Chapter xi
Pandora Rosier was, quite possibly, the coolest person to ever exist. She was smart, funny, and drop-dead gorgeous. Anyone who met her had to like her, and anyone who’d never met her wanted to. She was double-majoring in fucking environmental management and music theory, she had a healthy relationship with her cousin and friends, and she was a published environmental and social activist before she was even old enough to drink.
She was, as far as Regulus knew, the closest any person had ever been to achieving perfection. She knew that. And she used it.
“Reggie, I am the best person you know. If you don’t come to this concert with me you’re racist.”
She was nearly perfect, yet she was still an absolute bastard, and Regulus was far too used to her by now.
“Oh? That’s what would make me racist? Not the white supremacist-coded artwork all around my childhood home?”
Pandora seemed completely unphased, and Regulus wondered briefly why he would even try to use shock value with her. It had never worked before.
“Nope. That was your parents. Your racism would only be confirmed if you didn’t come. And also Barty and Ev are coming, so if you don’t come, you’re refusing to spend time with them, and you’re homophobic, too. So think before making a decision.”
Regulus had heard the argument far too many times to blink an eye at it. “Ah, yes. I, a trans, gay man, am a homophobe.”
Pandora nodded sagely. “Internalised homophobia. It gets the best of them.”
Regulus nodded back. She wasn’t going to drop it, and as the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them. “Yep. Guess I better work on my healing before trying to hang out with my two best friends - who aren’t even dating yet - because I don’t want to hurt their feelings. Cause I’m just a sensitive guy like that.”
Regulus was lucky. The door opening at the end of his sentence stopped Pandora from responding.
“Hey, Panda. Hi, Panda’s homophobic roommate. Heard you’re not coming, can’t believe you’d openly betray Evan like that.” Barty’s tone made it clear that he knew exactly what was being said, though he’d just walked in. Every part of their friend group had been on both sides of that same conversation countless times.
So maybe Regulus wasn’t lucky.
“If I go, will both of you shut up all of tomorrow and actually let me do my fucking studying?”
Barty put a hand to his chest, acting insulted. As if he hadn’t expected it. “You think so little of us? Do you spite our love? Do you truly value our help, our insight, so little that you so blatantly ask us - nay, tell us - to leave you to your own devices for 24 hours? So much could change in 24 hours. We could all die. The solar system could explode-”
“-or implode-” Evan added helpfully, walking in.
“-or implode, and we’d die - our entire universe would disappear - while believing you hate us,” Barty finished. Fucking drama queen.
Regulus didn’t bat an eye. “Deal or no deal?”
“Deal,” Evan decided. “We’re gonna be late, get your dramatic asses to the orchestra hall or I will make sure the bows are made of your intestines and hair, not cats’ or horses’.”
Barty mumbled something sounding vaguely like ‘you’re the horse,’ under his breath, but he headed out to his car like Evan commanded, and Pandora and Regulus shared a look before following him. Simp.
As they settled into their usual places in Barty’s car (Barty driving, Evan shotgun, and Regulus and Pandora squishing themselves onto the middle seat in the back under the same seatbelt because neither of them wanted to sit behind the others,) Regulus sat in his contentedness for a second.
For all of their bickering, he loved his friends more than anything, and they loved him. They were the people he depended on, the people he genuinely enjoyed being around - though he would be loathe to ever tell them that.
He zoned out as Evan and Pandora argued whether the bass or viola was more underappreciated - as a past violinist, he would be lambasted if he even thought about joining the conversation. Because his friends were assholes.
And so they were at the orchestra hall and took their usual box seats, props of the Black parents (Barty said if they ever disowned Reggie he’d kill Walburga and seduce-then-marry Orion so that they could keep the old money perks). Regulus loved the orchestra, he loved the symphony, he even loved the opera. Sirius had mocked him for it when they were kids, but it was always peaceful. His parents would never say anything and draw attention to themselves by interrupting the performance. For a few hours, Regulus would just be surrounded by music and nothing else.
Then, when he met his friends, everything changed again. When he went to the orchestra, he would be surrounded by music and his loved ones, and nothing could be better than that. He whined about going, because he couldn’t let the bastards know how much he loved spending time with them, but a lot of his favorite times were in that box.
Regulus and Evan were the most serious about the music, so they always sat next to each other in the middle. Pandora, more concerned with the musical technique, would sit on Regulus’s left and scrible furious notes on his hand and arm, because - as she so kindly pointed out - her pen showed up better on him than on Evan. Barty would sit on Evan’s right and poke him every so often to point out a weird face a musician was making or when two musicians seemed to have tension. Regulus had a sneaking suspicion that Barty only did this because he wanted more attention, but if Evan didn’t complain, neither would Regulus. And Evan didn’t complain.
And so they sat, and Regulus lost himself in the music. For a few hours, there was nothing more than the sound reaching his ears and playing in his head, there was nothing more than the familiar feeling of Pandora’s pen on his arm and Evan nudging him whenever the music got particularly complex or beautiful.
And then it was over, and the group was back in Barty’s car, and Pandora was transcribing her Reg’s-arm-notes into her phone, and Barty was trying to steal Evan’s phone because he was tired of listening to orchestral music and his car’s bluetooth had an obsession with connecting to Evan’s phone rather than Barty’s. Pandora thought that this was because it ‘shipped’ the two boys together, Regulus thought it was because it just disliked Barty.
Either way, they were driving back, and they were happy, and they stopped to get their usual post-concert treats, and so they stepped out of the car and walked into the best ice cream shop on campus.
And were met by James in a tuxedo.
Which.
What?
“Oh, James!” Pandora seemed unsurprised to see him, and patted his cheek affectionately. “Excellent job tonight! You were the best second-seat cellist there!”
Cellist?
James seemed as confused by this as Regulus was, and his eyes shifted constantly between Regulus and his friends. “...Thanks… didn’t know you all liked the orchestra.”
Regulus almost scoffed at this, but managed to keep his expression and voice neutral. “No? I’d say it’s rather more surprising that you like the orchestra. You don’t exactly seem the type.”
James rubbed the back of his neck, and Regulus realized belatedly that he may’ve sounded a bit rude. “Yeah, well. They offered me a big scholarship for it and Mum and Dad thought it’d help with my image. Make me look employable and stuff.”
Evan nodded at this, and there was a small smile on his face, as if he knew something nobody else did and planned on exploiting it. “I bet being in a string quartet would really help your image. You know, Reg plays violin. Dora and I play bass and viola.”
The bastard.
James took this surprisingly well, not running away in fear. “Oh, yeah? Well we should play together some time. I’m sure Reggie here can’t be bad at anything he tries.”
What?
The?
Fuck?
Pandora, Evan, and Barty seemed extremely pleased at this response.
“Oh, definitely,” Barty agreed. Which was out of character, considering he took every possible opportunity to insult Regulus. “Isn’t he just great? And smart? And pretty? And s-”
Regulus took the opportunity to put his hand over Barty’s mouth, realizing what was going on. Because his friends were bastards.
James, luckily, seemed completely lost. “...yeah. Yeah, he is.”
What?
Regulus decided to leave before things could get worse, as they were bound to.
“Well, James, it was great to see you. Excellent job tonight. We’ll just be going then.” He started to drag his friends out, ignoring Pandora’s and Barty’s complaints that they hadn’t gotten their ice cream.
“See you, Reg!” James called after him, not even trying to hide a grin. “I’ll text you about setting up that quartet!”
What the hell?
Regulus let the door close and shoved his friends towards Barty’s car, only opening his mouth when they were all in their spots.
“What the fuck was that about?”