Parking Lot Kids

Chapter 23: Watching Him Fade Away

Senior Year: End of Thanksgiving Break

Lily

The door slammed shut, and we could hear Remus' angry footsteps stomping down the hall, the opposite direction of his own room. Guess he wanted to be alone. Hot tears silently ran down my face. The numbness I felt since James told me about Remus, was disappearing and a confusing feeling of guilt, and anger overwhelmed me instead.

James broke the tense silence. "Jesus Christ Sirius, I'm not a huge fan of Remus at the moment, but that was way too fucking far."

"Yeah," I chimed in, wiping the tears away. "You made me feel like such a jerk, comparing me to his abusive dad like that."

Sirius just slid down lower, looking slightly embarrassed but remaining silent. Mary pulled me into an embrace, and I rested my head on her shoulder.

"Is anyone else worried about the future of our group?" Peter asked timidly.

"No," Sirius responded bitterly. "We were fine before Remus, and we'll be even better without him."

Dorcas whipped her head in Sirius' direction. "Sirius, don't you think you're being a little hard on Remus right now? The shitty stuff he did doesn't erase all the good times we had."

"Yeah, I mean we all really liked him, that's why this hurts so much," James added.

"Did you guys forget he fucking cheated on Lily!" Sirius exclaimed, color rushing into his tan face.

Ugh, I really couldn't handle this right now. "Sirius, don't pretend like you give a shit about that! You're just mad Remus told James you were homeless!" I shouted, voice cracking with emotion.

"Listen, I did y'all a favor by exposing who that freak really was. He was gonna end up ruining this group one way or another with his fucking drug issues."

"Well from my point of view Sirius, you're the one ruining the group!" Dorcas responded, storming out of the dorm.

A few seconds of stunned, awkward silence passed before Marlene followed Dorcas.

I stood up, "I'm going back to my dorm." I stated as if I would be going anywhere else.

"Me too," Mary said, standing up and grabbing my hand. We walked out of the room together, hand-in-hand.

___

Once we reached my dorm, I let go of Mary's hand to fish my key out of my pocket. I turned the key in the lock and pushed open the door to reveal Dorcas sitting on her bed looking absolutely furious while Marlene stood across the room from her glowering. Neither of them looked at us as we entered.

"I just really don't understand why you're making excuses for him!"

Dorcas ran her hand through her braided hair, letting out an exasperated sigh. "I already told you I'm not making excuses for him, I just think Sirius went a little too far with bringing up his trauma and that drug comment."

"What? It's probably true. Did you see how awful he looked? Sure looked like a junkie to me."

"Ugh you're being such an asshole right now Marlene. Even if what Sirius said is true, we should be trying to help Remus not shun him."

"Why would we help him after what he did to Lily and Sirius?!"

"Because he is our friend. I don't condone what he did to Lily, and he also did help Sirius, no matter how much Sirius denies it. Sirius would have nothing if it weren't for Remus. He fucked up, but we shouldn't abandon him. He needs us, especially right now."

"Hey," Mary cut in. "Can we ot fight right now? Today should be about Lily, not Remus or Sirius or whoever else has beef. Why don't we have a girls day?"