Avoidance Techniques

[Drew Thornton]

"So why is it okay for you to put your arm around me, but you wouldn't let me put mine around you?" he asked back, smiling a little as she sat down and retook his hand. he put his other hand on the other side, sandwiching her palm between his as he looked he straight in the eye. He wasn't going to let her think he was lying, because of course, he wasn't. "I wasn't mad. I was confused. If that's going to be the rule, then let me know and I'll follow it. But I wasn't sure what was okay and what wasn't."

[Felicity Hjort]

"It's not," she answered truthfully. It wasn't okay for her to do that, and not him back. "You can put your arm around me whenever you want to, I really don't mind if you do. I just...I was confused when you wanted to do it because it didn't make sense to me at the time." It made sense to her now, mostly, but when he had wanted to it didn't.

The blond was relieved to hear he wasn't mad at her, at least not then, and she hoped he wasn't now. "I wouldn't make a rule like that, it isn't a fair one."

[Drew Thornton]

"Whenever I want, huh?" Drew asked back, his grin growing wider. He let his fingers intertwine hers, hoping there wouldn't be a rule against that either. Okay, so he was moving forward a bit faster than he thought he should, but he couldn't help it. It just felt too good.

"So why didn't it make sense, me putting my arm around you?" he asked her. It seemed like the whole arm issue was the crux of this particular problem and he felt if they could just solve it, then they could get back to normal.

[Felicity Hjort]

"Yes," she replied trying to fight back the colour that was rising to her cheeks while the smile crept over her lips carefully. And when he laced his fingers with hers, she felt the colour deepen to a richer shade, things were going well at the moment. Maybe he wasn't mad at her, she could only hope not.

The blond had already tried explaining it once, but maybe he'd understand what she was trying to say this time. "You said you didn't want to use a girl to test to see if you were ready for anything," she started, lowering her eyes. "And that you didn't want to disrespect me. And then right after that you tried to put your arm around me. In the movies that's always a bad sign."

Maybe her source wasn't a good one, but she didn't have anything else to really go off of. "Drew, I haven't ever done something like this before and I don't know what I'm doing. But, it just didn't work right in my mind. I wanted you to put your arm around me, but it didn't sound right to have you do it." Now it didn't sound so bad, she'd rethought her position, but it had then. "I mean, I know you didn't mean anything by it and that's why I tried to put my arm around you but after you had said what you did, it just didn't sit right with me."

[Drew Thornton]

"Use you?" Drew echoed, his eyes growing wide as his conversation with Celina came back to him. He groaned slightly and shook his head.

"You told Celina I was using you, didn't you?" he asked, not mad, but definitely not thrilled by the revelation. "Shees, Felicity, you have to tell her it was just an arm. She's really mad at me. You go around telling people a guy used you and they start thinking some pretty awful stuff."

[Felicity Hjort]

"I told Celina you tried to put your arm around me," she replied feeling a bit defensive again. How did he even know what she had told the Ravengirl? Maybe she'd spoken to him and hadn't bothered to let her know about it? It didn't bother the blond that she'd told him, but it did bother her that he was saying she didn't tell Celina the truth. Felicity knew Drew and Celina weren't always on the best of terms, or so it had seemed then they'd spoken before, so if the girl was mad at him he wasn't going to be blaming her for it.

Yes, she had been upset when she'd written her friend, but she was sure she told her in the letter what Drew had done. In fact, she remembered writing that he'd tried to put his arm around her and that it hadn't felt right. Once more she was feeling frustrated, and just after she had started to relax a little. "I didn't tell her anything other than what you did, what I thought, and that I wanted to..." she trailed off. Would it make things worse to tell him she had wanted to go home? Probably, and she wasn't sure she really wanted to go anymore. "And that I wanted to talk to her."

[Drew Thornton]

It felt like she was turning it all back on him again and he couldn't help but wonder once more if she really was serious about liking him. He didn't want to back down from his point, feeling like he had done that too many times with his ex-girlfriend, but he really didn't want to make the situation he had with Felicity any worse.

He left one hand with the Gryffindor, but took the other back, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. He wasn't mad at her for talking to Celina. He wasn't even mad at Celina for misunderstanding the whole situation. He just didn't want anyone to think he went around using and abusing girls.

[Felicity Hjort]

"Drew, Celina knows how much I like you," and boy did she. Especially with the spell. "That's why I told her. She's my best friend and I thought you were mad at me and wouldn't ever want to talk to me again." Besides Celina, Drew was really the blond's only other friend that she would have gone into such depths with. Of course she knew a lot of people, but the majority of them were nothing more than acquaintances.

"I had to tell her what happened because she knew everything." In fact, she knew more than the blue-eyed Ravenclaw sitting in front of her. "I went to her in the first place to get advice, it only felt right turning to her again to let her know that things hadn't turned out well. And she didn't even get back to me," she added, suddenly feeling slightly hurt.

Not even the smallest of notes letting Felicity know she'd gotten hers. Besides not seeing her friend, she now hadn't had any form of communication with her either since she'd woken from the spell. Even during classes the girl seemed out of it and always rushing.

Putting her other hand on the back of his still holding onto hers, she looked up at him. She didn't want to be frustrated anymore, she was tired of being. While he had accused her of telling Celina a lie, she would excuse it; after all she had been upset when she wrote the letter and she might not have made things very clear in it. "I wrote her a letter because I haven't seen her in a while, maybe she misunderstood what I told her," she said softly. "I don't know why she would think more than what I told her, but I'll straighten her out when I see her. I promise I will."

The Gryffindor just wanted to relax again, and she wanted him to do the same thing, she just wasn't sure how to make things lighter. Lowering her eyes to their hands, she began to play with it, lightly dragging her fingers not intertwined with his over his hand, she was unsure of what to do.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew gave her a small smile back, glad she seemed to understand his concern. He really hoped it had been a misunderstanding on Celina's part. As much as he hated the fact that the girl thought those things about him, it would have been ten times worse if Felicity had actually said he had treated her as badly as that.

His eyes fell to their hands and he grinned. This is whaere he wanted to be. This was what he wanted. He was pretty sure of that.

"You still want me to help you on that charm?" he asked, hoping she understood he wasn't really changing his mind, he just wasn't angry anymore.

[Felicity Hjort]

Nodding in response, she looked back up at him with a small smile. Getting help with the charm would make it that much easier to learn, and she already knew he was a good teacher, he'd proven that to her before. "If you're not busy."

If he was, she would just finish looking through the book she had if he wanted to help her that day. And really she would have liked to have had his help that day because she hadn't anything else to do, but she supposed she could look up something more about squirrels or California as those had been her main research subjects as of late.

[Drew Thornton]

"I was mostly busy with being angry, but I think I'm pretty done with that now," Drew answered with a smile. Does that count as our first fight? he wondered and thought maybe it did. And as glad as he was that it seemed to be over, he sincerely hoped it wouldn't be the last.

If it was to be the last, that meant things were over for good. Heck, his grandparents had been happily married for almost 50 years and they still fought, right?

[Felicity Hjort]

"I'm glad you're not busy anymore then," she replied with an apologetic smile. She really didn't want him angry, especially with her. The blond liked being on good terms, it meant she didn't have to worry about him not talking to her again.

Looking back down at their hands for a moment, she squeezed his gently and lifted her eyes back to his face. "So, will you help me?" she inquired softly. He had asked if she wanted his help but hadn't said he would.

[Drew Thornton]

"Yeah," Drew answered, nodding a little bit, his smile growing slightly. He was tempted to tell her he was willing to help her with anything, anywhere, anytime, but he decided that might be coming on a little strong at the moment. It was obvious that they were both still trying to figure things out and he really didn't want to start up another misunderstanding. The hand holding was nice and he had the okay to put his arm around hernow. That was really all he needed for now.

[Felicity Hjort]

"All right," she smiled back at him. Letting go of his hand, she stood and pushed her chair in; spell casting in the library, especially out in the open, wasn't the best of ideas, and she was going to try to pull him back into one of the back corners so they could do it without too much trouble, hopefully. Wrapping her arms around his neck quickly, she whispered into his ear. "Thank you."

Her gratitude wasn't just about helping her, but for not being so mad at her anymore. "Come on," she said. Waiting for him to stand, she retook his hand and pulled him toward one of said corners.

[Drew Thornton]

He accepted her arms this time, enjoying the feel of them around his neck as well as her breath in his ear, and that annoying little giggle of his suddenly made a reappearance.

She took his hand and tugged at him and he willingly followed, his first thought being about what some of the other kids used the back corners of the library for. Of course, he knew that that was out of the question, but still, he couldn't help thinking about it.