A/N: Tralalala did you know that starting a fresh chapter is the toughest thing in the world (especially after a huge writing spree)? Well, it is. Anyways, here's numero 15 :)
"I don't get why you want to go here," Sirius repeated for what must have been the twentieth time.
Sirius looked around the small, quaint tea and gelato shop. Alfredo's was a well-known muggle shop, so Sirius was surprised James even knew about it. It wasn't so much that it was a bad, run-down place (it was actually kind of nice, with an Italian theme and everything), but more that Sirius would rather be doing something more… exciting.
"Because… there's ice cream," James explained poorly.
"Actually, it's gelato."
Sirius must've been hearing things. It honest to Merlin could not be who he thought it was.
He turned around quickly and sure enough, it was. Standing behind him with the most annoyed look on her face Sirius had ever seen was Rachel. In that moment, he kind of felt like dancing around in joy and suffocating himself at the same time.
However, Sirius quickly got over his initial shock and plastered a smirk on his face. "Well, look what the cat dragged in."
"Oh, I know mornings aren't really my thing, but do I really look that bad?" Rachel retaliated.
Well, bloody hell, now I remember why I went after her in the first place... Sirius thought to himself. And she really didn't look bad at all. She was dressed in simple summer clothes. Just a pair of shorts and an open plaid shirt revealing a patterned tank top underneath. But Sirius wasn't going to admit that he thought she looked positively amazing. They were both too stubborn to admit attraction to the other.
Sirius didn't reply. He didn't think he could.
"Well then, can you say awkward," Marlene sighed. "This was a lousy idea, Lily."
"What?" Rachel exclaimed, turning to look pointedly at Lily.
"Way to go, Marls," Lily replied sarcastically, sending her friend a glare. "And it wasn't just me. This dolt here came up with most of the plan," Lily added, gesturing towards James.
"Wait, what?" Sirius said, clearly confused.
"Their 'brilliant' plan failed," Mary replied boringly. "Huzza."
"And what was the objective of this plan exactly?" Rachel asked.
Lily stared at her blankly. "You really don't know?"
"Uh, neither do I, to be honest," Sirius added.
The group stood around in silence for a bit.
"Well, this didn't go as planned," Lily said, breaking the silence.
"I wouldn't know," Rachel mumbled.
"Hey, I've got an idea," Marlene said. "Let's order some gelato and pretend this never happened!" Everyone looked at her as if she was crazy. "What?" Marlene asked.
After no one replied, Mary said, "Well, it's better than James's and Lily's idea."
Lily quickly shot her friend a glare. Mary only shrugged and sat down at a table, followed by Marlene. Rachel sighed and sat down as well. While she no longer had an appetite, it wasn't like she had any other way to get home but with Lily's Apparation. James sat down as well with a defeated sigh, followed by Sirius who sat down across from Rachel. She pointedly avoided his steady gaze. Ugh, what does he want, Rachel thought to herself.
Lily sighed. "Fine," she said. "Who wants what?"
"I'm not hungry," Rachel replied.
"You were excited about the gelato on the way over here," Lily replied.
"I'm not hungry," Rachel repeated pointedly.
Lily rolled her eyes and accepted Rachel's reply. She got everyone else's orders ad bought the gelato.
Sirius sat in the room that the Potters had set up for him. He wouldn't deny that it was very nice and very… cozy. It didn't feel cold and tense like his bedroom at Grimmauld Place. He felt comfortable, but that may have been because he didn't have to worry about his father busting the door down anymore.
Sirius leaned back in his chair and leafed through the parchments and envelopes in his hand. A good chunk of them were thrown on the floor, some were placed on the desk in front of him. Suddenly, he stopped at one. It was the letter he began writing to Rachel. He tossed the remainder of the parchment on the desk and stretched out the crumpled, written-on parchment in his hands. With a sigh, he placed the parchment on the desk and dipped a quill in some ink.
Dear Rachel,
I'm sorry. I am an idiot.
I feel like I let go of something huge by not telling you a lot of things. I let go of you, to be more specific, and I never told you how I felt. Maybe if I did, I wouldn't have lost you.
The first thing you should know is that you weren't just another girl to check off of my list. Well, you might've been at first, but I got hooked on just getting your approval after awhile. And when I did get it, I acted like a complete arse. I don't really think these things through apparently.
And I didn't tell you how wonderful I think you are. You are the one person I have ever had any amount of feelings for. Because you're absolutely perfect. You're beautiful and funny and, well, you didn't chase me around all the time so that was rather attractive.
And I don't really know the point of this letter. I just needed to let you know, I guess. I know it won't matter now.
Sincerely,
Sirius
"Bloody hell, she'll probably puke…" Sirius muttered to himself. He shook his head as he sealed the letter in an envelope and stood up to call for his owl. He then paused.
Sirius grabbed his coat off of his chair and ran out of the room. He wasn't sure what he was doing, or why, but he knew it was crazy.
He shouted a quick, "I'm going out, be back soon," when he passed Mrs. Potter in the kitchen and Apparated the moment he got outside.
Rachel had been considering whether she should go inside for the night to the comfort of her bed or simply stay outside on her porch. Her dad wouldn't be back until eleven the next morning, so she could easily sneak back in without him knowing of her 'dangerous excursions'.
Before she could come to a final decision, however, Rachel heard a pop. She jumped and averted her attention to the noise and was shocked to see who was standing at the foot of the stairs of her porch.
"Sirius," Rachel said, still in a state of shock. Her eyes widened incredulously as he walked up to her. "What on earth are you doing here?" She really didn't want to ask how he even found out where she lived.
When Sirius came face to face with Rachel, he expected to feel quite a bit more confident than he felt in that moment.
He simply wasn't able to form words. It was ridiculous, when one thought about it. Sirius Black. Tongue-tied because of a girl. But, evidently, it wasn't just any girl. And the longer Sirius stood there, the more he was reminded that what he was about to say needed to be… well, perfect. He had been the biggest idiot ever and while Rachel suddenly forgiving him was hard to believe, Sirius was hoping that he could at least soften her with just the right words.
Words, however, seemed to be a problem for Sirius. He never before needed to talk about his feelings for a girl. Heck, he never even had feelings for a girl.
And he was strongly considering just ripping up that bloody letter, then and there.
Sirius was noticing Rachel growing exasperated and annoyance clouding her face. This was bordering wasting her time. So before Sirius could stop himself, he did the first thing he could think of.
He leaned forward and kissed her.
His hands were cupping her face as their lips met and for a moment, Sirius panicked. She wasn't kissing him back and he was rather scared that she'd pull back and smack him into oblivion. But then she closed her eyes. And then he felt her push against his lips and he felt her hands slowly making their way up to his neck to pull him closer.
The crumpled envelope dropped out of Sirius's hands as he moved them to her waist, pulling her as close to him as he could. Her hands went into his hair and Sirius heard the softest of sighs escape her as she tried to pull him closer.
And bloody hell, Sirius forgot how good of a kisser she was.
It felt… amazing. Not snogging Sirius Black, but rather just… everything. The closeness of their bodies. The feel of his hair between her fingers. The electrifying feeling of Sirius's lips against hers. It was the perfect kiss, like something out of a movie.
It was then that the two of them reluctantly pulled away from each other. They were still dangerously close, barely a gap between their bodies, and Rachel could still feel and hear Sirius's breathing.
She didn't know how she felt. She knew she should've been so happy he actually wanted a relationship with her. She somehow knew this wasn't just to get in her pants, because she figured that Sirius was smarter than to make the same mistake twice.
But the hurt she felt when he told her that he didn't want a relationship, when he made it clear that he didn't know what he felt, suddenly surfaced. Rachel felt like her limbs were being tugged at by her conscience. She had no idea what to do.
So she looked up at Sirius and simply asked, "Why?"
He looked down and shook his head slightly. Sirius looked back up at her and replied with a simple, "I'm sorry."
And then he turned away and Apparated out of sight.
Rachel simply stood there, dumstruck.
Anger bubbled in her as she suddenly yelled, "Well, what the bloody hell was that, you twat?"
She hit the wooden post next to her with her fist and let out a cry of frustration. She turned and leaned her back against it, slowly sliding down to the wooden planks of the porch. She buried her face in her arms and was shocked as a small sob escaped her.
She couldn't possibly be crying over a boy, could she? Rachel didn't cry, and definitely not over boys.
She wiped the tears angrily from her face as she lifted her head. That was when she spotted a crumpled envelope on the porch. She picked it up. Her name was written on it in Sirius' familiar, messy scrawl. Rachel stuffed the envelope in her pocket.
In that moment, she honestly didn't care.
dun, dun, dun, duuuuun. Numero 16 will be up tomorrow or Sunday :)
-Grammar/spelling? (heads up: my chappies usually don't go through editing, so I need your help peeps)
-Favourite part?
-When do you think Rachel will open that envelope?
Hasta la vista and thanks for reading :3
