James stares down at his phone, shame and embarrassment twisting inside him.
He swallowed back the tears that threatened to fall and cleared his throat.
“Um, I’m gonna go to the bathroom, I’ll be back in a second.”
His friends all acknowledged him in some sort of way, either a hum or a nod, most of them entranced in the movie they were watching.
He stands up and walks to the bathroom of Barty and Evan’s apartment.
There's polaroids up in the bathroom of them and their friends throughout the years, it was usually very cute, but James felt too shitty to look at them and smile as he usually does.
He sits down on the toilet, burying his face in his hands and silently letting out sobs.
He doesn’t get it. He’s a nice person, he always does his best and tries his hardest.
Why can’t things go right for him ever?
Why does everything have to go badly for him but not for the people who hurt him, or who hurt his friends.
He’s not sure how long he’s been gone, but when he lifts his head he feels just as shitty, and his headaches.
He wants to go home.
He wants to lay in bed with Regulus and have him scratch his back and play with his hair and have him tell him that everything is going to be okay.
He hears a knock on the door, and he hums out in a questioning tone,
“It's me babe, can I come in?”
“Mhm.”
The door gently opens and closes again and then Regulus is kneeling in front of him, gently grabbing his face and tilting his head down,
“What happened baby?”
James shook his head, more tears slipping out of his eyes,
“It’s okay, everything’s okay, I’m not going to judge you, I just want to help.”
“I failed my biology test.” His voice is barely a whisper, barely coming out when he speaks.
“What?”
“I got my grade back. I got a 57, I failed.”
“Oh Jamie, I’m sorry.”
“I just don’t understand Regulus, I don’t get why I’m so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid Jamie, you’re one of the smartest people I know, one biology test doesn’t define you and your worth.”
“But it’s not just one biology class, Reg, it’s the math class I had to drop last semester, it's that I’m always the dumb one in any given conversation. It’s not fair.”
“It’s not, baby, I’m sorry. But just because you’re not great at math or science doesn’t mean you’re stupid, I read your psychology essays and I’ve seen how you interact with kids, your strong suits just aren’t focused on STEM subjects.”
James nods.
“I want to go home.”
“Okay, we can go home, why don’t you go to the car and I’ll gather our things?”
“Okay, but… can you not tell them?”
“Of course not baby, I’ll tell them you had a headache. Now go, I’ll be down in a minute.”
He nods and gets up, wiping his face again and walking out of the bathroom and straight to the door.
When Regulus walks out after and starts to gather their shoes and jackets, Sirius speaks up,
“Is James okay?”
“He’s okay, he has a headache, he wanted to go home but he didn’t want to ask.”
The others nod in acceptance and tell him to tell James that they hope he feels better.
And that night, Regulus does hold James close and scratch his back, and tell him that everythings okay.