Really Got Me Now

Chapter 3 - Remus

Truthfully, Remus had been happy that Lily had kicked them off of the field. The sun had been burning hot, and all he could focus on was the arrogant kind-of way that Sirius black had been walking, who he'd recently figured out was the guy on James' post, the fancy model one.

The guy was following Lily like a lost puppy with an impossibly huge ego, and it was starting to get to him. That, and every second of the day that Mary was present, she wouldn't shut up about him. She would ramble on and on about his gorgeous hair and amazing fashion sense, which Remus had pointed out seemed like kind of a red flag. Not in a bad way, but in a way that hinted he might not ever be interested in Mary, or any other girl for that matter.

Though of course, Mary pushed on, insisting that she'd made him laugh or smile or smirk, constantly asking Remus what he was like. Somehow she'd found out that Sirius shared most of his classes with him. Remus ought to kill whoever told her that.

He'd managed to weasel his way out of weight lifting after about minutes, arriving home just after 4, skipping up the front steps and greeting his mom once inside.

"Hey, hun'. how was the first day?" the woman smiled sweetly up at her son, who had grown to be quite a bit taller than her.

Remus shrugged, going over the events of the day silently in his head, "It was okay. Pretty normal, usual freakish behavior from James. Got a new coach though." he spoke quietly, thinking back to how practice had gone. Nobody seemed to really like Coach Black except for James and Regulus, who was looking kind of ashamed by the end of it.

"Oh, interesting. is he any good?" Hope, his mom, asked curiously as she leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Ehh," Remus shrugged again, "I wouldn't say so. Kinda full of himself, understands football, just not how to coach it. Team's havin' a full-on conniption about it"

His mom nodded in what seemed like an understanding way, "Sorry to hear that, hope you guys do well this year. How are your friends?"

Remus grabbed a granola bar from the pantry, continuing, "Not too good, but not really different from how they usually are. Mary likes a guy, Marlene's pissed off about it, Lily's worried about it. The usual situation."

The older woman smiled, teasing him, "Well, that's just part of befriending a bunch of girls, you could try to make some more guy friends."

"I've got james. We're not close, I know, but I don't need any more close friends anyway." Remus cleared his throat, "I'll be in my room if you need me." awkwardly stepping out into the hallway.

He spent the rest of the afternoon reading syllabuses and avoiding Mary's texts about Sirius, and then avoiding Marlene's texts about Mary, and even avoiding Lily's texts about Mary and Marlene. Remus used to see a therapist, who told him he had issues with avoiding his problems, so he avoided scheduling any other appointments with her.

After receiving yet another notification from their group text, Remus swiftly opened his phone and left the group without a care in the world, muting his phone and facing it down on his night stand. He got up to shut off the light and then promptly went to bed, as if he could sleep away his annoyances.

---

Remus had woken up with a pounding headache and almost considered ditching practice, but if he'd thought last year's coach was harsh about absences, he didn't even want to consider what Coach Black would be like.

After dragging himself out of bed and to school, and actually eating a decent breakfast, Remus started to feel the slightest bit better. He was also overjoyed to find out that Coach Black had fallen ill on only the second day of being here, which meant James was in charge. Usually he would complain about James bossing them around, but he was somehow better than their actual coach.