Don't Make This Easy, I Want You to Mean It

It was well into November and I couldn’t wait for Thanksgiving break. It was the Friday before now and I was beginning to wane, thankful next week was only two days long. I shut my locker door, throwing my bag back over my shoulder. It was first thing in the morning, and I just wanted the day to be over already.
“Hey, I’m looking for my girlfriend. Have you seen her? She’s about your height, beautiful blonde hair and fucking stunning smile.” Alex’s voice rang out behind me and I smiled instantly, beginning to brighten up. I’d seen him only last night, but it felt like forever. “Oh, there she is.” He smirked as I turned around. “What’s up, cutie? You seem extra moody this morning.”
“Shut up,” I laughed, hitting him lightly as I leaned my back against my locker door. “I’m just so ready for the break next week. I need sleep.”
“Babe, I’m staying over all of next weekend, you aren’t getting any sleep.” I slapped him softly again, telling him to stop being a perv. “I’m serious, we’ll be binging on Friends and 24 and shit. How can you sleep when we have TV to watch?”
“Oh, so you weren’t thinking of anything rude?” I raised my eyebrows, smirking a little.
“Okay, maybe a little bit. But I’m a gentleman, so that’s totally out of the window.”
“Mmm, are you sure?” I asked, pouting a little.
“Jesus Christ, Jasey, you’re awful,” he laughed.
“I am not, you wouldn’t trade me for anything.” I grinned, pushing a kiss to his lips, which he happily reciprocated.
“So, what are we doing tonight?” Alex asked, his hands were resting on the lockers either side of me and my back was pressed firmly to the locker door, my arms loosely slung around his neck. I tilted my head to the side, trying to figure out why he thought we had plans. Did he not know?
“I’m busy,” I told him, still grinning at him from before. Alex’s face dropped and I did my best not to laugh at his pout. Considering all the shameless flirting, I probably should have dropped some hint before now.
“Oh. Anything I should know about?”
“Yes,” I breathed overdramatically. “I have a date.” Alex’s face transformed into a smirk, thinking I meant him. “He’s beautiful, and British and way out of my league.”
“Oh, really?” His smirk intensified and I tried my best not to laugh at him. I really wasn’t helping myself.
“His name is Tom and I’m totally in love with him.” Alex’s face dropped again and I finally let out the laugh I’d been holding.
“Who the fuck is Tom?” He wasn’t annoyed, but clearly hadn’t caught on to my joke. Marissa and I were going to see Harry Potter and, apparently, Alex didn’t know I was a giant nerd.
“Tom Felton.” Alex’s face didn’t change, having had absolutely no recognition to the name. “Draco Malfoy?”
“Oh, my God,” he laughed finally. “I didn’t know you were a nerdy child.”
“You guys make me sick,” I heard to the right of me, seeing Jack and Marissa standing there. “We’re in school, tone down the PDA.”
“I’m trying, Jack,” I pouted. “But Alex doesn’t believe me when I say I have a date with a beautiful British man this evening.”
“Oh, God. It’s release day, isn’t it?” Jack groaned. I snorted quietly. Jack understood. There were no jokes about Alex, just straight to my innate love of all things Harry Potter.
“You knew?” Alex asked, exasperated. “You knew I was dating a nerd and you didn’t tell me?”
“Aw, poor baby,” I cooed, pouting at him. “I’m really sorry I’m a secret nerd, but you should know that’s the only reason I’m anywhere within your league.” I kissed him quickly as he scowled at me, trying my best to hold back even more laughter.
“You’re only with me so when you meet my parents you can pretend you’re at Hogwarts.”
“Oh my God. Alex, your parents are British. They’ll have British accents. Oh, my God. I’m so excited.” I faked excitement to him, rolling my eyes as I did so. “Get a grip. I’m in love with Tom Felton because he’s beautiful, not because he’s British. But I will be going out in public with my wand tonight, so do try and stay away from me.” Alex shot another exasperated look at Jack and Marissa who merely nodded at him, as if to say ‘yes, she really is serious’.
“Okay, I’m coming.” I felt my jaw dropping a little at Alex’s words. I’d honestly expected him to say ‘great, have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow’, not that he wanted to come with me.
“What?”
“I’m coming,” he shrugged. “We can double date it.” I blinked at him (really rather stupidly) while Jack and Marissa murmured in agreement.
“You mean, you want to go see Harry Potter with me? You want to be seen in public with me and my wand and wizard robes?” Alex chuckled at my surprise, kissing me softly as I gaped at him.
“Holly, I want to go with you because I’ve never seen you this excited about anything. Wand and all, I’m going out with you tonight.” I squealed excitedly, tightening my grip on Alex and hugging him excitedly, ignoring the stares I was getting from everyone else.
“Babe, come on, you can’t seriously want to go out in your wizard’s robes?” Alex sighed, staring at me from his spot on my bed while I dug through my wardrobe.
“I feel like you know nothing about me.”
“Clearly not. I thought you were cool and now I find out you’re a bigger nerd than Jeremy Ingles.” I snorted at his words, though threw a pair of balled up gloves at him for being mean about one of the Juniors. The kid had it hard enough without everyone making jokes about him. I finally found my cloak and Alex let out a sigh of relief. I’d been giving him the impression all day that it was a full set of robes, rather than just the cloak. “That’s it?”
“Yes,” I laughed.
“Why is it green?” I smiled mischievously at him, flinging the cloak around my shoulders and grabbing my wand from my nightstand. “Oh, God. You’re a Slytherin.”
“Slytherin seem like they have much more fun than everyone else.” I paused for a second, about to make another Harry Potter joke at Alex’s expense before realising he knew who Slytherin were. “You sly bastard!” I shrieked, pointing my wand at him accusingly. Alex’s face broke out into a grin when he realised I knew.
“Okay, fine, I like Harry Potter. But I’m a Gryffindor, so please don’t show me up,” he said, standing up and wrapping his arms around me.
“Oh, my God. I’ve never been so turned on by you in my life,” I groaned, pretending to fall into his arms weakly.
“Good to know it’s not just me,” he muttered, pressing his lips to my own roughly, backing me against the wall. I kissed him back just as roughly, dropping the wand in my hand and tangling my fingers in his hair.
“Jesus fuck!” Jack screamed, slamming my door shut again abruptly. “Don’t go in there, Marissa, there’s nerd sex happening.” I snorted, breaking away from Alex and picking up my wand again as Alex led us out of the room.
“We were trying to tell you it was time to go,” Marissa laughed as Jack continued to scream about Alex and I.
“I’m sorry, Jack, I just got really excited knowing it was time to see Tom again,” I told him, prodding him lightly in the side with my wand, while Alex and Marissa rolled their eyes at the pair of us.
“I get it, but please contain yourself,” Jack grumbled, trying to act annoyed.
“Okay, okay, I promise, no more sex with Alex in my bedroom,” I assured him, trying to keep a straight face.
“Wait, what? I didn’t agree to this,” Alex scowled. Jack grinned triumphantly, about to start mocking Alex before I interrupted.
“Baby, it’s fine, we have the rest of the world. That’s just one room.”
“Slut,” Jack said, trying to make it sound like a cough.
“Bite me.”
“I’ll let Alex do that.”
“Guys, can we fucking go? We’ll miss the showing and Jasey will flip her shit,” Marissa scolded, reminding us that we still hadn’t even left for our showing. I checked my watch, noting that we had plenty of time to get there, but knowing I needed the best seats. The boys rolled their eyes as I grinned, skipping out of the apartment.
“Ugh, feed me,” I groaned, stealing one of Alex’s fries from his tray.
“Hey!” He shouted, slapping my hand away, though too late to stop me from taking some. “Get your own.”
“I tried,” I pouted. “They’re taking forever.” We were currently seated in McDonald’s, who were pushing the meaning of fast food as I awaited my chicken burger, while the others happily consumed their own meals. I’d done my gushing over the movie, pestered Alex to bleach his hair (jokingly, of course) and made way too many jokes about ferrets in pants.
It had been a good night.
My number was finally called and I got half a smile as an apology, but I grabbed my tray and made my way back to where the guys were sat.
“What the fuck is that?” A voice snickered as I sat down. I rolled my eyes. Jodie’s tone was unmistakable. “I mean, really, Jasey? First you show your parents up by slutting about town, now you show Alex up by geeking around town?”
“Clearly, Jodie, it’s a Slytherin cloak,” Alex stated, glancing at her as he ate his food. His tone was beyond patronising and I loved it. Frankly, it always seemed to be me winding the girl up, so I was glad he was finally pushing her buttons back. It made me feel less like an antsy, possessive, jealous girlfriend.
“Well, clearly, I know that,” she giggled. “I just mean, why is she wearing it in public? That’s what kids do, right? Play dress up?”
“Oh, trust me, adults play ‘dress up’ too,” Alex winked at her and I choked on my coke.
“Nerd sex!” Jack called, stumping Jodie more than Alex’s remark had done. I was still coughing, trying to force the liquid from my lungs so I could resume my breathing. There was no way he was making these jokes in the middle of McDonald’s was there?
“You guys are gross.” Jodie’s lip curled in disgust as I finally regained control.
“Mm, but Jodie, that’s not even the best part of it,” I told her.
“It’s not?” Alex asked.
“No, baby. The best part of it is the Gryffindor cloak I’m buying you for Christmas so we can go all out with our nerd sex.”
“Ugh. Best. Girlfriend. Ever.”
Jodie’s face soured even further at our conversation, though she seemed unable to choose between stalking away in disgust and anger or making her own inappropriate remarks about Alex. She could hardly backtrack on her previous remarks about how nerdy it was, nor the disgust she’d shown, so I could see her confusion.
“Hey, Jodie. Do you wanna know a secret?” I asked, putting my elbow on the table and resting my chin on my hand. She cocked her head, though didn’t answer. “Hagrid isn’t the only giant on campus, if you know what I mean.” I raised my eyebrows at her suggestively, a mixture of groans and laughter coming from my friends. “I mean, the number nine-and-three-quarters really fits here.” She scowled as she turned away, clearly done with my mockery for the night. “Bye cutie! See you in school!” I turned back to my friends, who were still laughing. “Well, someone is going to be whomping their willow alone tonight.”
“What do you do with your spare time, Jasey? Research Harry Potter pick up lines?” Jack snorted, ignoring my last joke.
“What? How else was I supposed to get Alex into bed with me?”
“You’re fucking awful.”

Notes

I channelled all my innate Harry Potter love into this chapter.