Between the Cracks // 𝓕𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂

31. Silly Sounds

Chapter 31: Silly Sounds

Fred was in the shop, leaning against the desk upstairs bored out of his mind. Despite it being within opening hours, the shop had been empty for the last 20 minutes, which was quite a rare occurrence. He absentmindedly threw a ball against the wall. Again. And again. And again–

"Can you stop with that, I'm trying to write a letter here," George spoke from the sofa, quill in hand and a practically blank piece of parchment in front of him.

"Yeah, to who?" Fred asked, and George was suddenly at a loss for words.

"Not really your business, is it..," he mumbled in response, and Fred furrowed his brows while delivering a pointed look towards his brother.

"Everything you do is my business," he retorted, but seemed to drop it a second later, again looking away in the distance and being lost in his thoughts.

George tried to resume his writing seeing as Fred had finally turned silent. However, he didn't stay so for long.

"George."

George sighed, closing his eyes momentarily and slowly looking up from his letter, which now contained 5 words instead of the previous 2.

"Yes, Fred?"

However, before Fred was able to speak again the sound of the door opening downstairs was heard, its accompanying bell ringing through the empty shop.

"That must be her," Fred immediately spoke, and George noticed the way his face instantly lit up.

"Yeah, or a regular customer," George grumbled, glancing up and almost rolling his eyes.

Fred scrambled off the desk, shuffling to his feet and completely disregarding George's comment. "It's probably her," he repeated before making his way downstairs, out of his twin's sight.

As expected, Leigh soon came into view, clad in a warm coat, a woollen scarf and a beanie which held her hair, which had just been whisked around by the strong winds outside, in place. Her nose and cheeks were rosy from the cold, which didn't go unnoticed.

Fred crossed his arms jokingly. "I thought we agreed on not another month," he teased, and Leigh looked up at the sound of his voice, giving him a halfway grin.

"It hasn't been a month, drama queen."  She placed her bag on the floor and started to disentangle herself from her scarf.

"I am not a drama queen," Fred quipped up, yet soon taking a few steps forward to embrace her in a brief but warming hug.

After a moment they parted, and Leigh immediately tried to find something to talk about. "It's unusually empty in here. But then again I normally don't come by so early on a weekday."

"Yeah, you got a gap hour or something?"

She nodded in response. "Sprout felt a bit under the weather so she cancelled today's class. It's nice to have some extra time for revising though," she added, and Fred immediately felt the sudden need to roll his eyes. Revising, revising. "Can I sit by the counter?" She pointed in the direction of the till.

He nodded. "You can sit wherever you want."

"Alright, cool," she mumbled, glancing up to give him a small smile of gratitude before moving towards the counter to get her books, notebooks and quill ready. She made sure to leave some space empty at her side in case some customer entered and wanted to buy something while she was there.

Fred was stood in the middle of the room, looking towards Leigh with his hands on his hips and a frown starting to develop on his face. Studying. Studying. He was so much more fun than studying.