TAUNTED || Lorenzo Berkshire

II

Flashback - year 3

"No, you can't put more cookies in your mouth than me. Your mouth is big but it's just not THAT big." Lisa challenged me.

"Wanna bet?" I responded daringly.

"Yea, there's no way in hell you'll beat me." she laughed, pretty sure of herself.

"Oww okay let's see about that, bring in the cookies boys."

Noah and Anthony entered the ravenclaw common room with a bag full of cookies. They were those kinds everyone ate, but no one actually liked.

"Let the battle begin!" Padma said excitedly.

She counted from five and we both started stuffing cookies in our mouths. One, five, ten, fifteen. At the sixteenth one my mouth started to hurt, but I wouldn't give up so early. Nothing that Faye Deveraux couldn't handle. I saw that Lisa was also having a hard time stuffing that sixteenth cookie in her mouth. But I succeeded as she was still struggling. I continued as Lisa ran up to the trash can and spit it all out. She came back with a defeated expression and I felt euphoric as all my friends cheered me on.

"Okay, your mouth is bigger" Lisa admitted.

"Hey, you have a pretty big mouth yourself tho" I comforted her.

"Can we please talk about how Lisa almost puked?" Anthony chuckled.

"Hey, we can talk again when you have 16 cookies in your mouth. I'm pretty sure you would actually puke." Lisa fired back.

We all laughed and talked about all sorts of things as I realized how grateful I was for my friends. They made me laugh every single day and I honestly didn't know what I would do without them. Without Noah, who was so timid at first but once you got to know him really opened up. And Lisa, who was so competitive and turned everything into a race. Or without Anthony who acted tough on the outside, but actually had a heart of gold on the inside. And oh boy could I never live without Padma and Cho, who were more like sisters than best friends to me.

"Hey want to head to the library to study for our potions test of tomorrow?" Cho pulled me out of my philosophical thinking.

"Yeah, we still have 2 more hours 'till dinner."

On our way to the library we passed Cedric diggory and as soon as we were out of his sight Cho let out a cry of admiration.

"Isn't he the cutest?" Cho said, still impressed by the beautiful appearance that was Cedric Diggory.

"He sure is." I answered amused by my best friend.

"I wonder if he would ever notice me? No, who am I kidding. Cedric Diggory would never fall for someone like me" she went on.

"Hey don't say that, you are so beautiful. He would be dumb not to." I assured her.

"Yeah but that's just you talking, you are just saying those things to make me happy."

"No I'm not, I seriously am not. And even if he doesn't, you don't need a boy to tell you you're beautiful. You have me for that. You are Cho, one of the strongest women I know. So don't be so hard on yourself. You're beautiful and don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise"

Cho pulled me in for a tight hug.

"Thank you Faye, what did I even do to deserve a friend like you" she whispered with tears in her eyes.

"That counts for me too."

"How did we get this emotional in such a short period of time?" Cho asked jokingly.