from underneath her bangs as she chewed her lip nervously. She had a feeling that the twins wouldn't skip the chance to embarrass her in good fun. "Well we were walking through the train to see our friend…" "And we passed by an open door, and saw a pretty girl we'd never seen before. " "She looked about our age, so it was odd we didn't recognize her." "We introduced ourselves, like proper gentlemen." Josie breathed a laugh, listening intently to their side of the first time they met. "I'm sure she was a bit put off by that." Her mother said with a smile that hid a thousand words meant for Josie to pick up on.
"She was fine, very charming." "A little nervous, but she warmed up to us quickly." "Even fell into my lap when the lights went off on the train." Josie choked on the tea she was sipping on when they let that bit of information, looking at them in shock while she fought the urge to kick them in the shins. Her mother giggled elegantly as Josie sent them a look from across the couch before clearing her throat. "It was an accident." She said shakily, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. "It was a lucky one." George said, grinning at her.
Her mother asked how Josie did in school compared to everyone who's been there for years. "Better than half of us, Lee refuses to do his homework without her in the room." Fred said, chuckling a bit. By the time her mother really got into the territory of their relationship, Josie was in the kitchen making more tea, most of which she had sipped away herself out of nervousness. Ornate patterns tickled her fingers as she moved the teapot back onto the tray, the cups rattling as she picked up the tray and headed back towards the kitchen. She wished she had taken Fred up on his offer to help, the first words she heard when entering the room causing her to lose her grip on the tray and nearly drop it. "So I heard she kissed you after a sports practice."
The hitch in her breath drowned out their answer. The bowl of cookies her mother had bought from downstairs fell off the tray as it tipped dangerously, hot tea spilling on to Josie's hand as she lowered it to the floor. Fred and George were at either side of her instantly, her mother close behind them. "Are you alright?" George asked, taking her hand that had begun to shake as anxiety pumped through her blood. Fingers pushed hair behind her ear, the movement drawing her eyes up to Fred's face as time slowed around the three of them. The panic drained from her eyes as they scanned over furrowed eyebrows, flushed freckled cheeks and deep eyes. Her head turned to the hands that were holding hers, turning over the tea stained skin to check for burns as George wiped off the hot liquid. Slightly calloused fingers grazed over her skin as he bent down to look her in the eyes, stopping her hyperventilating in its tracks. "I'm fine, just lost my grip." Josie's mother drug her to the kitchen to look at her hand, Fred and George picking up the tray and dropped sweets before following close after.
After that crisis had been taking care of, the subject that Josie so desperately wanted to be forgotten was brought up again. Through the wall between the living room, Fred and Josie could hear Delephine ask the dreaded question as George helped her clean up. Josie regretting listening to her mother and staying in the living room with Fred to hold ice on her hand, now she couldn't stop the question from being asked. "So, she kissed you first?" her mother's muttered voice asked, Josie's head snapping to look in her direction quick enough to give her whiplash. Fred chuckled beside her, holding her hand between his to keep the ice on it, his thumb stroking her palm as she listened to the conversation going on behind them.
"Uh, yeah. She did, kind of out of nowhere really." George paused. "I guess it makes it even, since we're the ones who told her we liked her first." "So it was just that once?" She was going to strangle her mother for being so nosey, even by Josie's standards it was impolite. George's chuckle came the exact moment Fred's did beside her as he moved closer and laid an arm across the couch behind her. "Not exactly. I don't mean to be impolite mam, but your daughter's beautiful, if anyone got to know her they wouldn't be able to keep away either. " Georges words made her heart skip a bit, her cheeks turning red as she looked towards Fred questioningly an argument hanging from her lips. It was silenced before she could say anything, her words catching in her throat as Fred's fingers played with her hair and smiled at her when he spoke. "It's true."
The next question barely reached her ears through the thudding in her chest. "Is it going to be a relationship officially any time soon?" "As soon as she accepts." Fred said just as George did in the other room, leaning over to kiss her cheek gently and smirk at her dark crimson blush. Her mother and George appeared moments later, Josie clearing her throat to fight off her flustered state as Delephine picked her bag up off the couch, heels clicking loudly as she headed to the door. "I'll be going now, be home in time to start dinner for the five of us. Have anything you want from the refrigerator, and don't wander too far if you leave the house." She said it all so quickly Josie didn't realize she was leaving until she was at the door. "Have fun!" Her mother called as the door closed and her parent left her alone. In the apartment. With two teenage boys. You think she'd have better judgment. Josie thought, before realization hit her that her mother knew exactly what she was doing. Looking at the set of grinning faces in front of her, Josie started planning exactly what she was going to do to her mother when she got home.
She was going to thank her.