Who: Spinnet Twinsies
What: Lunch Date!
Where: Gustavo’s!
When: Now?
Delilah waited exactly fifty-three minutes before deciding that Charlie was in fact not coming. Her frown deepened as she stood placing money on the table to pay for the tea she was drinking while waiting for her twin to show. Being late was normal, every month one of them was always late, part of the tradition really, but never by this much. The last time Charlie outright skipped a lunch date, well, let’s just say it was concerning.
It didn’t take her long to find track down her brother. He liked to think he could be stealthy but she just knew him to well, with the World Cup just around the corner and his injury at the end of last season the only place he could be was the gym. Okay, not the only, but she was really glad she didn’t have to track him down at Penelope’s house or at his flat. Charlie always got touchy when she tried to invade his time with his girlfriend. Which she completely understood. She leaned against the doorframe watching him lift weights that she would never attempt in fear of breaking something, waiting until he was finished to speak up.
“I think you forgot something important. Usually involves eating, perhaps a bit of drinking depending on how we’re feeling, but always includes dessert. Are you so cruel to deprive me of my monthly giant sundae?”
Charlie had taken to becoming a workout fanatic. When he found himself in a lonely, bitter place, he was often keen to do something drastic to drown the feelings. His mind couldn’t handle all those ridiculous feelings, so he needed to go beater bat swinging into his distractions. Last time he had found himself in this sort of state, he’d become a raging alcoholic that took random women home nearly every night and was out the door before the sun rose.
That had not been a good time.
So, as a testament to his ever growing maturity, Charlie was hitting the gym. The Kestrels were known for the strong and lean physiques and he was keen on being in the perfect fit form for the World Cup. Of course, he had to tiptoe around the allowed regiments from his healer, but Charlie had always been good at bending the rules. He would get the clear to play before March rolled around.
He sat up, dripping in sweat after putting the last barbell down. Charlie grimaced at his sister, shaking his head. “Sorry, I sort of zoned out.”
But the idea of an ice cream sundae on
his diet plan? No way. He’d have to convince her to go somewhere else so he wouldn’t be tempted. “Let me just get changed, and we’ll go.”
Delilah squinted at her brother, trying to figure him out. He’d always been obsessive over quidditch, that was not new. And with the world cup just around the corner, Delilah expected to hear about nothing else, but something was different. He’d never forgotten about lunch just over practicing before.
Following behind him, because personal space and privacy were never things that stopped her, Delilah hovered just behind a set of lockers while her brother changed.
“Did you have to concentrate extra hard because you reached a number higher than a hundred?” she teased as she tested to see if one of the lockers were unlocked, huffing in disappointment when it wasn’t. “I know numbers are hard but they kinda just repeat after a while.” Pouting as her joke fell flat and silence bugged her. Clearly something was wrong with her twin. Which made no sense whatsoever, because Charlie had everything going for him at the moment. World Cup Team! Penny! An amazing sister! Other than a little set back of an injury that he had already almost put behind him, what could he possibly be mopey about.
She jumped away from the locker she was fiddling with when Charlie came around the corner and offered him an innocent smile.
“I think its my turn to buy,” she said even though she knew that it wasn’t, but she was after information so, she had to butter him up because Charlie never talked serious. Not unless he was drunk. Or she was crying. Or having a near meltdown. Hardly ever was the point she was trying to make. And usually always about her. She wasn’t above resorting to bribery. “Where do you want to go?”
“Err----Gustavo’s?”
A little deli near the stadium that had the
best roast beef sandwiches, and was only a few minutes away from the mandatory ice cream shoppe. After the workout he’d just had, Charlie believed he deserved it. And for other reasons, but mostly the work out. He flicked Delilah’s ear (still wasn’t used to her short hair cut) before they headed out.
The January air was still, as predicted, freezing. Charlie truly hated the cold, and wished that the upcoming World Cup would be taking place in a warmer climate than New York. Sure, he was really excited about going, as he’d never left Europe before, but it would be nice to have some time on the beach to relax and clear his head. Clear his head, ha. Charlie didn’t want to particularly
think about anything but quidditch at the moment, and clearing his head meant going into detail about the crap that he wanted to avoid. So basically, even a vacation would make him feel like crap.
Awesome.
“Are you going to eat your crisps?” Charlie asked, mouth already stuffed with the last bits of his sandwich. He wasn’t sure why he bothered with pleasantries; his hand was already scooping some crisps off of Delilah’s plate. “Are you following Summerby to New York?”
“I think my Irish blood dictates that I’m following
you to New York.” Delilah hummed shoving her plate over to Charlie, done with her meal. She thought it was going to be tricky, having both Charlie and Matthew playing in the World Cup, on different teams. She was lucky enough that she started dating him after Puddlemere had played the Kestrels for the season. Obviously at the end of the day she would root for Charlie, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t feel a little bit bad if that ended up meaning rooting
against Matthew. She wondered idly how Penny managed it. “Matthew being there is just like an extra bonus.” Until it came down to England versus Ireland for the cup, then she just might cry. Why couldn’t he just be Irish?
She propped her chin in her hand looking over to Charlie. He was oddly quiet as she babbled on about her dueling,
and Matthew durning lunch. She had fully expected him to cut in at some point and start talking World Cup, or at the very least tell her that he had heard quite enough about her boyfriend, please move on. She stared at her twin as he shoved the last of her crisps into his mouth.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked softly kicking his foot to bring his attention off the food and back to her. “The
World Cup is in just under two months, and you’ve let me sit here and talk about my Dueling
preliminaries all lunch. And my ski trip with Matthew, and I know you love to hear about me falling on my face, but not more than you love to talk about quidditch.” It bothered her that her brother was being so quiet, and that she couldn’t figure out
why.
“Is Penny not coming to New York?” Delilah asked figuring it was the only thing that could put a damper on him going to playing for England. And if she wasn’t, well that was rude. So what if Charlie had beat her brother out for playing for Ireland, they had been dating for what, two years? Not to mention Charlie has been trying to propose for months now, okay so she didn’t know that, but still. Penny following Charlie to New York made much more sense than Delilah following Matthew.
“She might be,” Charlie said with a shrug. He smirked, leaning back in the seat. He really had no idea if Penny was going to be heading to New York, if her brother was making the trip for the sake of quidditch. Who knew if the bloke she’d run off with was some other player, who knew if Charlie would be facing him on the pitch and he wouldn’t have a bloody clue? As...proud as he was of himself for handling the breakup in as mature of a fashion as he could manage, Charlie was regretting not pressing the subject further, not finding out who the guy was. It---caused doubts, in his mind. Was he smarter? Funnier? Did he do things---
It was all ridiculous. He was a professional quidditch player! He had a great sense of humor! He
cared so much about the people close to him, it was sometimes dangerous to his health. Why should he have doubts about what his ex-girlfriend didn’t like about him? Or didn’t like
enough. Could he even say that was the case? Charlie had to wonder why he couldn’t just be one of those asshole players that did not care about other people’s emotions, because there were plenty of them.
He scratched the back of his head, dropping forward to put his elbows on the table. He looked up at Delilah and shook his head, “We broke up last week, so--I don’t know what she’s doing.”
“
What?” Delilah nearly dropped her glass at the unexpected news, sloshing water over her arm and table as she recovered.
Broke up? No. No, Charlie was going to propose. Delilah saw the
ring. The gorgeous, perfect for Penny ring and this made no sense. Charlie loved Penny. Her fingers twitched as she wanted to reach for her wand, because this had to be
her fault.
Charlie did not buy any sort of ring on a whimsy.
“I-- That doesn’t--” her frown deepened as she realized she couldn’t find any words. She had no idea what to say to Charlie other than offer to go jinx his ex which she was sure he would not appreciate (though she was still highly tempted). How annoying was she not even fifteen minutes ago, nattering on about Matthew? And Charlie just sat there and had to listen to it. “I’m so sorry Charlie.”
She ached to ask what happened. What had caused this sudden change, but the look on his face, she couldn’t make him talk about it if he didn’t want to. That would be far too unkind. Reaching over she nudged her fingers against his arm. “This is very clearly
her loss, Charlie. ”
He managed to smile. Delilah was the first person that Charlie had told about the breakup and he was glad she wasn’t asking him what he did wrong or questioning the entire ordeal. He hadn’t wanted a big matter to be made about it, and he wouldn’t let it get to that.
She’d also said exactly what he needed to hear. It
was Penny’s loss. Even as the doubts continued to swirl in his head, it was good to know that someone, even if it was his twin sister, saw some value in him. The blow to his ego that the breakup had knocked the wind out of him, and it helped ease his mind to know that he may not have entirely been the problem. It hadn’t been entirely Penny’s, either, but Charlie was so used to taking the blame for things that failed.
“Thanks,” he said. “It’s---all right. I mean, it’s not
all right, but it wasn’t...I dunno, she doesn’t hate me and I don’t hate her, is what I mean. Does that make sense?”
Delilah tried her best not to wrinkle her nose, because it didn’t make any sense. Though she didn’t know what had happened to cause the break up, Charlie had to be devastated and that alone should be enough reason to hate the Fawcett girl. At least for a little while. But if Charlie didn’t want to hate her, that was fine, she was more than capable of holding enough of a grudge for the both of them. Not that she could do anything about it, because Charlie would never forgive her, because he
didn’t hate her.
“Yeah, it makes sense.” Delilah allowed. Somewhere along the line, Charlie grew up and became the mature one. Which was great, but it also meant that she couldn’t use her usual method of going on an endless rant in attempts to make him feel better. She
hated not knowing what to say.
“Alright. Time for ice cream. And while we eat, we will make plans for New York. I know you’ll be busy, but you have to have time to sneak off and do a few touristy things with your favorite sister.” She stood, poking her brother in the shoulder when he didn’t move fast enough. If they weren’t going to talk about it, then she wasn’t going to let him mope either. “I hear there is a Museum that has
dinosaurs in it. We have to go.”
