Chapter 11
Evan hadn’t noticed he fell asleep, until someone slapped him in the face.
‘Oh nevermind Lils, he’s alive,’ he heard a female voice say, after which a relieved sigh followed. Evan heard footsteps walking towards him and he struggled to open his eyes against the fuzziness of sleep. At least he thought it was because of sleep.
He didn’t quite remember where he was. Or how he got there.
Must’ve been from sleep.
He looked around through the haziness of his sleep and slowly took in his whereabouts. He was still on his kitchen floor, but he was on the floor instead of against the cupboards. In front of him sat Mary, most likely the one to have slapped Evan in the face. Emmeline and Lily were watching him from a small distance away. Lily was on her phone, presumably trying to call someone about Evan.
The last one Evan noticed in front of him was James, who he only noticed because Evan felt him shift underneath him. James was holding his head from the ground. James was holding him.
Jeez, they must’ve thought he was dead or something.
‘How long did I sleep?’ he croaked, his voice a little bit hoarse. From sleeping or crying, Evan wasn’t sure. ‘We don’t really know. We heard a lot of raised voices and then a slam of the door. We were concerned about you, so we sent you a message. We started worrying when you didn’t react within an hour,’ Emmeline explained, frowning at Evan.
Evan really ought to be on his phone more.
‘Oh. Well I’m fine. Still am fine. I was just tired, I guess,’ he muttered, earning a frown from the three girls. He sat up so he could look at James too. ‘What did you fight about? They’re your friends, right?’ Lily asked him.
Lily’s hair was compiled in two adorable Dutch braids that fell over her shoulders. It looked good on her. ‘Yeah, yeah they’re my friends, don’t worry. They just… Got on my nerves, so I kicked them out. Then feelings got high, you know how it gets sometimes,’ he murmured, feeling James’ eyes burning on him. He turned to look at him, but James was already looking away. Maybe Evan was still a little tired and he was imagining things.
‘Wait, you kicked them out? I mean good for you Ev, I’m proud of you for standing up. But like, did they have enough time to get another place to sleep?’ Mary asked, kind of confused and kind of proud. Evan gave her a look. ‘Yes, of course I booked them a hotel room before kicking them out. I’m not an asshole. Maybe a little bit, but not that much,’ he said, frowning at Mary. Did people really think that low of him? Wow.
‘Oh, yeah of course that makes sense. I was just confused as to why they would be mad at you, when you had all the rights to kick them out,’ she explained, smiling at Evan. Oh that was why. He got it now. He nodded in understanding and sighed. ‘What time is it?’ he asked no one in particular, getting his answer from Lily, who told him it was half past twelve.
He put his hands on the floor and pushed himself up. ‘Well then let’s- woah!’ He tried to stand up, but his legs had a different idea for him. His knees buckled and he went straight for the floor, landing a little harshly back on his ass. ‘Okay, let’s try that again. Slowly,’ he said, frowning at himself. He never had stuff like this happen. Why it was happening, he also wasn’t sure.
He grabbed the kitchen cabinets’ handle and pulled himself up, feeling the world around him spin until he stood for a few seconds and the feeling went away. When his vision cleared, and he was stable enough to let go of the cabinets, he realised James was holding him up by his shoulders. He glanced at James for a quick second before smiling softly.
‘Thanks. I think I can stand on my own again now.’ He frowned. ‘Wait, that came out so mean, I didn’t mean it mean, I meant it not mean, like, what’s the word again? Oh, mon dieu maybe I hit my head, because my brain is just not working right. Am I okay? Does my head look okay? James I’m asking you a question why are you-’ Evan didn’t quite finish his sentence on his own accord.
James did it for him by pressing a soft kiss to his lips and painting Evan’s cheeks pink. ‘You look amazing Evy. Don’t worry so much, okay? I’ll take you to a doctor on our way to my house,’ James said calmly, a small smile playing on his lips. Evan caught a glimpse of his own reflection in James’ eyes and he gave him a horrified look. ‘I don’t look amazing! James you can’t lie about stuff like that! I would’ve gone outside looking like… Like… This!’ Evan said disturbed, before he walked over towards the closest mirror he could find and started to hastily fix his hair.
James chuckled from the kitchen and walked over to him, hugging him from behind and ruffling his hair with one hand. ‘You look amazing with or without neat curls Ev,’ James said, smiling at him through the mirror and pressing a soft kiss to Evan’s cheek that made his insides turn as if he was sick. Good sick though. He liked the feeling.
A loud cough from Mary reminded him, however, that they weren’t alone. ‘Oh. Right, okay. You guys go to my house alright? We’ll see you there in a bit,’ James said, smiling at the three girls who left them alone with a lot of commotion and a quip from Mary to ‘be safe’ and Emmeline’s advice of ‘don’t have sex on a white couch, because it ruins the fabric’. Evan rolled his eyes, laughing while James ushered them out with a little more haste than before.
‘Okay Jamie, stop hurrying so much. We have an entire summer to spend together, yeah? We don’t need to kick out our friends for two minutes of making out before we have to go ourselves,’ Evan said, still laughing.
James didn’t laugh along with him though. When Evan stopped laughing, and looked at him, he saw a confused frown on James’ face. ‘We do. So come here and let’s make the most out of our two minutes of making out,’ he said, pulling Evan closer and crashing their lips together.
And oh, Evan would never get tired of this.
He would get tired of the constant guilt in his stomach when he kissed James though.
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Barty was worried about Regulus.
Which was new for him, because he didn’t really worry much about Regulus normally.
Regulus had been closed off since they arrived at the hotel. He’d turned on his headphones, put on his sad girl music and said yes to everything Barty said. The last one was the thing Barty surprised the most. Maybe Regulus just wasn’t listening to him when he said stuff, though.
‘Regulus, do you want to go out to eat tonight?’ he asked, scrolling on his phone, looking for good places to eat until he stumbled on a cosy Italian place and stopped scrolling. ‘Sure, why not. What else could go wrong anyways?’ Regulus muttered, burying his face into his pillow. Barty frowned at him.
‘Stop being like that,’ he said, sitting down beside Regulus on his bed and pulling his pillow away. He was met with a death glare. ‘Just let me do my thing, fuck’s sake,’ Regulus grumbled, grabbing for the pillow, but missing. ‘No, talk to me. You fell out to Evan and now you’re the one wallowing in your sadness,’ Barty said, getting an angry ‘I’m not wallowing!’ as a reaction from Regulus.
Barty just raised his eyebrow. ‘Okay, and then? Can’t I be sad?’ Regulus asked, still grumbling through his teeth. ‘No you can’t! Man up Regulus! You were the one falling out to Evan. You were the one getting all mad and slashing him with your words Regulus! You are the reason we’re not there to comfort Evan! We’ve been terrible to him! And I don’t know about you, but I would stop wallowing and start acting like a better friend,’ Barty sneered, angry eyes pointed at Regulus’ indifferent ones.
‘He’s with James. My James, Barty,’ Regulus said. Barty saw the slightest flicker of hurt in Regulus’ eyes, but as soon as it came, it went. ‘He’s not yours anymore, Reg,’ Barty said, a knot forming in his chest.
‘Ev, he chose James. He’s with James. My Reggie.’
‘Was he ever yours though?’
He pushed his thoughts aside and cleared his throat. ‘I know you want James back, Regulus. But what is really more important to you? Ruining Evan’s life and having James in the most twisted way, or seeing Evan happy for a little while until he realises James is not the one? We both know first loves never last,’ Barty said, a grimace painting Regulus’ face.
‘Don’t start about that, please,’ Regulus said, pinning Barty down with his stare. ‘What? Why do you keep ignoring it? You know about me now, I told you everything. It’s time for you to fess up,’ Barty said. Maybe this explanation held a solution.
‘No.’ Was the only thing he got as an answer though. Barty sighed deeply. ‘You were in love with him when you guys were younger, no? You got beaten for liking him until you sealed it off completely and pretended to like other girls in front of your family. What’s the rest? What happened?’ Barty asked, pressing on further. Regulus threw off his headphones and he sat up.
‘Nothing happened! I got over it and now he’s dating my boyfriend like the intolerable piece of shit he actually is! Stop asking about my previous crushes! If you could even call it a crush!’ he screamed suddenly. He stood up, grabbed his headphones, and made a beeline for the door. ‘You can’t call it a crush, no. Because in theory, it was a strong definition of love. You loved him Reg, no point in denying that. Is that why you’re so pressed he’s dating James? Because you want both and can’t have either?’ Barty asked, sounding an awful lot like a therapist he might need to seek out once he was back in Britain.
‘I- I…’ Regulus muttered, letting his headphones fall around his neck. ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted softly, tears welling up in his blue eyes. ‘You have such a harsh way of hurting people, Regulus. I hit with force, but you hit with words, and words fucking hurt sometimes,’ he said.
‘No one is able to really forget their first love, no matter how hard we try. The important thing is to learn to let go,’ Barty said. He felt so wise, speaking those words to his own very first love. ‘So you’ve let go?’ Regulus asked him, looking up at him with soft blue eyes.
‘I- We were talking about you Regulus,’ Barty said, trying to ignore the way Regulus’ comment made his heart flutter. ‘No, we were talking about manning up. So man up, tell the truth,’ he said, his eyes locked on Barty’s. Barty sighed. ‘I can’t. I don’t know what I have to think about it because it was always unrequited, so no. I can’t really let go of something that was never there to begin with. But I’ve learned to ignore it. I got over myself and I was happy that you found love with James,’ Barty said, knowing that Regulus knew what he was going to say.
‘And now you want me to do the same for Evan,’ Regulus said, taking a deep breath and sitting down on the bed again. ‘I’ll… I’ll try to be better. But I want him back, Barty. And I’m getting him back,’ Regulus said, his face slowly ridding any left over emotions and becoming indifferent again. Barty hated when he did that. Regulus rarely showed any emotions other than indifference, disgust or anger.
‘That’s okay. It’s not like I wasn’t planning on fighting James to win Ev,’ Barty muttered back, earning a small grin from Regulus.
Barty was going to get Evan back. Whatever it may cost.
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Sirius’ heart made a little flutter when his friend stepped out of the boarding hall to greet them.
A grin spread on his face while he ran towards Remus, hugging him tightly while Remus laughed at him. He felt Remus’ arms close around him and pull him from his feet. ‘Hi,’ Sirius mumbled into Remus’ chest. Remus muttered ‘hi’ back, a big grin on both boy’s faces.
‘And then he dares to say I’m the one in love,’ James drawled, playfully poking Sirius to let go of Remus. He hugged Remus and scoffed. ‘I swear to god Remus, stop growing or you’ll never fit through doors anymore,’ James muttered, ruffling Remus’ hair. Remus chuckled and looked over James’ shoulder to where Fleamont was waiting on Remus with… Evan?
Remus turned to Sirius with a frown. ‘What’s he doing here?’ he asked, motioning towards Evan. When James let go of him, he was engulfed in another hug from Sirius. ‘Oh, he’s the mystery loverboy from James I told you about,’ Sirius said, smiling at Remus. When Remus looked at Evan, he got a wary glance back, and then James softly grabbed Evan’s hand, earning a smile from him.
‘Okay, like, I support James in all of his stupids, but this is on a whole other level. Like, we all know how Regulus and Sirius both inherited the crazy genes, right? I mean, if Regulus found this out, I wouldn’t put it past him to come here,’ Remus said, sharing a look with Sirius, who looked both offended and like he wanted to laugh.
‘Oh, he’s very predictable. He arrived a few days ago,’ Evan said, shaking his head, and laughing softly. Remus gave Evan a wide eyed look. ‘What? Reggie is here?’ Sirius asked, his expression quickly shifting to one of confusion and hurt. ‘What do you care? It’s not like you care about him,’ Evan said, his lips turned into a downward snarl. ‘Excuse you?’ Sirius said, balling his fists at his side. Evan raised an eyebrow.
‘From what I’ve heard, you’re the perfect example of a bad brother. So let’s not act like he owed it to you to tell you shit,’ Evan sneered, his eyes a greenish tint of angry hazel. ‘What you’ve heard is wrong. Yes, it’s complicated, but of course I care for my brother. I love him,’ Sirius said. The words came so easy from his mouth, even though Remus knew how much Sirius cried over his brother. Could you really love someone that made you so sad?
‘And does he know that? Because I’m really sure he-’ Evan stopped himself when James put his hand on his shoulder. He looked up over his shoulder to find James giving him a warning look and he shut up. ‘Sorry ‘bout that,’ Evan muttered, eyes falling to the floor.
Sirius frowned at Evan, but seemed to decide to give up on the fight before it could escalate. He turned his eyes back on Remus, who was looking at him. It seemed Sirius had gotten even prettier from a week in the France summer sun. He looked gorgeous, like an angel that went rogue and coloured his shoulder length waves black to have his own identity. Remus knew Sirius was anything but an angel though.
‘Sirius, what happened to my shoes?’
‘Oh, sorry Pete. You said that I didn’t need my leather jacket, so I guessed you didn’t need your shoes.’
‘I have class in two minutes and am already late!’
‘Better go in your socks then. Everyone will see how much of a spiderman fan you are, you tosser.’
Remus smiled to himself fondly at the memory. ‘Okay, let’s go,’ Fleamont decided, right after he gave Remus a hug as the last one and started pulling his suitcases. The five of them piled into the car. James in front, Remus besides Sirius who was in the middle seat, on his other side Evan.
‘You could’ve told me my brother was here,’ Sirius whispered to Evan, who frowned and gave him a confused look. ‘When? Did you want me to send you a text message? That’s Regulus’ business, not mine. And apart from that, Regulus is busy enough with his own drama he created, so I don’t think he’s in the mood for your drama,’ Evan said, scoffing and turning back towards the window. James turned around to look at him, but he said nothing.
Remus sighed and let his head fall against the window. He was happy to see his two friends, but he doubted this vacation was going to be a chill one.