[gravesend] a half written story without any ending || isaac

"Rather be a nerd than a square," Isaac explained, his back still to her, but the smugness was apparent on his voice. He didn't mean the word as he might have before; it wasn't an insult, but instead, some inside joke. She was far less of a square than he had initially thought. If she indeed was the person, he had assumed that she wouldn't have been coming down from being drunk, sitting on his bed, in a glittery dress, at two o'clock in the morning. That was not the sort of thing squares did and the teenager was glad that she wasn't one.

While he wasn't embarrassed that he enjoyed reading, Isaac hoped the conversation wouldn't center around it either. As much as he told himself, he didn't care that she knew he did. It was hard not to. At Hogwarts, he was one person; in his room, he was another, but wasn't every teenager that way? Just because he pretended to be sure of himself around, everyone else didn't mean he was one hundred percent okay with who he was. Reading as a means of escape, a way to get out of his head and this awful word and live somewhere else for a while. Of course, the books he chose were often about worse people and places than he knew in reality; the horror novels specifically.

"Did you have something else in mind?" Isaac asked, smirking as she claimed to have not expected they were coming here for a sweater. Feeling electric from her words and how close they were sitting on his bed, Isaac turned toward her. He thought about kissing her so many times already tonight. After the fights and after they had sort of shared something on the porch at the party. On the pier waiting for the ferry when they were keeping each other warm. And now, he could have done it, he wanted to, but would she want him to? Was that what she meant? Isaac usually felt like he understood what other people were thinking, that he knew their motivations, but Magnolia was a mystery to him. Every time he thought he had her figured out, she did the opposite of what he would expect.

She pulled the sweater she had borrowed initially off and stole the new one instead, and Isaac watched her do it. Imagining for a moment that the hoodie wasn't the only thing she took off, and his smile grew. When she handed him back the first one, he instantly frowned. "I am going to be covered in glitter wearing this," He turned it over in his hand to show her the copious amounts of glitter inside the sweater. He thought about looking for another, but he wasn't sure if he even had a third sweater. Besides, he wanted to wear this one now. Glitter or not, there was something symbolic about it.

"Yeah, I figured as much," Isaac shrugged as he slipped his arms into the hoodie and zipped it up. Something about seeing her in his clothing made him crazy and utterly unconcerned about the fact that he was never getting that hoodie back.

"Seriously, though, what were you expecting would happen here?" Isaac returned the conversation to a much more exciting topic as he moved to sit closer to her.

Magnolia supposed that if she had to pick between being a nerd or a square, she’d choose the latter. Studying was a pain whether one enjoyed it or not but as a square she could still have parental-approved fun, and that was always better than wasting her time learning information she probably wouldn’t use after graduation. But most importantly, she’d be a square because Isaac called her that and for some strange reason, she had become enamored with the insult finding that as long as he was the one that said it, it didn’t really feel like it was coming from a negative place. It was just a part of their little space of shared memories.

Then again, Magnolia had also thought that whatever insult Roderick threw her way came from a place of deep-seated affection, and well, she already knew how that one had turned out. She had a tendency to romanticize everything, and maybe that was a problem she ought to work on but for now, that wasn’t the root of her problems.

What was a problem was her belief that she could say something like she had and not expect to answer for it. It had been a half-joke, a few words strung together in an effort to sound much cooler than she really was but more importantly, to give him a teasing verbal jab once in a while to stop things from getting too serious between them. What had she had in mind? Well, that wasn’t the right question because several things had and none of them were probably ever going to happen.

Plus, she wasn’t about to share that with Isaac, not so that he could go right back to school and tell everyone what a pervert she was. Magnolia knew he would do that, and even if he promised not to, that was not a risk that the girl would willingly take. So, she took the only route she knew how to take: to push him a little and force him to fold.

“A few things,” she shrugged it off as if the two of them were discussing the weather, not sitting here in the middle of the night on his bed in an empty house. She had read about things like this in books before, but not the type that Isaac had stacked up in the corner there. Magnolia did not want to elaborate there, wanted to let his mind wander so that she could call him out on it if he was bold enough to bring it up. The Gryffindor was willing to play this game. But only just a little longer.

“Glitter suits you,” she teased when he complained about the glitter, in Magnolia’s world it was one of the many little insignificant inconveniences of looking as good as she often did when she went out, “and then,” she added, slipping on arm into the hoodie before putting in the other, “you’ll remember I was in it every time you wear it,” she added with a smile. “I wouldn’t wash it with the other clothes though, then you’ll have glitter on everything,” she warned. Magnolia liked the idea that she was wearing his sweaters now, it felt personal, and sort of like the type of middle ground that she liked. Plus he wasn’t complaining about getting his sweater back, two-thousand and four was getting better by the hour.

“What do you normally do with girls you bring back to your room, Isaac?” she asked. It was a loaded question, but she figured he probably wouldn’t even answer it so why not. “Have a chat? Study?” she suggested.

A few things? A few things?! What did that mean? Isaac was excited by the idea, and for a moment, he let his mind wander; of course, what he was thinking was almost absolutely not what she was thinking. That wouldn't stop the teenage wizard from daydreaming a little, though, and it was an exciting image. Isaac had asked Magnolia if they could find a middle ground, but he had not expected her to agree to so much so soon. Was she implying what he thought she was? The teenager was excited by the prospect but still unsure. He saw the look on her face, that twinkle in her eyes, and he felt like she was messing with him.

Her comments about glitter washed over him, but he nodded; he didn't care if he drowned in the stuff. He wanted to keep talking about something else. He would probably end up washing the sweater with his other clothes just in time to return to Hogwarts covered in sparkles, but Isaac couldn't be bothered dot think about that right now. Not with her saying such interesting things. He thought she might tell him precisely what he wanted to hear. No, he hoped that she would, but it was never the case with Magnolia. Instead, she brought up other girls, and this weird fascination she had with his past romances. It was like she wanted to hear the stories, and Isaac didn't understand it, but he would comply.

"Well, we certainly are not reading," He told her smugly, implying things and letting her imagination run wild was one of his very favorite ways to tease her. Magnolia jumped to conclusions more than he did, and he loved where her mind went sometimes. Like hexes on ferries to keep the muggles in, he smiled at the thought, but then a wave of something hit him. He should have told her the truth now, and not messed with her, especially if he was trying to be kind. It was so easy to taunt her, to fall back into his familiar pattern of treating her as less than a friend, but Isaac wanted more. And he needed her to know that.

A flicker of nervousness hit him, and he ran his hand over his hair before speaking again. "I do not normally bring girls here," He admitted, and it was the truth whether she believed it or not. Isaac's brown eyes found hers, and he tried to smile, tried to seem authentic, but he just looked apprehensive. "You are the first," Isaac was only ashamed of where he came from when it mattered. He wore his Tilbury origins like a badge of honor when he was at parties. Isaac was the tough kid from the wrong side of the tracks. He was the kid who survived Tilbury and all of the bad shit that happened there. It made him feel like an enigma around his friends.

It made him feel worthless around Magnolia. Like he came from nothing, so he was nothing, and she came from everything, making her everything.

Even if Isaac had refused to answer the question, it would not have taken Magnolia long for her mind to wander to the type of things she assumed he did with his “girl” friends. Sure it was a little judgemental on her part (read: very) but it wasn’t like he was going around trying to disprove that image, either. Then again, Magnolia supposed that it only played into his whole I don’t care what people think of me thing he had going on.

But that only made her think about the sorts of girls he brought home and if she knew any of them, particularly Allison who had sort of become the bane of her existence without really knowing it. Or if she did realize it, Allison was pretty good at not caring whatsoever. Magnolia knew for a fact that Allison and Isaac did way more than reading together, though the idea that Isaac might do that was appealing. Not with Allison, though, she reminded herself but naturally, the image sort of appeared in her head and made her jealous for no reason at all.

But before her mind could wander into the abyss and never return, he said something completely unexpected, so strangely unreal in fact that she hesitated to believe he was telling her the truth. “Sure, sure,” she rolled her eyes for dramatic effect, “I’m sure it’s what you tell all the girls,” she added with a bit of a smile, playing it off as if she didn’t care if he did because well he was free to do whatever he wanted. They weren’t in a relationship, or anything, no matter how desperately she had hoped that would have changed by now. The thought that he could have brought home any other girl at the party didn’t really make her feel any better either because here he was treating her like she was the irresponsible friend that had gotten too drunk and he was responsible for taking care of, not the girl he was eager to take home for some alone time.

He might not have brought girls to his flat, but surely, he took them elsewhere. “I like it, it’s pretty cozy,” she decided, feeling that she ought to say something about his room if he had done her the whole honor of letting her be the first official girl “guest” he’s ever had over. “Not girls, but surely like your friends, right?” she asked, more expressed looking for clarification on whether Allison had sat in the same place that she had been sitting. And as she waited for a response, her hand lingered on the zipper of the hoodie, pulling it up just a little before the teeth of the zipper slowly unattached as she pulled it back down.

Now that he had shared something, Magnolia felt hard-pressed to share something in return as part of their little friendship agreement and before she could really think things through to sell a much more interesting image to herself, she said the first thing that popped into her head, “well boys aren’t allowed in my room, either so, I guess I can relate,” she said, her words slowing down as she realized how super square she sounded now. She was a square squared and she sort of wanted to hide under a rock for sounding like she was ten and not sixteen.

Why did he care if she believed him? Isaac was beating himself up about the words almost as soon as they had escaped his lips. This was part of why being around Magnolia was so frustrating for him. He wanted to be someone else around her, and the teenager couldn't decide which version of himself was real. It was like being torn in two by his own inner monologue, and he was tired of it quickly. Obviously, she had ideas about who he was and how he should act, and he hated that she did, but at the same time, he wanted to live up to those expectations. And for what? To be kind of friends with this annoyingly beautiful teenage witch? He was confused.

Her sarcasm was well received, and Isaac even forced a laugh when she didn't believe what he was saying. He didn't tell all of the girls that, but he should have let her think he did. Isaac should have allowed her to believe whatever she wanted about him rather than trying to convince her he was anything more than the stereotype. He didn't owe her anything, and he certainly didn't like being told who to be.

"It fucking sucks here; what are you on about?" He told her, rejecting her 'cozy' claim out of hand and shaking his head. "No, we hang out in London, mostly, never here." Sometimes they would go to the World's End or hang around the train tracks making fun of muggles, but Isaac had never brought his friends from Hogwarts back to his flat. They knew where he lived, but he just never invited him, and they never asked. That was another one of those unspoken things between mates, another thing he would never have with curious pestering Magnolia Hawkins. She always had some questions to ask or assumptions to assert.

"Not even Alison," Isaac narrowed his brows at her when he spoke, knowing precisely what she was getting at because as surprising as she often was, she was easy to read just as often. And he knew she was trying to check out whether or not he'd had girls in his bed. And if he had, if any of those witches were Allison, who she had somehow formed a rivalry with that entertained him to no end.

Boys weren't allowed in her room. He didn't like the idea of her bringing boys home in the first place, but that thought came from somewhere else, and he pushed it away. "That is because you are a square," He reminded her, "I could bring girls here if I wanted to," He shrugged his shoulders and moved further back onto the bed so that his back was against the wall and his legs stretched across it next to her. His sneakers were on the sheets, but what did he care? "I brought you here," Isaac hadn't brought her for a reason she seemed to expect, but now he wished that he had. That he had some grand plan for getting her into this bed, for getting his sweater (and more) off of her, but he didn't.

“Nowhere’s perfect,” she shrugged. “plus I like your flat, feels like people actually live here” she added but wondered if that only sounded like she was highlighting the disparity between her place and his. Those sorts of things had never bothered Magnolia but how could they? She had lived that way all of her life that it felt normal.

Magnolia didn’t want to fixate on people that didn’t matter but when he noted that even Allison had never visited his room, she felt an immediate sense of triumph possibly mixed with a slight sense of relief. But those weren’t the things she was supposed to feel, whatever Isaac and Allison decided to do in their free time together was their business. But that didn’t stop the Gryffindor from feeling several ways about it.

“I mean I don’t really care if you do,” she defended herself almost immediately, but at this point trying to save face felt like a lost cause. “I know the two of you are those types of “friends” or whatever,” she added, air quotations and everything to emphasize that she was well aware of the type of special relationship that they had. Whether she had convinced him that she couldn't care less, however, was still up in the air. The only thing that remained certain was that she still hated Allison, whether she had been in this space or not.

Thankfully, the spotlight had changed back to the status of her squareness soon enough and yes, it seemed like she wasn’t any closer to being cooler now than she had been the previous day. “No,” she rolled her eyes at his conclusion, “it’s because my parents are nutcases and they treat me like I’m seven even though I’m practically an adult,” she scoffed. Magnolia usually didn’t go into her relationship with her parents, mostly because she figured that none of her friends really cared about that as much as they cared about all the gossip she often toted around but telling Isaac about it felt genuine like she could reveal a little bit of who she was.

Her life was far from perfect and even if her concerns were normally minimal in comparison to others, she still did have them. “But I guess I could sneak boys into my room if I wanted to,” she offered, curious if he would willingly come to her home as she had gone to his. However, she figured that her own intentions for bringing him over went far beyond showing him her records collection and maybe had been much more dubious than his own. How could anyone blame her? She was a hormonal sixteen year old with a hyperactive imagination. “I’ll keep you posted whenever I figure out how,” she added with a grin.

Magnolia noticed that he was getting more comfortable on the bed but did not really know what to make of it. It definitely beat being out in the cold but also felt very private, and increasingly surreal. “And now that I know where you live I’ll just cover over whenever I want, okay?” she joked, picking up the book she had been looking at earlier again. “Maybe you can help me study,” she added, though she might have added the emphasis to the wrong word, not that she was entirely opposed to the idea of not studying like ever.

"I think you do care," Isaac asserted as he watched her; if she didn't care, then she wouldn't have brought up Alison every five minutes. It was more than just what had happened during Halloween. It was almost like Magnolia was jealous, or so Isaac was starting to believe, and the idea was enticing. If she was jealous of the non-relationship relationship that he had with Allison, then maybe that meant Magnolia wanted the same sort of deal with him. A boy could dream. The way she had said 'friends' made him smile. He considered telling her he would stop being that sort of a friend with Allison if she wanted but remained quiet instead.

"Sounds like your parents are squares too, then," He chuckled as he moved to get more comfortable and then shook his head at her. "No, that is not what it means," Narrowing his eyes at her, Isaac meant what he said. If she showed up announced he would be pissed, bringing her here one time was not an open-ended invitation to pop in whenever she liked. He began to wonder if this was a bad idea, growing annoyed at the thought, but her next words had him forgetting all about it. "Oh?" He asked, reaching out to tug on the sleeve of the sweater she was wearing, silently encouraging her to come and sit next to him against the wall. She was far away, and it was hard to see her face talking like this.

"We could do some studying now if you wanted?" He offered, "We both know your grades could use the extra work, even on Christmas break," Isaac teased her before laughing. Of course, he didn't mean actual studying, but he was pretty sure she hadn't either.

Yes, Isaac was right but she wasn’t going to admit to that, especially not when she knew he would never let her live it down. So, instead, the teenager did what she always did whenever faced with a fact that she wanted to ignore but couldn’t exactly deny. She shrugged her shoulders and muttered, “Whatever,” running a hand through her hair to push it out of her face and to pretend like she was completely unmoved by his suggestion.

Either way, she didn’t want to spend the rest of the night with him talking about his main hook-up nor did she want to encourage it. At least she took pleasure in knowing that a lot of the time he could have spent with the girl during break he had spent with her instead (and not in the way she assumed they usually spent it). So, maybe that meant something. Maybe he respected her or maybe he just didn’t think she was attractive nor interesting enough. Both conclusions, although on the opposite side of the spectrum, did at least ease much of the constant confusion in her head.

“All parents are squares, Isaac,” she scoffed at his assumption, his mum didn’t look like the sort that openly allowed the boy to do whatever he wanted though Magnolia also figured that he probably didn’t care to follow the woman’s rules, based on the last time they had spoken about his mother, Isaac hadn’t sounded completely enchanted with the woman or her line of work. But she didn’t want to get into it with him right now, especially not when he was tugging on the sleeve of the hoodie like he was, in this way that made her melt just a little.

He was so hot and cold with her, so difficult to figure out. Magnolia didn’t question it though, and instead, reached over to unzip her black boots, letting them fall to the floor before she crawled over to sit next to him. Her socks were a metallic rose gold decorated with frilly lace and a bow, probably a little immature compared to the rest of her outfit but they were her favorite. She thought to bring her knees closer to her, only to decide against it when it became very clear that her dress was rising into dangerous territory.

“Hm,” she considered his offer, mulling over the words playfully as she wondered how far she could push this game along before it would stop. Was she ready for the consequences of her actions? Never, but there was nothing as thrilling as making bad decisions only to regret them later. “I don’t think you’d have what it takes to help me keep up with my schoolwork but I do appreciate the effort,” she smiled, leaning over to rest her head on his shoulder. “Plus the last thing I want to do on the first day of the new year is study, what a square move, Isaac.”

Isaac watched in amusement as she slipped off her boots before moving back on the bed, amused that she took off her shoes first, and also by the ridiculous socks she had on. "Those are cute," He mentioned, smirking as he pointed at them. He liked the little bow, especially. The teenager was glad when she slid back to sit with him, but he hadn't expected her to refuse. As she brought her legs closer to her chest, Isaac's eyes landed on the hem of her skirt and then quite nearly shot out of his head. Her dress moved up her thigh, and he sucked in a breath, only to watch her put her legs back down and fix the material. Pity.

"That is a shame," Isaac began, feeling himself relax against the wall as she laid her head on his shoulder. This was such a casual way to sit, but at the same time, he felt intensely aware of the space they were sharing. Comfortable but tense. "I know plenty of studying tricks you would enjoy," Now he was saying things he thought sounded cool. Isaac was a sixteen-year-old wizard; he had plenty of experience; he was sure he had more than she did, but he did not have nearly enough to say things like this with this much conviction. Isaac had always been good at being convincing, though.

"Just ask Allison," He teased, wiggling his eyebrows even though she wouldn't be able to see his face with her head on his shoulder. Isaac should have known better than to say something like that, but he didn't, and he laughed at his bad joke.

Just ask Allison, he had said and just like that, whatever ideas she had formulated about this new side of Isaac had practically been shattered. Well, Magnolia had enjoyed it for the short time it had lasted but as all good things with boys, she should have expected that whatever verge of something she thought they were at were just the musings of a half-drunk, nonsensical teenager who couldn’t get her head out of the clouds long enough to admit that this was never going to happen. She took a moment to blankly stare at the closets in her view before sitting up. Only three things in life were guaranteed: death, taxes, and Isaac Hackney’s undoubted talents at being a class A prick. Even when he laughed it sounded like he was doing it at her expense, and she had never felt so heartbroken and provoked at the same time before, at least not that she could remember at the moment.

“And there he goes again,” she started bitterly, grabbing the pillow on the other side of her to smack him with it, though it didn’t do nearly enough damage. So instead, she moved towards the edge of the bed, fully intent on walking away from this situation and never letting herself fall for his game again (but at this point this is the last straw didn’t really mean much anymore). “Whatever, I don’t care, and did not need that mental image in my head but of course, what did I even expect from you, right?” she added, though at this point it was more scolding herself than anger directed at Isaac. His rules had always been consistent, but Magnolia couldn’t let it go, she always wanted to be the exception only to come across situations like this where she was reminded that she wasn’t special at all, she was just like everyone else. To Isaac, she’d just be another Allison, and that was not what she wanted, middle ground or no ground at all.

“So now that you’ve gotten your shit can we go now?” she asked, the tone of her voice as angry as the way in which she pulled on the zipper of her boots once she put them on. “Because if you’re expecting me to put out that’s never going to happen so I can just leave instead so that you can call your little friend over, yeah?” she finally turned to him, frowning as she was so used to doing and waiting for him to figure out what it is that he wanted to do.

"What?" Isaac said between another laugh, moving to playfully shield his face as she smacked him with the pillow; he still hadn't figured out she wasn't joking around. It wasn't until she was moving away from him that he started to pick up on it. "Wait, Nola," He began, reaching toward her, but it was too late, and she was flying off the handle. Her long sentences were angry, and he frowned at her as she continued. When she began to put her boots back on, Isaac rolled his eyes at her. "Learn how to take a joke, for fuck's sake. I was just kidding," Isaac told her as he began to shake his head. Of course, she was blowing it out of proportion. He was trying to be funny, but she had to be a baby about it.

Sighing when she told him she wasn't going to put out, Isaac didn't like the way all of the words sounded coming from her. Like she thought, that was all he wanted, or that was all she was good for to him. It hadn't been like that, it had never been like that where Magnolia was concerned, but Isaac was so used to being an asshole that it was hard to separate his feelings. He was a dick to most of the witches at Hogwarts, he did treat them just like she assumed he did, but Isaac was awful to everyone. It was different with Magnolia; she was better, and she deserved better.

Pushing away from the wall, Isaac got off of the bed and stared at her for a moment, angry thoughts mixing with some part of his mind telling him to apologize until finally, he said nearly nothing. "Whatever, let's go, then," He shrugged and turned around to leave. The teenager snatched his keys from the bowl, and it nearly fell off of the counter from the force. He opened the door, waiting for her to exit, before slamming it behind them and clicking the lock into place. "I wasn't trying to be an asshole," Isaac muttered as he breezed past her and down the stairs.

Was she being dramatic? Probably. Magnolia was a light-hearted person, could take a joke just like anyone else, laugh it off, and forget about it. Part of her charm was her ridiculous behavior and laughing was the sort of medicinal thing that kept her from going off the deep end and getting angry with the entire universe like Isaac had done. But most importantly, Magnolia often found it easy to laugh off things that didn’t matter, like Allison and Isaac which she had, on countless times, decided was none of her concern. So, why couldn’t her feelings align with her words anymore? It had her feeling much more conflicted than she had initially bargained to.

“I’m not mad,” said the person that was obviously quite upset with what Isaac had said. But she felt that saying the opposite of how she was actually feeling might have in a twist of fate calm her down. This angry, jealous side of her wasn’t the part that she wanted him to see, it made her seem too invested in emotions she had sworn to keep to herself. She had tried to make this work, he was willing to meet her halfway, and feelings of jealousy were simply not part of the equation. This, she decided, was going to be much more difficult than she originally thought. Maybe casual Nola was not really a mode she could slip into whenever she felt like it.

At least they were leaving his flat and hopefully all of the weird, negative energy they had experienced back there. After she had cooled down, which had been appropriately fast for someone who never held a grudge, Magnolia realized that maybe she should have apologized for her tantrum. But maybe wasn’t enough to convince her to do it, and so, she decided that the best thing was to put a little more distance between the two of them. When he passed her, after slamming the door shut, she ignored whatever that phrase was supposed to mean and kept her hands busy by tucking them into the pockets of the hoodie. It was still cold outside.

“Just forget it, alright?” she started, taking her time to walk down the stairs several steps behind him. Magnolia didn’t want to be next to him, not when she was feeling less than her usual self. If she could just whatever she thought was happening at his flat behind her then it wouldn’t matter anymore. “Anyway, where are you taking me?”

"Why would I care if you were mad?" Isaac knew it was a cruel thing to say, but she was blowing everything out of proportion, and it made his head spin. Two seconds ago, they were nearly making out on his bed, and now they were stomping through the apartment lobby. He had thought about apologizing but then reminded himself it had been a joke, and she was overreacting. She said she wasn't mad, which should have been a middle ground for him to find, but instead, he just doubled down. She said forget it, and Isaac became dead set on doing anything but. Even if she had apologized, it probably wouldn't have helped. And he felt like it would be the same if he had tried to take it back. The push and pull was maddening.

"To the diner?" He said flatly, half asking, half accusing her of forgetting the original plan. "Unless you just want me to take you home?" It was late, and he knew she told her folks she was staying at some friends, but Isaac wasn't signing up to take her halfway across England. He'd pay for her trip across the Thames and made sure she got back to her house, but that was as far as he'd go. He didn't care if she got into trouble.

A part of him knew that he was overreacting now too, taking everything further than it should have needed to go, but even knowing that he couldn't stop himself. He was fully sober now, that little annoying headache starting in the back of his mind from beginning to drink and stopping. And he was exhausted, from the night, the arguing, and from being cold for so long. And most of all, he was disappointed. He thought something might have been about to happen between them, and he had been ridiculously excited about it. And now that it was taken away, he felt slighted, and that hurt.

"What do you want to do?" He asked as the cold air hit them, and he let the door to the apartment complex lock behind them.

Magnolia wasn’t supposed to care when he said that he didn’t care if she was mad but she cared because he wasn’t allowed to be angry at her when she was angry at him, it didn’t work that way, it only managed to further confuse her. It was obvious she was upset and this was his cue to apologize, and then things would straighten themselves out again until the next time they’d follow this pattern of back and forth, one they had seemingly established months ago. It had been fun in the beginning, a challenge to outwit each other that the Gryffindor was completely invested in. But at times, in situations like these where he made fun of her emotions like nothing she said even mattered, it hurt, and rather than express that like the normal, communicative teenager she was when talking to her friends or family, Magnolia became exasperated and folded into herself, doing her damndest to push whatever residual feelings she thought she had deep down enough so they wouldn’t matter anymore.

But of course, instead of saying that, she had changed the subject, only half-way trying to act like she was interested in figuring out more about where they were headed but her tone had come out all wrong. She had meant to say Why don’t you just apologize? in the way she had demanded to know where he was taking her and it felt all wrong. Confused. So, Magnolia should have expected the way in which he answered, the annoyance in his voice (real or imagined, it was hard to tell at this point) making her feel like she had done something wrong that she could no longer undo. Magnolia shook her head because she didn’t want to leave things like this but he probably hadn’t even looked in her direction, so she stayed quiet a little longer.

The Gryffindor wondered how long she’d have to hold out to make him feel compelled to fix whatever had gone wrong between them, not that interested in taking responsibility for something that might have been completely her doing. Magnolia didn’t like the thought of him having something else to hold over her head, nor did she want to apologize for him to laugh at her or decide that she could go home now. It wasn’t about getting in trouble anymore, if they removed some of the darker moments from the night, things had been just peachy. It was easy to ignore most of the bad in favor of those small moments of pure happiness. Like most things that required dedication, Magnolia couldn’t stay angry long enough to really give him the silent treatment he deserved.

“We can go to the diner,” she said quietly, “but if you rather not, we can call it a night, I sort of know how to get back to the ferry or I can figure it out or whatever,” she added. “I don’t need a babysitter if that’s what you’re doing,” she clarified.

"You are not fucking walking home alone at this time of night, Magnolia," Not in fucking Tilbury, he thought but didn't find the need to elaborate. Isaac didn't even want her talking to strangers in the middle of the party, let alone walking by herself in the dark. There was not a chance in hell he would let her go home by herself, but he'd take her home if that were what she wanted. Pissy or not, he still hoped that that wouldn't be the case. He was starting to close the door on this whole 'middle ground' she had teased him with, but at the very least, maybe they could have a meal together.

"If you want to go home, I will take you," He expressed again, stopping dead in his tracks, in the middle of the sidewalk, and turning to stare at her. Isaac shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, thankful he had a sweater on now, but he still felt cold. Like it had crept into his bones, and he wasn't going to be able to shake it for the rest of the night. He could see his breath as he took a deep breath and finally exhaled. "The diner is right there," He pointed at it. Though it was behind a small line of trees, it was easy enough to see the glowing sign that read 'The World's End,' only two of the letters were broken today, which was less than usual, so some asshole must have been doing maintenance in exchange for free drinks.

"It is your choice?"