Just Friends

*37*

The rest of the night went fairly normal, at least for most of them, Alice however couldn't get the kiss out of her mind. She played it off well enough, but she swore her lips were still tingling hours later.

She's not sure how FP feels about it, after all he was the one to break the kiss, maybe it wasn't good for him? Of course the logical part of her brain tells her it was just because it was a silly game and they were in front of a whole crowd of people. But there's always those what-ifs, and she suddenly finds she has a lot of those.

"Ow!" FP's startled voice scares Alice awake, and when she opens her eyes she finds her hand had slipped and smacked him in the face while she was sleeping.

"Sorry." She mumbles sleepily, stretching out on the Gomez' couch. FP had taken up residence on the floor beneath her after the four stumbled home from the party late in the night.

A glance across the room tells her that Fred and Hermione are still fast asleep on the other couch, snuggled up in one big blanket on opposite ends. Content with the fact, Alice shuts her eyes again and plans to get some more sleep. That is, until FP sits up and nudges her. "Wake up."

She scrunches her nose at the suggestion. "No, I'm tired."

"Me too, but someone woke me up. So if I'm up, you're up."

"Just go back to sleep." She tells him snootily.

"A smack to the face surprisingly wakes you up." He pokes at her some more until finally yanking her blanket off, she groans in protest. "Come on we can raid the cupboards before they wake up."

"I hate you, you know that right?" She glares at him with sleepy eyes and he chuckles, guiding her by the shoulders towards the kitchen.

"You love me and you know it."

She helps him search through the cabinets, looking for something to snack on until Hermione and Fred wake up.

"Jackpot!" FP calls. "Poptarts."

"Toss me one!" Alice exclaims, accepting the strawberry pastry when he tosses it across the kitchen to her, suddenly feeling much more lively.

She hops up on a bar stool as FP leans against the counter, peacefully biting into the overly sweet confection. She watches him, not wanting to interrupt the peaceful moment between them, but not being able to stop herself. "So... last night?"

He blushes, something she takes note of. "Yeah?"

"That was different." Major understatement. "You and I, we don't- we've never-"

"I know it was a little strange, huh?" He laughs awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

She lets out a breath, not realizing she had been holding it, and smiles bashfully. "Just a little." She cocks her head as she takes a bite of her pop tart. "You're a pretty good kisser."

He laughs. "You sound surprised."

"Well I had never tested it out for myself, how was I supposed to know?" She defends.

"Have a little faith in me, Al." He chuckles and nudges her with his shoulder. "You're not too bad yourself."

"It's okay, you can tell me I was the best kiss you've ever had, I won't tell." Alice teases, wanting to see him blush again.

"Well now, I wouldn't go that far." He plays along, though every bone in his body agrees with that statement, and he'd tell her so if he wasn't so afraid of scaring her off.

"Should we be feeling a little more awkward about this?" She wonders, a little surprised how calm they both seem by the situation.

He shrugs. "I don't know, maybe? Probably isn't so awkward because we're so close."

"I guess. You'd think that would make it more awkward though."

"Friends kiss all the time, don't they?" He comes up with. Just because he felt something deeper in the kiss, doesn't necessarily mean Alice did, and he doesn't want to force her to.

"I guess." She watches him, looking for some kind of change in his demeanour to see where his head is at. Nothing. "I just expected to feel all weird around you now." She throws the comment out in the air, hoping he'll bite and give her a reason for the strange, fluttery feeling in her stomach.

"Yeah, me too." He agrees. "Oh well, I'd rather us just be us, y'know?" He shrugs and she feels her stomach turn oddly at the words.

"Didn't you feel-"

"You two better not be making out in there!" Fred's voice bellows from the living room, effectively cutting Alice's sentence short.

FP rolls his eyes and takes Alice's hand in his as he walks back out into the living room, bringing the flustered blonde with him. "Nice of you two to wake up, not the greatest hosts."

"We got home at three in the morning, none of us should be awake right now." Hermione groans, laying her head on Fred's shoulder.

"So no kissing going out there?" Fred brings up again, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"No, just pop-tart eating." Alice answers for the both of them, falling back down onto the couch beside FP.

"You two could make out again," Fred says, gesturing you Hermione and Alice. "That was kinda hot."

"Of course you thought that." Hermione giggles.

"Well yeah, ask just about any guy and that sort of scenario is definitely a fantasy."

"FP?" She calls. "Is that true?"

He blushes immediately, feeling both Hermione and Alice's eyes on him. "I mean... yeah." Alice smirks, enjoying the way her squirms. "Now before I get myself into trouble with this question, I'm starving, is someone going to make breakfast?"

"Hold your horses, I'll see what we have." Hermione excuses herself from the room and Fred follows after her to help.

"Oh hey, what were you about to say back there?" FP brings up. "Fred sorta cut you off."

She opens her mouth to ask what she had planned but decides against it. She'd rather deal with the what-ifs than lose him over potentially unrequited feelings.

So instead she just leans in closer to him and shrugs her shoulders. "It's not important." And for a brief moment she swears she sees him frown, as if he knew what she was planning to ask, and was hoping she would.