Lauren Davies and the Glydan Pipe

Sunday

Lauren woke the next morning to Tess's quiet shuffling. The room was lit brightly and thin beams of light cast white stripes onto the walls. Cairo was placed in the largest bright spot and was stretching his petals quietly. She blinked slowly, momentarily forgetting where she was before Tess noticed her stirring and broke the silence.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I was hoping you'd sleep for a bit longer." She frowned and furrowed her eyebrows. "How's your ankle feeling?"Lauren's brain was foggy from oversleeping so it took her a moment to realize what Tess was referring to.

"Oh," she finally said while sitting up and pushing messy strands of hair away from her face. "It's much better. Almost like it never happened in the first place." She pulled her leg out from under the sheets and rotated her foot in a few small circles. It was a bit sore, but fully operational.

"It was a miracle you managed to walk to the hospital wing in the first place," she continued while walking over to sit on the end of Lauren's bed. "We heard the crack all the way from the stands."

Lauren shrugged. "It sounded worse than it felt, honestly. Besides, I had help."

Tess nodded in understanding, but did not question the matter further. Lauren raised her eyebrows slightly, hoping that the extended silence would give Tess more opportunity to press the subject, but she just tossed her hair back and stretched in the late morning sun. Tess probably assumed that Angelina had been the one to help Lauren to the hospital wing and didn't think anything of it.

"Everyone on the quidditch team is really nice," Lauren finally said after they'd sat in silence for a while. She was doing her best to steer Tess in the direction she wanted the conversation to go without being obvious about it, but sometimes Tess was as kind as she was clueless.

"Yes, especially you and Angelina!" she said sweetly. Lauren huffed and closed her eyes. She would have to try harder.

"I was really lucky to have his help." She looked Tess with wide eyes, attempting to indicate the importance of the statement. It took Tess a few moments  –she seemed to be studying the lines on the walls– but Lauren's words seemed to finally register in her brain seconds later.

"Woah, wait, he?"

Her face flushed at Tess's realization and she almost regretted continuing the conversation altogether. Now that it was in the open, she didn't know what to say about it. Truthfully, she hadn't stopped thinking about the walk since it'd happened, but didn't know how to put her complicated feelings into words. "You're talking about Oliver, right?" Tess pressed with a sly grin beginning to form on her face. Lauren sucked in both her cheeks and nodded wordlessly.

The bed shifted as Tess changed her seating position and rested her head in her hands, looking at her expectantly. As much as Lauren did want to talk about it, she didn't know what to say.

"And?" Tess said growing impatient. Lauren could hear faint chirping outside the window and suddenly felt suffocated in the hot room.

"I don't know." She shrugged unhelpfully. Her blanket felt rough under her fingers as she picked at the edges in an attempt to distract herself. She couldn't even look Tess in the eye. Sure they'd talked about boys and crushes before, but this seemed different somehow. It felt like a real possibility and Lauren didn't want to do or say anything to mess it up. Like a private thought being unintentionally made public, Lauren suddenly regretted bringing Tess into things and wished she had kept her mouth shut. She didn't want to let the world in just yet. Thankfully, Tess was incredibly perceptive. She quickly picked up on Lauren's discomfort and slowly eased them away from the topic without being harsh.

"Ok, well if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here." The floor creaked as she hopped down from the bed and continued to gather her things. She smiled at Cairo and scratched his little stem before grabbing her charms work and shoving it in her backpack. There was truly no one like Tess. She was about to head out the door when she paused and turned back to look at Lauren.