Totally just friends. Best friends. [Tag: Atlas]
by Liliana Bannister
Liliana twisted the ring her mother gave her around her finger, her forehead bent in consternation as she thought. It wasn’t very often that she was quiet, but as of late there had been a lot of changes in her life. By the end of that year she would have a baby brother, by the end of that year she would need to decide if Quidditch was what she wanted to continue on to do, by that winter she was going to have to decide if she wanted to cut Vètil loose. It wasn’t fair to pull him around the way she had been especially if he had been expecting more from their friendship than she was. She had only been clear with him from the beginning that she wasn’t looking for anything, that what she wanted was to relax a little and enjoy life. His latest letter to her had been most troubling and so she simply hadn’t answered it, putting it back in it’s envelope, sealing it shut, and putting it safely into her desk. She looked towards the offending piece of furniture and pushed herself off her bed, slipping her feet into her trainers and grabbing a light jacket as she left—it was raining outside but she had arranged to go for a run with Atlas.
When she got to the common room she found Atlas sitting on one of the couches—he was so dependable, always got to their meetings early, and she awarded him with a grin. “How’s it going?” she asked, walking around an armchair to fall down next to him, throwing an arm along the back of the couch. When things were good between her and Atlas they were really good, they could be casual with each other, not worry about saying something to set the other one off. Things like slinging an arm around the other or walking to class or the pitch with linked arms wasn’t unusual. They could spend endless nights staying up late in the common room laughing under pretense of studying, and if Liliana squinted really hard she could pretend that Ann Marie didn’t exist and her best friend’s soul wasn’t being sucked by a dimwitted Muggle who thought Atlas’ world revolved around her. The thought made Liliana sick and she thought about pretending to gag but realized that Atlas who rarely could keep up with her twisting train of thought likely would take offense and their current lull in fighting would end.
As he answered her question, Liliana turned her head to her best friend. There was a certain look he had that got her every time and there it was. She felt the insides of her stomach crumble and she bit her lip to prevent herself from saying something that she would regret. The change in attitude towards Atlas had been rather recent. At first she had been happy with the progress he had made with Ann Marie. Even though she didn’t like the girl in question herself, Liliana felt that Ann Marie had been instrumental in helping Atlas gain more self-confidence. But he had told her some things their first night back at school which had made her unsettled. She really had no reason to feel that way unless…but she put that thought out of her mind because it couldn’t be. There was no possible way! But as he turned those eyes on her, Liliana felt her heart sink into her stomach and she just knew that whatever it was she had been stifling was a full fledged monster that was about to stampede all common sense right out of her head if she didn’t take action right that second and—
“Ready to go?” she asked brightly, standing and putting out a hand to pull him to his feet, ignoring the zinging feeling the contact gave her. “I’m supposed to meet with Portia later and I can’t be late. We’re having tea.” She couldn’t hide the elation of finally having a proper meeting with a proper witch, someone Grandmère would approve of.
10Liliana BannisterTotally just friends. Best friends. [Tag: Atlas]274Liliana Bannister15