Reactance | James Potter

Chapter 22

   SLAM! OLIVIA, PANTING lightly, threw a panicked look over her shoulder at the door to the broom closet. Although now tightly shut, it loomed heavy and daunting over her head as if a wall of see-through glass exposing her to who was on the other side.

Het throat feeling incredibly stuffy, she tried quietly to clear it, swiping her tongue over her chapped lips and running her fingers through the roots of her frizzing hair as she listened hard over the light panting of her racing chest. She could hear a muffled, gentle shuffling inside and took that as her sign to leave — quickly.

   With hasty steps, she crossed the corridor and rounded the corner into the next, so rushed in her desperation to clear the area that she failed to notice the sudden flash of bright blonde until the two of them had directly collided. Forced to a staggered stop, a mess of jerking limbs and whispered curses, Olivia seized Marlene on the elbows and steadied them both, blowing loose curls from the corners of her parched mouth.

   Marlene, however, matched none of Olivia's surprise. There was a mischievous glint to her sly eyes and a suspiciousness to her smirk as she dug her fingers firmly into Olivia's forearms, as if clicking the lock on a pair of chains, and said, bordering mockery, "Woahhh easy there, Olive — in a hurry?"

   Olivia, eyes narrowed into slits, tugged fruitlessly to pull herself free, glancing anxiously over her shoulder again. Her stomach was twisting with nerves, as if every part of her was screaming for her to run as far away as possible. She could feel how Marlene was, with that pathetic ploy for ignorance, leaning in close and peering around the corner, feigning curiosity about what Olivia might be looking for. But before Olivia could lose her temper, they heard the creaking of a door opening.

   All of her annoyance fled at once as Olivia frantically seized Marlene by the shoulders and sent them both moving. It was done with such brisk purpose that Marlene went stumbling over her own feet and likely would've fallen, had it not been for Olivia holding her up.

"Hey! Easy, watch it!"

"Shh!" spat Olivia so desperately that spit flew from her mouth and into the back of Marlene's hair.

"Wow," Marlene couldn't help her chuckle, but the volume of her voice was much more considerate now as they rounded the first corner of many with steps so frantic that they could almost be running. "That bad?"

   Olivia only hushed her more severely, although now it was more due to her own embarrassment than need for quiet. But she tried to keep her flushing skin from being noticeable in her words as she muttered, whilst pushing them all the quicker, "Shut up! He'll hear you!" but Marlene found more humour in her obvious desperation.
  

It had been a week since the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, and Olivia had done her best to avoid the temptation that was James. It should've been easy, considering how their friend groups so rarely crossed paths — especially now, with the current vendetta that Lily had against James.

Lily and Jon were, officially, over. After a few days, long past when Lily'd given up chasing him, Jon finally found some of his Gryffindor courage and stopped avoiding her. On Wednesday morning, he'd found her in the library at her usual spot; secluded in the far back . . . where they used to go for a snog.

They had a long conversation, sitting across from one another at the table that he'd once pinned her atop of. The smutty scene, which had been gossiped about by the girls with nipped cheeks and gushing giggles only weeks before, was all Olivia could recall when Lily explained the details of their split. Olivia could still picture the pleased, satisfied, sensual gleam behind Lily's now clouded eyes when she'd described how he'd held her, how politely he'd kissed her — It's barking mad how quickly things can change. . . .