Time Out ((Weetzie))

[Aurora Chan]

Aurora peered around with bright eyes at the various shops filled with bustling customers, one arm linked with Lizzie’s, the other around Rose’s. The three girls giggled together as behind them four boys brought up the rear, amused smiles playing on their faces at the sight of their female friends’ enjoyment. Aurora and her fellow band members were strolling along the local Manchester malls, having just watched a movie at the cinema. It wasn’t frequent all seven off them could arrange a time to go out together like this, since most of their time with one another was dedicated to their music commitments, and Aurora wasn’t here till the holidays due to boarding all year round at Hogwarts. Aurora laughed at a sarcastic comment Lizzie made, before Rose made her two friends halt outside WHSmith, declaring she would like to venture inside to purchase some notepads for the upcoming AS year, when she would be taking Art, English Literature, Food and Textile Technology, Psychology and Religious Studies. Her ambition was to become a clothes designer, and her role in Domino was helping her gain much more experience when the time called for her to create costumes for the four performers (now five, adding Leo into the fray). Aurora nodded at Rose’s request, and turned around to alert the approaching boys to this matter. The four of them shrugged their nonchalant approval, causing Aurora to roll her eyes. “Act like you care about something, you emotionless fools.” Aurora joked, eyes twinkling as she thought of Ari’s similar attitude. Aurora wondered how Ari would react if she told her cousin she compared her regularly with men; she shared more personality traits with them than she realised…

“I feel like a drink.” Patrick commented as the girls prepared to enter WHSmith, eyes flicking around for any close beverage cafes. “Isn’t there a Starbucks around here?”
Lizzie gave a roll of her intelligent green eyes at the oldest boy’s observations. “There’s a Starbucks everywhere nowadays. It’s an American invasion in every aspect.” She looked rather disgruntled about the matter, though she was smirking her amusement at the case too. Lizzie had always been rather brash, outspoken and bold, mixing in with her sarcastic approach to all issues. Aurora thought her future wish of being a performer (in any way, Lizzie didn’t specify, because she was too busy complaining about how she’d never hold down a steady job at the rate she was going at because how many people made it big in the entertainment industry?) suited Lizzie well, because she was the type of person who suited that kind of lifestyle – whether she made it big or not. Taking Drama, English Language, Music, ICT and Politics, Lizzie was destined for the big world. Or destined to attempt to break into it anyway. Whatever the future held for her band’s bass player, Aurora was pretty sure Lizzie would make an impact wherever she went.
“It’s a few blocks away.” Jake supplied, skimming over Lizzie’s sarcastic comment. The redhead raised an arm to point in one direction, indicating Starbucks’ position.
“That’s not too far away.” Aurora mused, shifting on the balls of her feet. She honestly abhorred long hours of shopping or walking pointlessly in malls, but to be with her band friends, she would put up with anything. “I’ll go first. You should stick with Rose, Patrick. After all, boyfriends and girlfriends should stay together. I need to sit down before I collapse anyway.” Aurora supplied with a wink as Lizzie smirked with another roll of her eyes, whilst Rose giggled in amusement at Aurora’s typical behaviour. Their lead singer just couldn’t stand more than an hour or so of straight walking. “I’ll get the drinks for you. You know how long Starbucks queues are.” Aurora pointed out in case anyone wanted to shoot down her idea.

“Right. Okay. Thanks.” Patrick nodded, Rose latching herself lovingly onto her long-term boyfriend’s arm with a fond grin. “We’ll meet up with you soon. Don’t freak out if we’re not there in ten minutes. You know what Rosie’s like…” Patrick’s chuckle didn’t cease when Rose gave him a soft hit to the arm, a pout on her face as she dragged her compliant other half into WHSmith.
Aurora giggled to herself at the adorable sight, warmed by the love she saw blossoming between the two of them, but a little put out at the lack of love in her own life. Suppressing a sigh, Aurora was about to say goodbye to the others, before Daniel interrupted her. “I’ll come with you.” He stated more than offered himself as he stepped forward, away from Jake, Oliver and Lizzie. Aurora noticed Lizzie’s eyes narrow a little at Daniel’s attempt to join Aurora, and looked ready to protest, until Aurora got there before her.
“Fine. Come on then.” She mustered up a bright smile as she avoided Lizzie’s strong glare by turning away and starting towards the direction Starbucks was meant to be in. “See you guys later!” Aurora felt more than saw Daniel fall in step beside her, and the journey towards Starbucks was a silent, uneventful one, where the pair were often separated through thick crowds. The only conversation they made was when Daniel asked Aurora if she would be returning to Hogwarts in September, to which she replied that she yes, she was. Aurora knew very well Daniel knew the answer to that question already. He needn’t have asked. Finally, after what seemed a long journey from WHSmith, the two found Starbucks, and Aurora gratefully weaved her way with grace through the several cluttered tables. As usual, Starbucks was crowded, and not a spare table seemed to be in sight. Frowning a little as her gaze caught sight of the long queue, Aurora made her way towards the back of the café, where it seemed there were more free spaces.

Indeed, there were several clear tables at the back, which was shrouded in dim light, and the only other person occupying any of the few tables was a girl with dark hair falling down her back, her face looking at the wall. Aurora looked over her quickly, before deeming this area a suitable place to sit. She walked over to a table beside the other girl, not able to see her face still, but sat down anyway, looking up expectantly, though shyly, as Daniel followed her lead. “How about I go get the drinks? You can mind the tables.” Daniel spoke after a moment’s silence. Aurora mumbled her approval and thanks, and a second later, he was already gone, disappearing from view in the clusters of customers mingling around the coffee smelling café. Aurora sighed softly to herself once Daniel’s back was well and truly out of sight, having faded into the several other t-shirts and coats visible. She let out a long breath she didn’t realise she had been holding, and looked around at her surroundings again. It was nice to be away from all the bustle and noise. Aurora’s lazy gaze landed on the other girl, her only company for now, and found herself staring at her back, examining the dark hair and clothes closely. Aurora wasn’t one to stare so blatantly, she believed it to intrude on other’s personal space, and made one feel uncomfortable, but she felt like she knew this girl from somewhere, though she couldn’t quite place her finger on it. Peering nearer, Aurora finally hit the nail on the head as she realised with a jolt who this person represented. She rarely recognised someone wrongly.
“Weetzie?” Aurora exclaimed in surprise out loud, “That you?” Aurora was pretty sure that Weetzie didn’t normally dress that way, though she had rarely seen her fellow Hufflepuff in civilian clothing. Weetzie O’Keeffe was in the same year as Aurora, one of her friends, though they weren’t that close. Aurora wondered what she was doing here, but hoped that for now, this was Weetzie in the first place.

[Weetzie O'Keeffe H7]

“You about ready, Baby Doll?” Maire asked as she peered into her daughter’s room through the open door. Weetzie looked up from her laptop at her mother. Her brown hair was loose around her shoulders today, and her bangs were in the green eyes that Weetzie had inherited from her. Maire was a shorter woman, only about 5’6” or so and Weetzie had also inherited that. Weetzie returned to her laptop, clicked off the music she had been downloading, and pushed her rolling chair back across her floor to her CD collection to pop in the case that she had taken off the wall. “Do we really have to go to the mall, Mum?” Weetzie looked over her CD collection, making sure everything was in order, “You know I’m not much for malls,” she slid her chair underneath her desk as she stood and looked at her mother. Maire looked down at her shoes, which were Weetzie’s actually, and shrugged; “I thought it’d be nice to have some mother daughter time, Weetz. We haven’t done anything together all summer.” Weetzie rolled her eyes and grabbed her handbag. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to spend time with her mother, it was…well, no, it was because she didn’t want to spend time with her mother. Weetzie didn’t want to spend time with anyone, really, but her mother just couldn’t seem to grasp that. Maire looked back up as Weetzie shoved her handbag onto her shoulder and grabbed her mother’s hand, pulling her out of the doorway and down the hall; “What’s the game plan?” Weetzie asked as they entered the kitchen. Maire smiled brightly, clearly euphoric that her daughter had decided to join her, “I’m thinking…books, CDs, clothes, and Starbucks; sound good Baby Doll?”

Weetzie nodded and pushed her hair behind her shoulder as she turned to look at her mother. Maire pulled out her wand, gripped Weetzie’s hand, and within a millisecond they had disappeared from the kitchen in their cottage in Hogsmeade. Weetzie really didn’t mind apparating all that much, but she hated when her mother did it without telling her. They appeared in a dark utility closet at the Manchester mall and Weetzie had to hold her stomach and lean against the wall to control her nerves. Maire laughed quietly at her and then pushed open the door, holding it open for Weetzie to step out. If people thought the sight of two women stepping out of a utility closet was odd, they didn’t say anything or let it show. Weetzie looped her arm through Maire’s as they started the walk toward the bookstore. It was large, about two stories, and Maire loved to buy about 10 books at a time, that way she wouldn’t feel the need to come back about a week later. She’d have 10 books, for Maire was a slow reader, to tie her over for a few months. Weetzie didn’t like to read as much as her mother did, it was something they didn’t have in common, but she did like to sit down every now and then with a good book of poems or what have you. Her favourite book had to be her collection of Emily Dickinson poems. Weetzie didn’t need any other book except that one. She could read Emily forever. Her mother, however, was the complete opposite. She loved to read so much that she tended to buy a book she had already read without realizing she had already read it.

Mother and daughter walked around for a bit before reaching their first destination; partaking in light conversation. Chit chat, Weetzie thought grimly. She loathed chit chat, and she found it quite pathetic that she had to have chit chat with her mother because they had become so completely distant from one another over the summer; but what could she do? She was someone different than who she used to be and her mother was having a hard time finding something to talk about that interested Weetzie as well as it interested herself. They left the bookstore with two bags and headed toward the music store. Maire mentioned getting a new Beatles album because her old one had apparently broken, but Weetzie merely shrugged. She wasn’t a big fan of the Beatles, and this was probably just another evident difference in her mother’s personality and her own. They scoped out the music store for a bit and they walked out with three new CDs. One for Weetzie and two for her mother. Maire mentioned going to look at clothes, but Weetzie turned her down saying she couldn’t possibly find anything to her liking in the store that her mother wanted to browse in. So, they went their separate ways and agreed to meet up at Starbucks in about two hours. Weetzie hadn’t anywhere else to go, so she decided to head over to Starbucks early. She’d enjoy the peace and quiet that she would get from sitting by herself at a back table.

It took a bit, but she finally got the tea she wanted and paid for it before making her way to the tables in the back. Weetzie liked being alone now a days. Normally whenever she’d go somewhere and end up alone, she find a group of people who looked interesting to her and strike up a conversation. Her friends used to tease that she would be a great pick up artist at a club or whatnot because she had no issues talking to someone she hardly knew at all. Now? Weetzie just chose not to. She sighed, taking a sip of her tea, and sat down at the furthest table. For awhile, Weetzie was alone and Starbucks had steadily become busier. Another girl took a seat by the table Weetzie was at, but she hardly acknowledged her presence. It wasn’t until the girl spoke that Weetzie even looked at her. Aurora Chan; they had shared a dorm for 6 years. “Used to be. How’re you, Aurora?” Weetzie took another sip of her tea, lounging back in her chair and eying her fellow Hufflepuff.