Aurora jabbed Alex in the side, excitedly showing him her phone screen.
"Ow," he complained. "What-"
"Look," she insisted with a slightly maniacal giggle. He shot her a confused look before turning his attention to the device.
"Shit, Rora," Alex mumbled after staring at the picture for a moment, averting his eyes as his ears turned the shade of Gryffindor.
She giggled again. "What do you think?"
Yeah. So. She had to be fucking with him, right? She was way too smart to have not noticed the way he acted around her, his crush.
This was just on another level.
The crystalline-blue sea reflected the sun off of it, only a few shades darker than the cloudless sky. Aurora and Dream were sitting on the sand, unfairly invoking Alex's bisexual panic.
Dream's swimsuit was a bright lime-green, one of the ones with drawstrings and all the pockets that no one uses. His aviator sunglasses reflected the camera, and the picture caught him halfway running a hand through his windswept blond hair. His lopsided grin would've given anyone the hots for him.
Aurora. Was. In a bikini.
Like, a revealing one.
Alex wasn't creepy, so he tried to avoid this certain train of thought, but she looked pretty mature for being twelve. Not- not like super noticeable- but her otherworldly looks aside from that were constantly being used to her advantage. She was certainly a Slytherin.
"Sooo... you visited Florida?" he asked, hoping she wouldn't make him look anymore.
"Yeah; the two of us go every year to see his family." Aurora smiled softly at the memory.
He glanced sideways at her. "Any boys waiting for you?"
She scrunched her face up. "No. Or anyone else, unless you count Dream's little sister."
"Oh." Alex could feel a childish burst of excitement bubbling up in his chest. "Anyone ever ask you out?"
"Oh, yeah, lots," she scoffed. "Dream's always there to back me if I say no, but he lets me handle my own boy problems. Some guys even have the nerve to come up to the dinner table I'm at, in a restaurant, with the family."
"They sound like idiots."
"No shit."
The two of them continued on with their ordinary conversation, but Alex was ecstatic.
No partner. So that meant he had a chance.
I lack the ability to give a fuck by this point
