𝓥𝓲𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓲𝓻𝓮 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂 ⋆ 𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝐹𝑜𝓊𝓇

[scorpio]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝓥𝓲𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓲𝓻𝓮 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂
𝒮𝑒𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇 𝒯𝓌𝑒𝓁𝒻𝓉𝒽

𝓘𝓷𝓬𝓵𝓾𝓭𝓮𝓭
ᴊᴀᴄǫᴜᴇʟɪɴᴇ, ꜰᴀʀʜɪʏᴀ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴅᴡᴀʀᴅ
𝓜𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓭
ᴊᴀᴍᴇꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ꜰʀᴇᴅ
𝓢𝓮𝓽 ⋆ 𝓟𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 ⋆ 𝓝𝓮𝔁𝓽 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀James Potter's "flawless" welcoming party? Yeah, there's no way that was going unbusted. Anyone still there come 2 am { 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙, 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑠, 𝑎𝑠 𝐹𝑖𝑙𝑐ℎ 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠 } is now paying the price twice: one for that killer hangover you had and another for an entire evening's detention. So many kids were in trouble that the professors took days to plan a suitable day for it. So if you found yourself losing house points on the fateful September 7th, be prepared for the worst. Students have been assigned groups and locations all across campus. Just pray the professor in charge of yours has some sort of mercy because you'll be working under them for at least eight hours . . .

---

[scorpio]

---

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

---

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I hope your indignity was worth it,” Filch growls as he hands Victoire her detention assignment. He normally likes her more than the average student. She does get on famously with Mrs. Norris, after all, and her track record of good behavior is in stark contrast to the others that share her last name. But perhaps it is her fall from grace that stings even more than the disruption by the typical rabble-rousers. 𝓗𝓪𝓼 𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓪𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂 𝓽𝓸 𝓪 𝓵𝓲𝓯𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓲𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓬𝔂 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓭𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓺𝓾𝓮𝓷𝓬𝔂?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I’m sorry for what happened,” Victoire reassures, yet she does not promise to refrain from doing so again either. “But perhaps I could ask you . . . ” she continues, drawing his attention forward. Anything to keep him from turning to see Farhiya carefully crafting a spell to get their little friend group in the same detention assignment. The other Gryffindor gives a gleeful thumbs-up as soon as the deed is easily completed. “Oh, never mind. It seems I forgot,” hums Vic. Though a small tinge of guilt tells her that Filch deserves better, it feels worth it in the moment. She quickly disappears from his malicious gaze, lest he realize the mix-up she has choreographed.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“So what is our punishment, then?” Jackie asks, catching up to the two other girls. Farhiya takes stride as the leader. Though the two have a tendency to follow Victoire around like little lambs, they are not without their wolves’ teeth underneath. And now that Farie has dumped yet another boy, her confidence is glowing. She feels unstoppable.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I gave us the greenhouse,” she explains. It takes everything in Victoire not to stop in her tracks. 𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷. 𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓼𝓸 𝓼𝓸𝓸𝓷. “We are supposed to clean all the windows without magic, and our advisor is also Professor Longbottom. We all know he’s a softie who won’t care.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀But Victoire is not so sure of her friend’s conviction. Her family’s dear friend is a man of strong conviction. Though calm and collected, Neville Longbottom is far from one that allows others to walk all over him. However, she keeps her thoughts silent. She had learned long ago that correcting Farhiya only causes them all torment. Better to pretend the tall, proud girl is always right.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The walk to the herbology area is long and winding, one that Victoire is still all-too-familiar with. Shame weighs down her pace. “What is taking you so long?” Jacqueline squeaks. The Hufflepuff only half-remembers to keep track of her. Victoire hadn’t noticed that she has fallen behind the two of them. “Is it too long for your princess legs to walk without apparating?” Farhiya teases.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“How do you know ━”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She stops herself from continuing.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Know what?” the girls sing in unison. Despite the endless pestering, Victoire has not shared any of the information about why she disappeared for 𝓷𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓵𝔂 𝓪𝓷 𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓻𝓮 𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓻 from James’ party 𝓪𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓪 𝓽𝓸𝓽𝓪𝓵 𝓶𝓮𝓵𝓽𝓭𝓸𝔀𝓷. 𝓦𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓯𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓸𝓻 𝓛𝓾𝓹𝓲𝓷 𝓸𝓯 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮! Victoire has already paid the price with a scathing, and mostly untrue, post on 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻. As if anyone had missed how she nearly hexed Godric to oblivion. At least most students are too afraid to address things like that with her, now more than ever. But have they finally broken down her walls of ice? Maybe she should tell them. Maybe they will understand. She opens her mouth to reply, to finally get this weight off her chest . . .

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Because yes, I do know how you used to apparate into work sometimes even though it was twenty feet from your apartment!” Farie continues. The anxiety constricting Victoire suddenly vanishes. No, they still know nothing of her trip to the greenhouses with Teddy. How his hands had tangled in her hair. How she, shamefully, went to kiss him. A moment she will regret for all eternity. And it’s probably better that they never do.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝑉𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑖𝑟𝑒, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒 . . . 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠. 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀He probably doesn’t think that now, after she tried to hit on him even knowing there was a girl ━ no, a woman ━ at home waiting for him. Maybe even because she knew.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“You caught me,” she sighs. Anything to get the attention away from her. “I deserve the worst.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Don’t we know it,” Farhiya purrs with a sultry wink. And though Sinistra-Shacklebolt is always one for sarcastic humor, there is something so dark when she spins it towards Victoire’s direction. Like she just might mean every little thing she says.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“We’ve finished, Professor!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Longbottom steps away from the plant he is lovingly tending to in order to inspect the trio’s work. “It appears you have completed everything quite early.” His compliment is not without suspicion. “Victoire and Jacqueline, I’m afraid your eight hours of punishment have not ended. Anyone finishing early must report to Professor Lupin’s classroom for final supervision.” Farhiya gloats over his shoulder, thinking she is off the hook.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“As for you, Miss Sinistra-Shacklebolt,” he spins on his heel to face her. “I do not take kindly to those who charm their rags against the rules. You can use your time to remain here with me, taking care of all the Mandrakes.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Her bottom lip immediately pouts in defiance. She is too-often used to getting her way without consequence. “Professor! I swear! I didn’t!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“So if I perform Appare Vestigium, there will be no traces of magic on your supplies?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The heavy silence answers the question for him.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“She will be catching up with the both of you another time,” Longbottom deadpans. Victoire tries to convey an apology to Farhiya with her expression, but a small part of her also wants to mouth, 𝓘 𝓽𝓸𝓵𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓼𝓸.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She turns to leave even though the next part of the detention sounds far worse than physical labor. Victoire hasn’t seen Teddy . . . Edward . . . Lupin . . . what in Merlin’s beard does she call him now? She hasn’t seen 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓶𝓪𝓷 since their moment at the greenhouses.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“This is the best detention ever!!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Jacqueline is already halfway out of the greenhouse. If there is an excuse to simply stare at a certain graduated Hufflepuff for hours without consequence, she is the first to capitalize on it. When they pass through the exit, the memories of James’ party crystalize over Vic’s senses. It’s like she can feel his hands on her once more. 𝓦𝓱𝔂 𝓭𝓸𝓮𝓼 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓱𝓲𝓶 𝓼𝓸 𝓫𝓪𝓭𝓵𝔂? 𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓱𝓮 𝓱𝔂𝓹𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓲𝔃𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓻, 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓥𝓮𝓮𝓵𝓪?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀As if on cue, Jackie gushes the moment they’re out of the other professor’s earshot. Victoire is jarred to reality by her revelry, but discussing Teddy further doesn’t exactly help her stay in it.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“What do you think he’s wearing? Still one of those to-die-for suits he seems to have in endless supply? Or, galloping gorgons, perhaps he’s in something casual! Do you think he fancies grey sweatpants on the weekend?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Jackie!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“What?!” the Hufflepuff bursts into laughter. “I saw him in them once when he was still a student. But he was so scrawny back them. I mean, wow, America really did him some goooooooddddd. Have you seen those muscles now?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Victoire fights the rising blush on her cheeks. She had very-much noticed his chiseled physique when it was pressed up against her, but she does not need the memory of it making her light-headed, flushed, overwhelmed . . . At least not 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮. Not 𝓷𝓸𝔀. Not 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Can we please talk about anything else? He’s a professor now, Jack. We need to have some boundaries.” But Vic says it to convince herself more than anything.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh, fine!” she huffs. The Hogwarts front doors open to their touch, and the pair turns to find the moving staircases. “Tell me you’ve at least caught up on that fabulous love letter from 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻!” Though she tries to avoid that cursed information as much as possible, Vic could not resist peaking when some small rumors about it had come her way. “I skimmed it,” she half-lies.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Merlin, let me pull it up! You have to see it!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓪𝓼𝓾𝓪𝓵 𝓲𝓷𝓭𝓲𝓯𝓯𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓫𝓪𝓬𝓴𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮𝓼, Vic thinks in defeat. Considering the disastrous state of her own love life, the last thing she wants is to hear the happiness someone else is having. But Jackie doesn’t pick up on the reluctance as she takes on the dramatic monologue.

𝓓𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓧,
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝐼𝓉'𝓈 𝟥 𝒶𝓂 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓅 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊; 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒽𝒶𝒾𝓇; 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒽𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓈... 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝓅𝓈. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓂𝑒 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁... 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝒹𝒹𝒾𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝑒𝑒, 𝐼'𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓈𝑒 𝓎𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑒𝓌, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓉𝒽 𝒾𝓈 𝐼 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃'𝓉.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓅 𝓂𝓎𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝓅𝓈. 𝐼 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃'𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒽𝑜𝓌 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒶𝒻𝒻𝑒𝒸𝓉 𝓂𝑒. 𝐼 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃'𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒽𝑜𝓌 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝐼 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹𝑒𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈 𝓂𝑒 𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓁 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝒸𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓃.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒. 𝐼𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝒶 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂. 𝐼𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝐼'𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓈𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓎𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝒹𝒶𝓎𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓃𝑒𝒹 - 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝓅𝓈 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃𝓈𝓉 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝒶𝓊𝓃𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Too much of it reminds her of her own shame. Her lips brushing against Teddy’s cheek. 𝓓𝓮𝓷𝓲𝓮𝓭. The kiss they shared all those years ago. 𝓐𝓫𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓭. Is she, too, haunted by a certain pair of lips forever? She hopes, at least, this author found the happy ending that she had not. 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓫𝓪𝓫𝓵𝔂 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Yes, it’s very nice,” Victoire laments as it becomes clear that Jacqueline is expecting some praise for her performance. “Just nice?!” But striding into Professor Lupin’s classroom saves her from having to talk any further.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀He is there, sitting watchfully behind his desk. Some other students have already completed their tasks and waste their hours listlessly stuck in the drafty room.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Take a seat,” he says. Victoire tries not to notice how aggressively avoidant his eye contact is. She wants to take a spot in the back, but Jacqueline drags her to the front. Anything to be closer to 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓯𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓸𝓻 𝓗𝓾𝓷𝓴, as 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻 had convinced some students to begin saying.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“It’s jeans,” she mumbles playfully in Victoire’s ear. The Gryffindor knows her friend is dissecting every article that Teddy wears, but she refuses to acknowledge it.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Though the classroom drifts in silence for some time, boredom eventually eats away at the calm afternoon. Especially as some of the rowdier students shuffle in. Once James and Fred are united, small whispers expand into full conversations. Even when annoyance flashes across Teddy’s face, he is not exactly one to enforce a perfectly quiet detention. Especially since they all know he was at the busted party in question anyway.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The volume from the raucous group in the back increases. It seems another performance about the absurd letters from 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻 is underway. Does everyone care except her?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Potter!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The professor’s voice rings with an authority Victoire did not know that he was capable of. All heads, save for the one he was addressing, snap to attention in an equally surprised manner. “Not you Albus. You’re fine.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She refuses to watch Lupin stride to the back of the classroom. He can deal with the interruption without her. For once, she is grateful for Jacqueline’s loud whisper that keeps her from hanging onto his every word. Vic robotically stares straight ahead. The less she knows about Teddy and his mannerisms and his alarmingly sexy authority and how his butt looks, the better.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀But her gaze is pulled back to him, who is, in fact, wearing some too-well-fitting jeans, when he returns to the front of his room. “I want each and every one of you to drop your phones in that bin over there,” he commands calmly. “You can get them back after detention is over.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Forced silence descends with welcomed peace. But without idle chatter to occupy her mind, Victoire finds herself wandering down a forbidden field of thoughts. A time before she knew bitterness. A time where there was just the shore of the Great Lake and a boy whose hair flushed pink. Perhaps Vic knows what addiction feels like too. Perhaps she has more in common with 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻’s poor victim than she wants to admit.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She tries to avoid it, but she can’t resist the gravity of his presence. Her eyes devour every inch of Teddy as he, too, sits in dim stillness. He seems so worried. It softens her resolve.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝐼𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑢𝑟𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑. 𝐻𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑐ℎ. 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑤: 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡. 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠. 𝐻𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑓𝑡 𝑘𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒. 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒. 𝑆𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑦. 𝐻𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑛𝑜 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑖𝑚.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀He catches her staring, and the warmth throughout her body collapses into shame.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I’m sorry,” Vic mouths, but he has already looked away. When it comes to Teddy, she seems to always be too late.