Aisles

Chapter 1

Thursday, September 12th

Remus might have fucked up his interview - or just the first half. At least, that's what his brain was telling him.

Sure, he'd had a bit of experience in retail, sure he had excellent references (which may have just been faked by his mate Mary but no one needs to know that). He had been so nervous in the interview, stumbling over his words, and no one wants to hire someone who can't have a five minute chat without profusely sweating.

"I really don't know how selective Tesco's are in hiring aisle-stackers," He could hear Mary's words in his head but Remus was far too stressed to agree to any kind of logic right now.

"And besides, how desperately do you want to work at Tesco's anyway? You should've applied with me at the record shop!" Mary (the lucky bitch) was working at probably the only record shop in their area of London. Remus had bitten his tongue so as to not mention it might be because she wore a very low-cut top to her interview - however she had gotten the job, he didn't care, he just didn't think wearing a scoop-neck would get the same results for him.

Besides, Remus found the work to be relaxing. Each time he'd been in to see Mary whilst she was working, she'd been either dealing with some pretentious fuck-boy or fifty year old man who complained bitterly about the 'youths these days and their dismissal of 'real music''. Remus would take pensioners and stressed mums with prams any day.

Remus had been answering questions during the interview - the usual rubbish about 'greatest weaknesses', that kind of stuff - when he had heard voices coming closer.

His interviewer, a petite woman with bright red hair and a mischievous smile (Lily, she had introduced herself as), had rolled her eyes and promptly yelled:

"Oi! James, Sirius, get back to work, I'm still doing interviews!"

James/Sirius (Remus wasn't sure which - this one had unruly dark hair and glasses and looked to be about 6'2, only a couple inches shorter than Remus) ducked his head into the small office.

"Sorryyy, Lils, but some kid threw up in the frozen section and we have to rock-paper-scissors who cleans it up, and you told us not to do that in front of the customers," The man said, with a sly smile that looked anything but apologetic, and he ducked his head back.

"Oi, Prongs, best of three yeah?" Came the other James/Sirius from the hall. "Okay, rock, paper, scissors! Fuck. Go again. Rock, paper... Oh for fuck sake..." And with more swearing and a cackle of glee, the voices faded as the two men left to head back into the front of the mini-supermarket.

Lily apologised for them, rolling her eyes, but Remus could tell she was amused. The whole interaction and camaraderie of the group gave Remus an odd swell of emotion and also the motivation to fake some confidence for the rest of the interview - besides, this shop was right on his bus route.

--<>--

Friday, September 13th

"Come out tonighttttt!" Mary sang through the phone.

"No."

"Oh, come on, Remus! It's student night! Drinks are half off!"

"No. Tired."

"I will let you into my Spotify Premium account,"

Remus considered the offer.

"Fine," Remus sighed, hanging up the phone as Mary squealed her delight.

He was out of his flat and on the way to the student bar within twenty minutes, denim jacket collar popped up and a woollen hat crammed onto his head. He fished his earbuds out of his pocket and enjoyed a few minutes of real, proper music before he had to endure the tunes of the Three Broomsticks - one time they had genuinely played Jess Glynne with no remorse.

"Lupin!" Mary tackled Remus the minute he walked through the door, pulling him into a bear hug.

"Macdonald," Remus smiled at her. She pulled him over to the bar and ordered for him, before erupting into a rant about the week she had.

"And then, to top it all off, Callum asked me to meet his parents when we had only been on two dates together. Weird, no?" Remus nodded in agreement.

"So, my point is that I would like to get so pissed that the only thing I'm worried about is falling over and breaking my nose," Remus, again, nodded in agreement.

He had met Mary in school, working on a modern production of Macbeth in year 10 - Mary was Lady Macbeth, of course, and Remus worked lighting (mainly so that he could put an extra-curricular on his UCAS form). Their friendship had blossomed after the curtains almost went up on Mary snogging the ghost of King Duncan but Remus had intervened with a blackout, saving Mary the embarrassment and the audience utter confusion about the storyline ('I don't remember this happening when I saw it at the Old Vic...').

They had spent quite a lot of their GCSE year chugging vodka in a McDonald's car park whilst crying about their problems - school, parents, relationships, the lot. Mary had been there for Remus in a time when he didn't really have anyone else. Sometimes Remus felt she knew him better than he knew himself.

They'd both gone to Imperial College London, only Remus had had deferred entry so was only at the start of his second year, compared to Mary's last. They lived in buildings nearby each other and occasionally "joked" about having an unhealthy reliance on each other (even though they both knew that a life without each other in it was a very bleak one indeed).

Remus danced with Mary and some of the other students she had brought along - there were the familiar faces of the twins Gideon and Fabian, Dorcas, a few others and someone else who had either been Molly or Holly, Remus wasn't completely listening when she had introduced herself. He had been having a grand old time until some idiot had the bright idea of playing Dua Lipa and Remus sloped off for another drink.

"Oh, my, God. Fancy seeing you here!" Remus twirled around to the speaker, and after waiting a moment for his eyes to focus (Christ, he was drunker than he had thought), he recognised the flash of red hair as the interviewer from this morning. She had a relaxed smile on her face (probably to do with the cocktail in her hand) and she reached forward to hug Remus.

"I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you - you got the job!" Lily squealed, sounding almost as delighted as Remus felt.

"Seriously? I did?"

"Yeah, course! To be honest, we were a bit biased considering the other interviewees were like way older. We pride ourselves on our teamwork and cooperation and think you'll fit in great, considering we are all around the same age, you know?" As Lily continued, Remus felt a smile grow. "And I thought you'd be a nice calming presence on us all - we can get a bit out of hand, just a warning!"

"Well, I'll text you the details about your first day, your number was on the form, right? Right. See you, Remus!" Lily hugged him again in farewell before rejoining the crowds behind her. Remus stood for a minute before also turning back to rejoin Mary.

A/N: 

- I feel like it should be canon that Remus is a music snob lol

- Tesco's is a branch of supermarket in the UK (might be other countries as well, I'm not sure). 

- If you aren't sure what UCAS is, it's like a CV but specifically for getting into universities.

- GCSE's are the external exams that year 11s (15/16 year olds) take.

- Imperial College London is a university in London (duh) that's quite hard to get into.