But it's just a kiss..? PV Serena Towers Closed

Interacting with Milo (@Delilah Stewart)

Serena clutched her face, her hood over her head again as she stormed away from the group. Her cheek stung and there was very likely bruising forming on her face. She wanted to go back into her cabin, hide under her blanket and never leave. Unfortunately, with the summer heat, she did not have a large comfy duvet to hide under. That and Howard shared her cabin. Right now, she did not want to be around him. Admittedly, it might not have been his fault but she was angry and with everything that just happened, it was likely best to just avoid being near him.

She marched away from the group, trying to find a quiet area to just sit by herself. Spotting a relatively quiet area, she noticed one of the cooler boxes nearby. There were also some figures around but she paid zero attention to any of them. Her anger was starting to fade away but she felt just done with the whole situation and now, she was just mostly upset that it had to happen in the first place. Though, perhaps still too annoyed or upset to talk to anyone. Since her face really stung, she went towards the box. Opening it, she rooted inside to take out an ice pack and a cold can of coke.

Standing up, she pressed the ice pack against her face. It was meant to keep the drinks cold but at this point, she did not care. Her face hurt too much. Was she bleeding? She had no idea. Why did she have to get dragged into this entire mess? There were many questions running through her mind, still trying to process what the heck had happened.

Serena went to move away from the cooler box, pausing as her gaze fell onto a familiar face. "Milo..." She mumbled under her breath. She would have avoided him, she wanted to avoid everyone. But he was looking at her. At this point, it would be awkward to ignore him. She immediately lowered the ice pack, as though pretending she was completely fine.

But then remembered that her face was likely bruised and injured. Quickly, she returned it to her face, trying to hide it. It did not help that she had gotten so angry that she had cried. Her head lowered, trying to hide her face from his vision using the angle, the ice pack, the hood and her hair. Had he seen the entire fiasco? Geesh, she must have looked useless. What did he think? This was not her. She did not know what else to really say. She was not exactly in the mood for a conversation, she just wanted to scream into the void. But she was forcing herself to try and be polite and calm. Though she had no idea how to be polite right now, she just wanted to be left alone or go cry somewhere in the corner, "Hey so... I uh, I haven't eaten... so I should probably go... get... something... to eat..." She mumbled out, pointing in a random direction, mostly just away from him.

There were picnic baskets full of food for the party around the place. There might have even been one right next to them in reality. She was just not paying much attention to the environment and was mostly just trying to leave so she did not have to stand there, looking like she was about to cry again in front of him. Serena took a step back, just awkwardly trying to leave before she got too emotional.

Outfit of the Evening

Speech

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RPing as iNPC Milo Durand Date: 28th August 2021 post-spin the bottle Outfit:This Interacting with: @Serena Towers

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He wanted to get involved so badly, he watched this muscular guy who seemed 10x more handsome than Milo grab her, that annoyed him as well, he wondered how they knew eachother. But then she stepped away. He just watched her for a moment as she went to get ice, before she noticed him. He stepped towards her. "Tu vas bien? Pourquoi a-t-elle fait ça?" "Are you okay? Why would she do that?"He blinked for a few seconds before realising she wouldn't have a clue what he just said. "Sorry. Are you okay?" He didn't know how to say the rest of his sentence but at least he got that out.

Standing close to her, trying to see her injuries in the limited light that there was. It hadn't gotten too colourful yet but it was clear that the punches were pretty hard. He was sure they would light up like a lightbulb by tomorrow morning.

When she tried to get away from him he gently held her arm, since one hand was holding ice on her face and the other a can of coke. "There is food here." He said softly, pointing to a basket a few feet away from them. It was also closer to a light source. "Come? s'il vous plaît Serena." please >.> If she really wanted to leave, he was going to let her. But he would much rather he didn't. "It is okay." He hoped it sounded reassuring as that was how he meant it.

It was unbelievable what that girl had done, he was far enough away that he hadn't heard exactly what was said, just mild yelling, there were a few people scattered about talking anyway so it wasn't surprising that he couldn't hear it well enough to understand. He was angry, so angry at whoever this girl was, every so often his eyes would flick over to her still in the group. But he tried to keep his focus on Serena.

"I need food too...eat with me?"

Interacting with Milo (@Delilah Stewart)

The Hufflepuff just blinked in confusion. Did she hit her head that hard? The words he was saying did not make sense... Oh, right, French, yeah. That was a thing he spoke. "Yeah, I'm fine," She said in a tone that did not really sound like she was fine. It was said very quickly, robotic as though she had practised just saying she was fine without thinking about it and slightly annoyed because she was. Not at him by any means but at the whole situation.

Looking down further as he approached her, she subconsciously took a step back. Not because of him. But the last time a boy got a little too close to her, she got punched in the face. A fact that she recalled because it happened mere minutes ago. She went to turn but he caught her arm.

"I-" She immediately started, trying to think of an excuse as to why she could not stay. She could not really think of one though. There was food there. Right. Well uh. Her eyes scattered around, trying to come up with another excuse. She was kind of hungry though and she did not want to be impolite. But she also was about to cry, which was something he definitely would not want to deal with. Serena looked back towards the others that had been involved in the game before looking back at Milo.

He was too nice for his own good. "I'm not entirely sure I am good company right now," She responded earnestly, "Besides, you risk getting dragged into whatever that was," Serena continued, worried that Black would make her way over here and drag the fight out.

If he insisted nonetheless, she would nod and continue, "I recommend we move out of the... direct line of sight though," She would explain as she motioned towards a bit of land further away, where the view was slightly obscured by trees, people and other items placed in the grounds. Just not directly in the immediate view of the others, because Milo did not need to be dragged into whatever this mess was.

Outfit of the Evening

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RPing as iNPC Milo Durand Date: 28th August 2021 post-spin the bottle Outfit:This Interacting with: @Serena Towers

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Nodding gently, he didn't believe her when she said she was fine, his English wasn't good enough to pick up on the tone, he just knew from personal experience that getting punched in the face was never nice.

When she said about the quality of her company, he rubbed his thumb on her arm. "I do not care, I like you." He purely meant it in a friendly way, meaning more like 'I can look after myself, I would rather talk to you' rather than what actually came out of his mouth. He smiled softly at her.

Nodding as she suggested going further away, he agreed this would be the best idea, he was pretty sure he could take the girl. However that muscular guy, he was less sure. He didn't feel like getting pummeled too. He let go of her arm, hopeful she wouldn't disappear while he had his back turned. He stepped over and picked up the picnic basket. He hoped he could just take it with them, rather than walking backwards and forwards to get food if they wanted it. He turned back to her, "Over there?" pointing to roughly the line where the grounds started turning into forest, there were just a few trees dotted about, but next to no people. It seemed peaceful.

He wanted to help her, after all he gets extra good points for helping her when she was injured...not because he wanted to spend time with her, don't be ridiculous. He didn't know why he got angry, he didn't know why he wanted to beat the ever-living crap out of that girl. But he refused to think about it too much at the moment.

Interacting with Milo (@Delilah Stewart) | Mentions: @Howard White

"Yeah, I don't feel very liked right now..." She mumbled to herself as she looked up at him as he said he did not care and that he liked her. She did not take it in a romantic way or anything - because the idea that he liked her that way was unfathomable to her. Either way, right now, she felt super unliked. Everything about the day had kind of just been crappy. She almost forgot how she felt before getting decked in the face but she was not having a great time before then either. After that whole scenario, she just felt disappointed and annoyed - both at herself, for the most part.

In fairness, she was just in a foul mood now. Nodding, she followed him away from her former group. The distance was probably the best thing, for now since she needed to cool down. The desire to just leave and run away elsewhere was kind of strong. Perhaps she could sneakily get her invisibility cloak and hide somewhere for a bit. She did not have it on her, unfortunately, and that would mean going back to her cabin to find it in her trunk. Going back to the Kelpie dorm meant... there was a chance of running into Howard, which she kind of wanted to avoid right now. Not that he did anything wrong but she was just unsure of how to actually face him and needed to calm down, process what happened and figure out how she felt first.

Sharing a cabin with him for the next few days would likely be a struggle but she would just prefer to not be seen with him or anywhere near him or anything right now. Besides... it would be really rude of her to just run away from Milo when all he was trying to do was to be nice. So she followed him, quietly.

When they came to a stop, she sat down by one of the trees. Removing the ice pack from her face, she hissed slightly as it stung. It was so cold and her face hurt and she was just very grouchy right now. She put the can down on the ground. She tugged on her hood, covering her face as much as she could and took Pizza Rat out of her pocket when her hands were free and let him down on the ground next to her. Absentmindedly, she stroked his head a little as she sighed. Normally, she would have introduced the pair but right now, she was still distracted by thoughts of what happened to bother with any sort of etiquette. With her other hand, she picked up the ice pack again and placed it gently on the side of her face. She inhaled sharply as she did. It was so cold, she was not even sure if it was helping. She hated this.

"So... uh... what's up?" She asked after a few moments of hesitation, kind of wondering what he knew. She was unsure of what he actually saw or how much he had heard of it. He might not have seen anything except perhaps the injury on her face, and simply based his question and concern on that. Despite being annoyed at the whole thing, she could see that he was trying to be nice. She was just in an awful mood and did not feel like great company right now. Well, that was an understatement, actually. She felt pretty much like the worst company at this present moment.

She wondered if she should just get some food out, eat and then rush away or ask him about his summer camp experience or perhaps even try to explain that this was not the sort of thing she normally did. Ugh, what did he think right now? Hogwarts was generally violent and dangerous, she was kind of used to seeing people injured... But that was probably not something everyone else thought was 'normal'. She felt a pang of pain as she recalled Howard's expression. That look on his face, his voice, everything... it stung. She hated that feeling growing inside of her. Was it guilt? It mixed with the feelings of disappointment and anger at herself. Why the bloody heck did she retaliate?

Serena stared into her lap the entire time, trying not to look at him or worse, allow him to see her in this state. She covered her injuries as best as possible with the angle of her head, her hood and her hand.

Outfit of the Evening

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RPing as iNPC Milo Durand Date: 28th August 2021 post-spin the bottle Outfit:This

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For a moment, or what felt like a moment, it was actually a couple minutes or so, in the silence, he just watched her. Not in a creepy way, he just liked looking at her, increasingly so over the few days he had known her. He couldn't actually believe how short of a time they had known each other.

"How can I do? To..uh.. help?" He sighed, he did just want to make her feel better, that was all. He didn't really know what it was liked to not feel liked, he had so many friends, he did have a fair few enemies, but he didn't care. Seeing her so sad almost made Milo sad... almost. Not quite.

When Serena had asked him what's up, his lack of English understanding completely failed him as he looked up at the leaves in the tree above him, before looking back to her in confusion. "What?" He chuckled lightly. His eyes drifted over to where her group had been seated for the game before. "What happened? Over there." He pulled his knees up as he sat, resting his arms on them and waving his hand in the general direction of where he was looking. He had heard shouting, and seen her get walloped in the face, but he didn't hear exactly what had happened, nor could he figure it out from his limited view from afar.

Interacting with Milo (@Delilah Stewart)

Serena stared intensely at the ground for a few moments before she noticed that he was looking at her. Oh gosh. Was it bruising that badly? Was it swollen? Oh gosh. She shifted a little, covering her face as much as possible, feeling a bit horrified by the fact that this super cute guy was just seeing her looking really stupid. Not only was she probably unattractive to look at, she was feeling rather rejected after the whole spin the bottle affair. Her self-esteem was definitely not high.

It did not help that he was really nice. Unnecessarily nice to her. "I- don't know if you can..." She mumbled, not entirely sure how he would help. What was supposed to help in this situation? Probably getting her face to stop aching but the ice was slowly working its magic. Honestly, her ego was bruised more than her face. And she was still so confused. And hurt. The look on Howard's face was heartbreaking, and she felt so guilty that she did not know if there was anything Milo could do to make her feel better - or understand the situation.

"O-oh n-no, I meant- nevermind," She replied, with a small smile on her face as she noticed him looking up in confusion. He had taken her words literally, and it was sort of amusing and pretty adorable. There was no point in explaining what 'what's up' meant right now but perhaps that was something she should do at some point.

Looking down at the floor, she sighed as he bought up the inevitable. "Nothing..." She lied. Alright, what was the point of pretending anything was fine when it was really clear that it was not? It was blatantly obvious that something happened and she was not fine. "Well. I don't really know. A few of us were playing this game called 'spin the bottle' or something. Which, is a really dumb game anyway, everyone just kisses each other and it's just like, I dunno, weird. I shouldn't have played, I mean, I didn't really do anything anyway. I just hugged a couple of my friends, I guess. And Howard, the uh, one of my friends, also wanted to hug and I guess his girlfriend got mad that he was talking to a girl or hugging or, I'm not really sure, to be honest. But she punched me for some reason. And then my brother got involved and since he's like a bloody suck up, he sided with her cause like they are friends or he thinks she's cute or some bullshit, I dunno and then Howard got upset and ugh, it's just so dumb! I didn't even know they were dating or like I wasn't meant to talk to him or hug him or whatever it is that was the issue!" Serena ranted, barely breathing as she ranted about the situation non-stop.

Without a pause, she would continue to rant, waving her arms around in her rant as she started getting more heated, "And what's worse is that Falentra bloody kissed another guy and everything! So like, what the heck is her problem? Howard obviously deserves better but like, apparently he loves her and stuff. And ugh, everyone just wants to kiss each other. And then there's me and it's just like, no one likes me. Yet somehow, I'm the one who gets hurt out of all of this bullshit? How is that fair? And why the fuck is everyone so into my brother? It's disgusting. He's literally a shit and all these girls just throw themselves at him and I just don't get it. And of course, the one bloody time that I need him to side with me and he doesn't! The worst!" She rambled, panting audible as she stopped talking.

She replaced the ice bag on her cheek, which had been removed as she waved her hand around, with a hiss as it stung a little.

Outfit of the Evening

Speech

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RPing as iNPC Milo Durand Date: 28th August 2021 post-spin the bottle Outfit:This Interacting with: @Serena Towers

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Milo couldn't help but wonder, as he looked at her, how could somebody so brilliant, or as far as he knew in the limited time he had known her, end up getting punched by some girl. It just didn't make sense, but then again, Milo normally did the punching. If somebody spoke about his family in a bad way, if somebody decided to be the tough guy and stand up to him. But Serena was a fresh slate. Sure he couldn't pronounce her name the same way she said it, nor could he say the name of her school without being giggled at by the surrounding British kids during his visit so far. But he could get used to all of that, Serena didn't know his backstory, she didn't know about all the people he had been with, used, and thrown away like last weeks newspaper.

She didn't know about anything, and he wasn't about to tell her.

Her smile, he had only just managed to catch it before the darkness obscured her face once again, it was brilliant....it was cute, that was all, just cute, you know..like all pretty people..their pretty faces...yes...definitely.

As he asked her what had happened, and she suddenly started her long... and very quickly said story, he had to focus really hard on what she was saying, and even then he still didn't catch all of it. This was basically his understanding.

"Playing spinning bottle, dumb, kisses, hugged my friends, Howard, friend, hug, girlfriend, she was talking to a girl or hug...." You get the point, most of the imbetween words got lost in his attempt at speed-translating frustrated British girl talk. But once she was done, along with her heavy breathing, he was a bit exhausted. Having to manually try to translate all of it.

He leaned down to see her face, and gently placed his hand on her free one, the one not holding the icepack to her face. "You said..you just said, 'no one likes me', but that is wrong. I told you, I like you." He grinned at her, hoping it would cheer her up a little.

Interacting with Milo (@Delilah Stewart)

She visibly closed up a little as he leaned down, clearly trying to hide her face from him again. In her rant, she would have moved around enough for him to see it but now that she was done, she was painfully aware of how stupid she looked. Literally sitting there in a rat onesie with a bruised and swollen face, rambling about this stupid game. What he said and did next, however, completely threw her off.

He took her hand, causing her to look up at him. And then said 'I like you'. Serena blinked. Her mind attempting to process what was just happening. Wait, what? She meant no one liked her in the attraction and dating sense when she said that! "I- N-no I mean- uh-" Oh gosh, this was awkward. She panicked a little, trying to explain what she meant.

It was clear what he meant! He meant he liked her as a friend. Of course, he did! She was not dumb enough to think this was anything other than what it was: just a very platonic friendship. He was just being nice and friendly. That was all. There was, obviously, nothing else because well look at him and look at her. He was cute and she had an aching face. "I meant like uh, you know," Trying to recall the word for 'crush' in French. Well, not recall, she clearly had no idea. But she was hoping to think of something that she could explain. Adore was a French word! Was that romantic? Did that cover it? She had no idea. "I mean like, you know, uh in the more than friends, adoring way, you know?" Hoping he understood what she meant.

Oh gosh. She felt so stupid. She had to tell him that no one has a crush on her? He would not understand. He probably had lines of people into him - everyone else seemed to! He probably had like ten partners already. "Like uh a girlfriend or boyfriend, you know?" Her unbruised cheek was definitely turning slightly rosy. How clear did she have to be?

Anyway! This was besides the point! The point was that uh, wait, what even was her point anymore? This was so awkward. She should just leave.

Outfit of the Evening