inertia || a Fred Weasley love story

twenty four.

 The next two days passed quickly. Fred had spent most of it avoiding me, walking out of a room while I walked in, ignoring me while I spoke, sitting at the other end of the table during dinnertime. But I had George for company, and Alice and Ginny when they were feeling like it. George showed me around the fields the Burrow resided on, letting me into their 'boy's only' tree house Bill had built when he was fifteen for the rest of them, showing me various different projects he and Fred were working on.

But then on the third day, Fred resumed to his fucking antics. It was Sunday, in the afternoon, and apparently Bill was supposed to arrive before dinnertime. I was helping Molly and my mom in the kitchen as they made dinner, and George was keeping us company, telling Molly about some prank he and Fred had pulled successfully on Snape. Molly was laughing about it, making my mom laugh about it, even though she kept asking stupid questions and not really listening to what George was saying. The exchange was kind of bothering me, but like, in the way only your mom could bother you. So I was already a little irritated when Fred sauntered in, hands in his pockets, crew neck sweater looking a little sooty and singed at the bottom. George paused in his story to greet his brother, who simply nodded back and sat down at the table heavily.

I paused in what I was doing. It was the first time Fred and I had been in the same room besides sitting at the table for meals, and I glanced at him, wondering what he could possibly be up to. He met my eye this time, and I felt my face grow hot under the expressionless look he gave me. My mood soured even more than it had been, and I glared at him before going back to chopping carrots.

"What's for dinner?" Fred asked the room.

"Chicken and veggies with rice- it's Diana's mom's recipe." Molly said brightly. Fred snorted, which made my blood boil.

"I'm not eating that." He said rudely. Molly paused to look at her son incredulously.

"Excuse me?" She said in a low tone, and Fred shrugged nonchalantly. I could see from the corner of my eye that he was still looking at me as he spoke.

"I'm not eating anything that slut makes."

"Okay, what the fuck." I finally exclaimed, slamming the knife down and rounding on him. "Are you fucking serious? You're going to insult your own mother's- hell, my fucking mom's cooking- because you're angry about some drunken mistake? Are you fucking serious?" I felt angry tears coming on, but they disappeared when my mom moved to smack the back of my head lightly.

"Language, nox." She chided, before resting a hand on my shoulder and turning to look at Molly, who seemed just as shocked as I was by my outburst. The woman looked between the two of us, Fred having leaned back in his chair, arms crossed and keeping his face carefully still. George had ducked so that his hair hid his face, leaning close to the table and scrolling through his phone, his leg bouncing quickly. I felt hot and embarrassed about letting my emotions control me, and shrugged off my mom's hand, gesturing to the carrots.

"Sorry I- I think I'm going to go upstairs for a second." I muttered, and my mom nodded, rubbing my back a little before gesturing for me to leave the kitchen. I could hear someone get up from the table behind me as I rushed to Bill's bedroom. Assuming it was George, I left the door open as I stormed into the room, starting to pace as I heard him bounding up the stairs behind me. I didn't even look up as he shut the door behind him, wringing my hands and tugging at my hair.

"He's such a fucking dick!" I cried, without waiting for George to say anything, "He's so fucking annoying! I just don't get it like- I know he's angry but how is it fair that he can take it out on me. I mean, how does he even know he likes me- he doesn't even know me! If he knew me, he'd know that that's how I react to things like I make stupid mistakes that's what I'm like I always get scared when people try to get close to me and I lash out it's what I do, okay? Like that's who I am and if he's going to behave like this anytime I do that then he needs to know that i'm not who he thinks he is and I-" I took a deep breath, finally spinning to look at the person who'd followed me.