MOONSTRUCK! ( marauders ) ✓

TWENTY ONE. real life

"IS EVERYTHING ALL SET?" James asked one more time, staring out of the window of his car at at Rita's unassuming house.

Beside him, Lily nodded as she looked up from her phone, "Everyone is ready."

James licked his lips nervously; he was fine with playing pranks on people ( even when they sometimes took things a little too far ) but didn't like to drag other people in on it. Lily was a good kid, so were most of her friends. It seemed a little bit wrong to get them in on he and his stupid plans.

"Hello? Earth to James? Are you ready?" Lily said, waving a hand in front of his face. James startled slightly, unsure as to how long it had taken him to realized that she was trying to get his attention.

"Sorry, I'm all good." James said, rubbing the back of his neck abashedly.

Lily stared at him for a moment, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

James looked at her in surprise, "Of course. I helped come up with the idea after all."

Lily but her lip before conceding, "If you say so."

James opened his car door, "Let's just get this over with."

[ ... ]

SIRIUS TUGGED REMUS CLOSER IN HIS LAP JUST AS THEIR PHONES STARTED TO BUZZ. Remus pulled away from his boyfriend, who substituted kissing his lips for trailing hickeys down his neck, to check his phone.

"Shit." Remus pushed a protesting Sirius away from him, and tried to untangle himself from the mess of limbs and clothes that they had accrued in their car quickie.

"What's wrong?" Sirius said, watching Remus yank on his shirt.

A tuft of honey brown hair popped out of the head hole of his shirt, followed by Remus's freckles face, "We were supposed to be at Rita's work five minutes ago."

He showed Sirius his phone, which bore a text from Dorcas, "Stop having sex and go find Rita..." Sirius read aloud, "With four exclamation points."

Sirius seemed significantly less stressed out than Remus, who was hurriedly shimmying into his jeans, "Put your clothes on and let's go." Remus insisted, "And stop staring at me!"

Sirius grinned in response and reached for his shirt, buttoning it up to placate his partner.

"Alright alright keep your pants on." He paused, "Or take them back off, I'm fine with either."

Remus threw Sirius' jeans at his head, "Just get dressed."

[ ... ]

"I'M JUST SAYING, NEVILLE IS KIND OF A SHITTY BABY NAME." Alice crossed her arms and stared at Frank, who seemed agitated.

"What the hell is wrong with Neville?!" Frank wanted to know, voice rising.

From the backseat, Dorcas and Marlene were laughing softly. The older couple had been discussing what names they liked, and they couldn't be more different.

"It's a good solid name, it was my father's middle name!"

Alice rolled her eyes, "What about August? After your mom?"

"She's not dead Al." Frank said, looking to merge left on the highway.

Alice was quiet for a minute, and Dorcas, Marlene, and Frank all thought she was conceding.

"What about Gerard? That was his first name, right?"

Frank groaned loudly in exasperation, "That's the worst name."

"It's cuter than Neville." Alice said, pursing her lips.

"It'll grow on you." Frank decided, patting her leg.

[ ... ]

PETER AND MARY WERE JAMMING OUT. Mary's car radio blasted music as they drove across town, and Peter held a gallon of blood in between his legs.

"Is it weird how excited I am for this?" Peter said, looking over at his companion for the afternoon.

Mary smiled, "Honestly? I'm very excited. I hate Rita so much."

"Did she ever do anything to you?" He wanted to know, shifting in his seat.

"She wrote 'fat whore' on my locker when her ex-boyfriend and I started dating." Mary was looking through the front windshield, but something told Peter she wasn't really seeing.

"I'm sorry." Peter said, not knowing what else he could say.

Mary shrugged, "That's not what bothered me to be honest, plenty of people make fun of me behind and to my face."

Peter could definitely relate to that. He loved his best friends, but sometimes it sucked to be friends with them. He was the easiest target out of them all. Peter finally spoke up, "What was the thing that bothered you?"

Mary pushed up her sunglasses, "He broke up with me because of all the shit she was saying about me and about him." She sighed, "I really liked him too."

Peter frowned, "You didn't deserve that."

Mary nodded, "I know."

[ ... ]

RITA HAD THE DISTINCT FEELING OF BEING WATCHED. It had started early that morning, when she found a large box on her front stoop. She had opened it, trying to figure out which of her online orders it could be, when hundreds of lady bugs came crawling out.

She had thrown the box away from her screaming, and as she tried to brush the lady bugs from her person it was as though someone was watching.

The feeling of being watched continued as she arrived at work, an upscale boutique downtown. Her boss had pulled her aside and quite sternly let her know that she could not affiliate herself with the store and continue to post offensive remarks on her social media. She had stumbled through a half hearted apology, mind still whirring. She swore someone was in the store watching.

It continued as she found herself at a late lunch with Amos. He was shifty and uncomfortable, and told her in no uncertain terms that they were through. When she had pressed him for a reason why, he had looked at her with his green brown puppy eyes and told her she should know.

By the time Rita returned home, her nerves were a little fried. She had stopped by some organic grocery store for ice cream, and was prepared to take a bath and feel sorry for herself for the rest of the night.

Everything seemed fine until she shut her bathroom door behind her, and found it dripping with blood. She woke up on the ground a minute or so later, feeling like life had come to bite her in the ass.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
hello friends i am indeed alive
there are two chapters of this
story left and they will definitely
be posted by the end of the week