1982 | Remus Lupin

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Romy knew in her heart that Remus was her friend, he had told her before and as much as she had instilled a lot of self-doubt about many things in her life...Remus being her friend was not something she could deny.

Though, it was getting more and more difficult to believe that with every passing day. She had not spoken to him in weeks and that was definitely not her fault, she had tried and tried and tried but he seemed to be missing. It saddened her mostly that she missed him, she missed his smile and his eyes and the way he would make her shifts go in that bit quicker.

She missed his laugh and his stupid jokes, and she missed Moony. She realised after the second week of not speaking to him that she had missed him so much it almost hurt, like the fear of losing him was too painful to bear. Her mood had changed to sour, and she felt angry.

Why didn't he say anything?

She had sent letters, left call after call after call and every small ding of the door at the café had her head popping up so quickly in hopes that It was him. It never was, and a month had passed and in came colder weather. The leaves were slowly turning orange and brown and yellow, and some days Romy had to grab her jacket on the way out the door.

Yet still no sign of Remus.

She knew that grief could overwhelm someone, and he had suffered enough grief to last him for the next century, but she had not passed. She was in the present ready to be by his side as his closest friend and help him because he helped her. Sometimes unintentionally but just by his presence, she didn't feel so alone.

Right now, she felt alone. She stood with both elbows resting on the café counter, a sigh flowing through the air that released the tension in her shoulders and a warm tea in front of her that she had yet to finish. The air had a chill to it, and she had wrapped up in three different layers.

The café was cold, and the heating was broke. There had been no attempts to fix the heating, but Romy knew that would happen, as long as they were getting customers, she knew that Charles wouldn't care that she and the others would have to suffer in the cold all day.

She kept that in mind when she got herself dressed before her shift, Charles was a dick.

The familiar ding of the door sounded through the quiet café and she let out one more sigh, her eyes casting a tired glance in the direction before staring back down at her tea. It was Remus, and she had to stop herself from doing a double-take, he seemed happy.

"Hey!" the cheeriness in his voice seemed to boil her blood. She hated that she was happy that he was happy, but it also made her angry. She muttered something entirely incomprehensible, sipping her tea and moving it away from the counter.

"Hi there, what can I get you?" she straightened herself up, a frown on her lips and now looking him straight in the eyes. The last time she spoke she had his hand in hers and was making promises to help him clean out his parents' home.

That wasn't something you do if you were mere strangers, and yet that was how he was treating her.

"Someone's not happy," Remus chuckled. Her frown deepened, "are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" she repeated. It was almost insulting for him to even ask her that and she made sure he knew that "am I okay?! I have called you every single day for the last month, I have written letter upon letter begging for you to tell me where the fuck you up and left to. I cried over the fact that I thought my best fucking friend had left me without so much as a goodbye because you have been missing for a month!"

She was happy that there were no other customers in the café, but she knew that Penny would be able to hear her from the back, she didn't really care. She had to get her point across, everything she had wanted to say to him for the last month.

"I know that you are hurting Remus, and I know that you don't think you have anyone, but you do. You have me, and you left. You are the only fucking person I have in this world and you just left and didn't say anything. I came by your apartment and almost broke in just to figure out where you had fucking gone so don't just come in here with your stupid smiling face and say hey as if you didn't abandon me like everyone else did!"

She was crying now, tears streaming down her face, but she felt relief. Everything she wanted to say was out in the open and he was here, and he was shocked. The pain in her eyes didn't go away, and he tried to round the counter, but she flinched away from him.

"You don't get to come in here and expect my forgiveness. You could've said where you were going, or why you went!" Her breathing was short and her chest heavy, "you could've called once, I have been worried about you for an entire month. I didn't know what the fuck had happened, you could've been fucking dead!"

"Romy please let me explain!" he tried to reach out for her again but she shook her head, "Romy-"

"Get out!" She wiped her tears, "I don't want to hear whatever it is you have to say, if you want my forgiveness then you're going to have to earn it. You're not alone anymore Remus, I thought you were my friend!"

"Romy...please," he didn't realise he would be gone for so long, "please let me explain. I should've told you I was leaving but-"

"I told you I don't want to hear it!" she snapped, "just please get out."