MISSED CALLS ➡︎ TEDDY LUPIN [2] ✓

lii. THE QUIDDITCH PITCH

Avalon and her teammates were positively buzzing with excitement in the changing rooms before the game.

If they won this game, the semi-finals, they would go into the championship against Hufflepuff. And they would win, Avalon was sure of it. They had to, mostly because she wanted to rub it in Teddy and Oliver's face when she won the final game.

Speaking of Teddy, she broke into a smile when she saw him peeking his head through a gap in the tent, grinning at her.

"Hello, my darling girlfriend." He said sweetly as she ran over to him and leapt into his arms.

She looked up at him, cheeks flushed. No matter how long they had been flirty, or even how long they'd been dating, he still always made her blush.

"What're you doing here?" Avalon asked, arms still around his neck.

Teddy leaned down to quickly plant a kiss on her lips. "Just came to wish my girl good luck. Also, have I mentioned how good you look in that uniform?"

Avalon rolled her eyes, shoving his face away. "Sod off. Don't be cheesy—I might throw up." She said, although the laughter she let out told him that she wasn't serious in the slightest.

"Weasley! No boyfriends in the changing room!" Clarissa Wood shouted from where she stood in front of her locker, teasingly glaring at the pair. She really didn't have a problem with Teddy coming in to wish Avalon good luck, but she had to enforce some sort of order as captain of the team.

Avalon pouted. "Not fair! Jo gets to have Alex in here!" She whined, leaning towards Teddy so her back rested against his chest; he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on the top of her head.

"Yeah, you daft dimbo." Josephine replied with a laugh. "I get to have my boyfriend in here because he's on the bloody team."

The redhead sighed, turning to face her boyfriend. "Alright, you heard Clarissa. Get out." She said, smirking.

"Fine, fine. I get it, you lot don't want a lowly Hufflepuff in here." He held up his hands in mock surrender. "Bye, Ava. Good luck out there—win for me."

She gave him a wide smile before standing on her tiptoes to kiss him, and he caught her off guard by wrapping one hand around the back of her neck and grabbing her hip roughly with the other hand.

"Oh, fuck off! Get a room!" Violetta yelled, whacking Avalon's ass with her broom.

Avalon just laughed, leaving Teddy's side in order to chase Violetta and return the attack.

"Alright, bye, Ava. Love you. See you after."

He left the tent before she could reply, and she was left standing in the middle of the changing room, dumbfounded.

She looked at her teammates with wide eyes and a red face. "Did he just—"

"I think he did." Alaina said, and her expression was just as shocked as Avalon's.

Teddy had just told her he loved her. And she had no clue how to respond.

Sure, she loved him. Of course she did. She had since she was six, although that type of childlike love was completely different from how she loved him now.

The problem was that the only positive relationship she had to model her own after was that of her parents. And they were perfect together. She didn't know how on earth she was supposed to live up to the fairytale love story of Amelia Bishop and Fred Weasley. Because her parents were so perfectly matched, she'd never seen them fight, other than about something stupid like who was supposed to cook dinner. What if she and Teddy fought? She didn't have the slightest idea on how to, in a healthy way, solve conflict between romantic partners.

Avalon sighed, using the hairtie on her wrist to put her hair up into a ponytail.

She would have to deal with her internal conflict and fear of intimacy later. For now, she had to focus on quidditch.

—

So far, the match against Ravenclaw had been going relatively well. Her cousins, Laurel and Luna, the Beaters on the other team, had been messing with her the entire time, sending Bludger after Bludger her way just to see how well she could dodge them.

Avalon, of course, responded to their teasing by flipping her cousins off.

The match was over sooner than any of them thought it would be, for Avalon caught the Snitch in record time.

As far as a semi-final game, she wished that there had been a tad bit more excitement. More competition. She was disappointed that it was so easy to win.

"What're you going to do about the Teddy thing?" Alaina said to Avalon under her breath as the team walked back to the changing rooms to shower and change into their casual clothes.

Avalon bit her lip, shaking her head and shrugging. "No idea. I mean, I know I need to tell him, y'know, I love you too—that's the only thing to do. I just don't know how to put the words together."

Rolling her blue eyes, Alaina looked over at Avalon and simply said, "It's four words, Av. You love him. You just need to tell him."

intimacy issues intensify