Always My Almost

eight

*i no longer have a beta so i apologize for any mistakes!*

Cassie woke that Thursday morning with an inescapable feeling of dread, her heart was beating painfully inside her chest. There were only two weeks left until her birthday. Two weeks until her life gets more complicated than she'd ever wanted. She made a promise to herself that morning that she wouldn't let her last couple weeks of freedom go to waste. To hell with Regulus' disapproval, he'd get his wish soon enough.

Cassie decided to skip breakfast that morning, dealing with everything going on was the last thing she wanted to do. Instead, she made some tea to calm herself down and took her time editing an essay for Potions due that day. She made sure to at least have a snack while revising, Cassie had a tendency to get cranky when hungry.

Cassie's edits were cut short with a knock on her door. As soon as she heard the knock, she knew she wasn't going to like what was waiting for her on the other side. With a sigh, Cassie put her schoolwork away and made her way towards the knocking sound. She hovered her hand over the doorknob for a brief moment, mentally preparing herself for what was coming next. It wasn't Lina, she didn't need to knock, nor did she ever. She definitely didn't want it to be Regulus. And after the moment she unfortunately shared with James, she wasn't sure if she wanted it to be Severus or Harper either.

She was surprised to see Adrian waiting for her on the other side of the door. It wasn't uncommon for him to come knocking, but he had been so busy trying to keep Regulus in line that Cassie learned not to expect him as of late. She wasn't complaining though, she missed him dearly.

"Adrian," Cassie said with a small smile. "What are you doing here?"

Adrian nodded his head in greeting. "I just wanted to see how you were holding up."

"I'm okay," Cassie moved back and to the side to allow him to enter her room. He didn't even hesitate before walking in. "Tired, but good."

"You're always tired," Adrian all but snorted, sitting down on Cassie's bed. The witch noticed how he eyed Lina's bed, where he normally sat, likely too scared to sit on it now that she had a boyfriend.

"I am not!" Cassie defended herself with a laugh, playfully shoving Adrian's arm before sitting next to him. "Lina is the one always tired."

"You both don't sleep," Adrian corrected and Cassie really couldn't argue with him. "Between the two of you, you barely get a full eight hours."

"You have a point, but you aren't exactly innocent of not sleeping either," Cassie pointed out, smoothing out her comforter at her sides. "With Evan and Barty as your roommates, I can't imagine you get very much sleep."

"They're a handful," Adrian admitted, watching Cassie play with her bedding. "But Regulus and I try to enforce a pretty strict bedtime."

"As if those two listen," Cassie scoffed. "We had to ban the pair from attending dinner parties, they're impossibly reckless when together."

"You're right," Adrian conceded. "They don't listen unless Regulus is right angry. Safe to say I've been sleeping pretty well as of late."

Cassie frowned and folded her hands in her lap. Maybe she felt so horrible because it was her fault that Adrian was often on the receiving end or Regulus' anger towards his sister. Or maybe because she had done nothing to try and at least fix the situation between the two best friends.