"I almost couldn't take it in there and they were completely ignoring me. Did you get a lot of attention before you were all saviory?" Jacob asks.
"No, I wasn't," I say.
He rests his elbows on my head.
"I don't understand why,"" he says, "Do you want to go do a thing?"
I shrug out from underneath his elbow.
"This is why I need to be taller," I grumble.
He pinches my cheek. Why is he so.. so comfortable? I don't understand how he can turn a stranger, me, into a friend so easily with no hesitation.
"Let's go do something," Jacob says.
"We're shopping," I insist.
Then I grab his arm and march into town, which probably takes several minutes longer than necessary because I get lost twice,.
"You going to let me take you where you're going now?" Jacob asks.
"You don't know where I'm going!" I say.
"There's nothing in Forks, Teddy. We need to get my dad for that. You were uncomfortable, I could tell, and I made an excuse. We aren't shopping," he says.
I pull my hand away from his and reach for my sweatshirt string while backing up.
"Er," I say.
"Your hair is twitching. Come meet Quil and Embry," he suggests.
I shrug my shoulders and follow along even though I should be going to the Wizarding World and making friends. I should buy a book or two to practice everything I would've learned at Hogwarts. I should write an apology letter to Andromeda. Instead, I follow Jacob.
I swing my feet against the warm metal of the stool outside Shwartz' Icecream Parlor. It's a quaint little place just on the edge of Wizarding America. The cone I'm licking now isn't as good as any I've ever gotten from Florian's, but it's delicious anyway. I turn the pages of a book on Muggle culture while I eat. It's the first time in three days that I haven't been standing right next to Jacob. I was starting to feel that he's required to be my friend, honestly. Like he's getting paid to talk to me by the hour. There's no other explanation for his constant closeness, there isn't another way to explain why he compliments me. 50 cents a compliment, 5 bucks an hour. I'm sure of it. It's too sincere, there's just nothing else it could be.
I've never really had a friend before. Albus Severus Potter, a whole mouthful of a name and a handful of a person, was always around because Mr. Potter and Andromeda are friends but I never had anything in common with him. I tolerated his presence, as he tolerated mine.
Someone stands just outside of my peripheral vision. I can just feel it. I turn a page and add a slight curl to my hair to distract myself. He sits down opposite me. I look up.
"Can I help you?" I ask.
"Of course you can help me, beautiful. You can tell me your name," he says.
I tuck my stupid hair behind my ear.
"Teddy," I say.
"That's a neat trick. Are you a Metamorphmagi?" he asks.
I nod.
"Who are you?" I ask.
I really need to gain control over my stupid hair before school starts. That'll give me away faster than anything else I could do wrong. This memorizing of the culture won't matter if I change colors in front of them. And I highly doubt I'll be lucky enough to have a prophecy preventing me from breaking the law next time around.
"Dempsey Joel Saylor. Pretentious load of crap, isn't it? Just call me Joel," he says.
That's the kind of name I always wished that I had. Something cool and distinguished like a name a Malfoy would have. Scorpius Malfoy has always been someone I looked up to. I don't know why. I guess it's because his father wasn't this perfect hero. He made mistakes and he chose the wrong side but he does all this wonderful stuff to make up for it and doesn't care if no one ever knows. Scorpius may have been the closest thing to my only friend at Hogwarts, at least until Andromeda found out.
"I like your name, Dempsey," I say.
He smiles.
"It sure sounds nice coming out of your lips. Call me whatever you like," Dempsey says.
I was going to do that anyway, but alright.
"New here? I've never seen you at Straxifrey before, and you certainly aren't a first year," he says after I'm silent for what must be too long.
"New here. Yes. I just came from Hogwarts but I'm not going to.. they don't accept transfers.," I say.
"Shame," he says.
I yank on my sweatshirt string, almost too hard, and look down into my lap. Why it's a shame, I'll never know.
"Just ran out of beetle eyes and had to get more before school goes back. Are you busy?" he asks.
Well there was the rest of season two and that whole box of hot pockets…. And I'm sure Jacob would love to show me something or another.
"Not really," I say.
"Great. You're busy now. Let me show you around America, little British wizard. We can go anywhere, everywhere," he says.
This sounds suspiciously like a date and I say so. I've watched enough episodes of Glee to spot one.
"Very clever, Teddy. We've got all this time before we have to be responsible. Let's run away," he says.
I mumble something sensible about just having met him and depriving my family of my birthday celebration. Funny how I refer to them as my family, but I didn't have any trouble doing the same to my Andromeda, my actual grandmother.
"The whole nation at your fingertips. Or.. maybe something Muggle?" he says while looking at the book in my hands, "To help you practice. Movies, malls, all that Muggle stuff."
Why is he trying so hard to get my attention? I'm no one special.
"Sounds like a good time," I say awkwardly.
"Glorious. Just let me," he says while leaning forward to lick a drip from my icecream cone.
I drop it and yelp while taking a step backwards. He grabs my wrist, his eyes dangerous, and whisks me to the movie theater. In Forks.
"How do you know where this is?" I ask.
"We used to live here when I was little. We live in Seattle now, but I remember it well," Dempsey says.
Isn't that convenient? I stand there trying to decide whether or not I want to leave when Quil comes up to us.
"Hey, Teddy. Who is this?" Quil asks.
This means Jacob might be nearby. I actually want Jacob to show up, for once. While he's here I can make decisions more easily. Dempsey won't try anything until I manage to figure out what I'm thinking.
"I'm Joel," Dempsey says.
"Oh, did you learn from your mistake?" I ask.
He winks at me and whispers, "Adorable wizards get special privileges."
"Where's Jacob?" I ask Quil.
I manage to let only a tiny bit of panic color my voice. I feel a tug on one of my curls.
"Here I am, Tedward. What movie are you two watching?" Jacob asks.
"It's Edward and I would prefer it if you'd never mention it again," I grumble.
Jacob smiles.
Still, I smile at him gratefully. Honestly, I can't tell if my luck is good or bad what with the boys everywhere.
"I don't know yet," I say.
Quil spreads out the tickets in his hand and laughs.
"Four- but how did you-?" I say.
"Don't ask questions," Jacob says.
"What if we already had tickets?" I ask.
"I do so love new friends," he smiles.
Dempsey takes a ticket with a thin smile. He walks into the theater quickly, dragging me behind him. We buy a tub of popcorn. I lead him into the room, point to a seat, and say,
"Sit and be silent."
"But how will I offer you popcorn? How will I make a whispered joke that makes you smile the way he did. How will I-?" he asks.
I take the popcorn from him with a smirk and take my own seat. I twist the string of my sweatshirt between my finger and my thumb distractedly while watching yet another ridiculous Muggle movie. They're all romances, even the gruesome ones. I wonder why they're so obsessed.
"What did you do to your hair?" Jacob whispers in my ear.
I almost jump at his unexpected nearness.
"I thought it might look good," I say.
"It looked fine before," he says.
I roll my eyes.
"No, I'm serious. It looked fine the way it did before. Why change to impress him?" he asks.
"I meet another..person like me..and I can't look nice?" I ask.
Jacob reaches into the popcorn bucket. I lean back to avoid a mouthful of his arm. He rubs it into his hair.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"Adding to the shine and texture," he says.
"Jacob," I say.
"It looks better this way," he says.
"Not really, Jacob. There's like, five popcorn kernels in it," I say.
He stares pointedly at me and then pats my head before going off to his seat, on the other side of Dempsey.
"He's wrong. It looks better like that. Maybe you should tousle it a bit too. And add some streaks," he says.
I shake my head a little to disguise what I'm doing to my hair.
What does Jacob know? It's probably all prophecy nonsense anyway.
"After my birthday there's still a week until school starts. How much exploring can we do until then?" I ask.
Dempsey smiles victoriously.
"I thought you'd never ask."