ADDICTED | j.p x oc

70

The flat was the quietest it had ever been for the next few days. El's anger had mostly faded, and in its place was a hollow emptiness. She moved around like a ghost, silently existing—not eating, not showering, all she did was alternate between drinking and sleeping. James attempted conversation several times but El rarely left the bedroom, which was still a mess. No one had told Sirius; James was adamantly ignoring his owls. Marlene visited daily, each time bringing various cakes that were now piling up on the kitchen counter, untouched.

James found himself wishing he could talk to his mother, she would know what to do. James had always been an incredibly talkative person, but the prolonged silence found him not having a clue what to say. El was no longer barricading behind the bedroom door, though James wasn't welcome in the room, and she'd made that very obvious.

The only person El had spoken to was Marlene, about a week after Regulus had left, Marlene came for her daily visit again. James opened the door wearing the expression that hadn't left his face for seven days. To say James looked fucking miserable would be an understatement.

"Hello," Marlene greeted.

James opened the door wider to let her in.

"She spoken to you?"

"Take a guess," he said grimly.

Marlene gave him a sympathetic look. "Is she ..?"

"Yeah, she's in the bedroom, she was sleeping last time i checked," James tucked his hands into the pockets of his plaid pyjamas. "I left food in there but i doubt she's eaten it."

Marlene nodded, then walked to the bedroom. She knocked before entering, but—as James predicted—El was still asleep. She stepped over the mess of broken objects on the floor, El woke when Marlene sat on the edge of the bed; she reached straight for her pack of cigarettes.

"How are you?" Marlene asked.

"Spectacular," El said as she lit her cigarette.

There was silence. "I think you should talk to James."

"If you came here to ask me to forgive him, you can fuck off," El snapped.

"He's miserable, El."

She took a drag, "not my problem."

"Have you actually thought about it all? About why he's doing this?"

El sighed, "what difference does it make?"

"El, that man worships the fucking ground you walk on, do you really think he'd make you hate him unless he had an incredibly good reason?"

El looked her best friend in the eye, she was almost unrecognisable. Her dark hair formed a messy mane of tangles, her eyes seemed sunken, despite the fact that all she had been doing was sleeping. She looked pale—lifeless.

"I'm trapped in my flat, Marlene. I haven't been outside in a week!"

"Because he doesn't want you to get yourself killed looking for Regulus," Marlene said calmly.

El's eyes began to water, she coughed awkwardly and looked down, blinking the tears away. "He's sitting aside and letting Regulus die!"

"Because he's too fucking in love with you to put your life in any sort of danger! If Regulus dies it's not James' fault."

"He could have prevented it, or let me go with him!" El argued.

"No," Marlene shook her head, "there's no sense in letting you both die. James is terrified of losing you, i saw him when you got stabbed—he was a mess. And he's a mess now."