Chapter 3

Rose stared into the face of that beautiful fifteen year old boy in front of her. Had he just said that he would choose her? No. No way. He loved Lily. He had told her that so many times. She imagined it. That was it. She imagined he had said 'you'. No. He must have said…'achoo'. That's it. He sneezed.

"Rose," he breathed, taking her hands in his as she was too stunned to pull away again. He smiled at her, and shook his head. "No one understands me like you do. You always know what I mean, what I want, what I need. Lily doesn't. Ever." He paused, and looked to the ground. After a moment, he glanced back up and his grey eyes met Rose's soft brown ones. "But you do. You're always here when I need you, and to hell with Albus. He can get upset and mad or whatever, but I-"

"But I thought you loved her?" Rose was confused. Had he even known what he was saying all those times? Did he even know what he was saying now?

Scorpius sighed. "Yeah. I did too. But lately, I just don't feel the same. Nothing is exciting, nothing gives me a pleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach," he smiled quite largely, "not like when I'm with you, Rose. You make me feel so good, I'm always in a good mood when I spend time with you and I'm tired of doing this in hiding, and in betrayal or whatever of our friends, your family. I just want it to be me and you, Rose. No more empty classrooms or broom closets. Out in the open, me and you. That's what I want."

"So," Rose began slowly, she had a bad feeling that she would get the wrong answer to the question she was about to ask, but she had to anyway. "This is all because I put out and Lily doesn't." It came out as more of a statement than a question, but it was how he was making it sound, so she might as well be sure of herself.

At first he sat there stock still, staring at her with his mouth slightly open. Rose thought he looked quite cute and vulnerable like that, but then his Slytherin-perfected mask slid into place and he nearly glared at her with cold eyes. "You don't have to be so crude, Rose."

She thought she could laugh. And then she did. Of course that's what this is about. Sex. Merlin, why did everything have to be about sex? 'Because it feels so damn good!' her mind told her. Well, if that small detail is overlooked it's all quite ridiculous, actually.

He was staring at her, with a small amount of incredulity in his eyes. "Why are you laughing?"

"Scorpius, hun." She squeezed his hands in hers, and then let them go. "You don't really care about me. Yes," she put her hand up to stop him from interrupting. "we're friends, and you care about me in that sense. But not romantically, not intimately, just physically. You want me. And I want you, we both know that. But that's not what you should base this decision on. What? You don't want to be with my cousin anymore because she refuses to give you sex? Tough luck. Deal with it. She's your girlfriend. But I promise you won't be getting it from me anymore. I can't do this. It's gone on for way too long, and I'm ending it before Lily finds out and gets hurt. She doesn't have to know. Let Al know it's over, convince him to leave it be, and then let's just move on. Go back to Lily, or break up with her and find someone willing to have sex with you, I don't care. But don't you dare hurt her, Scorpius."

He scoffed. "You're one to talk about hurting her, Rose."

"Yes, well I've done what I have, and I'm not happy or proud of it. I was stupid and naïve, and I let my own desires and sex drive cloud my mind. But I won't do it anymore."

She stood up, collected her belongings and turned to walk away. Then she sighed, and turned back to look at the crestfallen blonde sitting on the bench. They gazed into each other's eyes for a second, and then she sighed again. "You have no idea how much this hurts, Scorpius because- because I-" she took a deep breath, and then whispered "I love you."

She quickly turned away from him and ran back into the castle, heading straight for the only place she could be alone where he would likely not follow her: the library.

A/N: Sooo... how is it going? you've got to let me know, because I'm a fairly new writer and I wanna do nothing but please my readers! hehe :)