Fast Friends

As dark clouds descended over Durham, the group of bridge-diving Duke University students huddled together in a small fast-food joint near their campus. Alex had charmed Sara's room-mate Jessica into the seat opposite him and was mischievously waving a French fry covered with ketchup in her face. "I envy your metabolism, sweetie," the brunette sighed, throwing Sara's plate an envious glance. "Cassie will have my head if I touch that thing." She glared darkly at the smirking Alex, while Sara just nodded absently, focused on twisting her damp hair into a loose plait. Both girls were majoring in dance, and their ballet teacher was famous for her impeccable standards and a no-nonsense attitude.

"Stop tormenting her," Sara snapped at the dark-haired flirt on her friend's behalf, tossing the plait over her shoulder for dramatic effect.

"Feisty," Alex grinned appreciatively at the blonde. "Not stopping anything until she sticks up for herself, I love the accent." Jessica almost choked on her water at the random confession, and Clay stopped staring at Sara long enough to pat her on the back. "Where are you from, pretty lady?" Alex asked, mimicking her thick, obviously British accent.

"I hate you," she groaned, snatching up a fry remorsefully from Alex's plate. "And I'm from England, happy now?" Alex continued to smile charmingly at her, and Sara rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Clay.

"Is he always this bad?" she asked curiously.

"I warned you, he's a total heartbreaker." Clay glanced at Jessica, whose exasperated glare was softening quickly. "Oh man, this one is in trouble. But enough about these two, I hope you know this doesn't qualify as our date, Sara Kay."

"Is that so?" Sara challenged, tilting her head and staring him down with adorably raised eyebrows.

"You bet missy, I'm not sharing a pretty girl like you with this lot," he promised, gesturing at the two tables pushed together to accommodate the Duke students. "No way, I'm taking you out properly."

"Flattery won't work on me," Sara replied firmly, but her bright smile contradicted the words. She reached over and swiped some ketchup from the corner of Clay's plate, popping the French fry into her mouth with a teasing smirk as he continued to stare at her. "What are you staring at, knucklehead? Do I have something on my face?"

"Just there," Clay murmured, pressing a napkin into her hand. Swiping away the stray ketchup on the corner of her lips only happened in movies after all. The fact was, the sight of her face did something to his insides, a pleasurable squirm of positive energy almost. It had started with the fleeting gaze of pure terror she had given him on the bridge, and now he couldn't look away if he wanted to. "I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "You're beautiful."

"Thanks," she said quietly, the return of her flushed cheeks proved she knew he wasn't flattering her for the sake of it. Good thing too, he could hardly believe he had said that out loud. Clay stared down at his plate with a nervous smile, and Sara watched him with interest. The sincerity was more flattering than anything she could hear Alex still persistently throwing at Jessica, on her left. "I still can't believe I actually did that jump," Sara said, at last breaking the awkward silence. "I wasn't kidding, life-long fear of heights here," she confessed. "I never even fly unless I have to."

"Seriously?" Clay took the bait gratefully. "You must be from nearby then; I get the feeling most people at this college fly in from all over the place." He nodded to their left; "Look at your roomie, for example."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I'm from Raleigh actually, only about half an hour's drive from here. It's convenient because I wasn't too keen on leaving home anyway."

"No way!" Clay exclaimed. "I'm from Raleigh too, small world," he smiled. "So your family's clingy, huh? I try and go home a fair bit too, my Dad passed away last year so Mom's by herself now."

"I'm sorry," Sara said sympathetically. "That must be hard for her. Are you an only child?"

He shook his head; "I have two older sisters; actually, they're twins. Both settled down in England, though, so it doesn't really do Mom much good. In that sense, it's just me who's close enough to look out for her."

"That's so sweet," Sara smiled. "I have an older sister too; she's totally my best friend. I guess that's part of the reason I didn't even consider going to college further away from home," she mused. "I'd definitely miss my folks too much. It's nice being able to go home so easily. My sister Izzie is so hoping that I follow in her footsteps. She was a dancer, you know."

"She wouldn't think much of me then," Clay laughed; "I can't dance to save my life, pretty much been disappointing my sisters since the day I was born."

"Yeah, you don't strike me as the ballet type necessarily." Sara giggled, and the way her amusement made her hazel eyes twinkle captivated his gaze all over again. A frustrated groan on his left jerked Clay from his trance, and he reluctantly turned to rescue Jessica from Alex's relentless attempts to charm her into submission.

"Dude, give it a rest already," he muttered at his room-mate in exasperation.

"She likes it," Alex protested, winking playfully at Jessica.

The slender brunette blushed at the undeniably charming smirk, but her obvious disapproval severely contrasted Sara's sweet smile. "You wish, buddy," she said, rolling her eyes at the exaggerated flirting. She turned to Clay with a relieved sigh; "Thanks for that, this one's impossible to shake."

"You learn to ignore him," Clay assured her; "Sorry he made you wreck your diet," he nodded at the pile of fries Alex had tipped insistently onto her plate.

"Not looking," Jessica insisted, keeping her pale blue eyes locked on his face. "So, your sister moved to England, huh?"

"Two sisters, but yeah, settled in Surrey," he nodded. "I'm half English actually; my Mom's family is from there. So eventually, both my sisters decided they liked it better over there and just skipped continents permanently after their studies. They both have husbands and kids now, the whole works. You must miss it."

"Of course," Jessica smiled; "It's home. I have a brother too, but I haven't really had a best friend since primary school. It was a boy then, and at that age, things change all the time," she sighed, shaking her head at the misfortunes of growing up. "All aboard for the crazy college experience now, bring it on America!"

"That's elementary school, hon," Sara translated the British term, and Jess rolled her eyes again.

"He's half English, Sara, I doubt you have to translate my lingo for this one."

"Whatever you say, honey," the blonde laughed, raising her hands in a gesture of peace. To Clay, she added: "Dude, trust me, you don't want to let this one start raving about her former best friend, James Potter. She's kind of unstoppable on a roll."

Now it was Clay's turn to choke on his soft drink. "James Potter?" he spluttered incredulously, as Jessica returned the earlier favor and thumped him on the back.

"That's what I just said," Sara raised her eyebrows at him again, and Clay found it difficult not to let her cuteness distract him.

"Uncontrollable black hair, blind as a bat without his big round glasses, prankster king James Potter?" he reiterated curiously.

"How on earth did you know that?" Jessica squealed admiringly. She gave Sara a long, pointed look as if to say "this one is a keeper" with her eyes only, but her friend ignored it.

Both girls stared at Clay curiously, and he grinned and said simply: "He's my brother-in-law now, only met him at my sister Lily's wedding the one time but she's happy with him." From that moment on, Clay Evans had both Sara and Jessica hooked on every word. Neither girl noticed Alex's frustrated huff at his wholly wasted efforts.

A / N This was originally the second chapter of the multi-chapter Clara fic Crash & Burn. It re-introduced my first ever OC Jessica Parker and was kind of like getting an old friend from my Harry Potter fanfic days back. On that note, I also introduced my personal headcanon that Clay Evans and HP's Lily and Petunia Evans are siblings. Just so that I might eventually get to write a bit of my HP OTP Jily again at some point. Enjoy all! xx