Chapter Text
(James 12:18 pm) I'm here xxx
(Lily 12:18 pm) Okay I'll be out in a second
(Lily 12:18 pm) I'm gonna grab a sweater real quick
(James 12:19 pm) Okay, love <3
(Lily 12:19 pm) <3
It's the beginning of summer break, so it’s relatively hot outside, but Lily tends to get cold, especially in air-conditioned buildings, so she grabs her cardigan off the foot of her bed and hurries down the stairs and out the door.
When she makes it outside, James is leaning against his car, smiling. “Finally!! you said you would be out in a second, love. That took you forever.”
Lily smiles back at him as she gives him a quick kiss before saying, “and I was out in a second! But someone kept distracting me with his texts!” she says in defense. “And it wasn't that long,” she adds.
James hums, “well now that you're finally here, what do you say? Want to go get some coffee…? Go to a book store…? Maybe go to the skate park?” He says, playfully poking at her sides.
“Let's go get some coffee,” Lily replies, laughing, stepping up to the car.
“M’lady,” James says while opening the passenger door, and gesturing for her to get in.
“Why thank you, kind sir,” she says as she climbs in, and James shuts the door and gets in on the diver's side.
On the way to the coffee shop, James tells Lily about the new skateboard he's thinking about getting, but he's not sure if he wants that one or a longboard he saw the other day. Lily doesn’t understand the difference between the two so she just tells him to choose whichever one he likes more.
He continues telling her about them until they pull up to the shop. As they walk through the door James tells her he's going to go pick a table, she tells him okay, and walks up to the counter.
There's no one there so she rings the bell and waits for someone to take her order. A moment later, a tall boy with light brown hair walks through the door that leads to the back.
He lights up when he sees her, “hey Lils!”
“Hey Remus, I didn't know you were working today.”
“I wasn’t supposed to, but one of the other workers called in sick, so I figured I'd take their shift. What can I get you today? The usual?” Remus asks, reaching for a cup.
“Yeah but make it two,” Lily tells him.
“Got it, they'll be ready in a minute,” he turns around to go make their coffee and comes back a moment later, setting their cups on the counter, “that'll be seven dollars and fifty cents.”
Lily hands him the money and picks up the coffee, “thanks Remus, I'll see you later!”
“You too lily,” Remus replies.
Lily first met Remus in middle school when she found him sitting alone at lunch, and went to go sit with him. They didn't talk much but she sat with him every day until one day he asked her what she was reading. She said, “The Fault in Our Stars,” holding up the book so he could see the cover.
He asked her what it was about, which then lead to a very long conversation about books, and that was when they decided they would be best friends. They tell each other everything and have always been there for each other, no matter their reason for needing the other.
Lily has a smile on her face and when she makes it back to the table James chose, he's staring at her, grinning. “What?” She asks cautiously.
“Nothing, you're just really beautiful,” he replies like it was obvious that’s what he was doing.
“Drink your coffee, James,” she laughs, pushing his cup across the table.
For the next hour, they sit in the quiet little shop drinking their coffee and talking about random things like music, movies, and even what classes they're going to be in next year. They're disappointed to find out that the only class they have together is homeroom, but they decide it's better than not having any classes together at all.
They end up walking down the street to the bookstore just to have something to do, and James follows Lily around while she looks at books. She picks out three and pays for them before they're both making their way back to James’s car so he can take her home.
On the drive back to Lily’s house they just sit and listen to whatever music is playing on the radio. They come to a stop at a red light and James turns to her, smiling. “Hi,” he says.
“Hi,” she smiles back. He leans forward and kisses her. “What was that for?” She asks although she's still smiling.
“Like I said, you’re beautiful,” he replies like it's the most obvious answer. “And I felt like it,” he says with a shrug before turning back to the road as the light turns green.
For the rest of the drive home, Lily just stares out the window with a lingering smile on her face.
——
It's around two when James drops Lily off at her house. He doesn't quite want to go home yet, or at least not to lay around and do nothing, so he drives home, grabs his skateboard, and walks to the skatepark, deciding it's best to walk on the broken cobblestones than ride his skateboard over them, especially after what happened the last time he did, he doesn't really want to get into it, it was very embarrassing.
The walk’s not too far, just about five minutes, so it’s not long before he’s riding his board aimlessly up and down the ramps. The park’s relatively empty today, with just about two or three other people there, no one he knows very well so he keeps to himself.
Half an hour later he’s walking back home on the broken cobblestones. With not much else to do, his mind travels over to Lily.
He spent all of middle school and freshman year pining over her before he finally came to his senses. He realized that wasn't how it worked, he would never get the girl with how he was acting, so he tried to be more laid back, and it worked! All of sophomore year James was much more platonic with her, talking to her about all the things other people talk about with their friends, and over time, they became friends themselves.
On prom night, James’ best friend, Sirius, threw this big party for the sophomores and the freshman to make up for them not having a dance. After several hours, they were left with their friend group, since everyone else had left, and decided to play a game. Everyone agreed on spin the bottle, and that's what lead to James and Lily’s first kiss. The next day they talked about what happened, which resulted in them choosing to finally get together.
They dated throughout their junior year, homecoming and prom coming as a package deal, much to James’ disappointment as he’s not really one for crowds or dances, and they are still together.
James is happy. He’s really happy. He thinks Lily is too, and that just fills him with even more happiness.
James is about two minutes from his house when a car pulls up next to him. It's not until the driver rolls down their window that he thinks he recognizes her from school, she was at that pity prom party with his friend Marlene.
“Hey, Dorcas right?” James says walking closer to the window.
“I am, and you're James?” She says it as a question but he can tell she already knew it was him.
“In the flesh,” he grins. “So what are you up to?” He asks in a friendly manner.
“Nothing much,” Dorcas replies. “I was just driving around when I saw you and thought I'd say hi. What are you up to?” She asks.
“Nothing much, I was just coming back from the skatepark,” he says pointing over his shoulder in the direction he came from.
“Well, since you're not doing anything...what do you say we go do something?” She says carefully.
“Oh yeah? Like what?” he asks curiously.
“Not sure yet,” Dorcas shrugs. “We can figure it out when we start driving.”
James probably doesn't think about his response as long as he should. In fact, he hardly thinks about anything at all before he's getting in Dorcas’s car, ready to go wherever they decide. All thoughts of Lily completely emptying out of his head.
——
Dorcas isn't sure what she's doing. She knows James and Lily are dating, and that she shouldn't have asked James to get in the car, but it's not her fault that he agreed.
They’ve been driving for about ten minutes now, still with no clue what they want to do, that is until James says, “hey let's go to the beach!”
Dorcas glances at him quickly, before turning back to the road, “the beach? Why?”
“‘Why the beach?’ She says. Why not the beach!?” James’ whole body is turned to her now, despite them being in a car. “Look, it's hot, and it's summer, and we have nothing better to do. So we go to the beach!”
Dorcas takes a moment to think about it then says, “fine, but I'm gonna need directions.”
James looks triumphant, with a wide grin on his face as he takes his phone out of his pocket to pull up the directions to the beach.
It's a forty-five-minute drive to the nearest one, but the time passes quickly as they talk about pointless things and yell the lyrics to Castle on the Hill and Galway Girl when they come on.
Dorcas learns that James loves pie (his favorite is blueberry), he secretly loves Abba (Mamma Mia is his favorite), he's allergic to bees, his favorite color is red, and he is the best charades player you will ever meet.
By the time they get to the beach, it's around three thirty, James mentions that he hasn't eaten lunch today so they walk to the food truck nearby and get some walking tacos.
They walk along the beach as they continue talking. Dorcas can't help but notice how expressive James is, especially when he talks about things he's passionate about. His arms are flailing about, he's constantly smiling, his eyes are shining, and it's like he's radiating pure sunlight, brightening everything and everyone around him.
They get some food to eat on their way home around six, then get in the car and leave, the car ride mostly being the same as it was on the way there.
Dorcas pulls into James' driveway, and they exchange numbers before James gets out, making sure to grab his skateboard, and he walks up to his door, turning around and waving before going inside.
Today was like a fairytale. Ever since ninth grade, Dorcas has had a huge crush on James, almost everyone did. She even kissed him once while playing spin the bottle at a party. Of course, James doesn't know any of this, though. She would rather die than let him know how hopelessly in love with him she is.
But now they're friends. She thinks they are anyway, I mean they just spent the whole afternoon together, and have each other's phone numbers, and told the other almost everything there is to know about them, and she stared deeply into James’ eyes, fantasizing about what it would be like to kiss him for real, and not for some stupid party game.
But then there's also Lily to think about...because James has a girlfriend. And while Dorcas was thinking about kissing him until his lips explode, he was probably thinking about how this was a fun little outing to go on with a classmate, to get to know each other. Suddenly today's dream feels more like a nightmare.
Although come to think of it, James never even mentioned Lily at all, or even acknowledged anything about having a girlfriend. Dorcas may be overthinking things but she hopes that perhaps someday they can be something more than friends. Until then she’ll just tolerate it, wanting is enough, and she's fine with that, it's nice to have a friend, after all.