Admitting It

Chapter 4: beautiful

James was waiting for Lily at the bottom of the staircase. He heard the click of heels against wood and turned around. What he saw took his breath away.

Lily was wearing a spaghetti- strap cream- dress, tight until the waist, and flowy till the shins. She had on cream colored heels, with criss- crossed straps. Her red hair was twisted into a bun, with a few strands out, framing her face. On her throat was a necklace of cream pearls, with matching earrings.(A.N: look, I'm really sorry about the dress and everything, but I don't wear dresses and all, so I really don't know how they're supposed to look. You can imagine up your own dress or whatever if you like. Sorry.)

"You look great," he managed to choke out, "simply amazing" lily smiled at him.

"thanks." She said, "Let's go"

"Uh- huh," said James, following her out of the portrait hole.

James and Lily made their way down the stairs, receiving many looks in their direction. James knew why: lily looked amazing.

A soft, slow tune drifted over the great hall, and Lily and James began to dance, officially opening the ball. Other couples joined them on the dance floor, but James couldn't keep his eyes off lily.

Way too soon for James, the dance ended, and James dipped Lily.

"I've got to go see Daryl." Said Lily, drawing away, " he was going to take me to the dance. See you around."

James nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He watched her weave her way through the crowd until she disappeared.

He looked around for some of his friends, and spotted Remus, sitting at one of the little tables. He headed towards the tables.

"Hey Moony!" he said as he reached the table, "whatcha doing?"

"Nothing at the moment, "replied Remus, "but Padfoot is going through girls at the speed of light, and Wormtail is off god knows where." (A.N: I just despise Peter, don't you? So I'm just not going to mention him too much. It's all his fault poor Harry is an orphan. )

"Mmm—hmm" said James scowling, as he saw Daryl leading Lily onto the dance floor, "I'll join you then. "

"Why?" asked Remus slyly, following the direction of James' scowl, "no Lily to distract you?"

"Stuff it Moony, "shot back James, sending the boy a glare.

"Hey Prongs!" yelled Sirius from across the dance floor, "Do you want me to hook you up?"

"No thanks Padfoot," yelled back James, "just go on dancing!"

He sighed. It was going to be a long evening.

Lily walked into the head's common room.

Finally, thought James.

"Where were you?" he asked, slightly harshly.

Lily looked surprised.

"I was at the dance, where else would I be?" she said, "Why, were you waiting?"

"Er… yeah, yeah, I was waiting," said James, "I'll just go to bed now…"

"Why?" asked Lily.

"Why I'm going to bed," asked James right back, "'cause I'm tired, lily, I-"

"No, why were you waiting?" she cut in.

"Oh.. I was… um... erm... I was kinda... a little... erm worried." James mumbled as quietly as possible, but lily heard the waiting part.

"Why were you waiting?" she asked (A.N: boy, Lily's quite the interrogator, isn't she?)

"I just was, ok?" he said impatiently, "I'm going to bed. 'Night."

Lily looked after him. Why was he worried, she thought. She shrugged, and went up to her room. She'd had fun with Daryl tonight. He'd been really nice, and funny, and sweet. Lily changed into her pajamas, and went to bed.

Meanwhile, for all James had insisted on going to bed, he was tossing and turning, re-arranging his pillows constantly. He couldn't get the images of Lily and Daryl out of his mind. He had hoped that Lily wouldn't like Daryl that much, but his hopes were shattered.

Lily was confused, and totally weirded out. She'd seen James this morning, or rather, run into him, and he'd looked like complete crap, with bloodshot eyes, and more- messy- than- usual hair.

He hadn't even stopped to say hi, like he always did, since they had started being friends, but just passed her without a word.

Then she saw Sirius, who gave her a dirty look.

"Um… Sirius? What's wrong?" she asked uncertainly.

"You know what's wrong, Evans," he sneered, "did you ever stop to think about how James would feel when you started going out with Gray? Obviously you didn't! The guy's loved you for god knows how much time, and you still choose Graypuff, who wouldn't give you the time of the day. You're pathetic" and he stalked off.

Even Arielle was mad at Lily.

"Lily, I thought you were just going to the ball with him, not a serious thing," she said to lily at lunch, "you and James are made for each other. You and Daryl are just… flings! You can do so much better than him Lils. Besides, he has the rep of being a player. "

But Lily had had enough, and was getting annoyed.

"What is your problem?" she growled at Arielle, "first I get chewed out by Sirius, about how I'm going out with Daryl instead of James, and then I get chewed out by you, about how I can do so much better than Daryl. I don't need to hear this!" she finished furiously, and ran in the direction of the astronomy tower.

Lily forcefully opened the door to the astronomy tower. Light spilled onto a kissing couple. She recognized the blonde hair.

"Daryl?"

A.N: liked it? The end of this chapter is so my favorite. Review, please.