Lilith.
Excitement is fun, until you royally screw it up.
But I am hoping to not royally screw it up.
Mattheo has come by a lot over the summer. He hasn't let me visit him because god forbid Voldemort knocks on his bedroom door while we're doing more than talking.
He also doesn't want me to meet his father, which is understandable.
Right now, I'm in a dark alley. It's two a.m. and I haven't been in this alley since last summer when I got the nasty scar on my collarbone. But it's okay this time, my friends are here. To clarify, they're my muggle friends. I don't think that any of my wizard friends would survive a day out on the streets screwing around like we do.
Darcy is standing on a dumpster, digging through to find the box that she threw away by accident. If her parents found out that she threw it away, she would be dead. No, I'm not kidding. They would actually kill her. That's why I'm scared for her. Most of the time she spends the night at one of our houses because we refuse to let her go home alone anymore. Any time we do, she comes out more bruised than the last time.
Aven is trying to spin around a butterfly knife in her hands. She knows how to pickpocket which is why she just pickpocketed it from a guy on the street a few hours ago. We all pickpocketed someone on that street, which ended up in those people chasing after us. But it's okay, we know a bunch of hiding places around the city.
Fynn is lighting a cigarette with an old lighter. His father probably would have bashed his head in for lighting one if it wasn't for the fact that his father was passed out on the couch with empty beer bottles surrounding him right now. Which is also the reason Fynn has a black eye right now. But it's fading, and that doesn't make it any better.
Alrik is flipping through the stack of cash that he stole from his foster parents.
They're deep sleepers.
Alrik has gone through tons of foster parents, and none of them every want to keep him in their care for more than five months. This time around, they're really rich and tell him he can do whatever he wants. But they still don't really care for him, and they leave him alone at their house more times than they're there anyway.
Raine is leaning against the wall, cracking their knuckles. Their parents haven't made food for them for three days, and they haven't gone shopping for food for a week. Raine is skinnier than I've ever seen them, and that is scary. If we're one of the ones that doesn't take Darcy home, we take Raine home. I decided to teach Raine how to bake and cook for when they can get out of that damn house.
I'm on the fire escape ladder, just standing on it as we all stand here.
What a group we are.
"My parents are going to kill me," Darcy says, running her hands through her pink hair. They almost killed her for that too.
I dyed it, so they almost killed me too. Getting shoved against a wall with a gun to your head while a middle aged man is spitting in your face isn't fun. Fynn and Alrik got him off me. Thank god they were there.
"Dar, we can try and find a replica or something," Rain says, spinning a ring around their finger.
Dar shakes her head, and huffs.
"Dar," I say, "it's late, okay? It's dark, and it's not going to get light for another three or four hours. Let's just go back to my place and we can sleep on it. We'll come back in the morning and look for it. Worst case scenario, I can get you another one. I promise."
"Yeah," Fynn says, his voice slightly muffled with the cigarette in his mouth. "Lil's place sounds nice right now. We'll all search in the morning."
"But, it's really important," Dar huffs, tossing things around in the dumpster.
"Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen," Alrik is whispering, recounting the cash.
Aven puts her knife away and says, "We won't let you go home until you have that fucking box, Dar. Don't think we won't search for that thing. We just can't to it now. You've been looking for an hour, and doing it in the dark isn't helping."
"Fine," Dar sighs and climbs out of the dumpster.
Even though its late summer, I shiver. I wish I had brought Mattheo's hoodie and not a thin zip up.
I jump down from the ladder and we all walk out of the alley and make our way back to my house. It started raining halfway there, and now it's pouring hard.
I put my thumb to the key hole and my whole hand tingles before the door unlocks. I twist the knob and open the door, taking a step inside.
I stop short, the others almost running into me.
"Lil, you fucker, it's still raining," I hear Alrik mutter.
I would have kept going if I didn't see Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange in my living room with my father.
"Lilith," Dad says from his seat in front of Narcissa. He looks behind me. "Oh, let the others in." I eye him but step out of the way, letting my friends inside. I close the door as they all start to take their jackets off and hang them on the rack, mutter and talking to each other. Fynn flips Raine off, and Raine flips him off.
"Lilith!" Narcissa exclaims, smiling at me.
"Hi, Mrs. Malfoy," I say.
Narcissa stands up and comes over to me, wrapping me in a hug. "It's wonderful to see you, dear."
I pull away. "And you," I say, nodding.
A second later Bellatrix's arms are around me, and I have to try not to freeze. She squeezes me hard. "Be careful with your boyfriend, girl. But don't worry, the Dark Lord doesn't tell his son everything."
I pull away from her and nod.
Dad nods to the kitchen. "Go make hot chocolate and take them all to your room. Get them a change of clothes and watch a movie or something."
I nod and wave them to the kitchen. They start walking, all waving at Dad as they walk by.
"Thanks, Sev," Alrik says, snapping his fingers at Dad.
Fynn runs up and kisses my dad's cheek. Dad tries to not shake his head and laugh.
"You're the best, Sev!" Aven says.
"Lifesaver, as always," Raine says, smiling.
"You have marshmallows?" Dar asks, and Dad nods.
"You smell like a dumpster, Darcy!" Dad says loudly after her as she walks into the kitchen.
I laugh, unzipping my jacket. "She just got done dumpster diving."
"For what?" Dad asks, which makes me stop.
"Something her parents need." He nods because that means he knows what I mean. What the silent sentence between us is.
When I walk in the kitchen, Fynn and Raine are fighting over which pot to use. Alrik is looking through the fridge. Aven is getting the hot chocolate powder down from the pantry, and Darcy is getting out the mini marshmallows.
"Hey, Lil?" she asks when I walk to the stove and turn a burner on, setting a pot down. "Can I use your shower?"
I turn to her and nod. "Yeah, of course. If your change of clothes isn't in my closet, just use some of mine. I have a bunch of hoodies and shorts and pants. Just don't wear the green one with a snake on it. The one that smells like cologne and cigarettes." I clear my throat and shake my head. "You'll just— You'll know it when you see it."
"Ooooo," Fynn says, coming up to me as Dar nods and walks back into the living room. He wraps his arms around my shoulders from behind. "Is that what the boyfriend smells like?"
I roll my eyes. "Yes, actually, that is what he smells like."
Fynn takes a step back and jumps on the counter next to the stove. I walk over to fridge and grab the milk while Alrik continues to look in it. I pour in some milk and wait for it to warm up a little.
"You haven't told us that much about this boyfriend," Fynn says, moving on the counter to grab a spoon to examine.
"Yeah," Aven says, putting the hot chocolate mix and marshmallows next to me on the other counter. She leans against the counter and eyes me, grabbing a whisk. "I would like to know more about him. Does Sev know? Do the kids at your school know? How long have you actually been dating for?"
Raine sits down on a chair and points at me. "You don't tell us that much about him, yet you are with him a lot," they say, raising their brows.
Alrik closes the fridge and goes to the pantry. "I'm making popcorn," he says, rifling through the food. "But, Lil, you need to stop being a little bitch and tell us about him."
"Okay, okay," I say, starting to make the hot chocolate. "But don't you think Dar would like to hear too?"
"Oh, I'm listening."
"Jesus fucking Christ," I say, jumping when Darcy enters the kitchen in a pair of black shorts and a blue hoodie. Her hair is wet. She pulls a chair up next to Raine and sits down.
They all watch me, waiting.
"Fine," I say. "He was new, and we got put in the same group. You know how I told you guys we get puts in groups based off our traits?" They all say a variation of 'yeah's so I continue. "He was a part of my friend group there, but we weren't really close. He annoyed the shit out of me, and most of the time I wanted to snap his neck. We got put together in classes and everything, but nothing helped our hating each other. Then after the holidays there were rumors that we slept together—"
"Did you?" Aven asks, raising a brow at me.
"Maybe."
"Oh my God!" Raine says loudly.
"Jesus," Fynne laughs.
"Lilith!" Darcy says scandalously.
Alrik starts laughing in the pantry before coming out and going over to the microwave. "Holy shit, Lil," he says in between laughs.
"Yeah, yeah," I say, waving them off. "After that it became us just hooking up and shit. He was— protective."
"How protective?" Raine asks.
"Like he wouldn't let any guy talk to me for more than five minutes," I say. They all groan. "Look, okay, he threw his drink on a girl for calling me a slut once. But on the last day of school, we started dating. And here we are."
"I want to meet him," Raine says.
After the hot chocolate is done, I pour the cups for everyone. Darcy give them marshmallows, which earns a 'fucking hell that's a lot of marshmallows' from Fynn when she puts four in his cup. She rolls her eyes and adds more and more. Alrik drizzles chocolate on the popcorn, earning a 'fuck off, Alrik, that's a lot of chocolate' from Aven.
After that, we go up to my room, passing through the living room where the three are still talking in hushed voices.
"Lily," Dad says before I can start up the stairs. I turn to him and hum. "Mattheo is coming to pick you up for the station in two days."
Shit. I forgot we were that close to school again. I nod and go up the stairs.
"He might be on his way soon."
Shit.
"Okay. Thanks, Dad."
We set our things down and I turn on my record player, putting on a custom album I made. I had to use magic to do it, but it's cool as hell.
"Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds is the first track. And, even though we are all getting dressed, we still do a little dance with each other to it.
We're more than comfortable around each other, and we've always made sure everyone is okay with changing in front of everyone before we start changing.
They all have at least five changes of clothes here. Tonight we all put on the hoodies and shorts. I put on Mattheo's hoodie that he gave me the night before we left Hogwarts, and Fynn raises his eyebrows at me, earning my middle finger.
We are some of the rudest little fuckers in this city, but you put this song on and we're just normal teenagers with normal lives.
We sit around and talk for however long we do. We don't keep track. All I know is we throw around more curse words than should be physically possible, but we manage.
Darcy, Raine, and I all sit on my bed, pillows in our laps. Fynn makes a cot out of the fifteen million pillows in my room to lay on. Aven sits on my bean bag as Alrik sits at my desk, spinning around in the chair.
When there's a pop outside my door, I mentally curse myself.