𝖠𝖱𝖱𝖠𝖭𝖦𝖤𝖣 | 𝖥𝖱𝖤𝖣 𝖶𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖫𝖤𝖸

𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑

❝  𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒔, 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑳𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒉, 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒆.  ❞ 

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Fred woke up in his dorm at the Arambella manor the next day with a strong and sharp headache. He stood up from bed and tried to remember how he had come back home - no, not home, this wasn't his home -, how he had come back to the manor and been able to put on his pyjama.

After internally promising himself that he would start having fun if that was what Lilith, and apparently everyone else, wanted, Fred had got drunk daring Ginny to see who could drink more shots in the shortest span of time and he had smoked two blunts in two hours - he had been in worst situations, but after a year without partying and without trying a single drop of alcohol, tequila had gone hard on him.

He had changed a lot in that time, that was for sure. But if everyone wanted old Freddie back, the prankster, the one whose hopes were still up high... well, then he will please them. 

Shirtless and only with the sweatpants he used as a pyjama, he walked towards the window to check out the weather and make sure he could go out to run through the gardens of the manor. He needed to clear his thoughts and freshen his body.

Fred clicked his tongue as soon as he saw how it was raining cats and dogs, autumn was making its entrance in England and the days were starting to be as rainy as usual. But also, he clicked his tongue as soon as he saw her. Lilith was sat in one of the chairs on the porch, below his window, leaning back as she was drawing in her notebook, completely immersed in herself. She was curled up in her chair, wearing a dark green jumper that seemed handmade, cuffed jeans and Doc Martens. Her curls were tied up with claw hair clip except for some pieces framing her face and showing how she had a pencil behind her ear apart from the one in between her finger full of rings. Fred noticed she was singing to herself and paying more attention, he recognised the song Love Like Ghosts playing in the background on a little radio that she had by her side next to a cup of tea.

He shook his head, trying to control himself from smiling. Who would have told him Lilith Arambella was the kind of person to be out in the middle of a storm just drawing and breathing the cold air?

Fred couldn't take his eyes from her. There was a magnetism that attracted him to her further than any sexual attraction could explain, there was something beautiful in her other than her face, something beautiful out of the physical appearance, something that had him completely mesmerised and that insisted on connecting him to her.

He wanted not to have anything to do with her but, at the same time, he wished deeply she hadn't done what she had done so he could...feel something for her. He wished she was the Lilith he thought she was a year ago - that girl he felt he had prejudiced stupidly and who maybe deserved a chance - so he could like her, maybe even hopelessly fall in love with her. 

He wished things were different so he could be free. 

But they weren't. And that left a little tiny void in his heart that, for some reason, was starting to hurt.

Letting it be for the moment - precisely because he didn't want to brood over what could have been and had not been -, Fred decided it was time to get a quick shower, go out to breathe the fresh air and maybe bother Lilith for a bit.

He did so, getting out of the shower and putting on some black sweatpants and a long-sleeved pullover of the same colour along with the silver chain that his twin had gifted him on their last birthday. Fred got out of his dorm and walked towards the front door and noticed that Lilith was still there, drawing.