wonderwall

“Yo Reg, someone knocked down the wax display again!”

“I’ll come fix it one sec.”

“Hurry up,” James moaned, “Snape’s here.” The lanky boy was visible from the front window of the surf shop. He had black hair, and an incredibly large nose. Regulus tried to hide his face behind his hands, cringing at the sight.

“God, someone fix the wax display! It’s so messy here!” Snape called. His voice felt like you shot a nail gun into your ear repeatedly. Regulus smirked as James tried to discreetly place a ten dollar bill into his hand.

“Sorry Snivellus, won't happen again! But you’re on the main floor today with Dorcas, my mom said so.” James called sarcastically.

James had been caught throwing a party during last school year, and as his punishment, instead of a ‘punishment fits the crime’ sort of deal, Effie decided to offer Severus Snape, the most annoying human being/greaseball on the planet, a job at their surf shop.

On the first floor of the store, there were mostly clothes and beach toys. It was mostly tourist centered. The second floor however, was a gold mine. It was full of surfboards and wetsuits that were all beautiful. When Sirius brought Regulus up there for the first time he had once thought that it was the most magical thing he had ever seen. That was until he met James Potter of course.

“Oooh Reg come here!” James called from the surfboard fixing room, “Look at this board, it's crazy!” Regulus, who couldnt resist that voice, quickly found his way already shuffling towards James subconsciously. 

When he walked through the doorway, he could see James’ broad shoulders leaned over the board table. James waved him over and Regulus looked at the board. It was crazy. Beautiful, even. It was a 5 foot fiberglass board. The base was a light blue, but it was covered in pictures of jellyfish of all sorts of colors. It was mesmerizing.

“Look! That's us!” James said happily, pointing at two jellyfish, one red and the other green, who looked like they were chasing each other. Regulus laughed in response, but secretly thought it was the cutest thing ever.

When Regulus heard footsteps coming up the stairs, he sent James a panicked look and shot out the door to help the customer. A woman walked in. She was shorter than Regulus, but only by a few inches. Her long braids trailed down her back. 

“Don’t worry Reginald, it's only me. There's no one here so I'm gonna come fix my board.” Dorcas said. Regulus tried not to scowl at the nickname and instead, giggled at it. Dorcas passed him and made her way to the board workshop, dodging any stray leashes and rogue pieces of wax that James was supposed to be cleaning up. 

“You like my board?” Dorcas playfully jabbed at James.

“This one’s yours!?” James was giddy. Regulus turned the other way and pretended to wrap a leash to hide the smile brewing on his face. 

“Yep,” Dorcas said proudly, “I just made it.” Regulus contained himself and turned back around.

“No way!” James seemed like he was about to explode.

“Alright now I need to focus.” Dorcas complained, "Get out."

“Yes ma’am.” James saluted, left the room, closed the door behind him, and approached Regulus. “Did Barty confirm for tonight?”

“Yea,” Regulus turned off his phone and looked up, “He said he can get us whatever and I told him to stop by here for the money.”

“Okay, perfect.” James looked down at Regulus.

~*~

Regulus felt his phone buzz. It was their big group chat.

James: Party at mine at 9 text ppl

Sirius: Got it

Mary: can i just say open invite?

James: Sure

Remus: pls dont let ppl take aux

James: I wont

Marlene: are we pregaming?

Lily: duh

Regulus: i told barty to drop off alc at 7

James: Ok

Regulus was panicking. At first, he couldn’t decide what to wear and now everyone he knew would be there. When James says ‘open invite’ about a party, that means that anyone who's anyone would be in attendance. He quickly texted Pandora to come over and help him calm down enough to pick out an outfit. 

Pandora came over at six and immediately walked into Regulus’ closet at the Potter’s house. She grabbed a pair of dark green shorts and a black Oasis t-shirt, being tall enough to reach it off of the top shelf, and handed it over to Regulus. She had tan skin, and light blonde dreadlocks, with silver cuffs around them. She was wearing a long white skirt and a green sweater that was tight, but gradually got looser on the sleeves toward her wrists. Like flared pants but in shirt form.

“Here Reg,” Pandora handed him the pile of clothes and gave him a swift ruffle on the top of his head, burying her hand in his hair. Regulus shot her an annoyed look but quickly changed it to a much more thankful one. 

She smiled back and fled the room so Regulus could change. He could hear her run into James in the hallway and get asked to help carry in Barty's delivery.

After Regulus was dressed, he went downstairs to help Pandora and James. James was wearing baggy blue jorts and a graphic red billabong t-shirt. Regulus couldn't help but stare at the biceps creeping out from under the sleeve. He forced himself off of it and grabbed a bottle of Tito’s to put on the table, not before giving Pandora a glance and mouthing ‘yum’ at her first.

“Hey Reg,” James called from across the house, “Come help me set up speakers and figure out music.”

“Okay!” Regulus answered. “Pandora, you can finish getting ready in my bathroom if you want.”

“Alright, go have fun lover-boy.” She let out with a giggle.

Regulus crossed the house eagerly to try to find James, who was nowhere to be found. “James?”

“Oh! I set up the speakers but come up to my room for the playlist!” James called, seemingly far away this time.

“Coming!” Regulus trudged up the stairs and found his way to the familiar red room. When he walked in, James was laying face down on his bed like a starfish. “What’s wrong?’

James' voice was muffled through his bedsheets, “I just accidentally deleted the playlist.” He let out a groan, flipped over, and patted the bed so Regulus could lay down next to him.

This was a common occurrence for them. Sometimes, when one of them couldn't sleep, they would go into each other's rooms, and lay next to each other on their backs. Usually they wouldn’t talk and just stare at the ceiling, but they would cross ankles. It was like a silent, i’m here. It wasn’t anything romantic, more like a platonic show of friendship. Neither of the two told anyone about it, not even Sirius. 

“It’s okay,” Regulus said while crossing his ankle over James’, “We can just make a new one.” Both of them got out their phones and added songs. James renamed the playlist to ‘James and regulus party time’ and Regulus let out a laugh. 

The playlist didn’t have much variety, but was more like a copy and paste of other party playlists. It had songs like Sult Me Out, The Spins, Where Them Girls At, and Feel So Close. James also begged to be able to add Mr. Brightside and Regulus, who was sick of that song from hearing James sing it under his breath every time they were surfing, at the surf shop, and generally everywhere he went, said no.

After the playlist was done, the two stayed, and laid there for a bit.

~*~

The door swung open, and the familiar sound of Peter’s voice filled the house, “Where are you fuckers at? I'm ready to get DRUUUNK!” 

“We’re coming down!” James called in response. Him and Regulus quickly stood up and left James’ room. In the hallway, they stumbled upon Remus and Sirius leaving Sirius’ room. A fresh soon-to-be hickey was on Remus’ neck. James and Regulus shared a look and tried not to laugh while looking directly at Sirius.

“Why are we all staring at me like this isn’t a common occurence?” Sirius broke the silence laughing. The rest of the group joined him and they all went downstairs, picking up Pandora on the way.

Peter was standing at the kitchen counter with five cups laid out in front of him and an open bottle in his hand. “Oh, hi Pandora!” Peter said happily, “Do you want one?”

“You know I do!” Pandora answered.

The girls arrived shortly after and they all had fun, pouring drinks and dancing.