Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(27) Friendly Banters

Nicolai had been acting sour after their Hogsmeade weekend, and it was annoying George to extremities. It was almost impossible for him to start a friendly banter like how they used to before when they would walk to class. She would get easily irritated, and he would just shut up for the time being.

George had decided to tag along with Fred for Herbology, to get away from Nicolai's unpredictable wrath. So there she was, walking to classes alone. Not like she minded, as long as she wouldn't bump into Jillian on her way to the Green House.

Little did she know that she just jinxed herself.

"Nicolai! Hey," a voice called out to the shorter brunette. Despite her obvious attempts in ignoring the blonde, she was still cornered, stopping in her tracks as she huffed in annoyance. Jillian had a genuinely concerned look on her face as she put a hand on her arm. "Hey."

"I really have no time for chit chat right now, Jill. I'm running late for Herbology." she told her,attempting to walk away from her, however her grip on her arm made it quite impossible to do so. "Please don't walk away from me, Nicolai. I'm really really sorry for what happened."

"Well, yeah, you are sorry. . . But are you going to stop?" she deadpanned, Jillian looking hesitant to reply, "I thought so. You said you didn't want to sound like an almighty prick, but guess what? You did! And you sounded even worse than an almighty prick, Jill."

"But I don't mean to."

"Look, I know you think it's going to work because he's happy with you now and you probably enjoy his company. But you being you, it wouldn't last very long because you're forcing yourself to date blokes when you're in to birds. Get it? And he's going to get hurt, you're going to hurt him so much. But you can avoid that if you're going to be very honest with him."

Jillian looked like she was about to cry that moment, which confused Nicolai because there isn't really a reason for her to. "You don't understand, Nicolai. I can be as happy as Alexander is with me. I'm going to be. Because I like him enough to change for him."

Nicolai looked at the blonde one last time, a pang in her chest as her words settled in her head, "Now I need to go. I'm going to be late for class. I'm meeting George there." with that, she stalked off, Jillian's eyes trailing her retreating figure. She sighed audibly, leaning against the wall in silence. A few short minutes after came Florence, who had a frown on her face.

"Hey Jill, what's wrong? I just saw you with Nic and it looked like you two were fighting. Is everything alright?" she inquired, Jillian nodding before flashing her a forced smile, "Yeah, everything is fine. We weren't fighting. Maybe you just saw wrong since you were a little bit far away."

Florence thought for a moment, before nodding, "I guess you're right. I'm just very paranoid, is all. Nicolai's looking a bit distracted these past few days. . . Okay, maybe more than distracted. She looks really really bothered." guilt started sinking in to Jillian by Florence's words.

"Well, you're her best friend. Maybe she'll tell you what's wrong in due time."

"Maybe. But to tell you, I may be her best friend, but it is very hard to figure out the roots of her problems. She's just so complex like that. There could be a hundred of things that's troubling her, but it would take me quite awhile to point a finger on which one it is that's really bothering her. Has she mentioned anything at all to you?"

"No," Jill said, "Nothing so far. We haven't really talked properly in along time."

Florence frowned, "She's not taking tutorials with you, then?"