A/N Hello to all my readers!! I have missed you all greatly!

Diclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, nor the world. Just so ya know.

I would like to dedicate this story to Post-it notes, without which, I never would have remembered the finer points of this here story. (I realize I'm talking weird, I don't know why, just bear with me…lol) To Mary, I don't know if you will read this, but I'm dedicating this to you and our 156 message-long conversation on Facebook, this is also to anyone who has ever gotten a splotchy sunburn, I feel your pain! And I had a couple more, but I forgot to write them down on a post-it. (lol)

Loosely based off of the song Can't Get You Out Of My Head by Kylie Minogue...loosely

This story is inspired by my cruise to The Caymans and Jamaica. Yay to the father for the trip!!

And now, in the words of a very good author:

On with it!

You may be asking yourself: How did Lily hot tempered, overachieving, slightly burned, Potter-hating Evans end up on the porch of James Potter's house in the middle of August getting ready to knock on the front door and make a total fool of herself?

Well if not, you are one step ahead of me. I have absolutely no idea why I am standing on the porch of James Potter's house in the middle of August getting ready to knock in the front door and make a total fool of myself.

Looking back, I guess it would have had to have started at the end the school year.

I was on the train on my way back to London to start the summer holidays, making plans with my best friend, Alice, to spend all the time we could together. We were planning on going shopping, going to the movies, the beach and all of that other stuff that most teenage girls do with their best friends. I was having a jolly good time until he walked in.

You might be wondering who he is. He has been the bane of my existence these last few years. Almost as much as Transfiguration has been the bane of my academic existence, he has been the bane of my everything existence, including academic, because he has to be so bloody wonderful at Transfiguration.

Haven't guessed yet? He is James antic-loving, Marauder-leading, good at everything Potter. Bloody Potter. He makes me so stinking mad!

Anyway, back to the story. So he walks in to our compartment and was all like "Lily, why don't you just give in and go out with me?"

We've had this conversation before, so I won't bore you with the details. Basically I told him that no, I wouldn't go out with him, yes, I was looking forward to summer vacation, because he wouldn't be around, and no, I definitely would not miss him.

A bit cruel, I'll admit. I'm not usually like that. I'm usually a nice person. Ask Alice. But the thing is that he just rubs me the wrong way. You know how some people just bring out the worst in people? Well James Potter brings out the worst beyond worst in Lily Evans. It is not pretty, and it is giving me a nasty reputation at school. People are starting to think that I am mean! That is not the reputation I want. I am supposed to be the loving, kind hearted, Head Girl (hopefully, I haven't got the letter yet). Not the mean girl that yells all the time.

So then, after I had insulted him, a little ruthlessly, I admit, but nothing less than what he deserved, he said two sentences that have been haunting me all summer long.

"Don't worry, Evans, you know I will be on your mind all summer long. You know that absence makes the heart grow fonder."

And with that one phrase, he ruined my whole summer.

At the time I just gave an angry 'humph' and pushed him out the door.

Now, I wonder if he knew how true those words would be. Probably not, he was just being his same arrogant self.

But on the other hand…

Anyway, that one phrase did me in for next few weeks, until I ended up on the porch of James Potter's house in the middle of August getting ready to knock on the front door and make a total fool of myself.

How did it do me in, you ask? Let me tell you…

For the rest of June, I thought about him while I unpacked, I thought about how he had the nerve to think that I would spend the entire summer thinking about him. The nerve! I thought about him while I was doing laundry. I thought about how glad I was I wouldn't have to see, hear, or think about him for the next two months. I thought about him while I talked to my parents. It wasn't until after I was done talking to them and getting ready to hang out with Alice at the beginning of July that I realized that all my stories somehow had to do with him.

I told my parents about how he was always asking me out. And how I got creative when I told him no. I told them about all the pranks they had pulled on me over the past year. Telling my parents about the pranks is a normal thing at the end of the year. It helps me vent my anger and frustrations to my parents, even though they don't know what I am talking about half the time.

They used to ask questions. What exactly is a dungbomb? Who is this Peeves person? What is butterbeer? Are the Chocolate Frogs really frogs?

Believe it or not, all of those questions had to do with one prank the Marauders pulled. Don't ask. I shudder at the mere mention of it. Well, as I was saying, they used to ask questions, until I had to explain to them what Acid Pops were. For some reason they just didn't want to know any more details other than what was absolutely necessary.

But even as I was talking about my other, slightly less embarrassing stories that included just Alice and I, I still found myself talking about him.

For example: Potter was on the other side of the room when Alice and I…Potter had just finished eating, and I was…Potter and his friends were outside talking when…

How embarrassing! He had nothing to do with my stories! How did he creep his way into them? I really have no idea. So I was talking to Alice about it a few days later, and she, being the romantic, sigh when a gooey love song is played, reads too many romance novels type of person, said that I was really in love with him, and had just been repressing my feelings for him because of my inherited stubbornness.

I scoffed at this idea at once. One, there was no way that was I in love with him. That is impossible. I feel nauseous whenever he so much as walks into the room. Two, I am not stubborn. I'm just not. I can't believe my best friend would even suggest such a thing. I added a 'humph' just for good measure.

After I got over being angry at Alice, (it lasted all of five minutes, it is so hard to stay mad at her, it's rather frustrating) I decided to tell her exactly why there was no chance that I could be in love with James.

When I got to my 43rd reason (he wears two different colors of socks), Alice rolled her eyes, and told me to stop. When I looked at her, she just said that we had other things to do besides talk about Potter. I couldn't agree more, so we spent the rest of the day watching our favorite movies, and arguing about who was a better singer/actor/dancer: Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly. I said Gene Kelly. He is just so much sexier than Fred.

The next couple weeks continued like this. I would spend a lot of time around Alice, enjoying our last carefree summer before we were forced to be responsible and deal with adult problems. Throughout this time, I continued my list of reasons why I did not love James Potter.

Even though I always had a good 20 per day, I had to admit, to myself, not Alice, that this was getting ridiculous, with such reasons as number 121, he forgets to cross his T's sometimes, and number 229, he thinks that Hey Jude is a stupid song. Well, OK I realize that the first one is completely ridiculous, but the Hey Jude reason is not. I could never love a person who does not appreciate the awesomeness of The Beatles and their songs.

Anyway, I realized, with a little bit of help with Alice, that with coming up with all of these reasons of why I don't love James, I was doing exactly what he said I would be doing: thinking about him.

Well, that just started another rant, and I added reasons 235 to 250 in under ten minutes. A personal record I should have been proud of, but could not, because I paused in my rant to look at Alice who had a smug look on her face.

I hate it when she wears that smug look. It's her 'I'm right' look. She's always right, then. It's very frustrating.

So I did the mature, adult thing. I plopped down on the closest chair and I pouted.

I realized that her smug look meant that I had been thinking about him again. Humph. Well it was starting to get really ridiculous. Instead of thinking about James anymore, I turned the subject to discussing my cruise that I would be going on the next week. It was a much better subject.

We talked about what I would take in my luggage. How many shoes I would bring, the cute guys I would meet, how much weight I would gain from the food, how seasick I would get, and how tan I would get. It was very exciting to talk about these things.

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to the cruise; it was going to be the best week of my life. Especially since Potter wasn't going to be there. Yippee!

Finally it was time to leave, so with a tearful good-bye to Alice, (we wouldn't see each other for a whole week!) my family and I left for the airport and began our trip to the Caribbean. It was always a dream of my mother's to go on a Caribbean cruise. So my parents planned a trip for us for their 25th wedding anniversary, which was in April, but we couldn't go then, because Petunia and I were in school.

Well, back to the story, so we are on the plane, and suddenly I start thinking about Potter, and how much better the plane would be with him here. He would probably enjoy being 30,000 feet in the air and being stuck in a capsule full of people. Me, I'm not a big fan. I really don't like flying, but hey, as long as I remembered that soon I would be in hot weather, and soaking up the sun, then I would be fine, right? Whatever, I still whimpered every time the plane endured turbulence, and that seemed to be quite frequently.

So there I am, flying on an airplane thinking about Potter, which makes me bloody angry, because seriously, I am supposed to be on vacation, not thinking about bloody Potter.

Once we are on the ship and all settled, we leave port, which was made memorable by someone on the mainland mooning us. If this was the way our cruise was starting, we were sure to be entertained the whole time.

Our first full day there was spent away from each other. Petunia stayed in our room, I'm not quite sure what she did in there. Not that I really cared. My parents went off on their own; again, don't really care what they did, either.

I went to the sun deck, and laid out alternating between listening to the music being played and reading one of the three books I brought along. Hey, don't make fun of me, I like to read.

By the time we all met back up for supper, I was in pain. Even though I had slathered on the heavy duty sunscreen, I had gotten burned. It wasn't even the normal burn. It was a 'splotchy' sunburn. And let me tell you, it stinks! Not only are you burnt in weird places, like a strip on the front of your leg, and all of the back of your leg, except for three perfect ovals in the middle of all the burn, but it hurts, and it leaves a very weird tan line.

Everyone blamed the Caribbean sun and being on the water. Stupid sun.

So my solution was a great one. Avoid the sun. On a cruise ship. In the middle of summer. Obviously easier said than done, but I, being Lily Evans, had a plan. Heh, heh. The sun wouldn't know what hit it.

After dinner with my family, I spent the rest of the evening at the back of the boat watching the sun set. How could something so beautiful be so evil? It boggles the mind. While I was sitting there watching the sun set, I started thinking about Potter again. I thought about how romantic it would be if he were here with me. I thought about how he would hold me and speak softly into my ear. I imagined how it would be so romantic, and that I would literally melt in his arms at what he was whispering to me.

Wow. I thought to myself, who knew that James could be such a romantic guy?

And then I realized that I called him James. You wouldn't think it would be a big deal, but it was. I always called him Potter. It put distance between people. Using a first name suggested familiarity. Merlin knows that I did not want to even think about familiarity with James antic-loving, Marauder-leading, good at everything Potter. Shiver.

So I was totally freaked out as I made my way down to my room to take a shower, which, by the way was rather painful because of the sunburn, and then go to bed. The whole time I was walking, I was thinking about why I had called him James, and why he was on my mind all summer.

And then the answer hit me so hard that I actually fell down. Of course, if anyone ever asked, I would blame it on sea-legs, but I know it was from the force of my realization.

I, Lily hot-tempered, overachieving, (at this point) painfully burnt, Potter-hating Evans was in love with James antic-loving, Marauder-leading, good at everything Potter.

Needless to say, it took me quite a few minutes to get up. I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn't even pay attention to all the looks I was getting from the other passengers. Looking back on it now, I probably did look rather weird lying down in the middle of the hallway staring up at the ceiling with a terrified expression on my face.

If I wasn't so nervous right now, I would probably laugh. Okay, I laughed anyway. It was rather humorous.

Anyway after the painful shower (because of the sunburn), and having a difficult time getting to sleep (again because of the sunburn), I finally fell asleep and dreamt about James. I'm not going to tell you exactly what my dream was about, it's far to embarrassing.

Don't even try asking. I even resisted Alice when she begged to hear about it. I was so proud of myself. So, anyway, if I can resist Alice, then I can resist anybody, except maybe James himself, but I'm not planning on telling him that I dreamt about him at all (because it would just go to his head), so therefore he would never have to ask.

So I spent the rest of the cruise thinking about James. I thought about him while I went to the shows. I thought about how much he would enjoy the show. Especially since there were half naked women dancing on the stage. I growled, yes growled, at the thought of him ogling the women on stage, earning an annoyed look from Petunia, and a concerned, yet amused look from my parents. I bet my parents knew what is going on. They probably did. Parents know everything, and it has only taken me my whole life to figure that out.

I also thought about James when we were at our ports of call. While I was reading a book on the beach, in the shade, of course, I'm boycotting the sun, I kept on getting distracted by those annoying things called daydreams. Most of them were about him confessing his love to me, or our being together at school and doing the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing. But the others, although wonderful, are quite embarrassing, and, how shall I say this? Well…not appropriate for 'virgin ears'.

Again, I didn't even tell Alice about these. And if I resisted Alice…

After the last few agonizing days of the cruise we finally made it home. I was so happy to see Alice. I told her about the whole trip, except for the whole realizing I was in love with James thing.

I don't really know why I didn't tell her. It could have been because I had just spent the last six years dreading every meeting with him and loathing him with my entire being, but that is just a guess.

Anyway, after the first week back, I couldn't stand it anymore, I was just bursting with this knowledge. So I told her.

And do you know what she did? She smiled that annoying smug smile of hers, and said the most annoying words ever: "I told you so."

Boy, she really knows how to rub it in. She kept that smug smile on the whole day. Blood annoying, to say the least.

And then she started to tell me that I had to tell him.

I thought she was nuts! I was just planning on waiting until he asked me out again and say yes. But, no, she wants me to tell him before school starts. And when I questioned her sanity do you know what she said to me?

She said it would be a better story to tell our kids!

Sweet Merlin! I just found out that I love him! I'm not ready for the kind of commitment that having kids implies!

After I had a minor panic attack, I told her she'd finally gone off the deep end. And then she laughed at me. Now I knew she was bonkers.

But obviously she won, because a week after I told her she was bonkers, here I was on the porch of James Potter's house in the middle of August getting ready to knock on the front door and make a total fool of myself.

I will get revenge on Alice because of this.

Oh, no. someone is opening the door! No turning back now! Okay, Lily! You can do this. Just remain calm.

Oh, who am I kidding? Just get through this without puking on his shoes!

Ooo, look there he is! The man of my dreams (quite literally), staring at me confusedly. Aww, he is just too cute!

"Lily?" he asked.

I sighed, his voice sounded better than I remembered. Lily! Focus!

Oh, yeah. Right. And I said the first thing that came to my head.

"You were right. Absence does make the heart grow fonder."

And then the love of my love did the cutest thing. He looked bewildered. It was adorable.

And all of the sudden, the words started pouring out of my mouth.

"Remember on the train on the way back to London, you said that I would think about you all summer? Well I did, and when I told Alice this, she just said that I was in love with you, and I said that that wasn't possible, because I hated you, then I proceeded to list all of the reasons why I hate you, like you wore two different colors of socks, and you forget to cross your T's sometimes, and you think that Hey Jude is a stupid song, and then I realized that a lot of these were stupid reasons. Well, except for the Hey Jude one because seriously…don't make a Sirius/serious joke right now, this is important…who hates the Beatles and all of their awesomeness? To do so is a sin, really."

I took a breath, and continued.

"And then I went on vacation and spent the whole time thinking about you, and while I was there, I realized that I loved you, and I wanted to take back every mean thing that I have ever done or said to you, because I feel really awful about all that, and then when I finally got around to telling Alice, and it took awhile, because I didn't really want to deal with her smugness, because it is rather annoying, and by the way, it was pure torture being around her last week. Anyway, she finally convinced me to come here and tell you instead of waiting for you to ask me, because apparently it will make a better story for our kids. And that, James, in case you were wondering, is what I am doing in front of your house in the middle of August making a total fool of myself."

I had barely taken a breath after my very long, and probably slightly confusing speech when James gathered me up into his arms, and kissed me like there was no tomorrow.

After what seemed like forever, (but a very pleasant forever) James pulled away and looked at me.

And then he said something that I will never forget.

He said, "I love you Lily Evans, and I really do like the Beatles, I'm just more of a Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds fan."

And with that one phrase, he ruined my life for all other men.

Not that I minded.

A/N. Wow! That took 8 pages! Definitely my longest one shot, but I am quite proud of this story.

In my new fashion, I am getting ready to give you a top ten list of things I want to tell you, as always, if you are annoyed by such things, I give full permission to skip the list and proceed directly to the "submit review" button.

Ahrocks08's Top Ten List of Events/comments that she wants to tell you about:

1)I got my hair cut!! 5 inches may not sound like a lot, but I almost cried! But, I'm happy with it.

2)I finally finished this story because I am missing getting reviews, so please make me happy and review. ;)

3)I leave for college in almost exactly a month.

4)My roommate rocks my socks. Woo! Go Janelle

5)I have been spending the last week reading Twilight fanfic.

6)I have to read my required reading (The Kite Runner) before August 2nd when Breaking Dawn comes out (squee!!), because if I don't, I won't ever get it done, so if you have read The Kite Runner (or even if you haven't) please tell me it is good, so that I want to read it. It would be greatly appreciated

7)I have an annoying green grasshopper in my room that I dubbed Annoying Green Grasshopper (aka AGG), and I talk to him when I get lonely (lol, I know, I have issues) I think he is attracted to my green laptop.

8)I haven't been doing my Yoga like I said I was going to

9)I gave up looking for a job, and have become an internet junkie. (lol)

10)I have cut myself off from buying books, movies, or music, because I was spending too much money on the stuff, so for all of July, the mere mention of Barnes and Noble has sent me crying and begging myself to let me get a new book/movie/CD. Let me tell you, I am one tough cookie! Fortunately, the first book I get to buy is Breaking Dawn (squee)

11)Squee is my new favorite word, it just rolls off the tongue…squee…I'm trying to get everyone to say it…so say it. Lol.

12)my mom bought me cheesy puffs. I love cheesy puffs!

13)I have to go the bathroom, and I have been holding it for the last half hour (not that you really needed to know that, but I wanted to share. Lol)

Ok, I'm sorry, I realize there are 13, but I had a lot to say! So now, remember number 2 and go press the 'submit review' button! Thanks!