Constellations

Chapter 3

It had been a few weeks of awkward tension and avoidances. Which it was extremely hard to avoid someone that you had all your classes with as well as share a room with and are on a team with. The only time I could really avoid him was through the very little free time I had. I spent so much time in the library, it was ridiculous. Annabelle gave up trying to get me to talk about my feelings or 'what the bloody hell was wrong with me?'

I was in the library, 'studying' when a bird note landed on my book. I looked around but I couldn't see anyone around me that could have passed the note. I opened it to see the familiar scrawled handwriting of Albus telling me to meet him by the Black Lake. He didn't even have to sign it for me to know it was from him. I wonder what this was about. He must want to talk to me alone because if he didn't, he would have just waited for me to get back to our room.

I packed up all my books and headed down to the lake. The corridors were mostly empty, save for a few wanderers since it was nearly curfew but Al and I had always thought of curfew more as a guideline. I walked out onto the courtyard, keeping an eye out for Filch. There were actually quite a few people outside, soaking up the last of the nice weather before fall really started to kick in. I walked along the outskirts of the lake trying to spot Albus, but I couldn't see him. It wasn't until I got near the border of the Forbidden Forest that I saw him. He was sitting on the sand, his legs spread out in front of him and he was drawing something in the sand between his legs with a stick.

He looked up as I approached and quickly scribbled out the doodle before I could make out what it was. "Hey," he said, getting to his feet.

"Got your note," I said, stopping a good foot away from him. "Why didn't you wait for me to get back to the room to talk to me? Or better yet, why didn't you talk to me instead of giving me that note?"

He wrung his hands together. I noticed he did that instead of running his hands through his hair. Rose had told him to knock it off a few years back because he was messing up his already messed up hair and he replaced that habit with another similar one. I personally thought it was enduring and preferred his hair messy. It reflected his reckless nature that I had always been drawn to, ever since I was a kid. I probably would have ended up a goody-goody if it weren't for him. He brought fun and adventure into my life.

"I wanted to talk to you alone," he finally said, resting his green eyes on me.

"About what?" My heart raced at the thought of him bringing up the kiss. What if I had made him uncomfortable and he didn't want to hang out with me anymore? I couldn't stand the thought of losing him as a friend.

"It's about the first day before classes when we..." He trailed off.

"Kissed" I finished, my voice barely more than a whisper.

"Yeah," he said and I looked down at my shoes.

It wasn't until I saw his shoes in front of mine that I looked back up at him. He was staring at me. His bright green eyes were boring into my eyes with so much intensity that I blushed. We weren't that far apart, two steps and we'd be nose to nose (well, more like nose to forehead since I had a few inches on him).

"Scorp," Albus took a step forward.

I wanted to kiss him again. I wanted to kiss him without the fire whiskey provoking us. I've always thought Al was handsome, but I never thought I liked guys. I've had a girlfriend and I found her attractive but I also found Albus attractive. I guess that would make me bi. But at that moment, it didn't seem very important. All I cared about was kissing Albus now.

"Al," I said and closed the distance between us.

We both leaned in at the same time and our noses bumped before our lips found each others messily. I had only kissed one other person besides Albus and I don't even think Albus has kissed anyone besides me. Did he even like boys? Was he experimenting? Had he thought about kissing me as much as I had? My mind was whirling and my heart was racing.

Albus was gripping my collar tentatively. I had my arms wrapped around him, my hands resting on the small of his back. I was holding him against me tightly, not wanting to let go. When we pulled apart neither of us said anything. We just stared at each other for a long moment as if afraid to break the spell between them.

"I..." I started but stopped. I didn't know what to say. Al's green eyes were pining me into place and I couldn't focus.

"This is new" Al finally said.

I couldn't help it, I laughed.

"Yeah."

Albus smiled. "Good new, though, yeah?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

We were still holding each other, neither of us in any hurry to let go.

"Did you...I don't know...want to, you know." Albus stammered, looking away from me bashfully.

I smiled and reached up to tilt his face to look at me. "Are you asking me out?"

Albus blushed. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"It's about damn time," I said which made him laugh.

I kissed him again, short and tender.

"When you didn't say anything the day after we first kissed, I honestly thought I had dreamt the whole thing up," Al said and I rested my forehead against his. "Plus, I thought for sure you couldn't have liked me back. I never got any sort of sign that you even liked boys, let alone me. I, on the other hand, have had a crush on you for years."

I raised an eyebrow. "Did you really?"

He scoffed. "As if you didn't know."

"Trust me, if I had known, I would have kissed you sooner."

"Honest?"

I kissed his nose. "Honest."