"Done Waiting."
By: LivvyWriter.
Summary- Alicia knows she shouldn't love George. That doesn't stop her from falling for him, or from telling him. Finally, the one person that she listens to comes back, and for once, George isn't the one holding her. It's George's loss and Oliver's gain. But where does that leave Alicia?
"You can't keep doing this." Angelina said as she threw her books down on the cluttered desk.
I looked up from my notebook and as innocently as I could, said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." Before I knew it, she had snatched the book from underneath my nose. She flailed it in the air and she pointed to the pages. I sighed, knowing what was coming next.
"What are these poems about?" She asked as she scanned them. "Yes, beautiful poetry Alicia, but definitely the wrong topic."
I sighed again as I ran a weathered hand through my long knotty dark hair.
She also sighed heavily and sat at the end of my bed. Giving me a tired smile, she said, "Leash, he isn't worth all of this thinking. He doesn't think about anyone as much as you think about him in a split second." I sat up and glared at her.
"Go ahead and tell me I don't have a chance, Ang. I know your just dying to tear into him, so go ahead. Trash talk him, tell me he's not worth it. That he's not worth all of my time and feelings." I tried to make my voice angry, but it only sounded exhausted.
"Sounds like you know it without me telling you. All I'm saying Alicia, is that you haven't been the same since you've fallen for him. You've distanced from me, and every other word is about him. He doesn't give you the attention you deserve, and I think that you would be better off without your feelings for him." She began to reach out for my hand but I pulled away abruptly.
She gave me a startled look as I stood up.
"Angelina, I know all of this. I can't help it, and I'm not sure I want to. I can't control my feelings." The next thing I knew, I was on my way down the stairs leading to the common room.
Everything we had said was true.
"Hey Leash." I stopped in my tracks as I heard the source of my predicament.
Trying not to look conspicuous, I continued walking down the stairs.
"Hey George. How are you?" I came to stand in front of the arm chair he was lounging in.
He gave me a peculiar look and then closed his textbook and sat up straighter.
"You're very proper today, aren't you Miss. Spinnet?" He fluttered his eyelashes and I laughed.
He patted the extra room in his chair and I sat down. This was not an unfamiliar scene to either of us; we had cuddled in this chair many times. He slipped his arm behind my shoulders and I let my head fall on his chest.
"So what's on your mind Leash?" He asked. Right as I was in his arms, I began to forget all the conflict between the two of us. All that was left was me and him, together.
I sighed. "The whole world." I could hear his heart jumping to a regular pattern.
"Well that's no fun, anything I can do to help?" His voice was low, as if to guard it from the other people in the common room. I looked around and saw there was no one else.
"Just sit with me here." I said, my voice barely a whisper.
"Okay." His voice was so low that it was husky.
The silence between us was brimming with words. Words I wanted to say, but stopped myself. Words I knew were building up in him, but he kept them hidden. Words that I wished we could share, but chose not too.
"What's really on your mind Alicia?" I could feel his breath on the top of my head as he spoke.
I had two choices here. I could tell him that I had fallen headfirst for him, or I could shrug it off and not risk anything.
But you know what they say, risk nothing, gain nothing.
"You." I said it more clearly then I thought I would. I thought it would come out as a mumble, but instead it came out sharp and clear.
"Me?" His voice held a curious but slightly serious tone.
"Yeah, you."
"What about me?" His fingers that had been rubbing my arm stopped.
"I love you." It came out like a breath, quick and quiet.
There was the silence again. Except for this time, it was not brimming with words. It was brimming with tears, on my behalf.
"..Are you sure?" He asked. I could hear doubt in his voice, and the way he stretched his 'u' in sure let me know exactly what face he was making. He would be biting the side of his lip and his nose would be occasionally flaring.
I shifted so I could see his face, and it scared me how well I knew this boy.
"I'm pretty sure George." He looked down at me and his eyes filled with questions and sadness.
"I don't know what to say Alicia..-"
"Georgie! I've been looking- Oh wait, am I interrupting something?" George was interrupted by a high voice. I looked up and saw first saw two long, jean clad, perfect legs. Then my eyes moved upwards onto her long, skinny torso, and then finally onto her the tips of her impossibly glossy blonde hair, and at last her large smile and alert green eyes. It was my best friend, Katie.
"Oh hey Alicia, I didn't realize it was you." The shock in her voice matched the shock in her eyes.
"Hey Katie." I said softly, untangling myself from his arms and moving to the edge of the chair.
"I'll come back, don't let me interrupt anything." She began to back towards the common room door, but my voice stopped her.
"You aren't interrupting anything other then me making a fool of myself. But hey," I laughed dryly, "it happens on a daily basis. What should make this any different?" I stood up and walked as coolly as I could to the door.
If you expected George's voice to follow me, you're wrong. It never did.
This had been a mistake. He didn't love me. I had just put my neck on the line for this, this uncertainty, this clutching feeling that was strangling my heart, this love that was tearing me apart.
Maybe that's why I ran through Hogwarts as fast as I could. I earned looks from most of the underclassmen that were stupid enough to still be awake at two in the morning.
I ran so fast that I didn't even notice when I ran into the chest of something solid. I bounced off immediately, and landed on the floor four feet away.
"Oh my god, miss! Are you alright?" I had my head in my hands, but the voice was one that I recognized. Looking up, I saw the startled look in Oliver Wood's dark brown eyes.
"Ollie? What-?" This was my best friend of many years, whom I hadn't seen in about a year due to his position as keeper for his professional team.
He immediately stooped down and gathered me in a huge hug.
"Al, I've missed you so much! God, I've been thinking about how I would find you soon enough for me not to bloody blow to pieces, and here you are running into me!"
I clung to him tightly, and he stood up, bringing me with him. He rose to his full height of 6'4, and with my arms around his neck and my face pressed into his shoulder, my feet dangled off the ground.
I pressed my face deeper into his shoulder and smelled the distinct smell of grass and the cologne he wore.
Letting me down, he pushed me away at arm length and surveyed me. His bright smile slowly turned downwards as he saw the state I was in. I tried to smile brightly also, but the look in his showed me that I'd failed.
"Al, I was expecting to tell you how much you've changed, and you have. Your mane has gone from rats nest to tame curls. You've certainly developed.." He wiggled his eyebrows and I felt a smile come to my face and a small laugh erupt from my throat. "..and from your arm muscles, I can tell that you're still playing quidditch."
"But in some ways you haven't changed. You're still a midget, still have that stubborn streak in your eyes, and your nose still flares when you're about to cry."
I looked up at him, and I could feel a tear beginning to slip out of my left eye.
"Common Al, let's take a walk." He grabbed my arm and steered me through the last hall before the big oak doors was in front of us. He tapped the door with his wand, whispered something in Latin, and they opened for us.
Before I knew it, we were in the middle of the quidditch field.
"You've never had that defeated look in your eye Al, and it's scaring me."
My eyes moved up to his face and I swallowed every inch of my best friend.
His strong square chin contrasted with his soft nose. His light brown eyes contrasted with his mahogany brown hair. His strong, tall frame contrasted with his loving personality.
Oliver was a walking contradiction, and that's every bit of why I loved him.
"I told him, he rejected me." I sighed and sat on the ground. He sat beside me and stretched his legs out.
"He's an idiot, I've told you that. He's a player, all he wants is sex." Oliver repeated the familiar line and I sighed again.
"Yeah, with other girls. I thought that if he gave me a chance, then I'd be different."
He laid down and I laid down next to him, fitting into the spaces he left for me.
"You are different for him. You and I both know that George cares deeper for you then he does for any other woman, and that's the reason he doesn't want to hurt you. He knows what he does with women and he doesn't want that to happen to you."
"But I'm not some helpless child Ollie! You and I both know that I can handle myself. If he's such a coward that he can't even admit feelings for me, then he's not the guy I thought he was."
"You can do better and you will do better. You don't need a guy that confuses you every step of the way. You need a guy that doesn't have a problem telling you that you're the light of his life, and that he can't imagine anything with you. George isn't that guy." Oliver brought me closer and my body started to shake with small sobs.
"That's all I want from him. Is that so bad?"
"No, of course not."
He let me cry, and I don't know how long I cried in his arms. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was daylight. It was bright and the sun above me awakened my memory of everything that happened the night before.
I looked around and noticed that I wasn't on the ground, but that I was in Oliver's arms. He was walking away from the quidditch field, and towards Hogwarts.
He carried me all the way to the portrait of the fat lady. For once the fat lady didn't speak and she waved us in.
Oliver looked down and I quickly shut my eyes. His heartbeat was loud and clear in my left ear.
"Alicia! Oliver?" Despite that I wanted to, I kept my eyes closed at the sound of George's voice.
"What the hell happened? Where has she been all night? She went out and never came back in.."
"She was with me." Oliver said, his words hard as stone.
"Let me take her, I'll take her up to her room." I heard footsteps but then they stopped at Oliver's voice.
"You've done enough." Oliver began moving again and he held me closer. We stopped and then I felt myself being lowered onto the couch. Oliver couldn't take me up to my room due to the no boys spell.
"She can do better then me." George said flatly.
"Damn straight." Oliver responded. He pushed the hair out of my eyes and I opened them slowly.
"I can't take you upstairs; you'll have to go by yourself." His voice was gentle as I slowly sat up and began to walk to the stairs. I didn't look at George, just keep walking.
"Wait Leash," He pleaded. Oliver opened his mouth to say something but I held up my hand, telling him it was okay.
"I've been waiting for years George. I'm finally done. I'm finally free. Ollie, I'll find you later." A flash of regret was in George's eyes, but like lightning, it was there and then gone.
I turned around and began walking up the stairs.
I didn't know how I felt now. I wasn't sure if I was over George, or if it was just beginning, but I knew that I would be okay.
I didn't know why Oliver was at Hogwarts, and how exactly when I needed him, he had been there for me. All I knew was that he would be there when I woke up, and that thought reassured me.
I would be okay.