and he waits for her at the airport

She's scheduled to arrive on the 29th of October, but this is Lily and she's never been one to conform to a schedule.
He thinks the best he can hope for is for her to arrive at all.
-
He turns up at the muggle airport where she should be arriving, and sits down to wait. No one looks at him oddly because he's inherited his mum's knack for dressing like a muggle. He flicks through muggle magazines and watches the people who pass by, each with something more (less) important to do than pick up a cousin.
For each person that passes, he makes up a story. There's a man who's on his way to a funeral; a woman who's off to see her new grandson. One girl has just arrived in London and is off to stay with her cousin. She'll get ther and unpack her things in his lounge room. She'll sleep on the couch instead of the guest bed and have cereal for dinner. He'll shake his head at her five cups of coffee a day, and she'll laugh at how clean his apartment is.
He manages to convince himself her name is Lily, his name is Hugo and that those two might even have a happily ever after.
-
He waits at the airport for two hours, by which time he accepts she isn't coming. He isn't disappointed, he knew she probably would make it anyway.
He just can't help wishing she'd bothered to tell him.
-
He gets home at five in the evening, and sits on the edge of the bed staring at the wall. He doesn't move for an hour, the flowers he bought slowly wilting on his bedside table.
For the first time in ten years, Hugo starts to cry.
-
She doesn't arrive for three days, but he doesn't lose hope. He knows she'll turn up with a bright smile and contagious excitement.
This is Lily, and he knows her like the back of his hand.
She turns up on the fourth day, with a huge smile and more excitement than he could have hoped for, bearing gifts from relatives he hasn't seen in years.
She dumps her stuff one his couch and walks around his apartment, announcing it too clean and rather un-Wealsey-ish. The first thing to do, she says, is have a party, because then maybe it will feel like someone has lived here at all. She tells him to invite his friends and he agrees, pretending to both of them that he has any.
-
That night they sit on his couch watching an old muggle movie. The two main characters are fighting, desperately trying to hold onto their love. The man grabs the girl's hand as she tries to leave and they kiss like the world was about to collapse. Lily scoffs and rolls her eyes, looking over to Hugo and smirking.
"Tragic." He laments.
"-acting." She finishes, laughing at his fake-crying and tragic expression.
"Love is just stupid. You're practically a slave to someone else. No thanks."
"I refuse to believe you are skeptical about love when your parents are living proof of it."
"Yeah, well that's them. Not me."
He pretends this one comment doesn't hurt more than any other heartbreak he's ever had.
-
They sleep together on the couch, curled up under a blanket and a mound of cushions. She uses his arm as a pillow and sometime in the night he wakes up with numb fingers and his whole torso tingling, but he doesn't complain, because this is Lily and he hasn't seen her in years so she's welcome to do it for tonight.
Hugo can't help but wish this would happen the next night, but some things are too good to be true.
-
Hugo can tell she's restless, because this is Lily and he knows her like he knows his own reflection. She's got dreams bigger than the muggle Ferris wheels she loves, but nothing to hang on to. She has her plans (and Hugo can't help but wish he was a part of them).
-
It's two months later and Lily is more bored than ever. He can tell she wishes she was someplace more exciting, rather than just hanging with a cousin in London.
-
She's bored in a week, big dreams but nothing material
I refuse to believe that love is for the weak
I said I'm not vulnerable
-
Slowly, her dreams start to crumble, imploding in on themselves like a brilliant supernova somewhere in the skies above them. One day, she stops dreaming. To Lily it's a relief (no more failed ideas and no more broken promises) but to Hugo, it's a catastrophe (because his perfect little star is about to implode).
-
They fight, screams and yells and complaints from the neighbours following her as she marches out the door.
He breaks down for the first time in three months, sick of pretending his life is fine and his heart is even better.
His world is collapsing and so is hers, but this is Lily and Hugo, and they're not ever going to admit is.
He curls up on the couch and stares at the lilies he gave her sitting in their vase, pretending he doesn't know she's doing the same in some far off motel.
-
Hey lady, said I don't want to fight
Like pretty girls need cowboys
I need you here tonight
-
She comes back in the morning, red-faced and with puffy eyes. They hug and he makes her coffee for breakfast. She smiles when he starts cleaning the kitchen benches, and he laughs at her confession that she had cereal for dinner,
Suddenly it's Hugo and it's Lily and their slowly collapsing world makes sense again.
-
He gets back from his job at the ministry to find her sitting on the couch, reading a letter. She looks up and announces in an excited voice "Roxanne's coming!"
It's the first time Hugo has seen her truly happy in a while, and it fills him with unreasonable jealousy that it's not him she reserves this excitement.
-
It's like a sore that festers, red and blistered and located somewhere in his ribcage beating a hundred miles an hour and looking somewhat like it's about to explode. It's jealousy and he hates it, because he's glad Lily is happy (oh how glad he is) but it's not right that he feels bad someone else is responsible.
She throws herself into planning, organizing a party to celebrate Roxanne's return from Romania. It's big and festive and he lets her do it, because the state of his finances is not anywhere near as important as her happiness.
Roxanne arrives, and the first few days are a blur of giggling girls and window shopping. Lily drags him from place to place, enthusiasm in her face and joy in her smile.
He doesn't have it in him to refuse her.
-
It's three days into her visit that Roxanne finally corners him.
The words she says spill out the end like nothing else has and he can only hope Lily won't end with him.
-
She's always searching
And the hours late
Don't wanna hear it's all gonna end soon
And I'm not crazy, I'm in control
And all my friends still know
-
Roxanne leaves in a flurry of tears and promises to see each other soon, and Hugo is sad to see her go. She was Lily's lifeline, her sanctuary almost, the best friend Hugo has spent six months trying to be. He'll miss her vibrancy, and her compassion, but he's secretly glad to leave her too-knowing eyes and sympathetic smiles.
-
They fight again, a whirling mess of insults and accusations. They're screaming and yelling and both seeing red. He can't stand her, her arrogance and attitude, and he's finally about to crack.
-
They wake up on opposite sides of the apartment this time, tired and sorry and full of apologies. Hugo is meant to be a pacifist, but he hates this blue, serious, quiet calm because there are too many things being held back and too many words left unsaid.
At least when they were arguing their world made sense.
-
They're walking back from the train station, arm in arm and nudging each other off the sidewalk, laughing like nothing else matters, because to them it doesn't.
They stop at a park to play on the swings, telling each other off for being so childish. Within a few minutes, the clouds close over like curtains on a stage and the rain starts bucketing down, soaking them to the bones within seconds. She's sitting there in her summer dress, red curls plastered to her head and face alight with the type of joy she reserves for rain and black and white movies. He leans forwards and their mouths collide.
They've waited far too long for this, he thinks.
-
They get back to the apartment and nothing else matters but Hugo and Lily.
-
Lily leaves the day after, her things gone and her bed on the couch made and empty. There's a note on the fridge, but he can't bring himself to read it. It's not until he's completely cleaned the apartment that he opens it, with surprisingly steady fingers.
He takes a deep breath and starts to read.
-
It's a year later and Hugo is sitting in a bar, looking out for a girl with red hair and an enchanting smile like he has been every day since she left.
A pretty girl with brown hair comes up, fluttering her eyelashes and flicking her hair.
He's about to tell her he's waiting for someone, like he has every time someone has asked him, but why pretend she's ever going to turn up?
Hugo looks up and smiles tentatively as she holds her hand out. He takes it and she leads him out onto the dancefloor.
Maybe it'll all work out, he thinks.
Maybe this girl isn't Lily, but maybe he doesn't care.
-
The girl isn't Lily, and she doesn't have any of the same passion, but it's okay. This girl will stay.
And maybe one day, Hugo will be whole again.