James POV
Three in the morning. James hated time change. Why couldn't the entire planet just pick one time and stick to it? That would be bad, then half the earth would be dark all day and light all night. Why couldn't the earth just be flat? Then he would be able to fall asleep before four in the morning. At school, he had never gone to sleep before three am. Which translates to four am in Chicago. And in the suburbs of Chicago, four AM was a time that no one was awake. This meant that he would not be able to fall asleep until four in the fucking morning and he would have to sit alone in the dark all night long. Then, since his mother was a crazy person with a crazy schedule, he would be woken while the sun was still rising. Which wasn't actually saying all that much because it was December in Chicago so the sun didn't actually rise until almost seven-thirty. But still, seven-thirty is an ungodly hour that shouldn't exist, and at college, didn't.
So now it was three in the morning and he was sneaking out of his house. He couldn't spend another hour silently staring at a wall trying not to wake anyone else in the house. It was freezing outside. There wasn't any snow on the ground but the sky looked like it was about to start to snow, or sleet. His entire street was abandoned, with the only light coming from streetlamps littered through the neighborhood. He turned the corner and saw a figure walking towards him. Regulus. He looked like a mess. He seemed to be hobling down the road. It was below freezing and he was wearing just a skin-tight t-shirt. His makeup that he had recently started wearing was smeared across his face. Regulus was looking down but his normally soft beautiful hair was very green and very tangled.
"Reg?" He asked.
Regulus looked up at him, squinting his eyes. He had eyeliner and what looked like black lipstick smeared across his face. He was a disaster. "James?"
"Reg?" He asked again. He ran up to her. "What happened?" His mind was reeling at what could have possibly happened to make Regulus in this state.
"Oh, I'm just going home." He mumbled nonchalantly and shrugged. James stared blankly at the younger boy for a few seconds, not comprehending what he had just said.
"It's three in the morning." He finally said.
"Oh yea… I guess it's a little late." Regulus shrugged again, sort of wincing as he looked up to look James in the face.
"You're hungover," James stated.
"Yeah, so. As fun as this conversation is, I think I am going to go home." Regulus said while continuing to walk to his house. "See ya tomorrow, or later today, or whatever."
"Where were you?" James asked even though he knew where he probably was. James lightly grabbed Regulus’ arm to stop him from continuing to walk.
"Party." He said as if it's normal to be walking home alone at three AM in the freezing cold with no coat.
"Until 3 am?" James asked incredulously.
"Oh yeah. Got distracted. Bed. Guy." He mumbled, wincing when he realized what he had said.
"You were in bed with a guy?" James breathed. He felt his throat closing up. James was so not okay with this situation. All he could think of was the sweet little boy who used to pull on James’ shirt for a glass of lemonade. What happened?
"Yeah," Regulus yawned. How could he think this is normal?
"What were you doing in bed with a guy?" James asked even though he knew what he was doing. James didn’t want the answer. Unless the answer happened to be that they were just making the bed, playing card games, or anything else besides what he was assuming Regulus was doing in a bed with a random guy.
"I- Look, I'm exhausted and have a really bad headache, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret this conversation later," Regulus said
"Is this what you do now? Go to parties, get waisted, have sex with random guys, then walk home half drunk and half hungover at three in the morning?" James asked with a hint of anger in his voice. James had every right to be angry, this was unacceptable.
"Um..." He scratched his head a little, "Like- sometimes."
"Reg.. You.. You can't do that!" He yelled. He was yelling, he knew he shouldn't be yelling but why was he doing this? Regulus couldn't get drunk and sleep with random guys. He was sixteen... and Regulus. Regulus deserved to date someone who liked him enough to at least make sure he got home safe, not bang him and send him on his way.
"Shhh. Why can't I do that?" Regulus asked a little confused.
"Because you're- It's irresponsible. And dangerous." He said. James knew that he was right.
"Didn't Sirius get drunk and sleep with random girls at sixteen?" Regulus asked. Which was fair. Sirius still does that, but this was different.
"Yes. But he's Sirius." He said as a retort. James knew this probably wasn’t the best argument, but the two situations were completely different.
"And I'm Regulus. I can do what I want." He rolled his eyes.
"No, you can't." He growled. James was not going to drop that.
"James," He hissed.
"I'm not going to let you do this!" James yelled. He was lucky that none of the neighbors were waking up because of this conversation.
"You have no control over what I do or don't do James." Regulus snapped.
"The hell I don't." He yelled.
"James, you're not my father, you're not my brother, you're not my... anything. Fuck off." Regulus yelled as he stomped into his empty house and slammed the door while James stood there staring at the house for a few minutes. They had never had a fight like that. Sure they had argued but it was always resolved in a conversation. But apparently, he was nothing to him. James was pretty sure he felt his chest cave in at Regulus’ last comment.
They had known each other for fourteen years, but he was just now being informed that they were nothing.