This is totally normal (riley)

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Sure, sitting alone with a giant envelope and crying next to an ice skating rink was totally normal.

She was holding it close to her chest, all bundled up against the cold. Her tears felt like icicles that started warm and then froze on her cheeks as they fell. It was earlier in the morning, the rink wasn't even open yet, and there weren't that many people around.

She lowered the envelope to look at the front, reading the words. She let out a small, audible cry and then slowly bent her head forward to rest it on the brown paper.

She didn't bother to hide the shivers running through her body as her shoulders shook with her tears. She didn't even realize that a friend was close by.

@riley

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Riley was thoroughly enjoying his winter break, though the dragon attack a few day back had put a bit of a damper on things. The festival, he heard, was still up and running and the village was being put back together. The ministry had been here right away and went to fixing things so that nothing had to shut down for too long. It was nice how everyone had come together to help one another. Though he had tried to stay out of it. Kinsey hadn’t made that possible and then she ended up with a broken arm.

He wasn’t planning on staying in the festival all day, but he wanted to come and get a hot chocolate and maybe do some people watching before he went back to the castle. Maybe he’d check out the bookshop in town if he felt like it a little bit later. But as he passed the still closed ice rink on that frozen morning, he saw something that stopped him in his tracks: Andy.

He walked over and slowly walked over to her, seeing her shoulders shaking and catching the noises that she was making. “Andy? Hey, what’s going on?” he asked her, kneeling down in front of her. He hadn’t really seen her since she graduated. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed her until she was there in front of him.

@lestrange

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She heard her name and immediately looked up to the person that had kneeled in front of her. "Riley," her voice cracked, and she clutched the envelope a little closer. She hadn't even realized how much she needed a friend right now, and how Riley Fudge could be that friend. She bit down on her lip and shook her head, unable to answer right way. 

"I just miss him so much," she finally answered, her voice shaky, cracking and her words uneven in pitch. She took in a deep breath, finally moving the envelope to the side and setting it on the bench next to her. "What are you doing here so early?"

@riley

(I AM SHOOKETH)

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Riley had to admit, off the top of his head, he didn’t know who she was talking about, who she said that she missed, but that wasn’t the important thing. The important thing was the look in her eyes when she saw him there, it was almost thankful, she had needed someone, she didn’t want to be sitting here alone, he noticed. He reached out and set a hand sympathetically on her arm, he knew that some people didn’t want to be touched, but in this case, he figured it was better to do it than to wait for a good time to ask permission, and if she didn’t want it, of course he would apologize, but in his sympathy, and lack of professional training on any sort of bedside manner, he did it. “I’m sorry.” he whispered strongly. “Do you want to talk about it?” he offered. When she asked what he was doing here, he shrugged, wondering if she was just trying to change the subject. "I was just getting out of the castle for the morning. I was going to get a hot chocolate. Maybe you'd like to join me?" he suggested.

@lestrange

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He said he was sorry, asking if she wanted to talk about it. She nodded, but wasn't able to go on just yet. He said that he was just getting out of the castle, and invited her for hot chocolate. She sniffled, "yes, yeah that'd be great, thank you," she released the envelope from her right hand and place it on Riley's shoulder, giving it a short squeeze. Then she stood, blinking her eyes and wiping her nose and eyes on her sleeve one more time before tucking the envelope back into her bag. "They're just letters. Phil and I used to write each other when he was in Brazil," she explained. "He studied abroad there for a semester, Herbology and all that," she continued as they started to make their way.

She let him lead, walking beside him. "Never thought I'd spend so much time just crying over a boy," she scoffed at herself, shaking her head, "how pathetic am I?"

@riley

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A part of him had to admit that he was surprised when Andy agreed to talk about what was going on with her. He really was happy to help and he knew that they had been able to talk to one another in the past. Andy knew about his future career aspirations and knew that he wanted to be a psychologist someday and help people work through their mental and emotional trauma, so maybe that was part of the reason she was willing to talk to him. That, or just because they were friends.

He walked her towards the stand and watched as she tucked the envelops in her hand back into her bag. She explained that they were: letters from Phil from when he had studied in Brazil. “Not pathetic at all. Love can change people from who they were into who they never thought that they’d be.” He knew that well, he had never thought that he would willingly go along with an arranged marriage, but, he would do anything to keep Kinsey safe, and if that was the way then so be it.

@lestrange

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It was very wise what Riley said about love changing you. He had such a calming way of talking, even if he was dealing with his own stuff Andy didn't feel like that hindered his ability to be a good friend. "Yeah... You're right, you're right. It's just all so confusing. Not just the love part. I mean it on top of everything else. Alone I don't think it'd be so much to handle." She had enough madness in her mind to sort though without missing Phil.

Plus, she had started to realize that whenever a big emotion was accessed within her she'd do something crazy to compensate. That was starting to worry her. But also not worrying her at all. Which was... Concerning. It was a vicious cycle.

@riley

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Andy seemed to like his comment, but then said herself that love alone would be enough to handle, but on top of everything else, it was too much. Riley knew that Andy had been through a lot, most of it, he couldn’t even imagine himself. But he still felt the need to ask, “Is there something else going on that you want to talk about?” As bad as it felt to think, he liked talking to Andy, mostly because she was a good friend, but also because he felt like he could practice his skills on her in a real life application. He hoped that she didn’t mind that he was trying to analyze her. He did care about her, and he did want her to be well, but she also had encouraged his ideal profession, so he felt like she wouldn’t mind too much. He also just hadn’t seen her lately and wasn’t fully up to speed on how her life was going, obviously.

@lestrange

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They arrived at the hot chocolate stand as Andy answered his question. "I mean a new job and... My family is all over the place." Plus, I'm killing people in the middle of the night, that's new. She was starting to go a little insane with not having anyone to talk to about that. But she didn't want to go to Azkaban or anything, so how could she possibly say that to anyone? A part of her felt like Vik could handle it but... He wasn't ready. Neither was she.

"It's a bunch of little things that all seem like one big thing. Okay maybe not that little, Neville being ill and all," her adoptive father had been on house arrest for almost ten months now.

@riley

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Riley didn’t blame Andy for her little burst of emotions knowing the stress she was under She added that it might have something to do with starting her new job and the fact that her adoptive father was ill and not doing too well. Of course Riley knew about Neville, at least a little from what went around school, but he knew, and now could see, that it was really weighing down on Andy. By the way that she spoke, he wondered if there wasn’t more going on, but he didn’t want to pressure her into telling him anything that she wasn’t comfortable talking about. He wanted her to be able to trust him. “I’m sorry to hear about all of that.” Riley sighed. “I’m sorry that it’s all coming down on you.” he really was. He wished that he could offer her more advise, but he wasn’t trained as a real therapist yet and he didn’t want to offer anyone bad advice and make anything worse. “Let me try to take your mind off it for a bit?” he offered, handing her a hot chocolate from the stand. They could walk around and enjoy the festival, or sit and talk, whatever she wanted.

((you can respond and then just decide what they do and fade out!))
@lestrange

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He said he was sorry to hear about the stuff she had been going through and she tried to wave a hand as if to dismiss it, but her muscles didn't move. "It's not just on me, thankfully. There are a lot of other people who can help," it was her own fault for not asking them for it. He offered to take her mind off of it, though, handing her the hot cocoa. She took it with a smile, his niceness weirdly reminding her (again) of all the good things she'd lost. But, also, it just made her happy to have a friend... which she still felt she didn't have a lot of. She shoved the envelope into her bag at the first opportunity and tried to ignore it, letting Riley lead her around the festival. She decided to pretend that she didn't have anything else going on in her life. That she was just a girl, out with a good friend, enjoying anything.

@riley
the end