Unnatural Love

Chapter 11

His cheeks flushed pink as his eyes met mine.

He inhaled deeply. 

"Don't be nervous Cedric, you can tell me anything," I reassured him. 

I was trying to be calm, but all I could think was, "just tell me!"

"I-i... I LIKE LUNA!!" He practically screamed at me. 

My shoulders relaxed and I let out a loud laugh.

He looked slightly confused. 

"That's it? That's all you had to tell me! Merlin, Cedric, you scared me!" I said, while playfully hitting his arm. "Congratulations though!" 

Now that I thought of it, he had been hanging around Luna a lot more lately.

"Shhh!" He shushed me, with a huge smile on his face. 

He looked very relieved. His cheeks were turning back to his normal skin tone and he stopped fiddling with his fingers. His shoulders seemed to have slumped as well. 

"Oh, thank Merlin. I'm not sure why, but I was so nervous to tell you," he said, letting out a small giggle. 

"Why were you so nervous?" I asked, curiously. 

"I'm not quite sure. We've never really talked about our crushes before and I wasn't sure how you'd react."

"Well, I'm very happy for you! Are you going to ask her out?" I asked, not being able to contain my excitement. 

"Well, I want to, but I kind of need your help first," he replied, looking away from me. 

Here we go again. 

I thought I had just made it clear that he didn't need to be nervous around me. 

You could clearly tell he was a Hufflepuff. 

"Alright, alright, go on," I said, starting to become impatient. 

He inhaled deeply and exhaled loudly. His face turned bright red with a small smile on his face. He clearly wasn't used to talking about his crushes to anyone. 

I could understand. I'd had lots of silly crushes when I was younger, and I wouldn't even tell Octavia. For some reason, I was nervous to tell her. She was quite the blabbermouth and would surely tell everyone. 

I didn't even know how to deal with my own feelings. I knew I would never have the guts to tell the person, so I decided not to act on it. After all, I was only a kid. But now that I'm a bit older, I think I may be ready for a relationship, but it would have to be with someone I truly cared about. 

"I'm not really sure how to tell her... I mean, I've never done this before," he finally says. 

I'd never seen him so anxious. I could tell he wanted her to know but was incredibly nervous.

I loved seeing this side of Cedric. He was constantly giggling, and his cheeks were flushing red. It was nice to see him so happy. 

"Ok, well, I think you should just be honest with her. Be quite straight forward, but not too demanding. Oh! Also, be confident, but not too confident because then she'll just think you don't actually like her." 

Hopefully, this was making sense to him. It was hard for me to explain, considering that no guy had actually ever asked me out. 

"This may seem weird, but may I try it out on you first? Just to see if she'd like it?" He asked me. 

"Uhm... yeah I guess so," I replied. 

I was quite curious. 

He takes (another) deep breath and starts. 

"So, I've been meaning to tell you this for a while, and I've just been really nervous to say anything, but, I really like you, and I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me?" He said this slowly and never broke eye contact. 

Was it just me, or was this seeming a little bit too... real?

I took a moment to really look into his eyes. His long eyelashes drooped over his beautiful light brown eyes. His hair messy, but cute. He was honestly quite handsome. 

But as I did this, one person never left my mind. 

Draco. 

Sure, Cedric was handsome, but he was nothing compared to Malfoy. 

Malfoy and I had a different connection. I was drawn to him. Wherever I was, whatever I was doing, he was constantly in the back of my head. I was always thinking about him and remembering how gorgeous all of his features were.

I couldn't believe I was asking myself this, but... did I have feelings for Draco?

I was interrupted when Cedric spoke again. 

"So, what do you think?" He asked, smirking.  

I didn't know what to say. I didn't think of Cedric in a boyfriend way, but I couldn't help but wonder if he liked me more than a friend...

He moved a little closer to me, our arms touching. 

I slowly looked into his eyes and saw him intently looking back. 

I didn't like where this was going. 

His eyes flickered from my eyes to my lips, several times. 

Was Cedric going to kiss me? 

We both quickly turned our heads when we heard footsteps, crunching in the fall leaves.