Chapter 7 (original) (raw)

Title: Of Late Bloomers and Early Risers
Author: lcuddywannabe
Genre: Drama/Romance/Humour
Characters/Pairing: Howard/OC, Howard/Vince Friendship
Rating: T
Warning: There is some cursing. Also, Vince is kind of a tit in the beginning.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the Boosh... yet. I did send Julian a birthday card. Who knows.
Author's Comments: I originally wrote this because I was getting annoyed with all the Vince het fiction and how Howard kept getting the short end. So I'm giving Howard the long end this time. Take that any way you please.

Lilly Emerson was lost – in thought, that is. She had made it back to her hotel without a hitch and now sat on the bed in her room, unable to focus on the rerun episode of some show about a crab that played on the television in the background.

She couldn’t decide which was worse: the fact that she was obviously coming between a long-standing friendship or the fact that she was willing to risk that fact and stay. Maybe something was wrong with her moral compass. She took a moment and tested herself.

Nope. Animal abuse, theft, and murder were still wrong in her book.

Well, then her only logical conclusion was to pack up and leave. Wasn’t it? That didn’t feel right either. In fact, she couldn’t think of the right thing to do in this situation. She’d never been in this situation, honestly.

Lilly had grown up around boys and had always been one of them. ‘Tom boy’ was probably too loose a term for her childhood days. When she’d gotten a bit older she’d met girls and understood her place in things, but it didn’t stop her from being socially awkward and altogether unappealing to the opposite gender. So the fact that she was now coming between two grown men did far more than just confuse her. It was baffling.

She got up from the bed and walked over to the window, looking down over the street. The goal was to clear her head so she could make a well thought out decision. Looking out the window didn’t do her much good in that respect, however; as standing just outside the hotel were none other than the men she had been trying to avoid.

What were they doing here? Better yet, how did they know she was here?

Oh, that’s right; Howard had suggested the establishment in the first place.

Lilly took two steps back and one deep breath. Either they knew someone else in the hotel or they were looking for her. She silently prayed it was the former. She hadn’t had time to make a proper plan of action yet.

Not three minutes later there was a knock on the door. Lilly was silent, unsure of what to say, and oddly embarrassed. She chalked the embarrassment up to the fact that she’d run out so abruptly earlier.

“Lilly?” It was Howard’s voice. That fact both calmed her and horrified her at the same time.

Lilly took another deep breath and walked across the room, turning the door handle and opening it before she could change her mind.

Howard looked a bit shocked and – after two seconds of shocked silence – he immediately began fidgeting. Lilly took the silence as an opportunity to gaze at a sight she couldn’t exactly define. Howard looked as though he had been dipped upside down in Vince’s closet. He was wearing a slightly darker shade of chords and the same shoes he’d been wearing earlier. However, the only words Lilly could come up with to describe his shirt were colour and vomit. Not the colour of vomit, more like if a box of Crayolas had walked up to Howard and promptly vomited on him. In fact, that’s probably exactly what had happened.

Lilly tried to suppress a smile and failed, “Howard, come in.”

She stepped aside to let him through and he crossed the threshold. He stood awkwardly in the centre of the little room, his broad stature seeming to dwarf everything around him. Lilly, trying to take the nervous edge off the atmosphere, gestured to the bed.

“I’m sorry there isn’t anything more appropriate, but you can have a seat, if you want.”

Howard did sit down and the tension eased just a little. Lilly switched off the television and leaned against the wall next to it, preferring the distance. Just in case.

Howard was suddenly very interested in his shoes and Lilly felt like maybe now was the time to apologize for running out of their flat earlier.

“I’m sorry –”

They had both begun at the same time and they each looked up at each other, startled. Howard, for the first time since he had entered the room, made eye contact with Lilly. The look in his eyes shocked Lilly. She had never been very good at reading people but from what she could deduce, Howard was not in a joking mood and he was definitely scared.

Howard gestured towards her in a polite way, “You go first, if you like.”

Lilly shrugged and took him up on the offer – better to get it out in the open early on – “I just wanted to apologize for running out like I did. I just realized that something was going on with you and Vince and you needed your space. I didn’t mean to be rude.” She paused and smiled at him, “What were you apologizing for?”

Howard chuckled and then sombrely looked back at his shoes, mumbling, “Being a berk and scaring you off.”

Lilly didn’t know if she’d ever actually furrowed her brow before, but she felt that she definitely was now. She moved to go sit next to him and he looked over at her when the bed dipped to her weight.

“Being a what?” She was honestly confused.

“A berk.” He paused, thinking she just hadn’t heard. Then he realized she was American and probably wouldn’t understand the slang, “Um… an idiot?”

She laughed, startling both herself and Howard momentarily, “You weren’t being an idiot and you didn’t scare me off.”

Howard shook his head, as if to argue with her, but thought better of it. Maybe she was right; probably not.

Lilly looked over at Howard – who was still more nervous than a shrimp at a clam bake – and tried to be comforting, “I have a feeling neither of us are very good at these sort of social situations. Would it be easier if we were just straightforward with each other?”

Howard paled. If he told her how he really felt, surely she’d be off quicker than she had been from the flat.

“I don’t know if –”

Lilly didn’t let him finish. She’d seen his skin tone go from flushed to pasty white in under half a second and knew he’d be sceptical, “I like you, Howard and I don’t think very many people see what a good person you are because you let Vince overshadow you. I’ve always been good at spotting the hidden treasure.”

Howard turned – slack jawed – to gaze at Lilly. She must have been taking the piss. She couldn’t honestly like him. No one really liked him. He didn’t think even Lester Corncrake ever really liked him, though it didn’t exactly matter anymore.

Howard’s brain was telling him to do something, say something, get up and do a poor impression of an Irish jig, anything! But he couldn’t force his body to move. So instead, he just sat on a twin sized bed in a Dalston hotel and tried to comprehend how this girl had come and turned his life upside down in a matter of hours.