good things fall apart • sirius black

Jealous

    "Do you really think Moony has snogged Cubs?" Sirius asked James as the two black haired boys brushed their teeth in the bathroom Monday morning, "There was something off about them when they came back from their 'walk' yesterday and now it's like they're glued to each other's sides."

    "Mate, we've only just woken up, and if you haven't noticed, Cubby's left to go and get dressed, so clearly she can leave his side." James replied, spitting toothpaste on the mirror.

    "Yeah, but something's going on, don't you think?"

    "Why are you bothered?" James questioned more harshly than he meant to, "I mean, you told her that you hate her sometimes. A very foul move by the way."

    "I just think-"

    "The way I see it, you don't get a right to be upset if she wants Moony's company over anyone else's. You were the one being a prick."

James was trying his best to get Sirius to see that he was the one in the wrong, that maybe he should go and apologise, but the handsome boy was barely listening to what he was saying. Instead, he was craning his neck to eye Remus putting his socks on as he sat on the end of his bed, completely forgetting about how he was supposed to be brushing his teeth.

    "But do you think they've snogged before? And when? Couldn't have been over summer. So before? Or whilst we've been back at school?" Sirius's brow crumped when Remus looked up, an unusually happy expression on his face for so early in the morning.

    "I dunno, maybe?" James shrugged.

    "Maybe?"

    "Look, Pads, it's not really any of your business, is it?"

    "It is if it's about C-"

    "She's not your girlfriend." James interrupted, "And at the rate you're going, she won't even be considered your friend soon."

    "Prongs, I-" Sirius blanched, caught off guard by how blunt the messy haired boy had been.

    "You're always arguing, and I feel like you didn't hear what she said to you yesterday... I think she's done, Padfoot."

There was no easy way to say it, but James was pretty sure that was what all the fighting had come to. Ellie clearly had no patience left for Sirius' bad attitude, and that instability that had been wavering behind her eyes ever since she returned from France had definitely began to make itself known. She'd snapped yesterday, but James didn't doubt she had a lot more venom to spit still.

    "But you said we're inevitable." Sirius came crumbling down in seconds, and for the first time, James saw the insecurity he was hiding behind all of his grumpy tempers. The fragile boy that was lost.

    "I did, but you're still with Flora, you're still arguing with Cubs almost daily." He replied more gently this time.

    "But on my Birthday... And she helped me after the full moon."

    "And she also told you yesterday that she never would again." James couldn't understand how Sirius had just seemed to have blocked out everything Ellie had shouted at him.

The handsome boy didn't reply, he simply finished brushing his teeth in silence as he stared at himself in the mirror.

In fact, he didn't utter a word for the rest of the morning, sitting in all of his classes like some ghost, present but not fully. This didn't go unnoticed by his other friends, but Ellie and Remus were too frustrated with him still to acknowledge it, and James told Peter to let Sirius be. He needed to brood and then fix this on his own, for it was time the handsome boy started taking responsibility for his actions.