Here's to hoping

[rar_kevin]

Date: Tuesday, 14 May 1999
Characters: Kevin Entwhistle, Lisa Turpin, Tracey Davis
Location: Utopia, Hogsmeade
Status: Private
Summary: Kevin ponders if he should even go.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[rar_lisa]

After dinner, Lisa was feeling restless. Moody wasn't exactly the right word for it, because that seemed to imply she was in a bad mood. She was thoughtful without actually having any particular things running through her head. Typically she would go for a run, but tonight she was unusually tired. When neither reading nor any of her other usual activities didn't help, she'd decided to walk into town, enjoy the warm weather outside, even if it was still raining a bit.

As she strolled past Utopia, a little smile came to her face. The party had started off shaky for her, but it had ended well. The rest of the night had ended even better. Lisa shook her head and moved a hand over her mouth, hoping no one had seen her grin. When she looked around, she noticed a familiar figure lingering nearby, but not looking at her.

"Kevin!" she called, walking over to him. "What are you doing out here?"

[rar_kevin]

Kevin looked towards the familiar voice, smiling at Lisa. "Hey, Lisa." he said waving. He wanted to answer something vague to her question but decided to avoid it all together. "How are you doing?"

[rar_lisa]

"I'm all right," she said, shrugging. "I think I'm still a bit tired from last week and the weekend, but nothing I can't handle." She smiled. "What about you? I hope you had fun at the party. Didn't get to say goodbye to everyone, but it seemed like people enjoyed it."

Lisa glanced toward the Utopia's front door, then back at Kevin. "Were you going in? I could use somewhere dry to sit for a bit, if you wanted."

[rar_kevin]

Kevin shifted uncomfortably on his feet, glancing at the door too. "I had a great time, Lisa really." he answered, nodding, his eyes still glued to the door. "But I'm not sure I should be going in.."

[rar_lisa]

Lisa gave him appraising look, glancing once more at the door to the pub before sighing. She wrapped an arm around his and tugged him gently away. The Three Broomsticks was neutral enough territory for her to figure out what had happened, because this obviously had something to do with Tracey.

"What happened?" she said as they walked. "Don't make me ask twice, Kevin, because you are a bloke in serious need of getting something off his chest."

[rar_kevin]

Clever Ravenclaw, Kevin thought. Or was he just that obvious? He sighed and kicked a pebble. "I think I messed up with Tracey Saturday." he admitted, looking over at Lisa. Lisa was a girl he could talk to, of course, and he knew that. That's why she didn't need to ask twice with him.

[rar_lisa]

"Why do you think that?" Lisa asked carefully, focusing on the road ahead of them rather than looking at him. She'd heard a bit of Tracey's side of the story, after all, but she'd promised not to say anything. She also couldn't be sure nothing else had happened after that talk, because she'd been a bit preoccupied elsewhere and hadn't seen the two leave. "Last I saw, you two were dancing, and things didn't look so bad."

[rar_kevin]

"Yeah, it was alright." Kevin answered then blushed, obviously lying since he had an amazing time. "But it was before we even arrived. I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be a date. I mean, I've been living with Tracey and Millie for just about two months now and.. I mean, dating one of them is a bit weird. I never dated before and I'm not sure I'd even know what a date is even after readin about them."

Kevin was ramling, but it seemed like he was overwhelmed by emotions and thoughts. He had never thought about dating before and right now there it was, the possibility and the problems it could bring. "But she mentioned going somewhere else after the party and I um.. I messed things up."

[rar_lisa]

She listened as he went on about the strangeness of dating a housemate, which she could understand, but it didn't explain why he thought he messed up with Tracey.

"She mentioned going somewhere else?" Lisa asked. This part was new; Tracey hadn't said anything about that bit, or if she had, her words were too slurred for Lisa to catch them. "All right, so she was looking forward to spending time with you. That's good. What did you say?"

[rar_kevin]

Kevin sighed and nodded at the first question. "Yeah, I asked her to come with me at your party over a week ago, but before we left she mentioned going somewhere else together, but I-um.." he scratched the back of his head, closing his eyes. "I just had to ask her if it would be considered a date."

He stopped walking and looked at Lisa with a look of deperation all over his face. "But I just wanted to be sure of what it was on Saturday. So there would be no misunderstanding. But she asked me, if I wanted it to be a date and.. and I threw the question back at her."

[rar_lisa]

"Oh Merlin, Kevin. I think we're both going to need a seat and a pint for this one," Lisa said, sighing as she dragged him into the Three Broomsticks. The Tuesday night crowd wasn't bad, and they found a table back in one corner that felt a bit more private.

Her head was flying with thoughts. She wasn't sure exactly how she'd come to be here, but somehow almost every person she knew was asking for her advice on relationships. Or the subject was coming up, at least. It was completely bizarre that she even had thoughts on it, much less that anyone would take her opinions so seriously. Or humorously, in Cho's case. She didn't think three months as Terry's not-even girlfriend really qualified her for this sort of thing, especially considering the colossally bad advice that still had lingering effects on their relationship even now.

But she couldn't not help, or at least try to. "No misunderstandings is good. So you asked if it was a date, and her answer was 'do you want this to be date?' right?" she started, trying to catch the barmaid'

[rar_kevin]

Okay, so it seemed that making it her call was the problem. Hm, he'd have to keep that in mind if there was going to be an other time. "Well, she looked upset. Left for her room in a huff with.. tight lips and the whole angry look." he told Lisa, needing something for himself too. Now that he thought about it, he did make a mess of things and wondered if Tracey hadn't danced with him to save the appearances.

"But yeah we danced," The look in his eyes changed into something almost dreamy as he let the memory creep into his mind. His fingers in her long hair and the way she swayed against him.

He was quickly brought back to Earth when he answered the next question, sighing. "We haven't spoken since then.."

[rar_lisa]

"She left for her room...when was this? You said before we left." Lisa knew this bit from Tracey, but if this talk was going to be helpful at all, she needed Kevin to try and see the problems without her pointing them all out.

His expression changed when he talked about their dance, and it was obvious that he was a bit smitten, but it was the next bit that really shocked her. "You haven't spoken at all since you danced with her? Why on earth not?"

[rar_kevin]

Kevin blushed darkly, even his ears as she sounded like he had done something terribly wrong. "Well, overlapping schedules." he answered with a sigh. "I wanted to see her at work tonight but, but I'm afraid she's actually mad at me or something."

[rar_lisa]

"She didn't say anything to indicate that she'd had a bad time, or that she was angry with you?" Lisa asked carefully, holding back the immediate backlash that one of her closer friends might have gotten based on assumption. "So you simply haven't spoken to her...completely by chance?"

[rar_kevin]

Kevin nodded, even though he looked like a pet that had been caught doing something wrong. "By chance, she's sleeping when I leave and she's gone when I get back. When she gets back, I'm in bed already."