Pieces Falling into Place -S.B

Ch. 8 Dip in the Lake

Long story short, my argument with Sirius was the talk of that evening.

A few minutes later I heard my friends whispering behind the door. "Come in." I groaned as I fell onto my bed. The door creaked open to reveal my best of friends, Lily at the the front, Mary behind her and Marlene and Alice crammed right at the back of the doorframe. They seemed surprised that I had heard them behind the door to our lovely dorm. "Hey Amberle, what's wro-" "What we wanted to know is what the bloody hell happened back there." Lily, who had been interrupted by Marlene, glared at her and folded her hands together,clearly annoyed. I sighed and huffed in exasperation. "I thought I'd study a bit and finish my Herbology essay before you guys came back,-" "wait,we have an essay due in Herbology?" I heard Alice mumble over to Mary but I kept going,ignoring the sudden remembrance of Alice's long forgotten essay on the Healing Pearl. "-you guys came back and I found a love letter directed to Sirius in the pages of my Herbology book." I looked down, sitting cross legged on my bed, remembering the letter. "It was from Leslie Sandyville." My friends looked startled as the crowded around my bed, soon filling any space there was to fill on my bed.
"I'm really sorry, especially since you like him a lot-" at that my head shot up and I looked at a open mouth Alice. "Um....shouldn't have said that, whoops..." she muttered guiltily and turned away. I looked to all my friends who were staring at the ground, having apparently found a new highly interesting thing on it. "Do you all know? How?"
"We started realising you had feelings for Black when you were let out of the Hospital Wing. We also found out that Marlene had known all along." Lily grew more confident by each word. "Why didn't you tell us Amberle? We could've helped you. You should've confided in us." Lily said, hurt dilated on her face. Now it's my turn to be embarrassed with a guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"I never really thought you guys would understand as you're always so against them. They are daft idiots but they can be nice. I didn't want you all to think that I was another one of Sirius' admirers, cause I'm not." I looked at them and toned on the ground, embarrassed. "You should've told us." Lily said as they all whispered their agreements. " We wouldn't have judged you, it's cute that you've crushed on him for so long." Marlene giggled into her hand. "We wouldn't break off our friendship with you because we thought we were another 'Sirius Girl'." Alice said as Mary rubbed my back. I felt a lot better.
Why didn't I just tell them?
I took a deep breathe as the tension dissolved between us. "Thank you." I whisper as Mary started to giggle. Marlene moved on from her giggles to full on laughter. Lily, my dear Lily, too was laughing. Alice was nearly on the floor. I begin to laugh too, relieved that the huge weight has been lifted off my shoulder. "If you had told me a few months ago that you had your eyes on Sirius, I would have straight up laughed." Alice said as we regained ourselves. "At first I denied that I had feelings for him, he was admittedly a much bigger arse back then." I wiped a tear off my face, laughing.
Lily got off the bed. "You know, I'm not that tired any more. I have an idea. Why don't we play a little game." she said as she stood in front of everyone, smiling mischievously. My jaw nearly dropped as I whipped my head around to the other girls who had the same espresso ones painted on their faces. "It is only 9 pm.....All right, I'm in." Mary smiled mischievously as she got up and stood beside Lily. Alice casually moved next to them. "Doing something forbidden, at night, oh I'm in." "Count me in." Marlene came confidently from behind me and I was the only one left. "Hm....I don't know...." I teased my hopeful looking friends as I put a finger on my chin. My smile revealed all. "Oh you tease." Marlene laughed as she reached for my wrist, ready to pull me up. But I pulled away. Their faces became worried and unhappy. "First, I need to know what the bloody hell you did to the real Lily Evans." laughter erupted around me as I laughed, looking at a beaming Lily. Her face turned strict. "We might still make it in time for curfew, if we're quick." She thought out loud and I had gotten of the bed. "Ah, there's the Lily we know." We laughed as our little group moved out the door down to the busy common room. "Where are we going?" Alice craned her neck to look at us all from the side as we were strutting through the common room. "You'll see." Lily raised an eyebrow looking at us mischievously. "Definitely not Lily Evans next to us, 'can tell you that." I mumbled to Alice who was walking next to me. "Oh no, it's definitely not her." As we were about to link arms and finally ask the question on everybodys mind, Lily spun around as quick as light and called out: "Last one to the Lake!" and off she was. "Oh that girl..." I heard Marlene shake her head and run off in the diction of the lake. Seconds later I focused again.