5
It had been an hour and a half since Tad had stormed angrily out of the apartment, and Lily had cried until she feared she would dehydrate herself. She was scrubbing the dishes from dinner when she heard a knock at her front door.
Lily curiously went to the door and swung it open.
"What are you three doing here?" she asked, suddenly unable to hide her delight. Before her stood James, Albus, and Owen, grinning at her.
Lily stepped aside and let the three of them into her flat, hugging them each as they came inside. Owen stepped in last, giving her a prolonged hug and another quick kiss on the cheek.
"So, Lily, are you completely pissed at us?" Albus asked, plopping down onto her sofa.
"For what, Al? For forging my name and sending my application in without my permission?" She walked into her kitchen and grabbed each of them a butter beer.
"Er, yeah…"
Lily laughed and handed each of them a bottle. "Don't worry about it." She plopped down on the arm of the beaten up chair that Owen was occupying. "I can't stay mad at you lot for long."
Owen grinned at her as he twisted the cap off of his drink. Lily found his smile contagious, and she almost forgot about her fight with Tad.
"So James says you were going to tell Tad about WWCC?" Albus asked, and then took a swig of his butter beer.
Lily nodded, twisting her own bottle in her hands. "I talked to him this evening, actually…"
James grimaced. "Didn't go the way you wanted it to?"
She shrugged, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "That's an understatement. He kind of… yelled and left. I think he'll be back—he usually comes back in a few hours."
"Usually? Has this happened before?" Owen, she realised, wasn't asking her but rather, her brothers.
"Yeah, the bloke is a prick," Albus said, taking another swig of his drink. Lily started to open her mouth to defend her boyfriend, but then she remembered how Tad had stormed out, and she closed her mouth, unable to argue with her brothers at the moment.
"You have any food, Lily?" James asked. "I'm starving."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you just host a dinner party?"
James waved her off. "Like three hours ago—can't a guy be hungry?"
Lily rolled her eyes but made her way into the kitchen to get her guests a snack. As she was putting together a tray of biscuits, she heard the front door open and held her breath anxiously.
"What the fuck are you lot doing here?" she heard Tad ask.
"We could ask you the same," Al spat.
Lily turned around to see Albus, James, and Owen all standing and glaring at her boyfriend. She quickly grabbed the tray of biscuits and a butter beer for Tad and swept into the sitting room. She popped a kiss on Tad's cheek and handed him the bottle.
"Hi," she said, trying to smile. "Why don't we all just sit down and take a breath?"
When no one moved, she sat the biscuits down on the coffee table and gestured to them. Luckily, James grabbed a biscuit and settled onto the sofa, and the other boys followed, finding their own seats. Lily started to sit by Owen again, and then realised that would cause more tension in an already awkward situation. She stood behind the ladder-back chair in which Tad sat stiffly.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Owen spoke up. "So, Tad… What're you planning on doing while Lily and I are away?"
Tad's brow furrowed fiercely. "You're going too? Are you fucking joking?"
Lily thought her eyes might pop out of her head. She had specifically avoided mentioning her placement in Owen's group for fear of a confrontation, and yet, it seemed it was unavoidable.
"I thought you knew… she's going to be training with my crew."
Tad stood up and stepped angrily toward Owen, who jumped up at the threat. Tad shoved a finger toward Owen's t-shirted chest. "Don't even attempt to fuck with my girl, Thompson."
Lily ran in between them, but her brothers (she vaguely wondered when they had gotten off of the sofa) pulled her back.
Owen shoved Tad backwards. "As far as I'm concerned, Lily is not your girl."
Tad stepped forward, chest puffed out. "I'm warning you: don't touch my girlfriend."
"Please stop," Lily shrieked. Both Tad and Owen turned to look at her. "Just stop it! This is stupid—I don't belong to you, Tad, and Owen isn't a threat. So can we just stop fighting?"
"Not a threat?" Tad looked furious. "You're leaving the country with him, Lily! What in the hell am I supposed to think? Why shouldn't I be threatened if he swoops in and takes my girlfriend on some extended holiday across the continent?"
"It's not a holiday," Lily said, exasperated. "It's training… It's work, Tad."
Tad rolled his eyes.
"Lily needs to do this," James said, stepping toward Tad. "And you need to figure out what you're doing. As long as Lily is here, you have somewhere to live and someone to take care of you. If she stays here, you'll never figure out what you want to do."
Lily smiled at her big brother and then turned to her boyfriend. "He's right, Tad. I have to go talk to your dad tomorrow about working for the final few days that I'm here, but I'm going to go to training. You can't convince me not to—I'm sorry."
Tad shook his head, and Lily couldn't tell if it was with anger or sadness. "I never thought you'd do this. Where am I supposed to live? And what am I going to do without you?"
Lily felt her brothers and Owen's presences around her, but she stepped toward Tad anyway, reaching a hand up to touch his face softly.
"You'll be okay. I bet that my landlady would let us switch the lease to your name, and you could just start paying rent and living here after I've moved out."
Tad reached up and covered her hand with his own. "Does this mean we're breaking up?"
Lily thought she saw a shadow of sadness come over him. She could practically feel everyone freeze with anticipation for her response. She wanted to be able to go to training without any guilt or lingering thoughts about Tad, but she also couldn't help the way her heart melted at one glance into Tad's beautiful, now saddened dark eyes.
"We're… taking a break," she compromised. "I need to see how training goes. Then, when I get back, we'll see where we are. It'll give you time to get a new job and figure out what you want, and it'll give me the chance to see what I could be missing out on."
To her surprise, Tad nodded and released her hand. "I guess I'll… go, then. We can meet up before you leave to figure out the lease."
Lily let her hand drop to her side as he walked to the door.
"Bye," she whispered.
