Aisles

Chapter 18

Sunday, November 17th (early hours)

"Come on, let's get you inside," Mary half-carried Remus through the front door of her flat. His arm was around her shoulders for support as she guided him towards her bedroom and was finally able to lay him on the bed.

"Mary... I'm so sad..." Remus whined as he lazily kicked off his shoes.

"I know, darling, I know," Mary rolled Remus over into the recovery position, pausing to stroke his cheek in a comforting manner. "You just wait here, I'll get you some water and some warm milk and then we can go to sleep, okay?"

Remus protested briefly, holding out his arms to make Mary stay but gave up quickly when his arms got too tired. She returned a moment later and Remus sat up very slowly to accept the drinks.

"Mary? Can you keep it down?" Remus and Mary both turned to see her roommate scowling from the doorframe. She had long blonde hair and eyes that were slightly too small; her lips could have complimented the rest of her face if they hadn't weren't permanently puckered into a frown.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry, Caitlin," Mary said dismissively as she, too, kicked off her shoes.

"I have someone over and I'd rather we weren't disturbed until the morning, if you get what I mean?" Caitlin said in a rather clipped manner as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Course, have fun," Mary smiled up at her, but once the other girl left, she rolled her eyes. She pushed her door closed and turned around, her face in a similar frown to the one her roommate had had. "God, she can play music at bloody 3 am but the second I get home late, and it's all 'can you keep it down?'"

Remus sipped his water and nodded in a way that he hoped was comforting, but it really just caused him to choke on the water and he had to have Mary slap his back a few times.

"Oh my god, can you hear that?" Mary said, her eyes wide. Remus listened hard. "I could have gone my whole life without hearing Cailtin doing that," Mary snickered. "I wonder who the poor sod is,"

"Don't be mean, Mary, I'm sure she can be a very nice person when she wants to be," Remus affectionately scolded.

"So, she just never wants to be a nice person in front of me? Also, scoot up," Mary pushed Remus onto one side of the bed and climbed onto the other side.

"How bad could she be?"

"Does basically no cleaning, always late on rent, likes to have hour long showers so the water bill gets driven up," Mary counted off on her fingers. "And that's not even mentioning the times that she has come into my room and 'borrowed' something. God, it's like having a sister,"

"My roommate is also usually late on rent," Remus yawned.

"Doesn't count if it's yourself," Mary raised an eyebrow and Remus grinned at her.

"It's annoying all the same,"

After a few moments of each laying back on the bed, Remus broke the silence,

"Mary?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think I should talk to him? Tell him that I do want to be exclusive?"

"If that's what you want, then yes," It was a best-friend thing that all they had to do was say 'him' or 'her' and the other would know exactly who they were talking about.

"Okay. I will, tomorrow after work,"

Silence.

"He texted me tonight," Remus murmured.