Elusive // The Weasley Twins

32. Bruised

"Now what?"

The second that those words left Cosette's mouth she started to regret them. She wouldn't have had an answer if it had been reversed and George asked her, so it was wrong to put it on him.

George shrugged his shoulders, because he genuinely didn't know.

"Well-"

But his response was cut off when they both heard the sound of something crashing coming from above. George raised his eyebrows, trying to stifle a laugh.

"First things first, we should probably get back up there before people realize we're missing," He suggested, sliding his hand into hers to pull her away from the shelves. George glanced at the broken gin bottle that was still on the floor and sighed, "Remind me to clean that up tomorrow."

George led them out of the stockroom but stopped her before she could go back up the stairs.

"Go out the front," He said, nodding his head towards the door. "That way you can go up the back entrance like everyone else. I'll lock the door after you and head upstairs. No one will think anything of it."

Cosette didn't have any better ideas and George was smart for thinking of this. If they had both walked right back into the party after being in the shop, people would question them and that's not what they needed right now.

"Okay, yeah-" Cosette took a step away from him but George was quick to pull her back and crash his lips against hers. She raised her hand up to the nape of his neck and eagerly kissed him back until they both ran out of air.

"Sorry," George breathed out, "I just had to, once more."

"You don't need to apologize," Cosette smiled, feeling butterflies fill her stomach. George walked her to the main entrance of the shop and he resisted the urge to kiss her again, not knowing if he'd be able to stop himself from going further.

"I'll see you upstairs in a minute, okay?"

Cosette nodded and stepped outside. She watched as George locked the door behind her before she started to make her way to the back of the building. She noticed a few people standing outside, on the main floor and on the balcony, smoking and chatting. No one paid her much attention as she walked up the stairs and reentered the party.

She tried to blend in as soon as possible and grabbed the first drink she found which was an unopened beer bottle sitting on the counter. She definitely didn't plan on drinking it though. Cosette was more than done for the night.

George had basically fucked her back into sobriety anyway.

Cosette kept an eye out for anyone to socialize with to make it seem like she wasn't just downstairs in the stockroom with George, but as she scanned the room the first person she locked eyes with was Ben.

He furrowed his eyebrows and made his way over to her hastily, "Where were you?"

"What do you mean?" Cosette asked, feeling her palms immediately start to sweat. "I've just been here."

"You've been standing by the door this whole time?" Ben repeated back to her bitterly. "Really?"

She really couldn't get out of this one easily. Even though Ben had been chatting with his friends for the majority of the night, he was still her date. It made sense that he was wondering where she went off to.

"I was outside," she pointed to the balcony behind her. "I was dizzy, I just needed some air."

"So you just left? Without saying anything?" Ben started to raise his voice but with the volume the party was at, no one was giving them any attention. The music was blaring and everyone was involved in their own conversations and Cosette so desperately wanted this conversation to end.