CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
HAPPY NEW YEAR (PART 1)
New Year's Eve comes quickly. For the last week things have been surprisingly calm. Well, as calm as they can be. The boys have been playing Quidditch and having snowball fights, Rose has been reading (as usual), Dom has been hanging out with Vic and Teddy, helping them plan the wedding, I have been hanging out with Molly and Roxie has been shut up in her room doing Godness knows what. I haven't seen much of Lucy since she's been visiting all her friends. Like I said, things have been calm. So calm that I forgot to tell them about Caleb and I - again! I was going to tell them today, but with the party tonight everyone is so busy getting things organised.
After a quick mid-afternoon dinner, we are told to go get ready for the party. I walk up the stairs with Molly who is blabbering away about how excited she is. She's been so happy since her secret came out and I'm happy for her. But right now I'm sort of nervous about Caleb coming here. He'll be so upset that I haven't told them, think I'm ashamed of it or something. When we get to our room Molly shuts the door and gives me a look.
"Ok, what's wrong? You haven't listened to a word I've said."
"It's just ... Caleb's going to be here tonight and I still haven't told everyone about us, which I promised I would. He'll be really pissed." I sigh. Molly smiles sympathetically.
"I'm sure he'll be so happy to see you that he doesn't care. And so what if he does? It's New Years Eve, he'll get over it after a few minutes. It's hard not to get caught up in the atmosphere at our parties."
"I suppose you could be right. Oh well, I'll worry about it later. Let's get dressed."
"Yeah and then I'll help you with your make-up ok? You'll be so gorgeous that Caleb won't even remember his own name." She laughs.
I grab my dress and heels and go into the bathroom to get changed. The ice-blue dress fits my body perfectly, the top half as tight as a second skin and floaty and elegant from the waist down. It is long - reaching mid-calf - and the style, as well as the colour, suits me to a T. The silver high heels, embedded with little crystals, sparkle even in the tiny amount of light in the bathroom. They give me a few extra inches - though nowhere near Caleb's height - and they make my ankles look slender and girly. All in all I look awesome - thank you Aunt Fleur and Uncle Bill!
All of the good make-up is on the dressing table in the room so I have to go out there to do it and my hair.
"Molly, are you dressed? Can I come in?" I shout through the door.
"Yes." She replies. And I walk into the room. Molly looks lovely. She is wearing a black and white polka-dot dress with a flaring skirt and halter neck. It's tight at the chest but has lots of room to hide her baby-bump, and reaches just below her knee. She is wearing strappy red sandles with little heels and a bright red bolero cardigan.
"Oh, Molly, you look great." I gasp. She shakes her head.
"Thanks, but not as great as you. You look amazing, so grown up." I thank her and she offers to do my make-up and hair, if I do hers. I agree. She sits down at the seat first and the first thing I do is straighten her short, wavy hair. Then I appy foundation, big smoky eyes with long black eyelashes, defined cheekbones and big red, shiny lips. Very sexy. Very 60's. Molly puts in contacts instead of her glasses and looks in the mirror.
"Oh Lily, thank you. It looks great." She grins and I shrug modestly, "Okay, okay, my turn." I sit down and close my eyes for a good 20 minutes while Molly fusses with my hair and make-up and face wipes. Finally she takes a step back and smiles.
"Ok, you can look now." I turn and look in the mirror. The girl in front of me has big brown eyes, with dark blue lids, black eyeliner and thick black lashes. Her lips are skin-coloured but very glittery and glossy, and her cheekbones are high on her face. Her orange hair, sprayed with some kind of glitter, cascades in ringlets down her back, almost to her tiny waist. She looks grown-up, and mature. And gorgeous. The image of who I want to be. It takes me a minute to realise that the girl in the mirror is me. I gasp.
"Oh Molly. I look ... amazing. You could do this for a living y'know." I tell her. She smiles and laughs.
"Ok, Ok. We better go down before-" She is interrupted by Uncle Ron shouting.
"Kids! Everyone get down here, people are starting to arrive! Hurry up!" I look at Molly and she looks at me. We grin.
"Before that happens." She finishes. And we go downstairs.
Within an hour the party is in full swing. Nobody is drunk yet but they are damn near close. Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione - who are both a little tipsy - are giggling like teenagers under the mistletoe, whilst Hugo makes puking gestures behind them. Rose has a book in her hands but isn't really reading it, instead looking up and laughing at Dominique's ridiculous dancing with Frank Longbottom (her best friend). Hagrid is taking up most of the corner sofa and complaining loudly to Professor Slughorn (who retired before I got to Hogwarts but stays in contact with my family) about some ghastly beast or another. Slughorn just nods and hiccups. Louis is snogging the face off Mel in the shadowy part of the room where they think nobody can see and Rikki isn't here yet. I am currently dancing with Molly, while watching James and Fred take turns at sneaking sips of my Dad's firewhiskey while he isn't looking. Uncle Percy comes over to me and Molly.
"Molly. Maybe you should sit down for a while, you've been dancing for a while and-" I block out Uncle Percy's rant and roll my eyes at Molly. He's been like this for the last few days. Instead of being angry or distant he's gone into super-protective-Dad/Grandad mode, Always worrying about Molly and the baby: "Molly. Maybe you shouldn't eat that", "Molly. Maybe you should put on a jumper". Molly, this, Molly, that. It's a wonder Molly hasn't gone mad. But I think she's just happy he seems to have come to terms with the idea.
"Dad." Interupts Molly, "It's a party. Go have fun, I'm fine!" Uncle Percy opens his mouth as if to protest but is then pulled off by Aunt Aundrey. She winks at us as if to say "your welcome".
However, about 5 minutes later we do sit down for a rest. My Mum comes bustling into the room with a tray full of little nibbles and stuff and starts offering them to everyone. She won't relax until later, after Dad slips her a drink to calm her down. She's like this every year. On her way past Dad she lightly hits him on the ear, muttering about how he could help her. But she doesn't mean it. If anyone tries to help her she usually shouts at us and tells us not to bother her. There is a faint noise but I ignore it. Then I hear it again, a knock at the door.
"Oh that's the door," Says my Mum. She can't get it because her hands are full. She looks around the room and spots James and Fred, sneaking Firewhiskey, "James! I have a right mind to kill you but since this is a party, I'll forget what I just saw if you go and answer the door." James sighs and mutters something like "make Fred answer the door" but got up anyway. He doesn't come back into the room for 5 minutes and when he does, Rikki is with him. They are holding hands and her lipstick is smudged. Lovely. The second she spots me she drops James' hand and runs over to hug me.
"Lily! I missed you so much. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year! Oh how are you? What's been happening?" She screams in my ear. I wince.
"Woah. Calm down Rikki, did James slip you some Firewhiskey out there or something? Geez, you're so hyper." She laughs.
"Sorry. I'm just so excited, I haven't seen you guys in ages. Plus, I'm a little bit dizzy. James is such a good kisser and out there it was like-"
"Ewww. Ew. Ew. Rikki too much info. That's my brother and ... ew." She giggles again. Who is this girl and what has she done to the real Rikki? Or rather, what has James done to her?
"Sorry, Lils? So where's Mel? And where's the boyfriend?"
"Mel is over there. With her tounge down my cousin's throat. You should probably go remind her to come up for air or something. And the boyfriend isn't here yet." Rikki smiles and walks off after muttering a quick, sarcastic "good luck".
Turns out I don't have to wait long. Within 15 minutes Caleb walks into the livingroom, wearing a pair of black jeans and a red shirt. He looks amazing. I swear, when he walks into the room I see through a haze of glittering pink air and hear violins in my head. All of my body is telling me to run to him - and I almost do. He doesn't see me though, not yet. Instead he straightens his back, squares his shoulders and walks toward Al, as if preparing for the fight. I would have laughed at the shock on his face when Al pulled him in for a short man-hug, if it hadn't been followed by a look of hurt. Shit, I didn't mean to hurt him. He sits down next to Al and his eyes scan the room. For me. I'm already looking at him when he spots me. His eyes widen as he takes in my appearance - I am looking pretty hot tonight - and I smile at him sheepishly. He smiles back but looks pointedly at Al and shoots me a questioning look. I gesture for him to follow me and walk out the room, into the hall. He comes out a few seconds behind me and I check that the coat closet is empty before pulling him in behind me. I turn on the light and take a deep breath before turning round to face him.
I don't know what I'm expecting. Anger? Saddness? Disappointment? Anything but what I get probably.
The second I turn around he grabs my waist with one hand and cups my face with the other. I'm so close I can feel his breath fanning across my cheek. Feel his heart beat against my chest.
"Hi Brown-eyes." He whispers before kissing me fiercly. I moan at the way his lips mould so perfectly with mine. I've missed this so much. It's like now, kissing Caleb, I can breath better. I feel like someone. He nips at my bottom lip with his teeth and I gasp. He uses this oppourtunity to plunge his tounge in my mouth and I respond enthusistically. By the time we pull apart - which takes a while - I have somehow ended up pushed up with my back against the wall, my arms around his neck and there are 3 coats lying on the floor. We are both breathless. We stare at each other for a while in silence. Then I sigh.
"I'm so sorry Caleb. I was going to tell them but then I kept putting it off, and then Molly told everyone about the baby, and then I forgot. I'm sorry if you're mad and-"
"Lily, Lily, shhh. I'm not mad, I just - wait, Molly's pregnant?" He asks. I nod but ask a completely different question.
"You aren't mad? Or upset? Why?" I ask. I know Caleb and I was so sure he would be upset.
"Well, to be honest I didn't think you would tell them. Hoped - yes - but I knew how hard it would be. So I have a plan." I grin and raise an eyebrow at him.
"A plan? What sort of plan?" I ask him. He just taps the side of his nose and winks. I laugh like I haven't been able to in weeks and kiss him quickly. This doesn't seem to satisfy him because he is just about to kiss me again when the door opens. My heart skips about a million beats until I see Molly standing there. I sigh, relieved, and then I look at Caleb who has moved far away from me - about as far as you can in a closet - and has turned a shade of bright red. Molly and I burst out laughing.
"It's OK Caleb. I told Molly." I smile at him. And Molly nods.
"Yeah, she did. So consider yourselves very lucky it was me who caught you. Al's looking for you," She says to Caleb, "And I'm looking for you Lils. Fred sneaked a bottle of Firewhiskey and everyone has gone up to his room to play Truth or Dare - the drinking game version. Everyone is joining in. So let's go." Truth or Dare is a common occurance at our parties. And the adults are too tipsy to notice that we have dissapeared for a while.
"Aren't you ... um?" Says Caleb, akwardly, pointing at Molly's belly.
"Pregnant? Yeah. That's why I've got this." She says and pulls out a bottle of water.
We all walk up the stairs and into Freddie's room in silence, trying not to alert the adults to our whereabouts. Right before we go in Molly pulls me back and waves her wand in my face.
"What was that for?" I ask and she whispers in my ear:
"Lipstick. Smudged." I thank her and we go in.
This should be fun. As long as nobody asks any akwward questions.
OK ... so I know I promised that everyone would find out in this chapter but I ended up writing more than I had expected. But it will DEFINETLY be in the next chapter, I swear. And I promise I will update soon. So apart from my broken promise ... what do you think?
Read, Review, My love, thanks, and apologises xxx