The Year We Had (MCYT AU)

13: Pretzels

A few streets away, Wilbur perused the snacks aisle of the supermarket, his eyes scanning over the different bags of chips carefully as he weighed up his options. He could hear Fundy and George arguing loudly about something a couple of rows away, but he paid them no mind as he chose out his snack.

Finally, after a painstaking amount of time spent thinking it over, he stepped forward and reached for the bag of pretzels, completely oblivious to the girl walking right in front of him. He barreled into her, almost punching her directly in the face.

She fell back with a yelp, catching herself on the shelves, and Wilbur let out a gasp as he tried to stop her falling, awkwardly reaching for her. "Oh my god, I am so sorry!"

The girl caught her breath for a moment before letting out a light laugh, using his arm to steady herself back on her feet. "Pretty enthusiastic about pretzels, aren't you?"

Wilbur's face flushed red as he stammered another apology. "I am so sorry, I didn't even see you walking there. Holy shit. Are you okay? I promise I wasn't trying to punch you in the face over a bag of pretzels." He stared down at her, noticing just how close they were standing, and his breath caught in his throat. She was beautiful.

Her hair was a stunning shade of pinkish-orange, and her eyes were an ocean blue. Freckles dotted the bridge of her nose, and she smiled a cheeky, mischievous, yet warm smile. "It's okay, I totally understand. You're not yourself when you're without pretzels." She handed him a bag of salty snacks.

He accepted it with an embarrassed smile, his head dipping slightly as he cradled it between his hands. Before he knew what he was doing, he was opening his stupid mouth and speaking without thinking. "You're beautiful."

She looked a little taken aback. Wilbur wanted to disappear. Oh my god, why did he say that? He just met this girl and almost punched her in the face over a bag of snacks, and now he's calling her beautiful. Wow. Just end him right here.

Her face breaks into a soft smile, her cheeks reddening slightly. "You're not so bad yourself."

Wilbur blinks. She laughs, shaking her head and swapping out her smile for a more genuine one. "I haven't seen you around town before. Did you just move?"

He nods, scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah, I just started at Montville."

"Oh, a private school boy." She joked, wiggling her eyebrows. "Living the life of luxury up at Hogwarts?"

He let out a laugh, shaking his head. "Oh, everyday. You know how it is. Never a dull moment."

She laughed, and it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. Unfortunately, it was interrupted by a panicked Fundy rushing around the corner and almost barreling into Wilbur. "Wil! We need to go, right fucking now!"

"What?"

"It's Tommy! Quick!" Fundy began to drag him away, and Wilbur looked back at the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, his eyes meeting hers one last time before dropping the packet of pretzels and rushing out of the store behind Fundy.

As soon as they were out on the street, he heard the commotion. Shouting. Cheering. Angry remarks that could have only come from his idiot younger brother. Fundy raced around the corner, leading Wil to the crowd that had gathered.

It was made mostly of teenagers. They were jeering and hollering, holding up phones at whatever was going on in the middle. Wilbur's eyebrows narrowed as he began to push roughly through the crowd, making it to the edge to find Tommy throwing punches at another boy, landing a few before the other boy retaliated, landing a few more.

"Tommy!" Wilbur shouted, barely heard above the chaos. Tommy took a hit to the face and stumbled backwards, holding his nose and gasping. Wilbur didn't think, he just threw himself between his brother and the other kid, holding out an arm to block off Tommy from the other little shit. "Hey!"