"I am smitten. I'm the real thing. Have you seen her come around? My crush with eyeliner." Crush With Eyeliner by R.E.M.
Lilli spent the next few hours catching up with Peter. They drank hot chocolate, played video games, had a huge snowball fight outside, and even ding dong ditched a few of the other dorm rooms (it was especially easy thanks to Lilli's invisibility.) Ororo joined them for a while and the trio spent the day hanging out like they'd always used to.
By the time dinner rolled around, Lilli was exhausted. She was planning on eating and going straight up to bed to get an early night's sleep. Lilli had headed to her room quickly to fix her hair and was going to meet Ororo and Peter in the cafeteria. She was walking down the hallway to the cafeteria with her head filled with happy thoughts about her day as she enjoyed the quiet hallways. Everyone was downstairs eating their dinners, so it was one of the few times in the day that there weren't other people in the halls.
Lilli's stomach growled loudly, so she started to speed up her pace. She quickly turned a corner, only seeing Warren for a split second before colliding right into him. Lilli got a mouthful of his feathers as her body pressed tightly to his. She jumped back quickly, ignoring the feeling inside of her that longed to stay in his arms.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you!" Lilli exclaimed hurriedly, patting her hair back down. She looked up at Warren, but he was looking away. His lips were pulled into a tight grimace and his eyebrows were knotted together, causing him him to look angry.
"You're fine," he said, his voice low and gravelly. Lilli furrowed her eyebrows; he sounded unnecessarily angry.
"Are you mad at me? I swear it was an accident," Lilli replied. She crossed her arms as she looked up at Warren, hoping he wasn't mad. "Ohh. You're upset about me leaving. Look, I understand that you're mad at me and that you hate me and all but could—"
"What?" Warren interjected, his dark eyes meeting Lilli's for the first time the entire conversation. He looked confused. Shaking his head, Warren said in an exasperated tone, "No. No, no, no. Lilli, I could never hate you."
"W-what? Wait—" Lilli started, but Warren interrupted her.
"I... nothing. Just go eat, I'm sure you're hungry." Warren said quietly before brushing past Lilli.
Lilli stood flabbergasted for a moment before turning back around. Warren was already a good ways down the hallway and nearing the stairs to the roof, so Lilli ran to catch up to him. She wasn't going to just let him walk away— something was obviously wrong.
When Lilli reached Warren, she placed her hand on his leather jacket to stop him. "Warren, stop," she said to him imploringly, looking up at him. He begrudgingly slowed to a halt and turned to her.
"I said it was nothing. Please go and eat." Warren stated, once again not making eye contact with Lilli.
"No, it's not— Warren, what's wrong? You seem so angry," Lilli asked, keeping her hand on his arm. She didn't know why she cared so much— he'd been nothing but cruel to her since she'd came back. But some part of her was worried for him and was longing to help him.
"It's just..." Warren started to answer her but he trailed off, frowning. "Why do you want to know?"
"I want to help you," Lilli replied honestly. Warren scoffed.
"And why's that?" He asked, rolling his eyes. "Is it because you want to make up for ditching Peter and I? Or because you're a spy and you want us to trust you? Or is it because—"
"What? No, no, no! God damn it, Warren, I still care about you," Lilli exclaimed, looking up at Warren. His eyes immediately shot back down to meet Lilli's, and he seemed frozen in shock. A palpable tension seeped into the hallway, and the silence following Lilli's proclamation felt deafening. Lilli herself froze— why had she just said that?
After a few seconds, Warren broke out of his reverie. He shook his arm out of Lilli's grasp and stepped backwards, shaking his head slowly.
"God damn it, Lilli," Warren spat, turning on his heel and hurrying up the staircase. Lilli stood frozen, her wide eyes watching his back disappear up the stairs. She was in shock.
Did she really just say that? Was it even true? Did she still care about him?
No, I don't still like him. I can't, Lilli thought to herself. He's an ignorant asshole. I liked him once, but now I don't. It's over.
Lilli felt like she'd convinced herself and she quickly turned and hurried back down the hallway. As she scurried down to the cafeteria, she tried to stop wondering why Warren had seemed so upset when she'd told him her feelings, however true they may be. She tried to not overthink his words or wonder why he'd reacted the way he had. She pushed it all back and made her way into the cafeteria.
After getting her food, Lilli found Peter and Ororo sitting at a small table. They were leaning in close to each other and talking conspiratorially. She headed over to them and sat her tray down.
"What are you guys gossiping about?" Lilli asked as she sat down. She picked up a grape and popped it into her mouth as she looked expectantly at her friends.
"Kurt and Warren were talking about how they were gonna sneak into Kezing," Ororo started.
"And they got into this big fight," Peter continued. "Kurt flipped on Warren."
"Yeah, he called him 'Apocalypse's little bitch.'" Said Ororo, her eyes wide. "I mean, what kind of an asshole says that? Warren and I are both ashamed of helping Apocalypse."
"So we were just thinking up reasons of why Kurt is so upset," Peter said. "Our top idea is that he teleported himself into Hank's shower."
"While Hank was showering," Ororo added. Lilli snorted.
"Yuck," she laughed, but quickly turned serious. "That's such a dick move from Kurt. I just saw Warren and was wondering why he looked so angry and upset."
"Awe, really?" Ororo asked, looking sad. "That's too bad. I feel bad for him."
"He'll get over it," Peter responded lightly. "He and Kurt fight like this all the time."
"They seriously need to work out their differences," Lilli muttered, grabbing her spoon and stirring her soup around.
"Yeah, honestly," Ororo agreed.
The conversation quickly turned onto a lighter note, but Lilli still couldn't help but feel bad for Warren. What Kurt had said was extremely rude and explained why Warren had looked so angry. She hoped it hadn't hurt Warren's feelings too bad and that Peter was right when he said Warren would get over it.
Lilli realized how much she was worrying about Warren and quickly tried to stop. Why am I worrying so much? At this rate, my name should be Warren's little bitch. Lilli thought to herself.
Lils, I think that you just still like him, Jean's voice chimed in Lilli's head. Lilli frowned.
Get out of my head, Jean. You and I both know that I don't like him anymore, Lilli responded.
Mm. Whatever you say, Jean laughed. Lilli frowned deeper. Jean always seemed to know Lilli better than she knew herself, so she could be right.
Lilli begrudgingly decided to accept the fact that she still cared about Warren. She would just wait to find out if these feelings were purely platonic— as she hoped— or if they were something more.
YOU ARE READING
feathers ↣ w. worthington iii
Fanfiction"You've got a lot of nerve showing your face around here again." "You've got a lot of nerve showing your face anywhere." *** Lilli finally got her wish- a normal life with a normal job and normal friends. She had her life planned out- she was going...
