[mp] there's a name for boys like you|| isaac

“You’re no fun at all,” she grumbled quietly, though she had expected as much. Magnolia wasn’t about to give him more information though he could probably get it out of her if he tried a little harder, the Gryffindor wasn’t’ exactly known for being able to keep secrets. But there were some, like this one. He was a secret she’d kept since September. Did that make him special? Maybe. She wasn’t going to get into it with him though. “The whole point is anonymity, if you know who it isn’t fair at all, duh,” she added as if it were a matter of fact. It was a comical thought coming from the girl, considering that her preconceived notions about others often ruled how she decided to treat them.

“Eh, if you say so,” she responded. She didn’t actually believe him; guys didn’t just go around making out and spending time with the same girl if they weren’t in a relationship. Or if they did they were going about it the wrong way. “Don’t tell me how I can and cannot be friends with,” she replied, her brow furrowing just a little. He was so annoying when he tried to tell her what to do like he knew anything about her. “You don’t even know my friends outside of school, they’re way cooler than Allison, you know,” she qualified her statement though now that she had done that, it probably didn’t sound as cool as it did in her head. But she did have friends, knew interesting people like her older sister Rheya and the band she was in. “Whatever,” she pouted, leaning back against the headboard, her expression only softening a little when he started coughing.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” she retorted but her tone was considerably softer, “anyway that’s what you get for being a total prick, and for your information I am sick, I don’t have to contaminate everything around me to prove it.”

"Oh, are they? Are they cool?" Isaac mocked her with a pretend, a serious look on his face. The fact that she measured herself based on how cool her friends were was nothing Isaac hadn't already assumed about her, but she sounded silly saying it out loud. In reality, the Slytherin found Magnolia far 'cooler' than any of his friends. They were boring compared to the fiery Gryffindor sitting across from him. He'd never tell her that, though, of course.

He covered his mouth with the inside of his elbow as he coughed, shaking the bed doing so until finally, it started to subside. He sucked in a harsh breath as he spoke to her, and of course, she had something to say back, and Isaac rolled his eyes. "So I got sick because I am mean to you? Do you think that?" He asked, his voice still hoarse as he tried to clear his throat and make a joke.

Magnolia was insane, he was sure of it, and somehow all of her nonsense made sense to her. He didn't understand it. Did she live in a fairy tale world where evil people were punished, and good people got what they were deserved? Because if so, they were living in very different worlds.

“Shut up,” she retorted angrily. It was just one of those many things that Isaac did that got a rise out of her, mock everything she said like she wasn’t good enough to be in his company. But no matter how much it pissed her off, apparently, it wasn’t terrible enough for her to just get up and walk away. In all honestly, she didn’t really have to take this from anyone, especially not him. And yet, here she was, frowning at him but not making the effort to move at all. She needed more rest, she convinced herself, and this was way better than whatever boring lesson she’d have to sit through otherwise. At least this way, she would be excused.

“You know how karma works, right?” she shrugged his comment off, resolving to not fall into another one of his many traps. “There’s so much you can do before the universe starts charging you for it, cosmic retribution and all that, don’t you pay attention in Divination at all?” she asked incredulously. Magnolia did not pay attention in that class either but it sounded like something she might have heard in there, or was it Astronomy? Well, she had already said one thing and now she had to commit to it.

“But I guess that would mean my cosmic retribution is having you here next to me in the first place, so seems like we’re both having a bout of bad luck,” she sighed, pausing for a little longer than necessary before turning to Isaac, “I hope you feel better soon or whatever, though.”

"No, you shut up," He fired back, mimicking her voice by making his higher, and then laughed. She was easy to annoy, and the more he spoke to her, the more buttons he learned how to press. Of course, she was learning all of his too, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He was too distracted to do anything about it now, though. And he was much too sick.

When she started talking about Karma, Isaac gave her a  disapproving look. Karma, fate, all of it, was nonsense, and he rejected it. She told him about cosmic retribution, and he opened his mouth to make a comeback, only to cough again. He blocked his cough with the inside of his elbow, hating how it felt like something was scratching against his throat every time he breathed and then tried not to laugh at what she said next.

"So, are you saying you have been naughty?" He asked, his face turning upward by the end of the sentence, that stupid smirk back on his face and a childish glee in his swollen eyes. Isaac chuckled as he reached past her and stole the glass of water from her nightstand. He could have gone back to his nightstand, there was most likely a glass next to the bed he was supposed to be resting in, but hers was closer.

"Thanks, I guess," He told her after drinking half the glass in one gulp. Magically it refilled itself, perks of being in the hospital wing, he supposed, and he rested it on his leg. "I would say the same to you, but we both know you are a big faker," Isaac smiled, raising both eyebrows at once as he accused her again.

“Ugh, you’re such a child, Isaac,” she rolled her eyes at him, feeling very mature for using an insult like that but knowing that he’d probably just throw it back in her face somehow. Whatever at least she’d have a small victory even if it was short-lived in the end. “Literally the most annoying person I’ve ever met,” she added for good measure, but he was also the person she wanted to spend time with a lot these days. She did not add that part to her sentence, he’d surely take it the wrong way, run with it, and his ego would get so big he’d never come back to earth.

It was obvious that he thought her argument on karma held no weight by the incredulous expression on his face, but it didn’t dissuade her from making her point. He could believe what he wanted to believe, she had some facts (or semi-facts) to back what she was saying up, too. “I’m made a mistake, like talking to you in the first place, that has obviously pissed off the powers that be,” she said dramatically, not that she actually believed it but she’d go out of her way to make sure Isaac thought she hated him. It was the only way to keep the balance in their already strange relationship. Or was it a friendship at this point? It was kind of hard to tell.
 
At least thanking her for what she had said seemed like a friendly gesture, but he only negated his statement by calling her a fake. “Yeah whatever, you are telling me to get better only makes me feel worse, so stop,” she said, frowning at him much like she often did these days. He was so frustrating as a person. “Plus if I were faking, Nurse Pomfrey wouldn’t be giving me the potion yet here I am,” she added pointedly, her throat was starting to feel a little sore and she had had a headache, and she did feel feverish and why was she even trying to prove this to him? She sighed.

“Whatever,” she huffed, “I don’t care what you think.”

"Literally?" Isaac questioned, he couldn't believe that he was literally the most annoying person she had ever met, "You have looked in the mirror before, right?" A smirk was playing on his lips. Isaac was sure that she was the most frustrating person he had ever met. She was irritating beyond what should have been physically possible, and for whatever reason, he couldn't get enough of it. It would have been easy to ask for another bed or just to leave the hospital wing, but here he was, sitting on the end of her bed and pretending to hate her.

"Maybe she would still give you the potion? Maybe she feels sorry for you?" Isaac still wasn't sure if he believed that she was sick, but he was sure she was faking at least a little. She was making it seem worse than it was, for the attention, or the excuse, or both. He couldn't blame her exactly, but he could tease her for it. And he would, of course. Isaac pulled his shoes up onto the bed, looking awkward as he tried to make himself comfortable sitting with his legs folded, but his feet were falling asleep hanging off the side of the bed, and finally got situated.

"I think you do care," Replying quickly, Isaac shot her a look and shrugged. "I think you care what everyone thinks about you,"

“Of course, I’ve looked in the mirror,” she said, knowing exactly what he meant by that statement but choosing to retort with a literal interpretation of the statement. “But you’re still the most annoying person I’ve ever met. No one’s forcing you to put up with me though,” she added pointing to the next bed to her, “so you’re free to go,” she added, not really wanting him to go but she did want him to get a clue.

“I feel sorry for you,” she replied, rolling her eyes at his biting remark and probably taking that one a bit more personally than she should have. It was just a game, right? Or, had it moved into something more sinister in the span of a few seconds? It was obvious that he didn’t like her and yet, here he was invading her space for no good reason because he enjoyed making her life a complete horror story. Well, that was a little dramatic but the point was that Isaac really went out of his way to make her upset and that was particularly, well, upsetting.

“Everybody thinks what everyone cares about them, Isaac, it’s called being a teenager, look it up,” she sighed heavily, “but no, not you, not worth my time,” she added, her frown deepening only just slightly but visibly. If she wasn’t sick yet, she certainly was going to be of Isaac by the end of this conversation.

"You are a liar," Isaac accused her with a smile on his face; there was no way she didn't care what he thought; if that were the truth, their conversations would be so very different. He shrugged. Did he care what she thought? It didn't matter; she'd never know if he did or not. "But if that is how you feel," He began as he untangled himself from her bed and let his sneakers hit the floor again. It took some doing getting to a comfortable sitting position, and now it was just as awkward getting back to the ground, but Isaac did it anyway. If she wanted him to go, he would go, or well, he would pretend to go to see whether or not she made up some excuse to have him stay, which would confirm everything he suspected about her.

Whether it was him specifically or just that she was bored, he was pretty sure Magnolia was in constant need of a distraction. She pretended like he was bothering her like she would have been so much better off if he wasn't pulling her attention, but she never really told him to sod off either. And when she had, he didn't think she meant it. It was okay, though, because Isaac liked the distraction too, even if he wouldn't admit to it. Talking and pestering her, passing notes, and making fun of her lousy school work ethic were great fun to the teenager.

Standing from the bed, Isaac reached over her to pluck the Witch Weekly out of her hands and tucked it under his arm. He turned toward the curtain, looking at her again with a smirk, "Do you mind?" He asked, but it wasn't really an ask because he'd already stolen her magazine.

“Believe what you’d like,” she shrugged, pretending to be unaffected by his words, even though she didn’t really care for being called a liar because she wasn’t. Not like a real one, anyway, just like an innocent one that wanted to be liked. And there was nothing wrong with wanting to be liked, everyone had insecurities and weaknesses, what made Isaac so great anyway? Nothing. But he was actually leaving now and she had a brief moment of internal panic where she wanted him to stop teasing her so that they could have like a proper chat but at the same time, she wanted to get rid of him.

So, it was with those two, very conflicting thoughts in her mind that she reached out to grab him suddenly, losing her balance, and almost falling out of the bed in the process. “I mind, I really mind,” she added, “because I…uh—paid good money for that and if Nurse Pompfrey takes it away then what am I supposed to read for the rest of the month…” she added, it was a terribly poor lie but for now it would have to do.
 
“And if you can just stop being a jerk you can read it, here?” she suggested, or asked, or something that she hoped didn’t sound like she was asking him to stay. She was but she didn’t want him to make a big deal out of it.

Had Magnolia just nearly fallen off the bed trying to keep him from leaving? Not even the redness and circles under his eyes could make Isaac's face look anything less than gleeful when he saw it. Smug, too. In his mind, Magnolia had just thrown herself at him, and that was an entertaining idea. He chuckled, shrugging like he was considering her offer, and then slowly moved back to sit on the bed. "Fine, but I am sitting up here, then," Isaac demanded as he was shoeing her to one side so he could sit right next to her at the head of the bed. He sat down gingerly, still smirking, and brought the magazine with him.

Isaac leaned back against the wall and folded one leg over the other at the ankle, making himself comfortable as he once did. He flopped the magazine back over to her, letting it fall into her lap, and shrugged. "This way we can read it together," The teenager informed her as if that was the only reason he wanted to sit right here. He could have sat at the other end; he could have just went back to his bed, but she had made it seem like she wanted him to stay, and Isaac had, of course, taken that as a big invitation. Taking more than he was offered, and then a little more, Isaac smirked at her.

"But first, can you explain how this," He plucked the magazine up by the spine before letting it go again, an eyebrow raised, "Will keep you occupied for an entire month?"

When she’d told him not to go, she hadn’t expected him to sit right next to her like they were the best of friends or, worse, boyfriend and girlfriend so in order to express her disapproval as she did with almost everything he did, she sat perfectly still hoping that he couldn’t hear the way her heart was pounding in her chest in nervousness. She was also starting to feel a little feverish again, if she was not sick before (not really) she was certainly sick now. Maybe if she ignored the fact that he was right there then she would be able to relax because the muscles at the base of her neck were already starting to feel tense. This was a stressful situation and her constant need for awkwardness did not make this any better.

So instead, she distracted herself by looking down at the magazine that he had set between them, brushing some hair out of her face to slily check whether it was her temperature that had gone up or if it was just nervousness. “You’re not like actually supposed to read it in one go, people who do that obviously don’t know how to appreciate a good mag,” she answered, shaking her head as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. “Plus, I’ve got like plenty subscriptions,” she added as an afterthought. The large stack of magazines in her closet was starting to become a problem and she had not even gone through all of them as thoroughly as she normally liked.

“I get Label for fashion stuff and Witchy has like makeup things in them and dating advice, sometimes I read the muggle ones, but they’re sort of odd,” she shrugged counting them off on one hand,. “Well like flip through them,” she explained. Now, this was a topic she could go on and on about. “Is this not like everyone's form of entertainment? Or are you too good for magazines, too?"

"Of course you do," Isaac replied as he scrunched up his face in a disapproving way. She seemed like the sort of witch that subscribed to every magazine under the sun, so he wasn't stunned, but the rest of what she said had made zero sense to him. You weren't supposed to read them all in one go? It was half an inch thick, that would take him all of ten minutes to read, but she took her time? Isaac turned to look at her while she listed off all of the magazines she read, and he just blinked. The teenager didn't even know there were that many witchy magazines to chose from. "That is... a lot of magazines..." He said softly, their faces not nearly far enough away now that he was sitting next to her and turned to face her.

Considering her question, Isaac thought about telling her what his preferred entertainment was, maybe even admitting to the fact that he read substantial novels for fun, but decided against it. That was a more serious topic, and unless there was some way to wrap it back around to Magnolia being a square, he didn't see a reason to bring it up. So instead, he went for his typical type of response.

Isaac began speaking, leaning toward her and bumping his shoulder against her before continuing. "Most teenagers... find other ways to entertain themselves," He flipped the pages of her magazine and chuckled, "But I guess this horoscope stuff is not so bad," Mostly he was entertained by how much she seemed to enjoy it. Still, he wasn't going to mention that either. Laughing until he felt another cough coming on, Isaac turned away from her to cover his mouth and then leaned back, propping himself up against the pillow and the wall.

“Don’t judge me,” Magnolia defended herself almost immediately, not particularly caring for the way he said it, or better yet, that expression on his face. Yes, it was typical of the teenager that was obsessed with everything related to fashion and cosmetics, but it was not all her entertainment amounted to. She prided herself in her collection of records and her knowledge of music, occasionally the girl got invited to parties and spent time with people that she figured Isaac could only dream of spending time with.

She had a cool older sister, too, that got her into parties with proper adults and everything. But Magnolia voided going into it, knowing that he would just use whatever extra response she had as ammunition for his next onslaught of criticisms against her. Well, criticisms felt like a strong word, she sort of enjoyed them by this point which would surely turn into a larger problem in the future. But there was plenty of time until that happened.

Magnolia turned to him and frowned when he bumped his shoulder against her, not liking how familiar he was being with her right now but also enjoying it at the same time. It was a very confusing set of feelings. She knew exactly what he was referring to, the emphasis and the expression on his face said it all. But before he could notice the clear look of embarrassment on her face she looked away, her eyes refocusing on the magazine in front of her.

“Well I’m not most teenagers,” she said, pretending to be as unaffected as she could by what he had just told her. “Not that I haven’t done that,” she clarified, because why not dig the hole a little deeper when she could? “I mean just like…I don’t waste my free time when I could do so many other things,” she added, her voice quieting down just a little towards the end there.
“There are boy magazines too, don’t you read any?”

Leaning back against the pillow, Isaac couldn't see enough of her face to tell if she was lying or not. He hadn't known her for very long, but he felt like he could see the difference. Or maybe he just assumed that he could tell, even when he couldn't. Still, the idea that Magnolia had done any of the things he had been alluding to didn't sit well with him, and he wasn't sure why. She was free to do whatever she wanted, but he didn't really want to hear about it. Regardless, when she said she had done that and then asked him about boy magazines, the teenager couldn't help but laugh as his mind went to all the wrong places.

"Exactly what kind of magazines are you talking about?" He asked her, shifting a little so that his body was facing hers as he half laid in her bed, talking about 'boy magazines' and teenager entertainment. Maybe Magnolia wasn't as much of a square as he thought? Isaac held back another cough until he ended up yawning instead. The wizard couldn't remember the last time he was sick, but he remembered it had sucked a lot more. He was then used to being on his own when he was sick; if nothing else, Magnolia was a nice distraction.

“You know like—” she started to explain before she paused, turning to look over at him suspiciously as if trying to figure out why he was suddenly so interested in what she was trying to tell him. Surely, he was not just making conversation here. “Muggle sports, fitness, Quidditch,” she started slowly, making sure to say it as simply as possible so that he would not start drawing his own conclusions again. Girls, she thought to herself because inadvertently her mind went in that direction as well. But whether the Slytherin boys spent their free time looking at girly mags in the common room was not something Magnolia wanted to hear about. She had accidentally come across something like that at a party once and it was quite the experience. Gross.

“Can you get your mind out of the gutter, Hackney?” she asked, that ever-present incredulous look making a reappearance on her face. “Maybe if you’d stop thinking about that you wouldn’t be so sick, let’s have a look,” there was absolutely no correlation between what she had said and the state of his health but it was an excuse to reach out and press the back of her hand against his forehead. “We should probably call the nurse over, you’re starting to get a bit feverish,” she explained before she smirked. “Or is this just because you’re thinking of those girly mags again?” If he wanted to tease her, she’d tease him right back.