Mission Status: Impossible.
Disclaimer: I don't own it.
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A/N: Oh my gosh…. I'm sorry? I've kinda been busy with school and stuff, and I should have written during the holidays, but I didn't because… I'm lazy and bad at committing to things and a bad author. And recently life has sucked. Majorly. accepts rotten fruit thrown at her graciously I deserve it. I know.
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Mission
Status: Impossible.
Chapter 3- I'm
addictive
The smoke and smell of alcohol hung thickly in the air. Bodies seemed to mesh together to the beat of the music pumping through the speakers. Boys with girls, boys with boys, girls with girls, groups, individuals, it didn't matter. There was something uniting about the music that night, it called people together, urging them to dance, to move, to loose themselves to the music. It called- they answered.
OoO
"Come with me tonight, please?"
"I don't know. They are your friends not mine…"
"You're my friend too, you'll get along just fine. If you don't like them, you can just leave. Please come?" I begged. Caitlyn was reluctant- clubbing was not her idea of fun. I had gathered up some of my old school friends and organized us to go out for drinks together. After organizing and convincing them all to come, I had a panic attack- what if they had all changed? It had been years. What if I didn't like them any more? What if they didn't like me anymore? And so I was left in the position of begging some of my co-workers to come with me and keep me company if the whole reunion thing didn't work out.
"I won't know any of them… I didn't go to Hogwarts, I won't be able to share stories with you…"
"Saskia will be there too. You won't be alone. Please, I'm begging you."
"I'll feel like I'm barging in on a reunion" she tried, one last time.
"That's exactly what you will be doing" I replied seriously, "but no; I want you to be there. And the rest of them, well, if they don't like you, then they can just fuck themselves." She sighed, defeated. I grinned. "I'll pick you up around 7 okay?"
OoO
They sat at the bar, all talking. They were reminiscing about Hogwarts- telling the other two about things that had happened, things they had done. "Let's dance," suggested one, standing up abruptly. She reached out for the hand of another girl and led her over to where the people were dancing. They danced, Jo's body moving smoothly, slipping into the groove as if it had been rehearsed. Amy moved more awkwardly, as if her body didn't fully want to co-operate with her. Slowly the other girls joined them, mixing into the crowd, integrating with other groups, making their way towards the front.
The music coursed through them, as if it was an illegal drug, intoxicating, controlling, dominating the crowd, calling them into its power. Addictive.
Addictive. The word seared through her mind. Addictive. Addictive. Addictive. It was how he'd described himself, how their relationship would be.
OoO
"C'mon Lil, please, you know you want to…" I paused, half turned from him, anger flaring up.
"Excuse me?" I asked, clenching my fists in frustration, "What did you just say?"
"You know that you want to say yes. Why don't you just say it?" He was walking closer to me, closer than he should be. "Why don't you just live a little?" He was far to close now. I could see every drop of water still clinging to his hair and face from when I pushed him into the lake. I could see the little specks of seaweed still caught in his eyebrow.
"Live, who says I don't live?"
"I do, my fair lady."
"And on what grounds do you make that assumption?"
"Because, my dearest, if you lived, you would not be able to resist my charm. In fact, I am forced to assume that you not only fail to live, you also fail to see, because if you could see, you would not be able to resist my good looks."
"Oh really now? And would you like to know what I think?" Not waiting for an answer, I continued. "I am forced to assume that you, my 'dear', fail to have a brain. And why do I make this assumption? Because if you had a brain you would have realized by now that I simply do not like you. I am not blind, I do live, I just have common sense and that leads me to stay as far away from you as possible." He showed no sign that I had said anything more cutting than "nice shoes", and instead moved closer, wrapping an arm around my waist and whispering in my ear.
"One day you'll regret that comment. One day you'll come to me. And then you'll realize that what I've been saying is true. One day you'll realize that a relationship between us would be amazing. Explosive, yes, but addictive. And you know why? Because of me, my dear. Because I'm addictive. And one day you'll find that out."
He jerked backwards, the red outline of my hand fast appearing on his cheek. "Potter, you are not 'addictive'. You are simply infuriating."
Back in my room, I lay on my bed, his words running through my mind. Addictive. Addictive. Not, not addictive. Infuriating. I rolled over and went to sleep.
OoO
"Addictive" she murmured, half awake.
"Uh, Lily?" The voice was timid, as if she were afraid of saying something wrong. Lily started awake.
"Emily, I'm so sorry. I had a late night last night. A few friends and I went….out. I hadn't seen them in a long time. I'm sorry." She was back to her professional attitude. "How are you? How are you feeling today?" Emily merely shrugged.
"I'm alright. I painted a picture last night. It was pretty dreadful." Lily laughed a little, holding back a yawn.
"I haven't painted in ages." She paused, thinking. "You know what? I'm really tired, and I really don't want to think right now, so do you mind if I just run down to the children's ward and grab some paper and paints, and maybe we could paint together today? Would that be alright?" Emily shrugged again.
She returned quickly carrying multiple sheets of butcher's paper and a few pots of brightly coloured, washable paint. Lying out the sheets, and lining up the paint pots, Lily grabbed a brush. Coating it in blue paint, she paused.
"What should I paint?"
"A tree," Emily said decisively. Lily laughed,
"But I have blue paint! A tree can't be blue!"
"Why not?"
"I don't know…" she paused. "Why not? Okay, I'll paint a blue tree! What are you going to paint?"
"A picture!" Lily laughed again.
"A picture of what?"
"A picture of the night." Lily froze. "What?"
"I once painted a picture of the night. A long, long time ago."
"Why?"
"I was…. in an art class. I was very little."
"How little?"
"About 8. No, not 8. Luke was 11, so I must have been 9."
"Was, was Luke in the class with you?" Lily smiled, remembering.
"No, but we talked about him often."
OoO
"What are you going to paint?"
"A cat."
"What cat?"
"My cat."
"You don't have a cat."
"Yes I do!"
"I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to her."
"Oh. But she has a cat."
"No she doesn't, I've been to her house. She has a fish. Why would she have a cat if she has fish?"
"Maybe she doesn't like the fish."
"Maybe the cat doesn't like fish."
"Yeah, maybe she has a vegetarian cat!"
"There's lots of reasons."
"Yeah, and maybe she doesn't have a cat!"
"Why would I say that I had a cat if I didn't?"
"Exactly."
"Yeah, why would she?"
"Uh…."
"That doesn't look much like a cat."
"See, if she did have a cat, she'd know what one looks like."
"Enough." The supervisor was always there to break it up when we got 'too noisy'. Or when we started arguing about stupid things.
"What are you painting Lil?"
"Night."
"Not time for bed yet."
"Um… I know that."
"Then why did you say 'good night'?"
"I didn't."
"Yes you did."
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did."
"No I didn…."
"Enough." She was really starting to get annoyed.
"You still haven't told me what you're going to paint Lil. Are you trying to hide it from me?"
"No, why would I try to hide it from you?"
"You might be afraid that I'll copy."
"Why would I care?"
"Well mine might be better than yours?"
"Who says it would be?"
"I don't know. I was just saying. What are you painting by the way?"
"The night."
"Oh, is that what you meant earlier?"
"What are you talking about? I'm painting the night sky."
"How are you going to paint it?"
"How am I going to do what?"
"Paint it?"
"With paints….."
"But how do you know what it looks like?"
"How do I what?"
"What it looks like?"
"What what looks like?"
"The sky, Lil, how are you going to paint it if you don't know what it looks like?"
"Well why would I not know what it looks like?"
"Because it's night."
"So…?"
"Well have you ever seen the sky at night?"
"What kind of question is that, Jess?"
"I was just asking."
"Yes, Jess, I have seen the sky at night. I am a normal person and I do look out my window."
"There's no need to answer like that."
"Well if you didn't continually ask me stupid questions, I wouldn't have to answer like that."
"They weren't stupid."
"Were."
"Weren't."
"Were."
"Weren't"
"Were"
"ENOUGH. Paint. Now. Silently." I turned to look at Jess as soon as the supervisor's back was turned. She poked out her tongue at me. I giggled slightly, and poked mine out too, and continued working on my painting.
I had just finished all the stars when a soft voice whispered 'boo' into my ear.
"Jess!"
"Shh…"
"Jess, you nearly made me ruin my picture…."
"An extra star won't hurt. Guess what happened yesterday?" I hated not going to school with Jess. Supposably best friends for life, we would always be together. We'd promised each other that when we were five and 'life' meant the next 12 minutes, but at the same time, we weren't going well on the 'together forever' bit if we couldn't even convince our parents to send us to the same primary schools.
"What?"
"I got home from school and I was really hungry, so mum said I could bake a cake. It turned out really nice, I brought you a piece if you want to try. It's chocolate chip and I made it from the recipe from the newspaper. Of course, I had to change it a little," she lowered her voice to a whisper as if telling a great secret, "The original has whiskey in it! But anyway, my mum was helping me a little, and then we found out that there were no eggs, which was weird because we always have eggs. You know how we always have eggs right…."
"Hurry up with the actual story Jess."
"Well, I was riding to the deli to buy some. Cinty was with me. And, well, she fell off her bike. It wasn't my fault, I swear. I had to swerve in front of her. Otherwise I would have hit the tree. But don't tell mum that, she thinks that she hit a bump. Well anyway. She fell off, and you know how five year olds are. She cried and screamed. But then guess who was walking past?"
"Who?"
"Luke!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! And he stopped to help Cinty!"
"And...?"
"And... he asked me how I was. And I said fine, and then he said he had to run."
"Is that all?"
"Yes, why are you so interested?"
"No reason."
"Lily..."
"Yes...?"
"Jessica. Lily. Finish your paintings." For once, I was glad to hear the supervisor's voice cutting in on what could have been an incredibly embarrassing conversation.
OoO
"You had a thing for Luke when you were 9?"
"Hey, I resent that comment. I had no 'thing' for Luke when I was 9. I hardly knew him. I don't know if I would have been particularly opposed to getting to know him better... but the thing is that there was no 'thing' for Luke when I was 9."
"So no 'thing' for Luke ever?" Emily looked slightly disappointed.
"Now, I never said that. Just no 'thing' for Luke when I was 9. 9 is much to young to have a crush." She seemed to light up a little at that comment.
"Then why were you so interested?"
"I...admired the boy. More than I should have possibly, but still. He was smart. I aspired to be like him maybe..." Feeling a little awkward, Lily hastened to change the topic. "How about I tell you about Jess. She had an adorable little sister, Jacinta. Cinty."
"Fine. Tell me about Jess, this best friend when you were 3. But don't think you can escape talking about you little thing for Luke that easily." Lily laughed out loud.
"Wow, you really sounded like Jess just then! Jess was my best friend, but we often didn't seem like it. We argued constantly, and usually about very silly, very immature things. 'Terms of endearment' people called it. It was the way we showed each other our love. Upon being informed of this, Jess and I turned to each other and immediately said 'ew', before being another dispute of sorts over who had stolen that phrase from another. We had, uh, a 'unique' relationship, I guess you could say. She was older than me, but only by a little. One month, 14 days and two hours. She'd counted, I'd counted, we'd made our parents count. I tried to change my birth date so that I'd be older, but my parents didn't approve."
"Why did being older matter?"
"Oh, it didn't. Except, of course, when we got into dispute about who was right. She'd always say 'I'm older. I therefore know more. The end.' I just dearly wanted to be able to say that once.
"One summer, we must have been about seven, our families decided to go down to the beach. We were both building sand castles and a boy, he must have been about 6 but he looked little to us, came up and asked us..."
"Lily?" she started, awoken from her reminiscing about the past.
"Yes?" She turned to look in the doorway, where a co-worker stood in uniform. "What is it Pat?"
"Is it of vital importance that you stay here?"
"Is it of vital importance that I go?"
"There's an emergency."
"Then I can wind up." She turned back to Emily. "I'm so sorry, I'm being called away by a nasty man in uniform. Can I call you to reschedule?" Emily nodded. "Okay then, I'll speak to you soon." Pat waited patiently until the lock clicked, and then began leading Lily hurriedly away from her office.
"I'll brief you while we're walking. There's no time to spare."
"It's that much of a hurry? Why didn't you say? I would have... I don't know. Moved faster maybe?" He turned to look at her, slowing their pace.
"Suicide attempt. " She understood immediately. A forbidden topic around depression patients. Picking up the urgency in his footsteps, they moved quickly to the emergency department.
"How?"
"Wrists. Object unknown."
"Oh."
"Okay, she's 24, medical examination has discovered a few bruises on her face and thigh, that's all."
"Brought in by...?"
"Friend. Same age. Dropped by to see how she was doing. Found her nearly passed out in the bathroom."
"Anything else? Any possible reasons?" He turned and smiled at her.
"That's your job." Handing her gloves and a coat, he whispered "Good luck", and pushed her in the door.
Less than 10 minutes later she reappeared. "Passed out- blood loss. Once the doctors have finished I'll stay with her until she wakes up. Where's the friend?"
"Around the corner."
"I'd best go see her."
"Okay. I'll be in my office if you need me."
Rolling the gloves off, Lily stopped to check her hair in the mirror. She tucked away any stray bits and straightened her badge, this was not her favourite part of the job. There would be tears, guilt and 'if only I hadn't told her she was a bitch back when we were 17's. She took a deep breath and walked around the corner.
'Mel?'
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A/N: Once again, I'm sorry. It took me too long to write this. Actually, to be honest, I wrote this ages ago, it took me too long to update this. Kill me?
In other news, I have a two hour theory exam tomorrow evening, then I'm back on my way to becoming a swimming teacher. How exciting! Not!
