AA = BFFLs on Aladren Commons

Ava Fletcher and Arnold Manger

February 22, 2016 4:46 PM

AA = BFFLs by Ava Fletcher and Arnold Manger

Ava had always viewed studying as a solitary thing. Until she and Arnold had realized that in their friend group they were the odd ones out, that was. Before she had tagged along with Emery and Emrys whenever they studied, occasionally seeing some of their other friends there, but it was still Emery and Emrys’ study session and Ava always felt like she was intruding on something. But Arnold liked art and they had really bonded over the first art club meeting, and so shortly after that, Ava got up the courage to just ask him if he wanted to study together. She wanted someone to whisper with, to have jokes with. In short, she wanted a very best friend like how Chloe had Ji-Eun and Emrys had Emery. That had been a year ago and Ava was still contentedly studying with Arnold.

Today, she was waiting for him in the Aladren common room, her hands hidden in the too big for her sweatshirt that had once been her dad’s, her bookbag on her lap. It had been a late night--she hadn’t been able to fall asleep because of a certain pair of green eyes that haunted her every time she closed her eyes, and she yawned as she tried to stay awake. She was tired, but she wasn’t going to miss their study session. After everything that had happened that year, with the fight between Chloe and Ji-Eun, the fight between Arnold and Emery, Chloe’s bio mom dying, Emery and Chloe’s brother dying, she wanted to hold on to everything that was normal. It didn’t really matter that most things had gone back to normal (or as normal as they could be), and she felt kind of bad for being so needy, but she liked having things in her life that she could count on. Normalcy was nice.

“How’s it going, slow poke?” Ava asked tiredly when Arnold appeared, not realizing that in her sleepiness she had arrived early for their meeting.

Arnold gave an exaggerated yawn as a response before seating himself beside her. He was still in his pajamas, as he often was for these meetings; he was by no means a real morning person, and he didn’t Ava really was either (although she usually seemed less groggy than she currently did), but these Saturday mornings were just the easiest time to find to study together. Still, that didn’t mean he was trapping himself in real leg prisons (otherwise known as pants) and such an ungodly hour.

“I had this awful nightmare that I had to get up early to do a Potions essay with this weirdo,” he said, laughing at himself slightly. “Then I woke up and found it was true. What about you? You look tired.”

Ava rolled her eyes and gave Arnold a light shove. “Food after,” she said in response. “Hungry.” She slid forward off the couch in a graceless move, banging her knee against the coffee table in front of her and she winced slightly as she crossed her legs, criss cross applesauce, to better use it. “I couldn’t sleep last night, I--” she cut herself off, kind of embarrassed about the dream she’d had, and closed her mouth, opening her Potions book up on the table. “I had too much on my mind,” she decided on and she looked back up at him. “Which page were we on again?”

She liked working with Arnold because there was no pressure. They were just two friends hanging out who didn’t care what the other one looked like or if the other made a mistake or whatever. “I’m glad these aren’t a regular thing,” she laughed as she handed her book to Arnold so he could find the right page for her. “If we had regular Potions essays on top of everything else we have going on, I don’t know what I’d do, but probably something drastic.”

“Yeahhh,” he agreed sheepishly as he flipped pages. “I’m pretty sure Soph--uh, Professor O’Malley, doesn’t want to grade a ton of them, though.” It was still a little weird having her around as a professor, given that she was married to his brother, and he was the godfather to one of their sons (whose godmother happened to be Sonora’s new Quidditch coach), but given that Barnaby Pye and Professor Pye were actual, biological siblings, he figured it wasn’t something people really cared about.

“Here,” he said, handing the book back open to a particular page. Once she had it her possession, he picked up his own and again turned the page in question. “So what was on your mind that you couldn’t sleep?” Arnold dared to pry.

Ava raised the book to Arnold in a mock toast. “Thanks,” she said, taking out her pink highlighter to begin looking for bits to underline that she thought were important. She’d go back through later with a yellow one to highlight portions she wanted to quote. She read through about half a page before answering Arnold’s question, having to go back and re-read sentences because though she was seeing the words, her brain wasn’t processing them. “I, uh...” she coughed. “I think I’m getting sick,” she made the excuse. “Is anyone else sick? That, uh, that I could have caught this from?”

She looked up at Arnold with her best innocent smile, half hoping that he would take the bait and not question her any further, half hoping he would press her for answers because carrying around this secret was driving her crazy.

Ava was a bad liar. Or maybe Arnold had just managed to get to know her well enough to identify her calls. “You sure that’s it?” he questioned, giving her one last opportunity to talk about whatever was bothering her. He didn’t want to press too hard if she really didn’t want to talk about it, but he felt it his duty as a friend to at least make an attempt to delve into the source of her sleep disturbances. It couldn’t be nothing, and he didn’t think he’d seen anyone sick recently for that excuse to be truly plausible.

“You’re sure sure no one’s sick?” she tried, but one look into Arnold’s face let her know that he saw right through her. She wasn’t sure what it was he was thinking, but what with everything that had just happened it was probably worse than what was actually going on and she couldn’t worry him like that. Not after the way he’d been there for Chloe, how he’d been there for him. Ava ducked her head, blushing, and turned away from him slightly.

“It’s nothing, really,” she said quietly, reaching out a hand to play with the edges of her book, the other hand lying limp in her lap, the highlighter resting on top of it. “I, uh, you know that thing where your heart beats really fast when you see someone? And all you can think about when you’re not with them is them?” She couldn’t believe she was saying what she was saying. “You know that thing? I, uh, I have one of those...” she trailed off, staring even harder at her Potions book.

It wasn’t that she thought Arnold would judge her--he was with Ji-Eun, after all, and Emrys and Charlotte had paired off together, and she knew Chloe liked Arnold, so it wasn’t like she was weird for having a crush, but she felt weird for admitting it. She turned back to him then, eyes wide open and earnest. “You can’t tell anyone,” she stressed, holding onto his wrist tightly. “Not one person, you promise?”

Arnold considered himself fairly intelligent, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out who Ava was meant. She was generally a pretty open person, or at least compared to the rest of their enigmatic friends, himself included, and her mannerisms around their peers did well to point him to the answer when paired with this incomplete confession. It certainly wasn’t him or Emrys. “I promise,” he confirmed. “I won’t tell. You should, though. But that’s your business.”

She frowned. Was she that obvious? Arnold seemed to know who she was talking about, and he seemed to be encouraging her to disclose these feelings. “That’s easy for you to say,” she retorted, blushing. “You’re nice and secure in your relationship. If I told...I would ruin things forever. I don’t think I would be able to face myself every again. I’d be too embarrassed.” She ducked her head away, letting her hair cover her heated cheeks. “But, uh, how’s that going, by the way?” It wasn’t just a lame attempt to change the subject--Ava genuinely wanted to know about Arnold and Ji-Eun’s relationship.

“It’s… nice,” he answered, allowing her the redirection. Ava was pretty stubborn, so Arnold knew that pushing her would only backfire, giving her time to think of more reasons not to tell Emery and solidifying her resolve. In regards to his own relationship, he wouldn’t have said it was too terribly secure, given that it was still pretty much a secret, known only to their schoolmates, from whom it proved impossible to hide, given their appearance in the Best Couples section of the yearbook, as well as, presumably, the unhideable way he looked at Ji-Eun, like she was all the warmth and beauty in the universe, like looking away might deprive him of something too wonderful to risk.

“But, uh, I can tell you more about that later. For now, we should probably actually get to work on this,” Arnold suggested. It wasn’t quite a deflection, but he wasn’t exactly sorry to see the conversation topic go. Things with Ji-Eun were weird and often felt a bit strained; he felt very strongly about her and wanted to (mostly metaphorically) shout it from rooftops, but they had to be fairly quiet. He hadn’t even told his family, since she apparently could not tell hers. Arnold did his best not to think about those parts, the shakiness of the current, let alone the future, and opted to enjoy what he had.

What he had right now was Potions homework. That was what required his attention. And hers, if she could give it. “Sound good?”

Ava nodded and gave Arnold a wide smile and a thumbs up before turning back to her a book. A few moments passed before she looked back up from her book and squeezed his arm. 'I'm glad you're happy,' she said, and went back to their homework.

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