Just Friends

*9*

"Fuck," Lance murmurs the curse against Alice's throat as he holds her firmly up against the rickety closet shelf.

"That was-"

"Fuck." He repeats.

"Exactly." She smiles hazily at him and presses her lips to his in a lazy kiss.

He loosens his grip on her to let her back down on her feet slowly, sharing a laugh as she steps on a board game piece. The box had tumbled down on top of them minutes into their romp.

"We're gonna have to clean this up," Alice tells him with an annoyed tone to her voice.

"Or," he challenges. "We could turn off the light, close the door and pretend we were never in here."

"I like that plan better. Should we head out separately or..." she trails off, not sure how this works now. Any other time she's hooked up with someone at a party, they straighten out their clothes and she always leaves first without so much a second glance. But for once she finds herself not wanting to rush out immediately, in fact she's half tempted to ask him if he wants to go grab some of the horribly made spiked punch from the kitchen and get to know each other.

"Yeah might be best, don't want anyone finding our path of destruction."

"Right. Well, I'll uh... see you around then." She slips out the door after flashing one last flirty smile back at him, and then she's slinking through the crowd in search of FP.

She finds him towards the other side of the house, surrounded by Fred and some of their other friends. "Alice!" Fred cheerily greets, balancing a napkin filled with treats in his palm. "Where have you been?"

"I've been around." FP notices her and smirks to himself, reaching out a hand and patting her head as if she's a dog. "What are you doing?" She hisses.

"You have sex hair." He explains with a knowing grin. "I take it mission accomplished?"

"Yes. And great choice by the way, you should add matchmaker to your resume."

"I wouldn't exactly call it matchmaking, more jealousy inducing sex partner picking."

"Whatever," Alice chuckles. "Jamie looked completely peeved as soon as he saw us."

"So he did see you two?"

"Saw me taking Lance by the hand and dragging him into a game closet." She delivers a high five to FP's hand for a job well done.

"Alice! There you are!" Hermione squeals as she runs up to her. "I thought you left!"

"She's been pre-occupied." FP snickers, earning an elbow from Alice.

"I saw Jamie leaving."

"What? When?"

"Just now, I was coming back downstairs and saw him slipping out the front door."

"With a girl, or alone?"

"With some of his thick skulled friends."

"Oh this night just gets better and better."

***

Thankfully, Mr and Mrs Andrews had set up the living room for the teens to arrive home to, saving the group from having to battle with pull-out couches or air mattresses in their sluggish states.

Fred and Hermione were asleep before their heads hit the pillows, snuggling up in each other's arms in a sickeningly sweet embrace on the springy pull out.