The Story Of Us

Family Vacation

⟺

After leaving James at Fortescue's (he first tried to walk her back to her dorm, and to Lily's horror it made her feel lovely rather than smothered), Lily hurried to Mary's dorm in a panic. They spent all night debriefing over a bottle of wine and lots of microwave popcorn, and it was decided: Lily had an absolutely, positively, horrid crush on James Potter.

When she received a text from him saying he had fun at dinner, and they should do it again sometime, she nearly giggled. Lily Evans did not giggle. Mary, on the other hand, couldn't stop laughing, as Lily continued to peel back the layers of her feelings.

When she left the sanctuary that was Mary Macdonald's dorm room, Lily had promptly zipped back up the layers and stuffed what she liked to call 'The Potter Problem' deep into the recesses of her brain, to be assessed after finals.

Which was how Lily ended up sending her first substantial text to James since their Not-A-Date (maybe it had been a date?) three weeks after everyone had left for the summer holidays, as she frowned at her too small suitcase.

⟺
[ The Bench Buddies <3 ]
Thursday 17:08

lily: hey james, quick question
lily: does your place in
cornwall have a washer?
lily: need to know if i should
pack enough for the whole
week or if i'll be able to do
some washing up

Thursday 17:15

lily: no worries either way!
lily: hope you're well

⟺

Immediately, she clicked her phone to silent and tossed it onto her bed with a groan. The longer she stared at it, the more likely she was to think sending another stupid thought like, "Miss you!" was a good idea. Which it certainly was not.

Outside of short planning texts in the group chat, her and James had only had a few simple correspondences, consisting of a joke about Sirius and Remus thinking they were being sly, and a brief check-in about how Lily's research position was going. She wasn't exactly in the spot to begin professing silly notions of missing him— and she didn't really miss him that much, anyways.

Well, maybe she did, just a bit.

Lily picked out a dark blue bikini and carefully folded it, then wondered if it was too revealing and unfolded it, decided maybe she wanted it to be revealing, and stuffed it back inside her suitcase.

She was thoroughly unequipped to have a crush. She wasn't sure she remembered how to do it properly.

After half-packing her suitcase and then abandoning the affair, Lily decided that a walk and some fresh air would suit her well. She pulled on her trainers and stuffed her phone firmly into her pocket, making a note not to check the screen.

That night, after much dilly-dallying (a trip to the grocery store despite her fridge being full, a stop in the lab on the off-chance she had forgotten to turn off the scope yesterday), Lily returned to her room and pulled out her phone. She ignored the tingle of excitement in her gut when she read James' response:

Don't tell me you're already packing, Evans? The trips two weeks away
Are you that excited to see me?

Lily flushed scarlet and responded with an eye roll. James immediately loved the message, and informed her they did have a washer.

It was going to be a very long summer.

⟺

Marlene pulled up outside of Lily's dormitory bright and early on June 25th, their sky blue used mini cooper skidding over the grass.