Chapter II: Drafting
--
I'm no Barbie doll
I'm not your baby girl
I've done ugly things
And I have made mistakes
And I am not as pretty as those girls in magazines
I am rotten to my core if they're to be believed
Why do you love me
Why do you love me
Why do you love me
It's driving me crazy
I think you're sleeping with a friend of mine
I have no proof
But I think that I'm right
And you've still got the most beautiful face
It just makes me sad
Most of the time
-"Why Do You Love Me" by Garbage
--
Monday
--
Both her friends' eyes widened. "Lily sweetie, are you sure that it was Rachel? Your mate, Rachel?" Elle asked her.
"Yeah," Lily told her, her legs finally giving was and she fell onto the marble floor, finally crying.
"Bloody hell, I knew that bloody cunt had no scruples-" Alice muttered.
Elle lightly slapped her on the arm, only mouthing: "not helping."
Alice got the message, turning to Lily, affectionately caressing her, trying to soothe her as she pulled her up off the floor where she was currently rocking herself, clearly trying to process what had just taken place. "I know a private room with tons of chocolate and break up music, how does that sound?"
Lily gave her a watery smile, nodding her head, "please."
Alice and Elle carried the broken girl to the room of requirements that was fashioned after the Heads' Common Room, the difference was that one corner of the room was filled with chocolate and numerous bottles of firewhiskey.
Lily sat on the couch, staring blankly at the fire for hours; she couldn't bring herself to do anything else. Alice and Elle just sat by her quietly, just soothingly rubbing her arm and handing her some chocolate every once in a while. They never said anything to her; they just sat by her, supporting her.
Three hours later Lily finally spoke, "I still love him," she quietly admitted, creating the most pathetic heart breaking picture they'd ever seen. "I want him to need me like I need him… I just-- I wish I made him feel the way that he makes me feel-- so complete, perfect, even if for a short period of time-"
"Fucking hell, that's it, this is total bullocks!" Alice exclaimed.
"Alice," Elle reprimanded her, pulling her to the side, a safe distance at which Lily couldn't hear the two. "Listen, I know that you may not like what she says, and neither do I, but you have to face the fact that it's better to sit there and listen to it rather then having her return to Zombie Lily. Just let it be, at least for now."
"Fine," Alice grumpily conceded before returning to Lily on the other side of the room.
"I want him back," Lily announced. "I'm going to get him back."
Alice sent Elle a deadly glare once that statement was made, Elle turned to Lily, trying to smooth things out, "Lils, think about what you're saying. Is he really worth it?"
"I love him- I need him," Lily said, officially fulfilling the role of the desperate teenage girl in Alice's eyes.
"Then we'll help you," Elle announced, only to be met with the harshest glare she had ever seem from Alice, before being yanked by the arm across the room.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" she whispered harshly so Lily wouldn't hear them.
"don't be so stubborn Alice, look at the bigger picture for once-just think about it, we tell her we're helping her, but in reality we'll help her realize that she's too good for him-"
"That's shit of a plan. I hate it," Alice stubbornly told her, dismissing the idea with ease.
"No it's not! Lily's stubborn as hell, she'll do it whether we help her or not, at least this way we can have some leverage. We can manipulate it-"
"Manipulate? That's such a backhanded thing to do!"
"Well it's worth it. I may not be proud of it, but Lily deserves better and I'll do whatever I can to make sure that she finally realizes that. Now, are you in or are you out?"
Alice looked like she wanted to argue the point before she finally let out a sigh and said: "I'm in."
"PERFECT!" Elle exclaimed, ecstatic that she could actually convince Alice to go along with the plan.
"But it doesn't mean that I like it," Alice warned her, never one to give up easily.
"All that matters is that you're going along with it. Now, come on, we can't leave Lily alone for too long, for all we know she might start cutting herself."
"Okay, that's really not funny right now."
"Yeah, I figured."
--
This feels like another dream
Trapped underneath my own routines
I tried to lift it off of me
I give up, I give up
I just sit and bleed
I'm paralyzed, I'm paralyzed
Stuck in the middle
And I'm paralyzed
-"paralyzed" by Rock Kills Kid
--
"Lily," Alice called out her when they returned, trying to gain her attention from where she was staring at the fire yet again. "I'll-we'll help you out, we promise. But, I need you to tell me why. Why do you need him so badly?"
"I feel broken without him. -- It may not be something to be proud of, but it's the truth, I need him."
"Lily, you're too good for him," Elle gently told her.
"It doesn't feel like it. -- I mean if he's the one that can replace me so easily, how am I the one that's too good for him?" Lily sobbed.
"Okay, okay, calm down," Elle told her in a placating manner, hugging her, desperately trying to soothe her.
Alice paused, watching the scene play out before her. One of her best friends, a girl whom she'd always believed to be unbreakable, tough as hell, but there she was crying and broken. "Well, if we're going to really do this then we need a plan," she announced to the group.
"You're really going to help me?" Lily asked doubtfully.
Alice smiled at her sweetly, showing a sweet side to her that people rarely ever saw, "of course I am. If you'll feel `complete' with him, I guess the least I can do is make sure you do it the right way."
Lily dried her tears, smiling at her, "thank you."
"So," Alice said before conjuring a piece of parchment and a quill. "We need to set some ground rules."
"Ground rules?" Elle asked, still in a state of shock over the fact that Alice was actually helping with this, for a goal she didn't even believe in, and much more so with her ability to bull shit as far as the "procedure" went.
"Yes, ground rules, the do's and the do not's of getting a guy to fall head over heals in love with you."
"Well I don't really know how to do any of that stuff." Lily said.
"Of course you do love. Take for example how you never go up to a guy, or even look at them, you convince them that you aren't even interested. You force them to be the ones to put in the effort to come to you so you're never the one that loses power. You intrigue them because you're a challenge. It's all about the chase with a guy."
"How do you expect me to that with my boyfriend?"
"Never go to him, let him come to you."
"What else should she do?" Elle asked.
"Since he's shagging another girl don't let him get any form you until you're sure that there's no other. Merlin knows what diseases you might get if he schtups cunts like Rachel who can't keep their legs closed."
"What do I do about Rachel?"
"She's a `frenemy' as of now. You still act like the best of friends, I mean don't totally sick with the Godfather philosophy of `keep your friends close and your enemies closer' because you'll just end up getting hurt in the end, but don't let her know that you know either-"
"How the hell do you expect her to pull that one off?" asked a thoroughly confused Elle.
"Easy, don't tell her any of your secrets, hang out with us more-"
"And how exactly do I make it seem like I'm actually still friends with her," Lily asked her with an amused smile.
"Because my dear, her birthday is in a week and you're officially planning it as of now."
"But I don't want to! Not for that ungrateful bitch-"
"I never said that it had to be a good party love."
"But I'm great at planning parties, you know that," Lily argued.
"And humble too," Elle quipped.
Lily raised an eyebrow at her, "is it not true?"
"Okay, you really do throw the best parties ever. But your formal ones suck."
"I know, but I hate doing them. I only threw them because mum forced me to."
"And that love," Alice interrupted, "is why it'll be a formal tea party in celebration of her birthday. Since no one at school knows how great your parties really are at them."
"You're lucky Rachel doesn't ever go to France and Italy with us during the summer so she never witnessed any of it," Elle told her. "Okay, so everything is set except for one thing."
"What?" Lily asked.
"How are you going to make Benjy jealous?"
"I don't know. Do I flirt with tons of guys, or what?"
"Won't work as well," Alice told her. "We need one guy, a boy toy that'll be in on the entire thing. You two will work together in class, hang out, everything will be totally platonic except for the subtle flirting."
"How will that make him jealous?" Lily asked.
"Because everyone wants what they can't have. No one grows out of that."
"So what guy would make him jealous?" Lily asked as she mentally tried to make a list of all the guys in their year.
"Oh I know," Elle exclaimed, "Amos Diggory."
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