golden waltz | jily

Airports & Drug Lords

"You hungry?"

As if on cue, Lily's gut growled. "I guess that's a yes."

James grinned. "I say we go find the most obnoxiously American restaurant we can find and eat there, you know to celebrate your very first time in the States."

Lily nodded, still too groggy to argue and started walking beside James. "You've competed here before, right?"

"Yup, mine and Cat's very first Junior Grand Prix was right here in New York."

Lily hummed in response. "Must've been nice."

James elbowed Lily lightly. "But don't worry, soon enough you'll have competed here too. Maybe as soon as March." He wiggled his brows.

Lily frowned. "Don't. Talk about it. I don't wanna curse it."

Lily had been trying her best since she and James partnered up to not think about the probabilities of them managing to make the World team this season. It was wide open at the moment, and she knew if she started thinking about it, her body might actually collapse from the stress.

"Well, this seems like a strong candidate."

They had stopped in front of something called TGI Friday's. Lily had no idea what to expect from that name, but her gut was begging for sustenance.

"Let's just go in, I'm hungry."

As they sat down at a booth and looked at their menus, Lily realised what the feeling she'd had since arriving in New York had been. She hated the fact that James knew more than her. He'd been to America before, she hadn't. Lily shook her head. She was being stupid.

"How did you and Catherine do on that JGP here? I don't quite remember."

A barely visible crease formed between James's brows. "We were seventh, it was actually our very first international competition. I'm pretty sure um... Aldridge and Eaton won that one."

Lily felt her heart sink a little bit. She knew that James and Catherine had split on their own accord, but she couldn't help feeling like she had come between them since James clearly was still very fond of his previous partner. And Lily had the slight nagging feeling that if Catherine were to come back right now, James would ditch her and go back to Catherine in a split second.

Lily cleared her throat a little. "Oh, Eaton is in Canton with his new partner, right?"

"Yeah, he is. I actually met Alison through him, they used to train together."

Lily's interested perked up at this. Alison was the woman they were staying with in Michigan. Lily had never met her before, but she knew that she trained with Marina and Igor, and Lily had even seen her skate on videos. James had met Alison at some junior competition years ago and had remained in touch for the last couple of years. James had contacted her about a place to stay in Canton, and Alison had immediately offered up her place for them to stay, which Lily thought was very nice.

"Is Allison.. well, did you guys... date or something?" Lily spluttered out. She cursed herself for the phrasing of that question. She had been meaning to ask James about this for a while. She didn't need him to have any sort of distractions and waste any of their precious time with Marina.

James laughed slightly. "Um, Alison is four years older than us and I met her when I was fourteen, so I think that would've been kinda inappropriate. So, no, Lils, I have never dated her and have no interest in doing so."

Lily nodded slowly. "Okay, just wanted to check," she said quietly.

Soon enough, they both had unbelievably big and greasy cheeseburgers in front of them. As soon as Lily saw her plate, Lily knew she was not eating all of that. She immediately started taking her burger apart and trying to scrape the American cheese off her patty.