KISS ME (J.P.)

CHAPTER TWO (3)

Chap. 2

James sighed absent-mindedly at the memory and falling onto his centuries old bed, the metal springs screeching loudly at his trusted fall.

Brushing his brown curls away from his face. "Ugh, I wish I could see her every day."

Sirius rolled his eyes, getting up from Remus's bed, grabbing his porcelain Asian comb and Turkish towel before heading to the washroom.

The french boy refused to lay in his bed unless he'd taken a shower. Some nights when he was too tired, James would catch him sleeping in the more infectious bed, Remus's.

The Welsh boy was one of James's favorite people. He'd met him last out of the united four. James and Sirius came first, their families neatly intertwined, and had known each other since they were little. James met Peter on his tour of Alnwick when he was 13.

Remus was a scholarship student from Wales. His parents, the Lupins, had no money to their name. Remus had a cane, scars littering his body, rough hair unkept, posture warped, everything an Alnwick boy wasn't.

Nonetheless, Remus was first in their class. Smartest person James knew.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Remus asked, playing with the strings of his guitar, sitting against his bed's headboard, carved with bears, wolves, and lions. Careful in his strumming, not to wake up any patrolling professor.

Remus played in the school's band, of course not with the guitar. He instead bruised his shoulder with the violin.

"Ages ago." James replied, sitting up and stretching his burly arms.

Remus asked again. "How long?" "Last Sunday. But! It ended weirdly."

Remus looked up with a questioning look, not having to ask the reason, before James stood up. Animating the whole scene with Lucius Malfoy.

"God, I just wanted to be like." James started air punching.

He'd left that day very angry. By dawn, Monday, driving back to Alnwick for the week, skipping his morning practice to make a formal complaint about Lucius Malfoy. Using his charm and name to favor, James was scarily determined, and by Tuesday, Lucius had been taken off the board. Ring to be returned in due time.

Peter was flipping through his messy filling folder, looking for some passed due assignment. "So, what happened after?"

James sat back down, getting prepared for bed. "I just let her bake in the back for the rest of her shift."

Remus played the tune to 'Under the Bridge' by Red Hot Chili Peppers, serenaded by the shower and Sirius's faint humming. "What about your break?"

"Oh, I didn't take one."

Remus paused to pull out a sleeping sweater similar to the sweater he was already wearing. Mumbling his Welsh, "Such precious dwt you are."

James groaned, standing up to make his way into the bathroom, as Sirius left, with his expensive towel low on his hips. "That's not the point. I need to know how to ask her."

Peter made a suggestion messing his bed as he had resorted to taking out every paper in the thick folder to find the missing one. "You could just go to her house and ask."

Peter was in some way a scholarship student, only he had worked nothing for the part. His mother was the school's lunch lady and lived on the grounds, so Peter extended the right to study here before he could read. Alnwick was all he knew.

James spit out the toothpaste in his mouth, shaking his head. "Eh, I don't think that's a good idea."

Peter had given up and started stuffing them all back in, crumbling and shuffling the deck of papers even more. "Why?"

James splashed his face with some water, walking back into the room. "I was there once before. It's not the nicest. I think she was embarrassed."

Sirius put on his Parisian sleeping set, not bothering to cover himself while changing. "Nothing Arleton is nice.

"Remus huffed, grabbing his cane and making steep thumps to the ground with every helped step toward the bathroom.

Sirius was overtly comfortable in his wealth. His family was the second richest in the whole school. The Blacks were royalty in some lights, actually if James remembered correctly, some of them were.

Remus was always sensitive to Sirius' comments on class and wealth. And Sirius always felt he was very giving in his wording. At least compared to how he had been raised. Sirius was the ever unharsh.

James rolled his eyes, seeing Remus scowl. "Sirius."

He raised his arms, backing away. "It's true!"

Remus pulled out his pills from the mirror's cabinet, swallowing all five without a sip. "You could ask her to one of your games."

James had become co-captain this year of the rugby team.

He laid his bed under the covers staring at the ceiling, suddenly feeling warm imagining Doe watch him play. "Oh no, I'd be too nervous to play."

Remus walked back into the room, shrugging.

James sighed. "I see her tomorrow- for work- I'll try to ask her then."

A bang at the door caused them all to scatter, blowing out the candles, jumping into the bed and play dead. They could hear their literature professor McGonagall yell. "If you four are up again, I will give you a second essay on Dickinson."

Date posted: March 16th, 2023