ever since we crossed that line { j e m }

“So then Boggy says – ” she cleared her throat, her voice dropping almost an octave as she tried to imitate one of her bosses, “let the girl skip a day of work, you old sturgeon. Sturgeon! Like the fish! I was shocked! And Grubnump grumbled about it, but left me alone after that.” Freya tried to look at Jeremy’s reaction out of the corner of her eye, but her neck was wedged nicely into the little u-shaped salon cushion at the top of her chair, and the person standing behind her putting some kind of vanilla-smelling cream into her curls right now probably wouldn’t be happy if she was wriggling around a bunch.

“And yeah. So that’s the whole thing up until today,” Freya finished, staring at the ceiling. She’d glossed over a lot of details, of course; things that had happened over minutes or hours had been shortened into single sentences. She’d mentioned making out with Danny and shutting everything down, but she hadn’t gone into detail about her feelings there, simply summing it up as her feeling weird about it. She’d glossed over her and Danny’s conversation on Tuesday night, not going into any of the sex things they’d talked about really, and she said they’d fallen asleep talking in her bed and woken up cuddling. She hadn’t lingered on that last part.

All in all, Freya felt pretty good about everything. The weekend had really thrown her, obviously, but the night Danny had come over had really reassured her that most of her stupid insecurities and fears were baseless. She’d been nervous he’d be annoyed with her for stopping him – he wasn’t. She’d been nervous that he’d somehow think less of her now – he didn’t. Ari had said something about things maybe getting even better  after this whole thing, and Freya was starting to think that her friend was a genius, because Freya didn’t think she’d ever felt as close to Danny as she did falling asleep with him the other night. That sense of strength in their friendship had stayed with her.

At first, Jeremy hadn't been into this whole thing. It wasn't because he had any preconceived notions of things witches did versus things wizards did, but more because he had no idea it was a thing. Sure Jere knew people got their hair done, but the wizard hadn't gotten his cut (willingly) in forever, and even then, it had been at a barbershop, not a salon. Treatments weren't something offered, but now that he knew the existed, he was never going back. When they'd gone the first time, he was amazed by how smooth and easy to manage it had been afterward. It had quite literally changed the hair game for him.

He sat stiller than he usually would, the warming feeling from the vanilla-scented cream being massaged into his scalp calming him down, and listened to her story. Jeremy could see her sitting just like he was out of the side of his eyes, and he smiled, more so on the side, she could see, for good measure. He couldn't believe that her boss had done that. Especially not considering some of the other stories she'd told him about the pouty goblin back at Gringotts, but he was glad it had happened.

Laughing, Jeremy's shoulders shook a little, and the witch behind him sighed, she'd told him to sit still a hundred times by now, but he didn't think she was angry with him. He settled again, keeping his curls as still as he could, and spoke. "Well, then," he began, amused by the whole story and not just the part about the fish. Danny's side of things had been less enthusiastic when he'd first told it, but only because it was the day after, and things were so weird. Jeremy was glad to hear the other side, and especially that the two of them were thick as thieves again. To the redhead, nothing had changed, but he didn't always pick up on the subtle things. "Well, I'm glad things are cool between you two." He said with a nod, the stylist pulling his head back as he did, sighing again and exchanging looks with the woman behind Freya.

"Can't be the Dingles without Tricky and Willy. Well, I mean, I guess I could, but Eddy 'the Lone Dingle' just doesn't sound as cool."

“Oh, Jem, it’d never just be ‘Eddy the Lone Dingle’,” Freya gushed, turning to look at him before the young wizard behind her turned her head back to face the ceiling with two wet hands on either side of her head. “Never,” she added to Jeremy, giving the hair guy a sheepish smile as they made eye contact.

“I’m glad we’re all good too,” she said, honesty ringing through her tone. Things were good, mostly. Did she feel a bit weird about it all still? Yes. Had she fallen asleep on Danny’s chest yesterday afternoon after spooning him in the morning, and did that make her brain want to go into that overthinky place again, wondering what exactly he’d been feeling, and whether or not what he’d said yesterday morning really covered it? Well, maybe. But she did her best not to. “And Danny’s going on his date tonight, then yours is next week – or is it the week after? Your hair will be so nice for it,” she added, raising her eyebrows at the ceiling. “And then, you know…” She trailed off, thinking about something she’d said to Danny last week.

I don’t know what I’d do if you both got girlfriends. What would I do on Friday nights?

I had been something like that. Not that she minded at all, of course! She was happy for her friends. Especially Jeremy, not that there was any need to verbalise that part. “...Maybe I’ll find a new Hot Duncan to obsess over,” she finished.

Jeremy gave her a toothy grin when she declared he would never be a lone dingle, it was a comforting thought and he appreciated the sentiment. The wizard loved that they were a little group of friends, the Dingles, and he didn't want things to change. Honestly, he lived for the weekends, for Trivia night and brekky and all the dumb stuff they did when they didn't have to go to their lame jobs. Things like getting their hair done, he liked this too.

Jeremy's stomach did a bit of a backflip when she brought up his date, and Danny's too because he was nervous enough for both of them. The former Gryffindor was just shy of being immune to embarassment but that didn't mean he wasn't anxious to go on a first date. It had been a while since his last, Freya would know this, and he was so hopeful for it. Jeremy was a goon, he was silly and obnoxious and he cared way too much about nachos but deep down he knew he would be a good boyfriend. He couldn't remember to pay the rent on time or the spell to wash the dishes but he'd remember the important stuff, he was sure of it.

The idea that his hair would still be extra soft and manageable for the date cleared up a tiny bit of the worry that had crossed over to his face. It would have been clear if Freya was looking at him, that he was anxious about the date. Especially after this aunt had quite nearly told him the witch she'd set him up with was so far out of his league they weren't even from the same universe. She was super supportive like that.

"Just not at the trivia bar, right?" He asked her, narrowing his eyes a little before the stylist jerked his head back straight again. "No cute goblins at work?" He said, holding back a laugh but his shoulders still shook.

Her mind lingered in that space for a moment. It was selfish, she decided, to feel a bit lost at the idea of her friends dating other people. No, not other people, she corrected internally. It wasn’t like either of them were dating her, after all! Just people! Freya was slowly running out of single friends, though, and a part of her was nervous that she’d be the last one left. Irrational? Maybe. Ari and Prosper had been together for about twenty years at this point, though! Then again, it was just a couple of first dates, for Merlin’s sake. She was overthinking.

"Don't you miss the free drinks?" she asked hopefully, a cheeky smile on her face, even though he couldn't see her. Freya sighed dramatically. “None that have caught my eye sadly,” she told him. She’d heard (and made!) that joke before and it was starting to lose its edge. “Do I need a new job?” she mused out loud. She went to turn her head to the side, but then thought better of it as the person doing her hair gave her an unimpressed look. “What’s a line of work where there are heaps of hot, single guys looking for girlfriends?” she asked, mystified. “Preferably where I don’t know any of them,” she added. “But no muggles.” For some reason, she felt the list getting shorter and shorter.

"Yeah... those were pretty nice," Jeremy sighed dreamily as the idea of free drinks was brought up. They could still get pretty trashed on their collective salaries, but it wasn't like Jeremy was making it big in the ministry world. He barely made enough to pay the rent (nevermind that he typically blew half his paycheck on nonsense every month!). "Just date Duncan again," He said softly with another chuckle, but he didn't really mean it. Jeremy was too much of a softie to really mean something as shallow as that.

"Maybe?" The redhead answered quickly when she asked if she needed a new job, and he felt the nails of his stylist's hand digging into his scalp when he turned to smile at Freya. Turning back to face the front, he considered the blonde's question for a moment. "Might need to move out of London for that, Tricky," Jeremy told her honestly. The magical world seemed so grand and expansive when they were in Hogwarts. Jeremy remembered thinking there must have been so much more out there waiting for them. And then they graduated, and the wizard quickly realized he was working alongside half of the people he shared the halls with all those years. Only now there was more work and fewer rewards and no Quidditch after parties.

"Maybe find yourself a nice French bloke like Prosper," Jeremy put his finger over his mouth like a pretend (and pretentious) mustache even though he had no idea what Ari's boyfriend was actually like. He was probably super friendly, and funny, and didn't have a stupid mustache, but that didn't matter much to Jeremy's ego.

“I wish,” Freya answered simply, smiling at the ceiling. She’d liked Duncan! The only reason she hadn’t asked him back to hers that night they’d gone out was because of like, the posters that moved, self-washing dishes, floating pot plants, that kind of thing. How would a regular muggle react upon seeing a floating succulent? No, she couldn’t risk it. And then after that night, she’d had to really think about how feasible it was to date a muggle at all.

He commented on a possible need to move to find new people. “True,” Freya said. Like Jeremy, the blonde had expected to meet a lot of new people once she left school. And sure, there had been a couple of new ones! Friends of friends. Foreign cousins. Prosper. Et cetera. But most of the people she saw at parties, and most of the people who worked with her friends, and most of the non-goblin people she worked with at Gringotts were people she already knew. The world was bigger, sure, but it wasn’t that much bigger in London, specifically.

“I already asked Ari if he had any hot cousins,” she told Jeremy. “Apparently there’s one just graduated this summer.” She laughed. Freya hadn’t ever dated anyone younger than her – it felt too creepy. The person doing her hair had just started drying it, so Freya assumed she’d be able to sit up soon. She sighed, thinking about dating and love in general. Boyfriends in general. Danny, who was on a date right now, in general. “I dunno, though, I dunno,” she said, shrugging a bit.

Jeremy smiled at Freya as she spoke, feeling a weird sense of being on the wrong side of this conversation, and he couldn't quite shake it. Typically he was the lonely romantic wishing he could find someone to date, and golden girl Freya's social calendar was booked full. It was strange, switching places, and even though Jeremy was enjoying it, he felt for his friend. "You'll find someone," he reassured her as the witch behind him finally shut off the water and wrapped his head in a fluffy towel. He heard Freya's faucet do the same as he started awkwardly getting out of the chair. Little drops of water ran down the back of his neck, and he shook them off as the woman led him to the actual salon chair. She set in on adding some serum to his hair before drying it, and Jeremy waited for Freya to reappear in the chair next to his.

"We could always go crash some parties," Jeremy never turned down the opportunity to pretend like he was still seventeen. Growing up was hard, and he was not looking forward to it. Clinging to his childhood, to staying up late, making bad choices, and overeating junk food, Jeremy took every opportunity. "Can't be that hard to find a portkey to Paris, right?" He shrugged his shoulders as his head bobbed up and down, the stylist working the serum into his scalp with a bit more aggravated enthusiasm than was probably required.

"Or hell, maybe we go somewhere else..." He turned to her with a little grin, the sort he got when the wheels were spinning, and he was planning something stupid, "Where else do they speak English, though?" Jeremy hadn't learned much during his time at Hogwarts, and translation spells were among those missed opportunities.

Freya was led to a different chair and she smiled at Jeremy as she walked. In no time at all, she could feel her curls magically drying. She couldn’t wait to see them! Even more exciting, however, was the idea that Jeremy had only just had his hair done for the first time in his life, and he was about to see his results too.

“Y'know, I don’t even know that I want a boyfriend?” Freya said, inflecting the end of her sentence like it was a question. It had been ages since she’d seriously dated someone, and she’d been in high school at the time, so did it even really, properly count? “I dunno, I dunno,” she said again, waving a hand. Maybe she just wanted the company. Or the cuddles. Or the sex. Or, well, maybe she actually did really want a boyfriend. She nodded when he mentioned crashing a party, smiling at the concept.

“I mean, most of Europe speaks English,” Freya said with half a shrug. “But we could go somewhere further away? I dunno, Australia?” The blonde laughed. Her charms work was decent, but there was no way she or Jeremy or Danny could pull off a successful translation charm. That stuff was Seriously Complex magic. “What’re you thinking?” she asked curiously, recognising the look on his face as the one he wore when he was scheming.

There was a tingling feeling assaulting his head as the wire curls began to dry and Jeremy wasn't sure if it felt good or if it made him want to relentlessly scratch his scalp. He looked at Freya, she seemed calm, so he kept his hands posted at his sides. Leaning into the seat Jeremy did find a way to get comfortable and look at his friend at the same time. "Oh?" He asked her, but he believed her when she said it. Jeremy had always been impressed by the way Freya didn't seem to have any trouble in the boyfriend department, but also, that she never complained when she was dateless. Danny and Jeremy were hopeless, they all knew that, but Freya never rubbed it in their faces either. "You don't need one," He said with a shrug, not that he needed to tell her that or anything, but Jeremy wanted to be supportive.

"That's true," Most of Europe did speak English but Jeremy hadn't really been outside of the neighboring countries. One day he'd travel, but he could barely afford the blow-up pool floaties that looked like a globe let alone a trip across the continent. "Australia?" His eyes perked up at the thought. That was a world away, but for wizards, it was like nothing, and yet, the idea was a little bit terrifying. In the best way. "Would you go all the way out there?" He asked her, feeling suddenly inspired by a sense of wanderlust. Jeremy shifted in his chair so that he was nearly laying on his side, and awkwardly so, and stared over at her. "That would be so fun, I've heard the reef there is insaaaane," He'd never been scuba diving, but he'd of loved to give it a shot.

"I was thinking like, you know, Amsterdam, or somewhere closer," Jeremy laughed, it wasn't hard to figure out why he had picked that particular city.

Freya was distracted from admiring Jeremy’s drying hair by his question. All the way out there? Australia was a long way away, but it wasn’t particularly difficult to get to, she thought. Two or three portkeys, she wondered? Maybe an overnight stop somewhere? “Lets see,” Freya said, holding up one hand so she could count on her fingers. “Amazing beaches, amazing weather, hot surfer guys…” She glanced up at him again, smiling this time. “That’s three outa’ three for me.”

“Ooooh, diving,” she commented, raising her eyebrows. She hadn’t thought of that. Freya hadn’t ever been diving, but she liked swimming well enough, and she liked doing new things. “Oh, of course you were,” Freya said, joining in with him and laughing. She was interrupted, though, as her hairdresser turned her around to look in the mirror. She was all finished? “Amazing,” she said out loud. Her hair looked soft and shiny and her curls were well defined and not even a little bit frizzy. She turned her head from one side to the other, smiling at her reflection.

Jeremy shrugged, not at all embarrassed by his first thought of travel destinations. Though, with the idea of Australia floating around, the wizard started thinking he should dream bigger. They were young and healthy, so what were they waiting for? Other than funds, he blinked a few times, wondering how much a trip would cost. Jeremy didn't measure it in sickles or euros, though, but rather, the amount of nacho and beer nights he'd have to skip, how many extra snacks he couldn't get from the ministry vending machine, and silly pranks he wouldn't be buying. You know, the things that really mattered.

"Maybe we do both, maybe," Jeremy was getting ahead of himself, but he couldn't help it. He felt like the sky was the limit, literally. Sitting forward in his seat as the witch behind him finally loosened her death grip on his head Jeremy absolutely beamed at Freya. "Maybe we take a big trip, see the world~," He said the last bit in a sing-song voice, his eyes looking all dreamy, as his hand fanned the space in front of him.

"Also, wow, your hair looks a-maz-ing~" Jeremy gushed as he said Freya's soft, bouncy curls shining under the salon lights. Turning back toward the mirror in front of his chair, the wizard was shocked by what he saw. "Merlin's beard," He said under his breath as his fingertips reached up to the soft, frizz-free, ringlet curls draping down from his head. They were usually so dry and coarse, but not anymore, now they were soft and bouncy just like Freya's, and Jeremy was impressed. "Whatcha think?" He asked, turning back to Freya with another grin.

“That’s actually a really amazing idea, Jem,” Freya said, sharing his lightbulb-moment experience. “It’s really just money,” she added as an afterthought. She had some savings, though – not a huge fund, but definitely a start. How difficult could it be, though? “I wonder if anyone has one of those big tents? You know, the ones with the rooms?” She used her hands to describe the shape of one of the tents she was talking about. Had it been uncle Lyall who’d stayed at her house once, in one of those big tents? Mabe when Sorley was still little? “Probably some Trickett somewhere has one,” she said distantly. There were enough of them that it was probably true.

“Oh, does it?” she asked, excitedly twisting so she could look in the bigger mirror on the wall. He was right, of course; her curls were perfectly formed, soft and shiny and bouncy all at once. She laughed when he looked at himself in the mirror, delighted that she got to experience it with him. “Gorgeous,” Freya answered, beaming at him in response to his huge, genuine grin. “She’ll drop dead. In the good way,” she added, just in case.

"Those tents are so cool," Jeremy exclaimed, thinking about the few times they had gone camping when he was a kid, and he had always been amazed by the insides. Raised in the magical world or not, the redhead still found himself astonished with the things that magic could accomplish. His hands running through his silky hair made him smile; it was magical. "You should find out; we could camp all over the place," Jeremy knew nothing about camping and traveling really, but he was willing to learn. If they could get a few days off of work and secure a tent, the redhead felt like the rest would kind of fall into place. Snag a box of Greg's protein bars, and they wouldn't even have to worry all that much about food (except for the good stuff they wanted to try in new places!)

Jeremy giggled, legitimately giggled, when Freya mentioned that his date was going to drop dead in a good way at the state of his red curls. He was so excited about the date, and now, he felt prepared too, and that was a good feeling. The wizard hopped out of the chair to fish out his wallet and pulled way more notes out than were required. The stylist had done well, even though he had never stopped moving his head, and Jeremy had always been a good tipper (when he remembered to bring money).

"Can we get lunch after this," Jeremy asked as he counted the notes, folded them in one hand, and slid his wallet back into his slacks.

“Aren’t they?” Freya said, her mind spinning up images of tents and beaches and summery camping trips. Maybe she needed to start researching places to go? Or maybe she needed to ask, like, Ari, or something. She really wasn’t one for researching things, most of the time she got distracted.

“Okay,” Freya said, after she’d paid and checked herself out in the mirror from five hundred different angles. She slid her glasses onto her face, then immediately took them off so she could clean them with the bottom of her shirt. “Let's get out of here,” she said with a sunny smile. The blonde popped her glasses back on, nodding once.

/end