Step, step, step.

Beatrice walked up all the way from the first floor until here, the seventh floor. It was pretty tiring and she was already exhausted so she decided to sit on one of the steps of the staircase.

As she sat, her mind immediately flew elsewhere.

It's only the start of term but seems like point deduction for all the houses would be its highlight. All houses had negative points. Well..that's what the hourglasses said when she looked at them when she passed.

"Ravenclaw shouldn't have negatives.." Sigh. She knew who was the person who caused the negativity and she knew how it happened.. "All because of that!GRRRRR!" She groaned frustratedly.

Grayson was in the worst mood ever since the incident. Although, he wasn't affect until Selina tugged on the very heart string that would unravel him. He kept the hurt away from his face as best as he could but he was almost shattered inside.

He was jovial with an off beat humour, flirtatious and yet sweet. But it took alot for him to resurface from the depths of the darkness which he had fallen into a year ago. For the first time in months he was back on that edge looking down into the deceptive abyss.

Grayson had been acting odd all day. Ever since try outs and the little tiff that Selina had with him on the Pitch after he decided to blow her a kiss or two which warranted her eye rolling he had been all distant and weird. It was not like Grayson was much of a talker anyway. If Selina was to categorize him in one word it would be a flirt. But she was really upset with the fact that he was acting cold to her. He never really acted that way to her and it had boggled her mind. All because she gave him a few words about his attitude after try outs.

When she walked back to the Gryffindor Common Room she saw Grayson standing there with a dark expression on his face. She was torn. A part of him wanted to yell at him for the way he acted and another part of him wanted to ask what was the matter. The redhead sighed and approached him, "Hey... what was that today?"

He turned and saw Selina."It looks like you've come to throw more words at me. Am I right?" he asked with a frown. He wasn't sure he was up for talking to anyone especially Selina.

"It was me being me and you turned and flipped out on me." he said to her as he turned to face her. Instead of anger, he had sadness staring back to her. Grayson tried to hide it but the weight of something was weighing on him. So much that he couldn't hide what he really was feeling.

Selina sighed when he threw words in her face that she wasn't even sure she deserved. She agreed that she should not have ended their conversation the way they had, but he had been out of line with a lot of the stuff he said to her. Sure, Grayson had warned her when they first met that he would always be honest with her, but there was a line between honesty and cockiness and Grayson did not know how to balance that line. She felt like they could be friend's if he would just drop the whole flirt thing he did. It was border line offensive. "I'm not here to throw more words in your face. I wasn't even looking for you." She had been thinking about their conversation but she was not looking for him.

When he finally looked at her with sadness on his face that was when Selina felt a gnawing at her insides. Ugh, she really had hurt his feelngs. She was just trying to get her point across that he had to tone it down with all of his flirty obnoxious commentary. But how she ended it must have really hurt his feelings. MELIN!! Now she felt sort of bad, sort of. So she took another step closer and said with a sigh, "Look, I'm sorry for ending our conversation like that. You just frustrate me. Its like I say one thing to try and tone you down and then you do the opposite. Its not the easiest thing to deal with."

He shook his head as he looked at her. Grayson didn't have it in him to shoot back a comeback but he only shook his head. She said something that pushed him back in a place he was honestly afraid of.

Grayson turned away and with his hands in his pockets, his shoulders drooping and his head down. He sighed and turned back to her and said,"Well I know you well enough to when not to push you. But you are so focused on seeing me as obnoxious that you don't even realize I've probably complimented you more than your boyfriend does. Selina, you just like me, knows that I don't mean anything by it except that I mean well by you. Sure I say it in my own way but you didn't have to deal me such a harsh hand."

Selina crossed her arms expectantly when he started his little rant. She half expected him to shoot some witty comment that drove her up the wall than to actual say something sincere. Or at least she hoped that he would say something insincere so she wouldn't have to deal with the fact that Grayson actually had feelings. He seemed to cocky and obnoxious to be anything but that overly forward person she knew. But as he continued to talk she shifted her weight in her feet uncomfortably. Merlin, he had a point. She was being sort of close minded about the possibility of them being friends.

So she sighed and drooped her head back over her spine. Ugh! Why was he being so difficult by not being difficult. When she finally looked back at him she said, "Look I'm sorry I've been so rude to you, alright? Its just that you don't exactly say things to me in a way that sounds flattering. You paint me like this person I'm not and your only ever say things about my looks," which the redhead was insecure enough about herself, "its really exhausting. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, but don't try very hard to avoid hurting mine with how you word things."

"I told you when I met you what to expect Besides, you wouldn't allow me to get to know you and I know this is not you." he said and mumbled hoping she didn't hear him,"Just like this isn't who I was."

He took a step closer to her and looked down at her. Into her blue eyes and let out what one could mistake as a whimper. Grayson stepped back and asked her,"Do you even have a remote idea as to why you last comment stung me so much?"

The redheaded fourth year watched Grayson as he started to explain himself. He did have a point when he said that he had been upfront with her since they had met, but did he ever consider that his idea of being upfront was uncomfortable for the other party. Especially when the other party was not used to being flirted with by complete strangers; first impressions meant a lot in Selina's head. But when he insinuated that she was not being completely honest with who she was Selina tensed up. How dare he verbalize something like that? Of course she was not a hundred percent herself, she couldn't be. Selina was a unique person who did not like to talk about the delicate intracasies of her life to people she did not know very well. But her ears perked up when he said that he wasn't who he acted like either, "Well then, Grayson, why are you being someone your not?"

When he took a few steps closer to her so he could look directly down at her and into her eyes she watched him cautiously. What was he doing? She found herself subconsiously backing away from him, but she did not have to worry long because he stepped back and posed another question to her. She shook her head no, "No idea."

Rubbing the back of his neck he sighed and mumbled,"I can't believe I'm going to say this." as he pulled a the farthest corner away from the stairs.
He looked at her without any guard and said,"A little over a year ago the my best friend moved away. Far away. The thing is, I loved her and I never got the chance to tell her."

He looked down at his hands before he looked back at her. Grayson didn't tell anyone the real reason why he had fallen into a funk and had to be moved himself to get better. Today was the only day that he revealed what he endured by himself.

The redhead stuck her hands in her robes expectantly waiting for Grayson to say or do anything. When he mumbled she had to lean forward a little bit to hear what he had said, but she did not need to do that for long. Without a thought he looked straight at her and admitted why he was in such a funk, if he could even call it that.

He was in love? The whole idea made Selina blush. She wasn't even sure she knew what love was and they were the same age. How could he have been in love with someone the year prior when he was thirteen, when Selina was fourteen and she wasn't even sure she knew what that word meant. The redhead stood their quietly and squeaked her Mary Jane's on the concrete awkwardly. She had no idea what to even say to him. But the look on his face, this was really important to him and he obviously needed her to understand.

After a few seconds she finally found her words, "So write her a letter. You can't keep letting thoughts of what if poison your mind. If you really love her," the word felt weird leaving her lips, "you need to tell her. Either find out if she feels the same or get closure. Because you can't keep living in this funk. I feel like you're a great person, Grayson, under all of your flirty whatever it is you do. You just need to find that person."

Grayson sighed heavily, almost sounding like a low growl as he ran his hand through the soft black waves in his hair. He closed his eyes as if to shut out the very words he was about to say,"I can't ever do that. She died. I wrote to her to let her know and her mother wrote back telling me that she had a week before." His words were a mere whisper as he fought back an assault of deep raw emotions he buried so deep that he thought he had gotten rid of.

Grayson leaned his back against the wall as he felt his knees go weak."She was my only real friend." he said, his voice breaking with the sadness of a broken heart."I know it seems unreal that someone as young as me could love another but I don't know what else to call it. I never felt that about anyone since." The whole time he spoke he never opened his eyes for he knew that the moment he did, tears he kept from falling all this time would fall.

And now Selina felt awful. All the while as Grayson spoke she finally understood why he was the way he was. In Selina's experience with the short time she had lived thus far, she haf learned that everyone had scars. The redhead herself even had scars but they were not something she was prone to talking about with anyone except two. And she was going to keep her secret buried to the rest of the world. Yet, Grayson, the self righteous flirt with a nevet ending chain of wit, was really just broken. His best friend who he had, she hesitated to think, loved had died. That was enough to destroy anyone. It explained was he was such a... Well... You know.

Without even thinking twice she stepped forward and hugged him around the middle. Selina was short, like first year short, so it was the best she could do. She hugged him tightly and whispered, "I'm so sorry."

Grayson felt weak and less of himself. He knew he had exposed the deepest part of him and knew just how ugly things could get if Selina chose to tell anyone. He couldn't look at her.

Before Grayson could think of doing anything else he felt someone hugging him and heard Selina say 'sorry'. It was the warmest thing anyone could do. The best part was that she didn't mock him. She was smaller compared to him. He hugged her shoulders and whispered in her hair,"Thanks."

She was glad to a certain degree that Grayson had hugged her back. He was a better person than Selina was when it came to secrets. She would run always whenever she had to bare her stomach. It was just one of those things that made her skin crawl. But Grayson put himself out there for her. He told her a secret and they did not even know each other that well. He trusted her and she felt honored to a certain degree.

As he buried his head in her hair her eyes snapped open. This was a little too personal for Selina's comfort zone. She liked Grayson as a person although he could be a tad overbearing with his flirty nature. But when it came to romantic feelings toward him she could only think of Gideon. Grayson holding her and burying his head in her hair was not a friendly action. She pulled away and said, "I'm sorry Grayson. I like you and all but I can't do this with you. We're friends."

It was one thing Grayson didn't intend. Not at this time. When Selina pulled back from him and made her declaration that she couldn't 'do this with him'. He stepped back with confusion."I'm sorry. Thought that was just you being nice to me. Actually being a friend. I may not be the guy of your dreams but I'm not disrespectful of females. My mother taught me better than that." he said before he sighed and continued,"I see that this is a problem for you. I guess I better go, I don't want you to disrespect your space."

Grayson, knew when someone was not entirely trusting of him. So he stepped back from her folded his arms and looked away from her, leaning his back against the wall. Yeah, that's one reason why he kept people at bay even though he would flirt and joke around. They would always take it the wrong way and snap and keeping them at bay kept him from being more than merely offended.

When he explained himself Selina felt bad for a moment. How had this happened? One moment she really thought that the two of them had been really talking for the first time ever. No flirting, no anger, no yelling, no nothing. They were being real people and talking about real things. It was sort of nice, until they of course had to divert back to an awkward aura they had before. She did not mean to make things awkward, but he had closed her out again. It was just that they were being too close to comfort and honestly she did not want to do something silly. She cared too much about Gideon for that.

But she was upset with the fact that he just shut her out. He acted like it was all her fault, which granted it was, but he did not need to shut her out. And here she thought they were making real progress. Apparently she was wrong...

So she crossed her arms over her chest and said, "You know what Grayson? I'm sick of this. I am trying to be your friend, but you won't stop shutting me out. I'm sorry that I don't feel comfortable hugging like that. But if you wanna act all too cool for school... whatever." He wanted to be a butt head that's fine.

"You are so self- righteous. You expect me to be no better than the opinion you already formed of me. You hug me and I reciprocate, appropriately. But you take it as me making a move. Right now, you're not so hot. You're rude, confusing and only want a friend on your terms. Sorry Selina but that doesn't cut it for me." he said in an eerily calm voice as he stepped back from her.

How did he do that? It was as if Grayson had some kind of secret power over Selina that no one else had. It was no secret that Selina was a tad too abrasive for her own good, but that was who she was, she never pretended to be anyone else. There was no false advertising with her personality. But Grayson seemed to have some sort of x-ray vision through her personality. He called her out for everything she did- right, wrong or indifferent. When she had first met him it was annoying and off putting. However, in the current moment, Grayson had made Selina feel awful. He had a point to what he was saying. Perhaps, she was being a little rude, but her pre-conceived notions against him were concrete in her mind and wrongly so.

What was it about the way that he spoke that always made her feel horrible for her actions. He was right. She knew he was right and that made things worse. She could not even ignore the fact that he was right...

As he stepped away from him she shook her head and looked down on the ground. Ashamedly she said, "Look I'm sorry.... alright? I just... I don't know... I'm sorry, okay?" That was the best he was going to get from her.

"I'm not as bad as you make me out to be. I know they say first impressions last but I'm sure I've given reason to change your mind. But then again that's Selina, right? Please tell me I'm wrong. I want to be wrong." he said. He shook his head and said,"I don't want to make you feel the way you feel or make you frown like that."

He never wanted to make another girl sad even if it meant his own happiness.

That's Selina right? Wow, that comment really hurt. He did not even know her that well and was already picking out the way she acted around people when she went on the defensive. But he was right... it just didn't make it hurt any less.

When he said he didn't want to make her frown she looked down at the floor and smiled, "I'm not frowning. I'm just...well honestly, confused. I'm trying to figure you out and it is proving extremely difficult."

Grayson stepped toward her and said,"I'm not an open book. Not even to myself. If we can be friends some how, then we'll both figure me and you out." as he raised her head with a gentle hand under her chin.

"Just think of it this way; we've gone in a maze of ourselves. We'll figure out the right route soon enough and everything will make sense at the end when we get on the side of clarity. Okay?" he said to her.

When Grayson lifted Selina by her chin to look him dead in the eye the redhead was startled by his actions. It seemed that the Gryffindor boy had space issues that she would have to learn to deal with if they were going to be friends. As politely as possible she took his hand away but continued to look at him all the while. She did want to listen to what he had to say it was just extraneous physical contact was never really Selina's thing.

"And I look forward to meeting the real Grayson Bay, truly I do.". A maze? Well if they went along the way what was at the end? Selina was almost certain the answer to that question was very different to Grayson than it was to Selina. However, she replied anyway, "Okay then... Sounds like a deal."

"Good. But as I said to you when I met you, what you see is what is you get even though there is always more that meets the eye." he said before winking at her and flashing her one of his famous smiles.

"And don't think I didn't catch your oh so polite way of removing my hand but it's fine." he said with a chuckle.