[nov mp] i can't stop me { JR }

The hospital wing wasn’t busy at all when she stepped through the doors. Considering they were at a magical institution for teenagers – not to mention the weird flu going around at the moment – Tomie would have thought it would be more busy. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she needed to sign in or whatever; the Gryffindor girl had only been in here once or twice, for her own injuries. Quick in-and-out kinda trips.

She spotted JR across the room and smiled as she made her way over. She paused by the end of his bed, tentative at first, making sure he was awake. Then, “You look gross,” Tomie teased. She was smiling when she said it though. The brunette moved a little closer and put a cupcake beside his bed. “You weren’t at potions this morning, so I asked around,” she explained. One of the other Slytherins had told her where her friend was.

She gave a small shrug, glancing up at the door and then back to her friend. There was still a little more time before lunch ended, and she wanted to bring up something curious that she thought she’d discovered. “Are you… Do you have a sec?” Tomie asked, leaning on the edge of the bed. “I mean, you have a sec," she laughed, "but can I ask you something kinda random?”

This was dumb. The dumbest thing that he had ever experienced. JR crossed his arms over his chest as Madam Pomfrey whisked herself away to go check on her next brew up pepper-up potion but gave him a 'stay put' look over her shoulder which he resented, feeling a defiant streak shoot through him. He felt perfectly fine, which he had told her on multiple occasions, not that he had been very convincing given he had sneezed three times in a row and had to clutch his head from the pain each time. The fact that he had caught this pesky head cold and it was showing itself in full force for him when other students were able to leave after a quick potion made him think he was cursed.

The thought was only confirmed when he heard a familiar voice as he was nose deep in a tissue, snot feeling like it was dripping from his nose which he tried to discreetly wipe away. Even that effort made his body ache though so he leaned back with a huff as he sent a glare in her direction. Not fair that she was up and about and unaffected while he was in here, but he wasn't exactly wishing this on her either. "Oh thanks, just wait until you get it and then we'll see who's cracking jokes," he said sarcastically, refusing to admit that he liked that she had asked after him.

He shifted his legs on the bed as she leaned on the edge and shrugged, his eyes darting to Madam Pomfrey. He was still hoping she would be distracted long enough for him to make a getaway, but Tomie's question did prick his curiosity. "Ask me what?" he said, one brow perked as he reached for another tissue.

“Is that a threat?” Tomie said, reaching over to poke him lightly in the leg, laughing. Then, “I’m sorry JR.”

JR was the obvious choice, mostly because of his house. She couldn’t talk to Shelby – what if she told Wendy that Tomie had mentioned it? And obviously her best friend in Gryffindor was Benny, but, well, the whole thing was sort of about him, so she couldn’t really do anything there. Aside from his house, JR was her other best friend once Benny was out of the picture. It just made sense, even if he was more slime than boy at the moment.

"Okay, but don't tell anyone," she started, casting a suspicious look over her shoulder before she started talking. Absentmindedly, Tomie reached for the tissue box, holding it closer for him so he didn’t have to lean too far. When he moved his legs for her, she shuffled onto the bed a little more, making a mental note to wash her hands straight after this. “It’s probably nothing,” Tomie started, frowning a bit. “Yesterday afternoon, Wendy was just kind of… Interrogating me? About how I feel about Benny?” She gave JR a quizzical look.

“I think maybe she thinks I have a crush on him or something?” Tomie shrugged. “But so... do you think maybe she likes him?”

Her levity made him feel both worse and weirdly better. Why did she have to be so chipper when he was clearly hating his existence right now? Why did her smile affect him like that? Like suddenly he didn't mind being here too much because she just happened to drop by. He didn't think he had felt like this when Bean had dropped by earlier with some of his homework.

He waved off her apology and occupied himself with blowing into a few tissues, giving her a 'who would I tell in here' sort of look when she warned him not to spill. Besides, he had never been much into gossip. Unless it was rumors about quidditch and trades. Then he was all for exchanging info. He had a feeling that's not exactly what Tomie was talking about though. JR gave her a grateful little smile as she held the tissue box closer and snagged another one, tossing his soiled one in the bin beside his bed that burped its thanks.

The Slytherin listened as Tomie explained what happened yesterday and he exhaled through his mouth, wishing he had chapstick or something because his lips were dry. "Wendy interrogated you?" he asked, seeing as how it didn't exactly seem like a Wendy thing to do. "Maybe she was asking because she thinks you have a crush on Benny?" he suggested and then frowned at that thought and took a closer look at her. He thought they were just best friends, but they did spend a lot of time together. "But maybe you're right," he quickly offered instead, hoping for the alternative. "Did she say anything else about him?"

“Yeeaaaah,” she said, nodding. Tomie was impatient to get to the point; it was unusual for her to have her hands on any kind of gossip that she couldn’t share with Benny, and she’d been sitting on this for like, an entire day. JR was sick and all, but he could show some more enthusiasm. “Yeah, maybe she does,” Tomie said, not sounding very convinced, “but even if she thought that, I dunno why she’d put so much effort in to find out?” She shook her head, then leaned back, resting her hands on the hospital bed. She got his legs first, accidentally, then adjusted with a quick “Sorry!”

“She just said like, “Oh you guys are such good friends aren’t you” and “why don’t you write a book with him” or something. And stuff about like, how nice he is? She might have said he’s cute?” Tomie frowned, “Or maybe she was just asking if I thought he was cute? Like she was definitely probing.” Tomie shrugged heavily. “Imagine that, Benny and Wendy. Bendy,” she added, raising her eyebrows as if she’d just said something profound.

"Uhhhh," JR said unintelligently as she asked him questions that he had no clue what the answer might be. Not even an inkling of a guess. He had enough time with his own crushes and how they failed spectacularly when he tried to show them (he was thinking about the disastrous note incident with Tomie at the camp dance) and he almost blushed at the thought. It still haunted him. How was he supposed to know how Wendy might feel.

As she leaned back on his legs, he was surprised but not perturbed in the least. He moved as if to shift his legs, but he didn't actual move them too much. He felt very aware of how close she was sitting to him but tried to act like he didn't notice at all. "Well did you just ask her if she likes him?" he asked, thinking that was the most logical next question.

"Bendy?" he asked, confused, and then it hit him a second later. He guessed she was combining their names? Weird. "Why don't you just tell Benny that she likes him and he can talk to her about it?" he said with a shrug. Seemed like a good enough idea for him.

“Nah because I didn’t think of that at the time,” Tomie admitted. Her brown eyes fell on the cupcake she’d left beside JR’s bed, and she glanced away guiltily. It was a gift, for Merlin’s sake! And she’d just had like, five! Sometimes Tomie wondered why she wasn’t like, twenty kilos heavier.

“Well I dunno for sure that she does,” Tomie said. “And I think she’d deny it if I asked her outright, aaaand I don’t wanna tell Benny if it’s not true.” She ran a hand back through her hair, mulling it over. “But, y’know, that’s why I’m doing some reconass… Reconais…?” She paused, then tried again more successfully. “Recon? Recon. That’s why I’m... getting more information,” she said, gesturing between the pair of them. “Like just wondering if you knew anything, I guess.”

"Recon?" he said echoing as he screwed up his face, trying to think of the word along with her. "Reconnition? Reconessnce?" He huffed a frustrated sigh. He wasn't just sick with never-ending snot dripping out of his nose, but this head cold made it hard to focus too. Half the time he just wanted to sleep it off and half the time he was waiting for Pomfrey to be distracted enough so he could made his escape.

"Uh not really," he told her deadpan before smirking at bit at the thought. "Wendy doesn't really confide her secret feelings to me," JR told her and then shrugged. He reached out for the cupcake that she had brought him, figuring he was already sick so sticking to his meal plan his father made sure he was on during quidditch season wasn't really in the cards for today. "Want half?" he asked, holding it up for her.

"Do you know if she's talked to anyone else about it? Like Shelby maybe?"

Tomie laughed, “Yeah but I dunno! You and I talk all the time, so maybe you and her are besties too or something…” She shook her head, still smiling. The idea of JR and Wendy being super close? Weird. Weird pair. In their whole group, was it maybe the weirdest pairing? She struggled to think of a weirder one. Maybe Shelby and JR...

She glanced back at him. “Didn’t want to assume,” she teased. “Plus, I haven’t seen you like, all day,” she added, poking his leg. Tomie nodded eagerly when he offered her half. She felt a little guilty right away, but in the end, her hunger won out. Even if she had had like, five cupcakes already. She cupped her food with a pleased smile. By now, everyone who knew her knew how she felt about food. They teased her all the time for crying over a good meal, but even though she was aware of it, she couldn't help it. Food was her one true love. Food and Tomie. Foomie. Tood. Whatever.

"Thanks," she said, halfway through a bite. Some crumbs fell one to his hospital sheets. Swallowing quickly, Tomie nodded. I might go see if Shelby knows anything," she said, "Maybe this afternoon." She really didn't want Shelby to tell Wendy, though, and they slept in the same room!

"Not exactly," he said, smiling mostly just because she was smiling at him. Although the thought of him and Wendy as 'besties' as she put it was a little amusing. Especially considering he had made her cry a few months ago at camp. Yeah, he probably wasn't the first candidate she would pick for a new bestie even thought he had tried to be nicer to her after that.. if mostly because he liked to win people over and making her cry wasn't the greatest impression he had left on someone. But Tomie didn't need to know any of that. But.. with a narrowed glance, he wondered if Wendy had maybe told her that while she was spilling the beans on her other secrets.

"Did she say anything else?" he asked, trying to be nonchalant about it. She told him she wasn't going to tell anyone and really he hadn't been that mean to her in his opinion, but he still didn't want his friends thinking of him like that. "Like about anyone else?" he clarified.

He pulled apart the cupcake as carefully as he could, giving her the bigger half because he knew she loved food so much and honestly he wasn't that hungry to begin with, but it seemed like he had made the right decision considering how quickly she scarfed it down. He tried not to be annoyed about the crumbs on the sheets, flicking them away discreetly after he finished his half.

"Do you think Benny is into Wendy like that?" he asked. Sure, he hung out with his friend a lot but they were more likely to talk quidditch than girls at this point.

“About Benny? Uhhh…” She trailed off, looking away with one finger tapping her chin comically. Wendy had said all kinds of things, she thought distantly. She licked a bit of cupcake off of her tooth absentmindedly. “She said lots of stuff,” Tomie said. “I forgot a bunch of it,” she admitted with a sheepish shrug.

Tomie nodded, narrowing her eyes a little “I know, right, like you’d think he’d tell me. But he hasn’t said anything, so... maybe not?” She shrugged, brushing some cupcake crumbs off of her shirt and onto the floor. She would like to think that Benny would tell her if he had a proper crush on someone, but one could never really know, could they?

Tomie sighed; now that she’d said it out loud, and they were pushing ideas back and forth, the brunette wasn’t sure that it actually was that interesting after all. Maybe it was just a bigger deal for her because she’d known Benny since they were in nappies and the idea of him dating someone was weird.

“He hasn’t said anything to you?” She added as an afterthought.

"Oh," he said, both relieved and disappointed at the same time. "Alright." Well if Wendy had spilled the beans about the little crying at camp incident, that's something Tomie would probably remember right? He hoped that was the case anyway and tried to forget about it. Not that he would, but he could pretend even to himself that he was cool enough to pull it off.

JR shrugged with her. "If he was going to tell anyone, it'd probably be you," he guessed. He would probably a close second choice but Benny and Tomie's friendship was unrivaled. He knew that from the beginning and still deep down he wanted to take the number one spot. Not because he wanted to take it away from Benny or whatever, but just because it seemed like such a cool thing to be Tomie's Best Friend.

He sighed and realized a second later that she had sighed at the exact same time. It made him smile a little even amidst his misery of being sick. JR shook his head at her question and then quickly stopped that motion as he clutched his head. "No," he whined his answer as it felt like someone had taken a hammer to his skull. "It'd probably be too obvious if I asked. Why don't you just ask him?" he suggested.

Tomie nodded. It probably would be her; it felt even more when he was saying it. She didn’t think he would have told JR, but she figured she might as well ask. A part of her wondered if she might be a little hurt if Benny had some big secret crush and he told other friends first. “Yeah, maybe I will,” Tomie said. She brushed some more crumbs off of her legs and onto the floor, glancing up guiltily to see if Pomfrey had caught her doing it, then shooting JR an easy smile.

He didn’t look so good. “You don’t look so good,” she said, trying to be sympathetic. “How are you feeling?” If their positions were swapped, Tomie would probably be asking for food – something like soup, or curry maybe. Maybe something spicy to feel like her sinuses were clear, unless she had a sore throat. Then… Well, something else. She was getting distracted thinking about food. She looked away, her brown eyes finding a clock on the wall. There wasn’t much time left before she’d have to head off.

“You don’t have any secret crushes I should know about, do you?” She teased, folding her arms across her chest as she glanced back at him. After the whole dance debacle, JR had never brought it up again – there were question marks there for Tomie, but she didn’t know what to think of it all. It had been ages since camp, though. Just to top everything off, he probably had a crush on Wendy or something.

"Cool," he said dully in reply. He wondered if he would've been more interested if he wasn't sick in the Hospital Wing with this stupid head cold. Probably not, honestly. Then again if Tomie wanted to come visit him specially just to talk about this then he wouldn't say no.

JR shrugged as she mentioned his condition and tried to play it off. "I'm fine, hopefully I'll be out of here soon. Pomfrey is making a big deal out of nothing," he told her even though it was almost all lies. He felt terrible, horrible really, worse than how he felt that one time the Griffins had lost to the Cannons. But he wasn't going to admit to any of that, especially if there was a chance Pomfrey overheard and tried to keep him here longer. The beds weren't even that comfy either and it was so boring. He'd rather sit through History of Magic for four days straight than stay in bed here.

He brushed a few more crumbs off the bed with an idle hand before reaching out for his water glass and lifting it to his lips. The water felt cool and refreshing at least, but a second later, he was almost choking on it because of her question. He felt his cheeks go warm and hoped with his darker skin that it wouldn't show and of course, avoided looking at her as he tried to recover from nearly choking. Play it cool, Hawkins!! "Nope," he told her nonchalantly. "Not any secret ones," he added as he dared a glance back at her.

“Uh-huh,” she replied. He sounded confident, and it might have been convincing if not for the puffy eyes, strain in his voice and like, his generally deathly demeanour. She didn’t push it though; she only wanted to tease him while it was fun. Tomie was half convinced she’d be coming down with it any second herself; between him and Wendy, she’d been exposed quite a lot. The other half of her felt confident she’d be fine because she rarely got sick.

Tomie sighed again, not expecting anything else, so not genuinely disappointed with his answer. “Yeah, me neither,” she said with a shrug. It was pretty much true, she thought. Or, well – they’d have to make some clearer definitions about what counted as a crush for it to be a lie, anyway. “Oh well,” she said, glancing back up at the clock. “I should probably let you get some rest,” She said, poking him lightly in the leg again.