A Lesson In Love For Non-Believers
Chapter 2- Jealousy For Short
By: Liat
Three months later
"But what do you see in the guy anyway?" demanded James.
"I already told you- I don't want to talk about it anymore. I'm dating Jake, I am not going to break up with him and it is none of your damn business!" exclaimed a very irritated Lily, her voice dangerously close to being an all out scream. And that was quite a rarity, James knew, since Lily never lost her temper.
But this time she had her reasons.
Over the past three months every time Jake's name was mentioned in the conversation James always found a way of insulting, accusing or down right slandering him.
And this time was no different. They had been talking about nothing else for the past hour and it seemed Lily had had enough.
James knew that it wasn't the way to stay in Lily's good graces but he just couldn't help himself. Ever since that fateful day when Lily had told him she was going out with Jake he had had the strangest feeling. Like he just needed to keep her away from Jake. He didn't want it, He needed it…like it was a necessity in order for him to go on with his life.
He knew it was strange and for the sake of his sanity preferred not to over analyze it, in fear of what he would find out.
And so, driven by said feeling, James had done nothing else for those past months but try and talk Lily out of dating Jake.
Oh, he didn't come right out and say it but he dropped little hints at his displeasure with her boyfriend now and then (more like every chance he got), or at least it started that way.
After one month of them dating and James dropping subtle hints he moved to another method. One that wasn't too tactful and wasn't really to his taste- Suggesting other, more suitable, candidates for dating. It wouldn't have been such an improvement since James had a sneaking suspicion that he'd be as displeased with any man who dared touch Lily, but he didn't have any other ideas and he hoped that by showing her he had her best interest in heart he would successful.
He was wrong, of course.
It seemed that the more James was determined to convince Lily to drop Jake like a sack of potatoes the more she was determined to stick to him.
And it drove James mad.
By the time of their two-month anniversary he was right out telling her to dump Jake. He'd mention Jake's disadvantages and ask "Don't you think it's time you let him go?" or he'd just point out that Jake was "All wrong for you. You really need to find someone else." 'Preferably me,' he'd think and then reprimand himself.
He didn't want Lily that way. He just wanted her in his bed some times, Okay, maybe all the time, but that wasn't the point. The point was that he had to concentrate on breaking Lily and Jake up and that was damn hard when every time he was near her he had the insane urge to ease her up against the wall, wrap his arms around her waist and kiss her until she was melting in his arms and then never let her go.
'It's for her own good to be apart from Jake,' he kept reasoning with himself, but he couldn't help wondering sometimes in a far corner in the back of his mind if that was truly the case. Of course every time that happened he quickly discarded the notion. Since, what else could his motivation be but Lily's own well being in mind?
He didn't even once (okay, maybe just once) ponder the idea that perhaps it was because he wanted her back in his bed for good. He liked to believe he was much better than that. He would never put his physical needs before her happiness.
Although, if he was already on that line of thought, those hadn't really been met in quite a while. Which was quite a surprise to him now that he thought about it, since until this day- or better yet, until three months ago, he couldn't go a week without female company.
But what surprised him the most, and gave him quite a fright as well, was that he actually hadn't noticed until this day. And what's more, he didn't seem to be that bothered with it. At least not while he was with any one other than Lily.
Because when he was with Lily his body seemed to grow a mind of its own. He didn't seem to be able to control himself when he was around her. Well, that wasn't true, he was able to control himself since, obviously, nothing had happened. But he was extremely close to losing it.
Nobody, especially Lily, had any idea of the amount of self-control and restraint he had to exercise in order to keep his hands off of Lily's body.
And it was getting harder and harder each time (quite literally as well). He always wanted her. Whether it was when they were watching TV and her foot would touch his by accident or whether they were making breakfast and she had to lean closer to get a certain object and he would get a whiff of her perfume, soap or whatever it was. It quite simply drove him, and his body, bloody mad!
She once even caught him sniffing around him and had actually asked if he needed a tissue. Needless to say he was much more careful after that.
James sighed as he watched Lily struggle with her coat. He moved to her side and helped her put it on.
"Thank you," she said and flashed him a smile. James nearly forgot how to breathe.
"Come on Lily, I'm telling you. There is something about that Jake guy that sits wrong with me," he tried just one last desperate time.
"Oh please James. You already tried that one and you yourself admitted that you couldn't find anything wrong about his past with your little detective work around campus, which, may I remind you, I strongly disapproved of," she said, her smile gone, replaced with an irritated expression.
And it was true. Right after Lily's first date with Jake, James went out and began doing his "little detective work", as she put it, and asked around campus about Jake. The only thing he could find out was that Jake's family wasn't terribly wealthy, that Jake was a decent guy who helped his mother by living with her and tutored people to earn some extra cash. Oh, and that he was a muggle born, another thing he had in common with Lily. It could have been funny how much Jake and Lily were alike- But James was not amused in the slightest.
All of which frustrated the hell out of him. That wasn't what he was looking for, but it seemed nobody had a single bad thing to say about Jake. Which should have pleased him, that Lily was dating such a nice guy, but it didn't. He didn't know why, but it just didn't.
"Fine. Do whatever you want, marry him for all I care!" He burst out with such melodrama that sometimes Lily thought he was in the wrong line of work- and told him so.
"Well that's good, I really couldn't have done it without your approval since I was planning on you being the godfather," she teased and then slipped out the door before he could smack her, as she probably thought he would, but that was the farthest thing from James' mind.
Suddenly his mind was filled with images of Lily walking down the aisle and Jake standing by the altar, waiting for her.
And it all seemed wrong. The thought of her with another man, marrying another man, wasn't as tolerable as it was three months ago.
'God! What is wrong with me? I can't stop thinking about her,' he thought desperately, 'And, I can't stop wanting her.'
James sighed again and went to change his clothes for the night. There wasn't much else to do but turn in and hope God would be merciful enough to let him dream about Lily.
At least in his dreams she was his again.
A/N- Shorter then I had planned but I was suddenly stuck with a block while writing this chapter.
Anyway, as I said, there will be two more chapters and an epilogue if you ask nicely enough wink.
Please Review!!!
Disclaimer: The characters, naturally, belong to JKR. Beside that everything is mine! Take it- and die!
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real, Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.