𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒 [𝐑. 𝐋𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐧]

𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅-𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐀𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃

Song:
Stand by Me (Ben E. King)
"I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't she'd a tear, just as long as you stand, stand by me"

Lily Evans was a good friend.

Ever since she was a young girl with pigtails and blunt bangs that her sister had cut while her parents were out of the house, she had been a good friend. When someone fell, she helped them up. When someone cried, she knew exactly what to say to comfort them. When someone succeeded, there wasn't a hint of jealousy in her heart, just pure happiness and pride.

When Sirius Black got mocked after getting disowned, she had stood up for him and even let him win in their upcoming chess match.

Lily Evans was a good friend.

When Remus Lupin had revealed he was a werewolf to her, she had accepted him in a heartbeat, her hand reaching for the chocolate bar in her pocket before he even registered she wasn't going to abandon him.

Lily Evans was a good friend.

When Peter Pettigrew had gotten his heart broken for the first time, they had watched rom-coms together in her room in the middle of the night, trying to be as silent as possible so as not to alert her mom of the boy's presence in the room.

Lily Evans was a good friend.

When James Potter roamed the corridors alone after curfew on the days after a full moon to clear his head from the images of seeing his best friend turning into what he hated the most, she never said anything. No scoldings, no comments, no ratting out to teachers, nothing. She only ever passed him a coffee the next morning, half a sugar and some milk, just the way he liked it.

Lily Evans was a good friend.

Was she?

She really didn't feel like it anymore.

Lily knew her flaws very well. She could be pushy, too demanding and extremely short-sighted when angry. She didn't want to hurt people, so she avoided fights like the plague, knowing that the moment things got heated up she would stomp on the other person's patience, until the damage was too much to be reversed.

It was obvious she had messed up. She could feel the guilt creeping up on her, like bile rising in her throat. It made her sick to her stomach, because she had absolutely no idea how to make things right.

"She hates me now." Lily murmured, her knees brought close to her chest.

"She doesn't." James reassured her. "She's just a bit upset right now."

"I shouldn't have insisted."

"You didn't know." James calmly said. "You were just trying to help."

James' words weren't soothing her. Her words rang in her ears again and again, and she realized she had gone too far now that her own anger had worn off.