Summary: Lucy's never been the golden child. She's rebellious, stubborn, nothing like her almost-minister father Percy wants her to be. When she gets kicked out & runs to France, can her old friend Tyler help her? Or has he wronged her too many times?

Chapter 3

Lucy wandered into the apartment, across the white shag carpeting, and flopped down onto the blue suede couch. She reached underneath her back and untied the strings of her apron, before grabbing it and tossing it on the floor.

She was exhausted. She'd been waiting tables for what felt like two years straight, though it'd only been twelve hours. Pierre had called her in for a double shift.

"How was work?" Dominique appeared at the door to her bedroom, fastening a silver hoop earring. She was all dressed up, ready for a night out with her boyfriend, Jean. Lucy felt a little bit of self-pity when she realized that she'd be lounging around in Dom's posh Parisian apartment while Dom was out getting kissed.

Lucy hadn't been kissed in awhile. She'd kind of gone underground when she'd moved in with Dominique. Dom had been, after all, the best choice. Not only was she Lucy's best friend, she had moved to France immediately after graduation. The two of them had been agonizing over not being able to see each other every day, but now that was solved.

Since birth, the two of them had been inseparable. It was Lucy and Dominique against the world. They did everything together, shared everything with each other. When they weren't with each other, it felt like a limb was missing.

Of course, Lucy hadn't accounted for the missing limb she'd have when she left her family. She hadn't talked to anyone related to her except for Dominique in the two weeks since she'd left.

"It was exhausting. Your boyfriend's uncle is a slave-driver," Lucy answered, referring to her boss, Pierre. Lucy relished these simple conversations with Dominique, even if only for the reason that they were in English. She spent most of her day speaking French, thankful that she at least could speak the language, because the French weren't exactly very polite to those who couldn't.

Dominique laughed. "Yes, yes he is. Jean absolutely abhors working there. He's incredibly grateful you took the job over." Dominique glanced over at Lucy from where she was standing, preening herself before the mirror on the wall. "Do you want to talk yet?" she frowned.

Lucy shook her head. She couldn't talk about her family, about why she'd shown up on Dom's doorstep without any notice. She was sure that Dom knew something about what had happened, what with the family grapevine and all, but Lucy wasn't feeling up to talking about the disappointment in her parents' eyes, or the fact that she hadn't really left, she'd been kicked out.

Dom knew how the friction between Lucy and her parents had started; she had, after all, been there through everything. So Lucy didn't exactly feel a need yet to finish that story up to the present.

"Okay," Dom nodded. She left her standard post by the mirror and sat down next to her cousin on the couch. Dominique smoothed the suede fabric nervously. She'd always had a thing for perfectly decorated apartments – probably why she had taken an interior design job right out of Hogwarts. Lucy was pretty sure Dominique wasn't an interior designer yet; more likely she was fetching everyone's coffees, but Dominique loved it anyway. It was evident that perfectly decorated apartments weren't the only things that needed to be perfectly decorated, according to Dom, when one saw Dominique's appearance: people were to be perfectly dressed and accessorized, as well.

Lucy watched as Dominique took a deep breath and tucked a piece of hair behind her ears, making her bracelets jingle. "I sent an owl to Tyler," she said. She winced and waited for Lucy's reaction.

She didn't have to wait long. Lucy bolted upright instantly. "What?" she cried.

"I had to!" Dominique defended herself. "You haven't been yourself at all and you refuse to talk to me and when you won't talk to me, history proves that the only person you'll talk to is Tyler!"

"B-but it's Tyler!" Lucy stuttered. She could barely form a coherent thought, let alone a full sentence, she was so stunned. A deep feeling of betrayal was encasing her. "I can't believe you did this!" Lucy retreated to the far side of the couch. Her face scrunched up as she got angrier. She hopped off the couch and began to pace. She could never handle sitting still when she was angry.

"Why the hell would you owl him?" Lucy snapped. "You know what happened right before graduation!"

"So you should see him anyways!" Dominique was standing now, too. Her heels gave her a good four inches on Lucy when they normally stood eye to eye.

"I can't! God, do you know how humiliating that was?" Lucy turned around and then began to pace anew. "I'd never been rejected before." Lucy laughed hysterically, maniacally. "Everyone wants to sleep with a Weasley, didn't you know? Except Tyler Hart, apparently."

"Of course I know," Dom said. She flipped her hair back angrily. "Ever stop to think that he didn't sleep with you because he cares about you?" she asked, her voice fiercely quiet.

Lucy stilled at that voice. That voice meant Dominique was absolutely serious. It didn't happen often. It was her scolding, harsh reality voice. The one that conveyed disappointment and broke through walls of disillusionment. It told people the truth.

At least, it usually did. Lucy had a hard time believing this one.

But she didn't have any chance to argue back, because the doorbell rang.

She slowly turned her head to the door, and then to Dominique. "You didn't just owl him," she stated. "You told him where I am. You told him to come here. That's him, isn't it?" She pointed at the door.

Dominique nodded. She showed no remorse. She picked her clutch up off the gleaming coffee table, applied one last coat of lipstick and opened the door. "Hey, Tyler, I was just leaving, but come on in." Tyler shuffled in and Dominique strutted out, slamming the door behind her.

It was so, so, so awkward. That was all Lucy could think. She nervously attempted to casually fix her hair.

"Hey," Tyler finally said.

"Hi," Lucy muttered, her eyes cast down. She couldn't look at him. She was too embarrassed from what she'd done the last time she'd seen him. Night before graduation and she'd just drunkenly thrown herself at him. He'd always been there somehow – her sort of best friend, confidant, antagonist. But he'd always been there. A twisted friendship, but the strongest friendship she'd ever had. Including Dominique, because she and Dominique were family – they'd been thrown together. They couldn't remember not knowing each other, but Lucy hadn't met Tyler until the Hogwarts Express first year. They had made friends with each other; Lucy hadn't made friends with Dominique, they'd just always been friends.

And here she was, unable to look her supposed best friend in the eye.

"So. France," said Tyler. "What's up with that?"

At this, Lucy was able to look up. After she rolled her eyes. He still looked the same. Short and messy dark hair, dark blue eyes, a scar running from his left cheekbone through his top lip, a half-cocky, half-shy grin. His hands were shoved in their pockets but Lucy could see how his fingers moved in them, in a seemingly-random pattern that she knew was Pachelbel's Canon in D. He played the piano when he was nervous or anxious, and when there wasn't a piano, his fingers danced as if there were keys under them, anyway.

So he was nervous, too.

Lucy sat back down on the couch and pulled a pillow into her arms, hugging it to her stomach so she would have something to do with her hands. Dominique would be furious when she saw the flour from Lucy's work clothes on her expensive pillows. The furniture in the apartment sometimes made Lucy feel like she was living in a museum.

Lucy moved the pillow a little and saw bits of flour sticking to the fabric. She was instantly aware of how her messy bun and grimy clothes affected her appearance - as in, no way was there any 'come hither' there. Attempting to fix her hair when Tyler had first walked in had probably only made it worse.

Tyler sat down on the couch, following Lucy's lead, in the spot Dominique had vacated. He looked at her patiently, obviously waiting for her to answer.

Lucy sighed. "France 'cause Dominique is here. I couldn't exactly go anywhere else."

"So you not only skip town, you skip country. And why couldn't you go anywhere? Any particular reason you had to leave your parents' house in the first place?"

It was weird to hear her childhood home referred to as her parents' house. Up until just then, Lucy had always assumed she'd return there one day. It was only beginning to hit her that her father may never want to see her again.

Lucy bit her lip. She wasn't going to cry. Especially not in front of Tyler. Her pride couldn't take it.

"Hey," Tyler said, grabbing her hand. He knew that look, knew what was about to happen when Lucy bit her lip. "Whatever happened, it's okay."

"No, it's not," Lucy shook her head, refusing to acknowledge the shake in her voice. "My dad kicked me out," she whispered. "I didn't get the grades suitable of the almost-Minister's daughter," she imitated Percy's pompous voice. "Apparently, I lack ambition, integrity, honesty, foresight, and common sense." Tyler tactfully ignored her voice crack. "I also dress scandalously." Tears were beginning to pool in her eyes. "He wanted me to redo seventh year, either at Hogwarts or by tutor to get better NEWT grades. He said if I didn't, I wouldn't be welcome at home anymore."

"And you refused to do it, so you had to leave," Tyler concluded.

Lucy nodded.

Tyler reached to hug her, but Lucy jumped away from him. Her back hit the couch's armrest. The hurt look in his eyes caused a small pain in Lucy's chest.

He retracted his arms and chuckled mirthlessly to himself. "You don't trust me anymore. Talk to me, sure, familiarity and all, but you won't even let me hug you." He stared at her and narrowed his eyes shrewdly. "I'm not going to apologize for not taking advantage of you, Luce."

"Hah! Not taking advantage of me, is that what you think you did?" she burst out. "How about destroyed my pride, hurt my ego, embarrassed and humiliated me, made me think even my best friend didn't want me? Huh?"

Lucy got up off the couch and strode into the kitchen, bustling around in the cupboards to find something to cook or bake. She had to do something, she couldn't sit idly and even though she was absolutely nothing like her parents, they'd so instilled politeness in her that she couldn't leave the apartment with a guest there, even an unwanted guest. Besides, she couldn't look at him after embarrassing herself further with that outburst. Merlin, he must be making fun of her right now.

Unfortunately, Tyler followed her into the kitchen, pulling out the flour and sugar. Lucy raised her eyebrows at him. "Chocolate chip cookies, yeah?" He smirked. "Can't imagine you've changed so much in a few months that you'd be making something else."

Lucy chose to ignore him and continued to bake. She turned the radio on with a flick of her wand, not caring what station it turned to. They baked without speaking, dancing around each other in Dominique's tiny, updated kitchen until the cookies were ready and Lucy reached for a steaming chocolate chip cookie, burning her tongue on the chocolate when she took a bite.

Lucy slid a couple onto a plate and placed them on the little kitchen table by the window, taking the seat closest to the fridge. Tyler sat down across from her. He plopped a cookie in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

"I didn't mean to humiliate you," he said. "It doesn't matter that you wanted to sleep with me, you were drunk. I wasn't about to take advantage of you. Not to mention the fact that I wasn't just going to be another guy in a long line. You're one of my best friends and I wasn't going to compromise our friendship for what would be just a meaningless lay to you."

"Whatever," Lucy sighed and leaned back in her seat, the perfect picture of boredom etched across her face. Inside, she was barely keeping it together. What the hell did he mean? The way he was talking, he wanted anything between them to mean more than just meaningless comfort or a good time. But that wasn't possible, was it? Or did he just say it like that because he was a good guy with morals? It didn't have anything to do with her, it was just the way he was.

"But we're not going to talk about that now," Tyler said pleasantly. "We're going to discuss why your parents are so unhappy with your grades when you aced every test we took over the year." He narrowed his eyes. "Without studying. Seems to me you'd ace your NEWTs, too."

Lucy nearly snarled at him. "If you think you can just jump back into my life after ignoring me for two months-"

"-because you tried to contact me so determinedly?" Tyler scoffed. "What I don't understand, is how you could possibly have failed any of your classes, when you were acing all of them. Sure, you didn't study at all for NEWTs, but you knew all of the material backwards. Not studying should've earned you at least an Exceeds Expectations in every NEWT."

"Does it really matter?" Lucy demanded.

"Yes, it does," Tyler growled. "You threw your future away just to spite your parents! Was it really worth it? Was it?"

"You don't know the first thing about my family," Lucy snarled. "Don't presume to know what I did or why I did it."

"Dear Merlin, you even talk intelligently! How could you possibly fail over half your NEWTs?"

Lucy's head snapped up. "How do you know how many NEWTs I got?" Her mind was racing. She hadn't told Dom, so Dom couldn't have written about it to Tyler. There was no way he could know, unless...

Tyler gulped. His resolve seemed to flutter for a moment, before becoming like steel again. "I stopped by your house on my way over. Your father told me you only got four NEWTs. One Exceeds Expectations, Lucy, really? Every single one of them could've been an Outstanding had you even studied a little bit."

"You stopped at my house? What gave you the right to do that?"

"Being worried about you!"

"Maybe you could've shown how worried you were by talking to me and not the people who kicked me out."

"Molly didn't exactly seem like she kicked you out."

"Perfect little Molly?" Lucy rolled her eyes. "Didn't you hear? She's reformed."

"Neither did your mother."

"Like Mum could ever stand up to Dad."

"Sometimes I think you just want to have problems, and you just create them."

Lucy's jaw dropped. So here it was. This was what he really thought of her. No wonder he hadn't wanted to sleep with her. "Get out." Politeness be damned, she was not going to sit her a moment longer with this jackass. "Get out!" she cried again when he didn't budge.

"No."

Lucy reached for her wand. "You don't get to come in here and talk to me like that. Get the hell out, or I'll make you get out." She brandished her wand at him.

Tyler slowly stood up, hands raised. "Fine, Luce. Have it your way. Wallow in your misery. But you should know that I did try to help you."

Lucy nearly cackled. "Oh sure, coming in here and criticizing me, that's really helping. And how the hell would you know anything about family problems? You've got two perfect parents, the white picket fence, 1.6 siblings."

Tyler shook his head. His eyes were riddled with disappointment. Lucy cringed and turned her back. She couldn't look at that.

"I'll stop by on Sunday."

Lucy heard the door open and then shut: Tyler was gone.

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