WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU PUMPKINS , james potter

━ nineteen. falling in love is for losers!

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
- falling in love is for losers! -
1977

"SO YOU WANT MY HONEST OPINION?" Sirius quirked his eyebrow, slurping on his third ice cream as he studied the sheet of paper shoved in his face by his best friend. He leaned lazily against James's shoulder with an unimpressed look.

     "Well, duh." James rolled his eyes. "And watch it, you're getting it dirty with your sticky fingers!"

     "It's shit." Sirius let James snatch the crumbled paper from his hands, snorting as he tried in vain to smooth out the paper.

     "Yeah... I'll have to agree. It's pretty bad, Prongs. You could do better." Peter said having read over Sirius's shoulder. Then he thought about it. "Or... maybe not, actually."

     "Here let me see that." Remus took a moment to read his work after James reluctantly handed it over. "Oh wow this is bad. Like Sirius trying to do cartwheels bad."

     "Oi!"

     "So I guess wooing Lily with my writing skills is a no-go..." James sighed, tossing his third poem onto the floor. "I don't know what to do! Why can't Lily see that I'm the most handsome bloke in the entire world and that we were meant to be."

     "One, I'm the most handsome guy in the entire world. And two, not to be an attention whore or anything—" Remus coughs something about Sirius being, in fact, an attention-seeking whore— "but isn't it my birthday?" quipped Sirius. "So shouldn't we talk about things that interest me?"

     "Oh yeah, like what?"

     "Because I'm buzz-zz-zzed," Sirius imitated a bee, "I can't think of anything, buuuut... Peter can! Go on, Pet-tuh!" Sirius liked making fun of the way James talked when he was drunk. And sober. He just liked making fun of James who was starting to get irritated because hello, James needed the girl of his dreams to fall in love with him by the end of the school year!

"We could have another eating contest," Peter suggested.

"So Sirius can throw up all over my covers, no thanks," humphed Remus.

Even slightly drunk, Sirius could roll his eyes perfectly. "It was one time!"

     "Oh, crap!" exclaimed James, suddenly sitting up straight and letting Sirius fall against the mattress. "Peter what time is it?"

     "Pet-tuh, wot tyme iz it?" mocked Sirius, speaking slower than he needed to— James sounded nothing like that if you asked him. Sirius was turning red now and even had Remus snickering with him. James shot them a look before turning to Peter who was holding back a smile.

     "Quarter past twelve."

     "So you mean officially not Sirius's birthday?"

     Sirius narrowed his eyes at Remus, stretching his leg to try and swat him with his foot. "It's my birthday until I say it isn't!"

     "Shoot, shoot, I have to study," James muttered. He jumped out of bed, digging in the contents of their shared closet to find Mads's unnecessarily immense book of notes. She'd color-coded it and everything. He finally found it under a pair of hopefully clean underwear after scrummaging around for it. James hugged it to his chest in relief. Mads would have killed him if he'd lost it.