Girlfriend at the Time (Bryelle)

[samira ali warsame]

December 2026

When Samira had pictured her life after Hogwarts, her intention had never been to live at home for as long as she had. Living on her own would have been more expensive than she realized, though, especially when most of her money went towards alcohol or partying…or both, frankly. The alternative was finding a flatshare somewhere, but living with a bunch of strangers seemed a little ill-advised, even for her. After quitting her job at C'est La Vie for working the front desk at the Leaky Cauldron, Sami was hopeful that she could actually put some money away to move out.

Ending up as flatmates with Bryelle Goyle would have been a nightmare once upon a time, but that was how most stories went (or they had some variation on that theme). One housewarming party and some alcohol and questionable decisions later, however, and the two had woken up in the same bed. It had been a few days since then, and Sami was almost certain that she or Bryelle would be flipping a coin to figure out which one of them would need to pack up her things and go. The "What happened last night?" conversation had been one that Sami had been able to avoid for longer than twenty-four hours, but she wasn't sure for how much longer she could feign needing to go into work to check on things even though she wasn't scheduled.

Hoping to avoid running into Bryelle, Sami woke earlier than she really cared to and cursed under her breath at the realization that running the shower would definitely wake her. There wasn't any getting around that unless she wanted to start taking sponge baths forever or to start scheduling her showers for whenever Bryelle was out.

bryelle rose goyle

[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

FINALLY. BRYELLE GOYLE WAS FINALLY free from the shackles of her family home, finally free from the ridiculousness and stupidity that her parents consistently exuded. She remembered the day she alongside Sami agreed on becoming flatmates as well as the day they finally found a flat that suited both of their needs. It wasn't too far from the Ministry in Bryelle's regards, especially as she was there most early mornings for her Hit Witch training and Sami was in the process of changing jobs. Either way, everything felt completely and utterly perfect. The Goyle even remembered telling her older brother about the upcoming changes in her life, and how she was looking forward to looking after his cat, now more than ever.

The two settled in comfortably of course, although the bickering between them never really disappeared, a trait they shared while in Hogwarts. Sure, Sami was a year or so older, but that didn't mean Bryelle wouldn't still try to be some kind of asshole. Despite it all, everything was fine. That was until their housewarming party. Bryelle hadn't realised how much she had to drink, alongside the choices she made until she woke the next morning. Eyeliner and mascara smeared yet settled under her eyes and clothes far from the covers she laid within. Except it wasn't her bed and it was Sami's.

No matter how the Goyle felt about the night, she simply couldn't find the right moment to discuss it with Sami as..She was avoiding her..flatmate?..friend?..Just as much as her friend was avoiding her. It had only been a few days that had passed anyway. But luckily for the brunette, her training was fairly early in the morning, meaning she had no time to be awake during the night, and she was usually out of the door before Sami was even awake. Though, on that particular day, the timetable for training had changed, meaning it was during the evening instead of the morning - which ultimately meant..Bryelle had nothing to do for half the day.

Tying long hair into a loose ponytail, Bryelle stepped out from the bathroom - morning wash and skincare prep done and turned the corner of their apartment, ready to head to her room. While the Goyle expected the hallway to be empty, she froze in her place as she almost collided with Sami and almost immediately, the Gryffindor alums cheeks flushed red. "Um.." She began, lifting a hand to gently scratch at the back of her neck rather awkwardly. "Good..morning?.."

| samira ali warsame |

hopefully this works!

[samira ali warsame]

December 2026

It was every bit as awkward as Sami expected that it would be when Bryelle finally approached her. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide when they shared the same flat, not to mention that she needed to go into the bathroom that Bryelle had just exited. Short of Disapparating away and finding somewhere to shower at the Leaky Cauldron (or running to her parents'), there wasn't much else that she could do… and she couldn't say that it would be particularly reasonable, in any case.

At least Bryelle broke the silence between them by speaking first. Sami was glad that she had, since it meant that she didn't have to come up with something to say to try to smooth everything over. Being wished a good morning was almost worse, though, because there was nothing in that for Sami to be able to determine how Bryelle felt about the situation that they were in.

Breathing in sharply, Sami tried to pretend that she hadn't been avoiding Bryelle. "Er, morning," she said. It could have been something she had dreamed up, she tried to convince herself. Maybe it had been the alcohol.

bryelle rose goyle

[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

IN THIS MOMENT ALONE, BRYELLE secretly wished to Merlin for the world to eat her whole, simply so she wouldn't need to have this conversation with her...roommate-friend-hookup. Of course, it was bound to happen eventually, considering the two lived with one another - and the fact that the world was against her in this moment - but it still didn't ease the Goyle's nerves.

Watching her roommate carefully, light eyes tried to figure out Sami's emotions, but from a spur of nerves, Bryelle quickly looked away and cleared her throat once Sami spoke. The Goyle didn't know where to start. 'Hey, I know we kind of hooked up with one another, and potentially don't remember much aside from waking up naked next to one another but are we cool?' didn't sound like a great conversation starter or even ending. Feeling like the silence in the air had gone on for too long, Bryelle spoke up once more. "We..should talk..about..everything."

| samira ali warsame |

[samira ali warsame]

December 2026

It was bound to happen sooner or later. It was just a matter of which one of them would be the one to gather up enough courage to say it. Bryelle did, but there was enough space between each of her words to make Sami think that it had been only luck that had led her to speak up about what had happened first. "We… should talk… about… everything."

Bryelle… wasn't wrong.

Then, as conversations generally went, it was Sami's turn to respond again. The problem there was that she realized that starting the hard conversation was a lot easier than determining what to say after that. Bryelle had gotten the easier side of things. "Yeah." Agreeing was a start, Sami thought, as she tried to buy herself a few more seconds of time. Her throat felt dry. "Erm, we… We should, yeah."

They could keep beating around the bush for the rest of the day until it was no longer morning, or one of them could say something about what they really meant. "So…" There was no point in apologizing for how weird she was going to sound. They had already passed that point. "We f**ked up, didn't we?"

bryelle rose goyle

[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

AVOIDING EYE CONTACT WITH SAMI was the best choice Bryelle could've made for that moment. The Goyle knew the moment her eyes would lock on with Sami's, her face would flush and no words would even dare to escape her lips. So instead she chose to look at Sami's nose, her lips or down at her hands. It gave a similar illusion that she was giving her eye contact without really embarrassing herself or making herself shy. Clearing her throat as she stood in the hallway, Bryelle leaned against the door frame as Sami began speaking.

"Yeah..I guess we did." Bryelle wanted to ask what Sami remembered of the night, if she recalled as much as she did, right down to the..finer details of what occurred way into the night. "We..uh..Between us..that happened right?.." She asked, looking down at her feet while a rose colour appeared on her cheeks. "Like..we were both pretty wasted right?"

| samira ali warsame |

[samira ali warsame]

December 2026

Bryelle seemed to be in agreement that maybe they had screwed up—to be a little less vulgar about it—with what they had done. She also asked to confirm that what had happened between them had actually happened, and Sami nodded because she felt that she needed to. Neither of them had dreamed it; it was real, and now they had to deal with the consequences. They were flatmates, but that was supposed to be the extent of it. Could they even stay flatmates after that? Everything was up in the air, and Sami really didn't want to have to move back home with her family—or explain to them why her living arrangements with Bryelle hadn't worked out.

The next question that Bryelle asked her was that they both had been "pretty wasted" at the time when things had… gone down as they had.

That was true, too, and Sami nodded again. "Yeah, er, we were definitely wasted." They could blame it on the alcohol and leave it at that, maybe? That was an option.

bryelle rose goyle

[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

WITH EVERYTHING THAT HAD HAPPENED, Bryelle was sure there was no way they could go back to what they had before. Their friendship was rocky, it always had been, and during other times it overstepped boundaries that wouldn't even consider them as friends. But after this? There was definitely a need for a change.

"So what now then?" She began, rubbing at her arm. "I don't..want to move back home..nor..do I think what we did was a bad..thing.." Was this her way of confessing?

| samira ali warsame |

[samira ali warsame]

December 2026

Bryelle questioned what they were supposed to do. "I don't… want to move back home," she began.

"Yeah." Sami understood that completely. Her mind was still fixated on the thought that if her family ever found out that the reason for her change in living situation was because she and Bryelle had been involved with one another like that, it wouldn't be pretty. She had wanted to move out from under their roof to have more freedom, but she hadn't expected it to reach… that extent.

What caught Sami off guard was that Bryelle didn't just mention not wanting to move back home. After that little conjunction "nor", she said something seriously unexpected, and that was that she didn't think that what they had done was a bad thing.

Without thinking too much about it, Sami immediately felt the need to shake some sense into Bryelle. Of course what they had done was a bad thing. They were flatmates! They weren't supposed to get quite that cozy with each other. Was she out of her mind?!

And then it hit her. There was a chance—however stupid of her to think that there was—that Bryelle had said what she'd said because she'd liked it. Sami's head felt as though it had started spinning all of a sudden, even though she wasn't moving at all. From the standpoint of their sharing a flat without the expectation of having any sort of relationship beyond that, it was a bad thing. They had both crossed what Sami had assumed would have been a huge unspoken boundary.

If it wasn't "a bad thing", though, was that because it was a neutral thing or a good thing? Determining the answer to that question, Sami figured, wasn't something she could do with a flip of a coin. So Sami just had to blurt it out and ask. "Wait, so… Does that mean you're, you know, okay with it?" she checked, trying to be subtle even though it was just the two of them.

bryelle rose goyle

[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

KNOWING THAT IT WAS RISKY to confidently state such a thing, the Goyle felt accomplished as she watched the realisation sink into Sami's facial expressions, how the thought of the two of them in a relationship probably clouded her thoughts, and even how her question brought a smile to Bryelle's lips.

Sure, Bryelle could be rejected, it wouldn't have been the first time, but considering they were here now, talking about it..it gave the Goyle hope that there would be a slight chance. "Yeah..that's..exactly what I meant." The blush crept onto her cheeks then, while she looked away.

"I mean..I was still sober-ish when we kissed..And you know..you're attractive..but if you're..not attracted to girls or whatever..I can just find another place or.." She kept quietly rambling then, not knowing when to shut up.

| samira ali warsame |

[samira ali warsame]

December 2026

"Yeah…" Bryelle answered her. That was, she said, "exactly" what she had meant; she was okay with what had happened between them. Sami blinked, hardly noticing that Bryelle had looked away. She was okay with it.

Even though Sami could have gone through everything Bryelle had said to pick it apart and figure out what she really meant, Bryelle cleared up some of her feelings on the situation. "I mean… I was still sober-ish when we kissed… And you know… you're attractive… but if you're… not attracted to girls or whatever… I can just find another place or…"

It felt good to hear someone say that she was attractive. That she was hearing it from her presumably sober flatmate? Well, that was obviously not something that Samira could have anticipated. She didn't think that Bryelle needed to find another place to live, though. If Bryelle was really okay with it…

"Yeah, I'm… attracted to girls," Sami replied. She hadn't just been experimenting while she had been at Hogwarts, and she had even managed to come out of the closet to her family, which was something that she had thought she wouldn't do in a million years. She was bisexual, and she was at a point in her life where she didn't feel the need to keep it hidden in any way. "And you, er, don't need to find someplace else to live," she continued. "We can just… put this behind us, and no one has to know." They could keep it between themselves. Other people had done the same thing before, probably.

bryelle rose goyle

[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

NO ONE HAS TO KNOW? Bryelle felt herself blink for a moment. And then another. And then another. If Sami was attracted to girls, fine with Bryelle staying and Bryelle had made it clear that she was fine with everything that had happened, and even how the night had ended...what was really the problem?

"Um.." She began, an awkward smile raising at her lips while she laughed a little awkwardly. "Sami..Why would I wanna forget?.." Was Sami dense..? Did Bryelle need to really spell it out? Or had she missed the memo? "If you're..fine with it..attracted to girls..telling me I don't need a new place then..Surely..you liked it also?"

| samira ali warsame |

[samira ali warsame]

December 2026

Bryelle sounded happier than Sami expected her to. She was smiling and laughing, and it didn't seem like it was out of nervousness. "Sami… Why would I wanna forget?"

Wait. …What?

Fortunately, Bryelle broke it down for her. "If you're… fine with it… attracted to girls… telling me I don't need a new place then… Surely… you liked it also?"

When she put it that way, it was clearer. Sami was already out to her family, so hiding from them wasn't a problem anymore. Both she and Bryelle were okay with what had happened. They were both attracted to girls… They were attracted to each other.

"I…" Sami was still trying to make sense of this realization. "I guess I did, yeah." They hadn't just acted out of drunken stupidity. There was actually something else there, perhaps.

bryelle rose goyle

[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

HELPING SAMI PIECE THE PUZZLE together should not have brought a smile to Bryelle Goyle's lips. But she couldn't help but grin in the older girl's direction. They had once hated one another, had grown into friends and now they were tip-toeing on the border between friendship and something more.

"I mean..we were drunk.." Bryelle began, being a little reasonable. "But sometimes..you know..they say a drunk mans words or actions are a reflection of the truth.." Bryelle couldn't help but smile a little wider then, looking up from the ground and over at Sami.

| samira ali warsame |

[samira ali warsame]

December 2026

Seeing Bryelle's smile made Sami feel less tense. What they had done a few nights before could have been disastrous, but it had ended up anything but. Just like that, they had wound up in a conversation about whether or not they might be something more than flatmates. It had been a while since Sami had dated anyone, so it was even stranger for her that it would end up happening as it was playing out before her eyes. "I mean… We were drunk…" Bryelle reasoned, and Sami worried that maybe she was beginning to reconsider their interactions. "But sometimes… You know… They say a drunk man's words or actions are a reflection of the truth."

And a drunk woman's? Sami guessed that the saying had to extend to them, too. "So…" She was at a loss for what else to say, but Sami was beginning to think that maybe that was a good thing rather than a bad one. "I don't really want to leave this until after work…" she admitted. For her own sanity, she couldn't. "But we should put a label on… this." The two of them. Their… relationship. "Flatmates with benefits?" Sami asked, knowing that sounded stupid from the moment she said it.

bryelle rose goyle