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L I L Y
"God, this is so good!" Irene moaned, chewing the food loudly in her mouth. "What kind of sorcery have you put in this?"
The waiter's mustache twitched in disgust. "It's just sushi, madam."
"Well, it tastes like heaven," she said, swallowing. "Tell your chef that he's a blessing from God. Even though I don't believe in all that religious stuff, but you know what I mean."
The waiter nodded, his mouth curving in a smile so spurious Lily wondered how his face hadn't split in two yet. He collected some dirty plates from their table and turned around, quickening his step as he left.
Irene let out an involuntary burp, which made Lily shoot her a glare.
"Oops."
She smiled innocently and brought a napkin to her lips.
Lily frowned. "Ever heard of table manners?"
"Yup." Irene replied, wrinkling her nose in distaste. She stuffed another salmon sushi in her mouth. "Not a big fan."
"Gosh, Ira. Stop talking while your mouth's full of food."
"Why?"
Lily rolled her eyes, handing her a glass of water. "Because it is disgusting and unethical."
"Ew, etiquette! Food should be savored, not eaten in teeny bites like people in Victorian-era films do. What am I, a bird?"
"Well, we are in a luxurious resort, possibly the grandest we have ever been to. Maybe you could control your animalistic tendencies a bit?"
Irene tilted her head to the side, a grin forming on her face as she pointed a finger at Lily, as though to emphasize what she had just said.
"Now that," she said, shoving a bread bun in her mouth, "that's not gonna happen."
Lily rolled her eyes and took a sip of water.
"By the way, are we seeing that Indian movie tonight?" Irene asked, thankfully with her mouth empty of food this time. "I don't have anything more interesting in mind for us to do and it's too early to go to sleep after dinner."
"Sure, why not? Oh, speaking of movies. Remus told me Carrie will be showing tomorrow because there's a horror theme or something."
"Woo, amazing!" Irene exclaimed. "Some spookiness is always needed. Is Remus coming? I liked that guy."
"I'm not sure whether staff members are allowed to enjoy the resort's facilities or not," said Lily thoughtfully. "Also, you'd better keep your hopes down. The bloke is in a relationship and his girlfriend is an absolutely lovely person. I've met her myself."
Irene huffed. "Bollocks. Why are all cute boys always taken, huh? And since when did you become so well-known here in just three days, anyway?"
"Well, Remus introduced me to quite a few people around here . . ." She trailed off, her mind flying back to the memories of a night before.
She thought of every moment spent at Lotus with the lifeguard boy named James; the pranks Marlene had pulled on him with the help of - according to James, at least - his best friend, Sirius; the clear sky sprinkled with stars and the moon hanging like a silver medallion above their heads as they danced randomly at James' favorite song by the Irish band, The Script; the glasses of sweet wine she'd gulped down one after another absentmindedly, too lost in the moment, the dance, the time spent with James by her side . . .
She shook her head to push those thoughts away, suddenly taking notice of how hot it was inside the restaurant.
"So, tell me about your date last night," Irene said, as if knowing what just went through Lily's mind. She rested her elbows on the table and let her chin rest on her linked hands, wriggling her eyebrows suggestively.
"Don't give me that look," Lily said.
Irene pouted innocently, pretending she had no idea what her friend was talking about. Lily sighed. She did promise she would give Ira all the details, after all.
"All right, I'll - I will tell you about it," she said finally, resigned. "But just to get this straight before I start: it was not a date."
Irene's grin turned to a devilish lopsided smile. "Sure it wasn't."
"Ira," Lily started. "It was not, all right? Don't make me change my mind about telling you."
"Okay, okay, whatever you say. Just bloody tell me already."
Lily took a deep breath, then began to tell her best friend everything that had happened ever since she arrived at Hogwarts three days earlier. She made sure not to leave out any detail related to James and how their dinner went. Lily knew Irene loved details, but it wasn't so much about that as it was about how, once she started talking, her surroundings slowly began to blur. Lily lost track of time, too wrapped up in recounting every moment, not noticing the liveliness that subconsciously slipped into her voice and the grin that pulled at her lips the more she talked.
When she was done, she had ran out of breath. Irene just looked at her, eyes twinkling with amusement. Only then did Lily realize how carried away she'd gotten. A rush of heat climbed to her cheeks and she grabbed a glass of water, downing it in big gulps.
"Wow," the brunette spoke finally, "looks like you've found yourself some special guy, Lils."
Lily scoffed. She tried not to put too much thought into those words, telling herself it was just Irene being her usual vivacious self and trying to encourage her to get in a relationship. But her friend's greenish-brown eyes were still fixed on her face and a soft smile rose to her lips-Irene's face carried one of those rare, sincere looks.
"Listen," Lily started, trying to sound casual. "It was just dinner, okay? Sure, alright, James is cute, but that's it. Besides, he's too immature for my liking."
Irene sighed dramatically and stood up.
"You know what?" she said. "I'm about to grab a dessert because they looked bloody delicious and it sounds much more exciting than sitting here and listening to you try to deny your painfully obvious feelings about that guy. All I want from you is to introduce me to him tomorrow ASAP. You need my approval, bitch."
Lily didn't fight back a laugh. "Ira, stop it."
But Irene was already gone, prancing nimbly toward the food tables, leaving Lily thinking to herself-although she'd never admit it out loud-that perhaps her best friend wasn't entirely wrong, after all.
