"no fucking way!" pansy whispered, using their hand to conceal the shock foaming at their mouth as it gaped, stabilising themselves as they wobbled out of the bathtub which they'd made them self obviously comfortable in, as there was a sweatshirt folded into a pillow and empty alcohol bottles scattering the lip of the tub.
"that's the plan," theo sighed, letting out a chuckle of amusement as he still struggled to come to terms fully with what i was trying to achieve.
all of this just to bite back at lorenzo?
surely i shouldn't be trying this hard..
unless i want more than just a petty retaliation from his end.
"okay, now that i'm thinking about it, i'm scared." i admitted, my thumb pressed against my bottom lip is i gnawed at my nail, a habit which is completely overrun by anxiousness, or when i finally realise that i've made a questionable decision.
"we don't have to do it, you know." theo replied softly, as he turned to me and placed his hand on my upper arm sympathetically, a look of soft concern upon his features.
i smiled back at him weakly, clearing my throat shortly after.
"have you got any ideas, pans?" i asked them, crossing my arms in order to ply away the uncontrollable habit of biting my nails, which became rather painful, especially when you can't stop and when there's not much nail left to tear off.
"maybe you don't have to resort to sleeping with theodore," they shrugged simply, brushing themselves down as they adjusted their hair in the mirror above the bathroom sink, "trust me, as someone who has, that boy would rather you let him call you mommy than let you give him head."
there was an uncomfortable silence following pansy's rather casual execution of a statement, my eyes widened slightly, as i turned to theo who was stood there guiltily, his shoulders slumped and a knowing grin on his face, one that showed how he simply couldn't deny the accusation.
"and plus, i wouldn't try so hard when it comes to lorenzo, you're wasting your energy on something that i can guarantee won't leave an indent on his mental surface." they added honesty, their words harsh enough it could've given the same effect of ripping off a plaster.
and that shit hurts.
"oh my god." i mumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose as i struggled to compress my laughter due to the awkward state of situation, and now beginning to question the entire plan i'd concocted.
pansy smiled before speaking, "look, i'd love to plot revenge against lorenzo with you guys - but i have a date in five minutes, i'll talk to you both later okay?" they reassured, before giving theo a high-five on their way out, slipping through the bathroom door carefully and closing it subtly to make sure it wasn't obvious enough for anyone to curiously wander inside in search for us.
i began to walk over to the bathtub, picking up a bin liner from the storage bin beside it and piling in bottle after bottle, trying my best not to make a ruckus.
i was stressed.
i tidy when i'm stressed.
i need a distraction.
i let out a frustrated huff of annoyance, for now it felt like all my plans i'd carefully constructed had just crumbled to shit in mere seconds and me being in a state of questioning and rethinking.
i dropped the bin bag onto the floor, slumping my body on the edge of the bathtub and burying my head in my hands, for what pansy had said about me trying too hard for lorenzo berkshire now made me retake everything i'd felt so confident about before.
"hey," theo spoke gently with a worried tone, as he walked over to join me at the lip of the bathtub, his hands buried in his jean pockets.
"we don't have to do this, you know?" he spoke again, he obviously seemed worried that i wasn't comfortable anymore with our plan.
and i was uncomfortable.
not about sleeping with him, but with the realisation that i was willing to sleep with one of my best friends just to bite back at a boy.
a boy? are you serious val?
ironic, since you always preach about how much you despise men.
"am i trying to hard, theo?" i changed the subject, however this question was more personal than i premeditated, for it sounded as if i was questioning myself if i hadn't added his name on the end.
the air became thick, thick enough i swore i began to feel my oesophagus lining collapse, hot air spilling into my lungs as my chest felt heavier than it ever felt before.
i turned my head upwards from my lap to look up at him beside me, his head was dipped down, toying with the emblem ring on his index finger as he evaluated an answer to my half-rhetorical hopeless question.
"well," he cleared his throat, brushing one of his chestnut curls out of his face, "you want to give enzo a taste of his own medicine, don't you? he's been tormenting you for months because he thinks it's funny."
i nodded slowly, theo seemed to actually understand why i composed this plan, which was a surprised since i thought he was only in it for the sex, as most hormonal teenage boys would be.
i'm sorry my standards were so low when it came to you theodore.
"do you actually know why he targets you? have you guys gone through some shit that made him have a vendetta against you?" he asked, tilting his slender frame towards me as he spoke.
i shrugged.
"we kissed once in year five but that didn't mean anything, it was a game of spin the bottle and he was obsessed with lucille at the time." i explained, for this incident was the only thing i could think of post-lorenzo-being-an-asshole.
but theo did bring up a good point.
why was he primarily doing things to piss me off?
"that's.. odd." he muttered softly, his hand supporting his chin as he thought deeply, sympathetic for his friend who's experienced nothing but mockery from lorenzo, who seemed to be enjoying every second of it.
lorenzo wasn't a bully.
he just liked to test peoples limits, see how far he could get before you'd shatter under his presence, the result of his actions.
it was like fuel to his fire, when people reacted to him.
for example, when he'd get multiple boyfriends knocking at his dormitory door asking why their girlfriends had his initials carved into their shoulder or thigh.
ruthless.
bold, lorenzo berkshire, bold.
"i just want to show him that making out with everything that moves in front of me won't have an effect on me, and that i can play that exact same game." i admitted, sighing deeply as i came to terms with the now pathetic excuse which was simply childish, when i could've done the mature, morally correct way of simply ignoring him, in the hopes he'd get bored and back down.
theo listened intently, for its not like he had anything better to do anyways. draco and blaise were so obviously drunk out of their minds as their slurred voices cascaded off the walls of the dorm as they sang jolly songs, the clinking of bottles of neat alcohol providing an instrumental beat only a drunk man could work with.
mattheo had most likely gone to the library to get some peace and quiet, as his friends, as previously stated, weren't the quiekstest drunks, and he was fixated on getting the most impressive academic results possible so he could pursue a reliable career in the magical realm, rather than succumbing to his fathers ghastly footsteps of destruction and naked terror imposed against innocent people.
good for mattheo.
i'm going to act like throughout his serious study journey, he doesn't fuck a hufflepuff here and there.
seriously, it's mattheo riddle.
what do you expect?
magnora, xander, onyx, and saskia were playing a drinking game involving pre-poured shots of various mixtures of alcoholic beverages provided by snape with a lack of his consent.
and lorenzo,
dear lorenzo charles berkshire,
was reading a book, a series of cigarettes circulating in and out of his grip as he smoked through each of them one by one, his mind too indulged, bathing in the inked words upon the aged parchment paper of a leatherback philosophy book he'd discovered abandoned in the common rooms, to notice the exceeding rate at which he'd consume them, until his head began to ache and his mouth beginning to bitter as it endured the rate of tobacco only barely.
but what i'd forgotten, was that after smoking a few cigarettes, lorenzo would always go to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
if only i'd known this sooner, it would've saved me so much shit oncoming.
"we don't have to actually have sex, val." theo broke the sheer silence that settled amongst us as my thoughts lead astray, "nobody's going to know if we don't."
i cleared my throat, rubbing my eyes tiredly.
"yeah, i suppose. i don't know, theo." i mumbled, letting my face fall into my hands as i was on the verge of surrendering, letting lorenzo win.
however, i didn't fancy succumbing to an eternity of lorenzo taunting me as he flirted with everything that moved, initiating a sick stomach on my side.
"we could just say we had sex, nobody would bother to question otherwise." he suggested, his hand banding around my shoulder as he sighed, "does that sound good to you?"
i hesitated, carefully raising my face from the embrace of my hands and connecting our line of gaze symmetrically.
at this moment, i was overwhelmed with emotions. something about being in a stuffy, small bathroom with a dim supply of lighting, black marble bath, and music pounding through the tiled walls from the inside out really but you in an obscene headspace apparently.
the alcohol bottles scattered across the floor that i attempted to clear up was our only audience as i leant in to theo, kissing him gently, expecting him to pull away in confusion as i was quite literally mentally dissolving a few seconds before.
but he didn't.
he began to kiss me back, passion and hunger not prominent, but it was delicate, careful as his hand rested on the small of my back.
he pulled away, "wait, why did you just-," he began, a smirk appearing across his face as his eyebrows arched in confusion.
"please, shut up before i start to regret making this decision before i wake up sober." i cut him off, and he began to kiss me again just like i'd asked, however he refused to go any further, most likely because he knew in the morning i'd be mortified.
but it wasn't the morning, it was now.
right now.
i ran my tongue across his bottom lip, venturing the indents across his lip as he grinned into the kiss, obviously finding my unusual behaviour amusing, for valentina would never think of kissing theodore nott.
he pressed me into him, his hand binding my hips against his torso as my hand fondled with his curls, his arm supporting both of us so that we didn't tumble back into the bathtub.
my breathing quickened as the intervals for air became uncommon, my skin beginning to excrete a thin layer of sweat, glistening in the lousy light like i was a variant of an extraterrestrial being.
the door to the bathroom swung open, it's hinges clattering against the tiled walls as it was opened with a brute force, leading to a sharp sound that made both me and theo flinch.
lorenzo walked into the bathroom, his tartan pyjama bottoms sat just below his v-line as his thin t-shirt, now clinging to his softly-toned arms due to the hot, dampened atmosphere of drunken people and delayed dance moves sparked from the emitting music of a 1990's radio draco had found in his father's cabinet at the manor.
his fair was splayed in sections across his face, some actively falling as he walked in, making his eyes harder to determined.
he hadn't realised someone was occupying the bathroom for the last hour until he finally glanced into the corner of the bathroom where the bathtub was placed, his toothbrush now in his hand as his preparation had now been disrupted.
"theo, what the actual fuck." he half-whispered, bothered by the fact that of all the places, theo had to hook up with a girl in his bathroom, "can you and magnora go somewhere else?"
wait.
magnora?
i'm not magnora.
looks like the shitty lighting came in handy, he doesn't recognise my face.
i thought i was safe, hoping theo would tell lorenzo to 'fuck off' so he could hook up privately, but it was simply just my sort of luck when lorenzo placed his toothbrush back in the cabinet and walked a few steps closer.
"shit." i muttered under my breath as i felt theo choke back a laugh, for we both knew what was coming.
"wait," lorenzo tilted his head, the morphed face that belonged to me originally and not magnora now becoming decently clearer to him.
"valentina?"
i guess we didn't need a plan after all.
-
HI GUYS HI GUYS HI GUYS
oh my god i'm so sorry i haven't updated in like a week i was sick, then i had a two day art exam, and it completely slipped my mind :(
pls forgive me 🙁🙁
anyways, bc i'm so sorry and so amazing i've decided to bless you with the longest chapter i've written currently up to date 💝
i hope u guys enjoy!!! more updates coming soon 💗 sorry for the delay