Sweatpants, Ice Cream, and Runaways
Chapter 9

It's so gorgeous out today! Hot and sunny! I decided to skip studying and ended up playing softball and soccer instead. But, now I'm inside and I thought, why not post a new chapter? That way to can put off studying even longer! haha... don't forget to review! I love you guys so much that I posted a chapter instead of doing homework, you gotta love me.

Read other disclaimers...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Alright, look at that guy," James pointed out. "He's reading the newspaper on the bench now, but the moment we turn away, he's going to look straight at that girl sunbathing in her bikini."

Lily laughed and pointed to another guy. "You mean just like that guy is doing?"

James looked over and laughed. "Exactly."

Lily looked down at her watch and gasped. "We've been down here at the park for five hours straight."

"Are you sure?" James said. "It seems like we've only been here an hour or so." Lily showed him her watch and James nodded in agreement.

"I guess I should probably be getting home," Lily said with a shrug.

"Guess so," James mumbled, trying hard to hide the disappointment. They got up, gathered their things together, and started walking back to her house.

"You know, your best friend has really surprised me," Lily noted.

"How so?"

"With this whole Kyra thing," Lily said. "I mean, I haven't seen the guy for the last four years, but he seemed pretty determined never to change back in Hogwarts. I mean, he has to have slept with half of London by now."

"Correction: all of London," James teased. "And believe me, the person he surprised most was me."

"Actually, I think the person he surprised most was himself," Lily said.

"Yeah, probably," James said.

"So…how has your dating life been going?" Lily asked, not sure why she was asking that question; she was afraid of what she'd hear.

"Oh you know, a little here, a little there. Not much to tell," James said with a shrug. "What about you?"

"Same," Lily said with a shrug. "No one serious."

By this time, they had reached Lily's front door. She turned around and smiled at James. "I had fun today."

James nodded in agreement. "Me too."

Lily started going in, but turned around. "Do you want to come in?"

James paused. "Is there cake?"

Lily laughed and the two of them stepped into the house. "There's always cake." She went to the refrigerator, looked around, closed it and looked up at James innocently. "There's no cake."

"But you just said there's always cake," James disputed.

"Well...there's no cake now," Lily said.

James paused. "But I want cake," he teased.

"Okay, how 'bout we use a new word besides cake," Lily joked.

James thought about it for a second. "I want…pie?"

"We have pie."

"Why didn't you say that before?" James cried out.

"Because you were too busy worrying about the cake," Lily said.

"But there is no cake?"

"I thought we were using a different word," Lily said.

"Right, right. Pie," James said.

Lily laughed and served him a piece of pie. Just then, Kyra and Sirius walked in from the upstairs. "Oh…hey guys."

James looked down at the plates in their hands. "Cake stealers!"

Kyra and Sirius exchanged weird looks as Lily and James burst out laughing. "Should I even bother asking?" Kyra asked.

"Not a chance," Sirius responded.

"Have you guys been hanging out all day?" Kyra asked.

"Depends if spending five hours together constitutes as all day," Lily noted.

"Five hours!" Sirius exclaimed. "Jeez, I can hardly spend five minutes with Kyra."

"I am soooo not making waffles for you ever again," Kyra said.

Sirius turned to James and Lily. "I think I've upset her."

Lily and James rolled their eyes, but didn't say anything. They were too busy eating their pie.

"Well, we're going over to my place now," Sirius said.

"Why?" James asked.

"Kyra wants to see pictures from Hogwarts," Sirius said with a shrug.

"Why would she want to see a more arrogant, less smart, shorter version of you?" James asked.

"Hey, you've totally got me wrong!" Sirius exclaimed. "I was smarter then."

"So basically what I've found out about you is that you're dumb, arrogant, and a player," Kyra said. "I'm so lucky to have found you!"

"Okay, I think we need to leave before you tell her all the other horrible things about me," Sirius said.

"There's more?" Kyra whined. Sirius and Kyra left the room.

"I never would have thought that Kyra would end up dating Sirius," Lily said, watching them leave.

"And I never thought Sirius would end up dating…at all," James said.

"I still can't believe you're beating us at poker," Remus said to Lily a few days later

Lily laughed. "It's not that hard when you guys suck."

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed.

Kyra stuck a pretzel in his mouth to shut him up. He swallowed the pretzel. "Now that's no fair," Sirius said. "Giving me food to shut up works almost every time."

"Why do you think we do it?" James asked, putting another pretzel in Sirius's mouth.

"I know another way to shut you up," Kyra said with a grin, kissing Sirius on the lips.

"There's no way I'm doing that," James defended. Everyone laughed.

"Full house," Lily said, setting her cards down.

"Damnit," Peter muttered, setting his cards down.

"Alright, I'm done playing poker," James pouted. "I'm losing."

"You're not losing," Lily pointed out. "…you're losing by a lot."

James splashed his water bottle at Lily. Lily gasped. "I'm wearing a white shirt!"

"I know," James said with an evil grin. "Why do you think I did it?"

"Oh that's it," Lily said, splashing James with her cup of fruit punch.

"That's never going to get out of my clothes!" James cried out with a laugh.

"I know," Lily mocked. "Why do you think I did it?"

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed to James. "That's my shirt!"

"Oops…" James said. "Can I borrow it?"

Sirius glared at James and threw the bowl of pretzels at him. "Hey! You're getting your shirt dirty!"

"Lily already ruined it!" Sirius defended. Lily laughed and gave an innocent grin.

Remus looked at his friends and smiled to himself. He shook up a beer and opened it away from himself, spraying it at everyone. "Hey!" they all called out.

"I thought Remus was the nice one," Kyra pouted to Sirius.

"So did I," Sirius teased, throwing a chip at Remus.

Peter looked around at everyone. "You know, we haven't done this for quite awhile."

"Yeah," Sirius said with a smile, putting his arm around Kyra. "Although I think the last time we played, it was strip poker."

"Do not remind me," Lily groaned, burying her face in her hands.

"Yeah! You weren't so great then," Remus asked.

"In fact…we still have the pictures from that day," James said evilly.

"You get out the pictures and you die James Potter," Lily said.

"Eh…I've lived a good life," James said, standing up from the table.

Lily got up and attacked him from the back. "Hey!" James cried out, falling onto the couch.

The other four watched them topple onto each other and fall to the floor. "I can totally see how they were together four years ago."

"Just add longer hair to Lily and messier hair to James, and you've got them at eighteen," Sirius said.

"I still feel like nothing has changed and we are hanging out at Hogwarts yelling at James and Lily to get a room," Remus noted as he watched James mess up Lily's hair on purpose, causing her to tickle James.

Sirius swallowed the lump in his throat. "And yet, everything has changed."

It was a week later, and the four boys were sitting around the kitchen talking and eating.

"Were you with her again last night?" Remus asked.

James shrugged, swallowing his pizza. "Yep."

"And you're okay with this?" Peter wondered.

"Huh?"

"I just don't understand how you can hang out with her and not want to kill her for what she did to you," Peter said with a shrug.

"I'm with Peter on this one," Remus said, leaning against the refrigerator. "You've spent four years sulking about Lily, plotting ways to kill her, ripping up her pictures. And after all that, you can just hang out with her and not hold a grudge?"

"Guys, I've been through this," James said with a sigh. "I hated her when she left. But what I hated more was that she was gone, that I would never see her again. Now she's back, and you want me to ignore her? You want me to act like she's not here?"

Peter and Remus exchanged looks. "Yes."

James was taken aback by that response. "Well, it's not going to happen."

"I just know that something will happen and you'll be back here eating ice cream in your sweatpants," Remus said.

"That can't happen," Sirius piped up. "I don't have enough money to keep buying you ice cream."

James threw his crust at Sirius.

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed. "The crust is the best part." And Sirius ate the crust right off of the ground.

"How does Kyra put up with you?" Peter teased.

"If you're as gorgeous as I am, people will do anything to put up with me," Sirius joked.

"I think you guys should get married," James suggested.

"What?" Sirius exclaimed, spitting his water out.

"Well that way you'll be out of our flat," James taunted with a shrug. "We will be Sirius-free."

"Nah, he'll still come back," Peter said. "He needs to be fed somehow."

Remus rolled his eyes and turned back to James. "I still don't understand how you can hang out with Lily and act as if everything's alright," Remus said.

James groaned. "I thought we got off the subject of me."

"Yeah! I like talking about me much better," Sirius joked.

"You guys, it's a lot easier than you think," James said with a shrug. "I just think about how miserable I was when Lily wasn't here, and it makes me glad that I have the chance to hang out with her."

"But you don't want to just hang out with her," Peter noted.

"Yeah, you want to be her boyfriend. You want to have a relationship. You want to get married," Remus said.

"You want to have little Lily babies," Sirius added.

"Could you be any cruder?" Remus asked.

"Yes," Sirius said. "You want to have lots of se-"

"Ooookay," James said, shutting him up. He turned to Remus and Peter. "And maybe I do want those things. So what? It's not like she has a boyfriend or anything."

"Yes, but remember the last time you had a relationship?" Remus asked. "It didn't end so well huh?"

"Okay, why are you ruining this for me?" James demanded to know. "For the first time in four years, I'm actually enjoying myself. Why are you being so difficult?"

"Because you and I both know it's going to end badly," Remus said calmly.

"Really? Are you psychic? How do you know this?" James wondered.

"Well I don't know for sure but-"

"Exactly, you don't know for sure," James said. He stood up and left the table and slammed the door to his room.

It was quiet amongst the other three for a few seconds. Sirius finally spoke up. "I think he's mad."

Remus and Peter just gave him a look.

"Right, right. Not helping," Sirius muttered. Sirius went and looked in the freezer. "Damn, there's only mint chocolate chip in here." He sighed because he knew James hated mint chocolate chip ice cream. He shrugged and took the ice cream out himself. "Anyone want ice cream?"

Remus and Peter gave him another look.

"Still not helping?" Sirius asked.

"Precisely," Remus answered.

"You're kind of quiet today," Lily said.

James looked up. "Huh? What?"

Lily smiled. "What's wrong?"

"My friends annoy me," James answered.

"Well, you want to hear a little secret?" Lily asked. James nodded. "You're friends have always annoyed me."

James looked at her apprehensively. "You're lying."

Lily laughed. "Okay, I am." James laughed. "But I made you laugh, and that's what matters."

"Ugh!" James cried out. "They just think they know everything."

"What are they annoying you about?" Lily asked.

James stopped walking. "Um…you actually."

"Me?" Lily asked. James nodded. "How come I have a feeling this wasn't a nice friendly conversation."

"Because you're smart," James mumbled.

"Well what did they say?"

James looked up at Lily and then started walking again. "Forget it. Just forget I said anything."

Lily grabbed his arm. "You can't just tell me your friends were annoying you about me and then not tell me why."

James jerked his arm away. "Look, it doesn't matter okay?" he said grouchily.

Lily looked hurt. "Yeah, okay," she mumbled. Lily looked up to see her house in front of her.

"Guess we're here," James said.

"Yeah," Lily muttered. "Here we are."

James sighed. "I'm sorry about snapping at you," he said. "I'm in a bad mood and I'm taking it out on you."

Lily wasn't stupid. She knew what James and his friends were fighting over…and she wanted to clear things up. "James," Lily said nervously. James looked up. "Can I tell you something?"

"Yeah…" James said confusingly.

Lily took a deep breath. "I never stopped loving you."

James froze, almost tripping over his own feet. "Uh…what?"

"You heard me."

"But you left…I mean, you rejected me…you chose work over me…" James said confusingly.

"Not because I stopped loving you," Lily murmured.

"Okay, well that's the only reason I can think of," James said.

Lily looked up. "Because I was scared was why I ran. It had nothing to do with you."

"And yet strange enough, it seems like it had everything to do with me. I was the one you left. I was the one standing there alone. I was the one you rejected."

"And I was stupid to do so," Lily responded.

James was silent for a moment and then he looked up. "Do you really mean that?"

Lily nodded weakly and bit her lip. This lip was met by James lips and they stood there for a few minutes kissing. They had been waiting four years for this that they didn't let each other break apart. James and Lily climbed up her front steps still kissing. James leaned Lily against the door and kissed the hollow in her neck as Lily ran her fingers through James's hair. James fiddled with the handle while kissing Lily, but finally managed to open the door. They walked in still kissing but stopped when they heard a voice in the kitchen.

"Lily?" the voice said, coming into the hallway.

Lily pulled away from James, glad that no one saw her kissing him. "Robbie?"

Kyra came out of the kitchen just then. "Kyra?" Lily asked, surprised that Kyra let Robbie stay here.

"James," James said, introducing himself, feeling left out from the 'name game.'

"Who are you?" Robbie asked James.

"James," James said. "…I thought I just made that clear."

"Well I'm Robbie," he said, sticking his hand out. "Lily's fiancée."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I am sooooooooo evil. How do you guys put up with me?

The more reviews I get, the faster I post the next chapter. Right now, we're looking at another weekish, but if I get lots of reviews...I'll post faster, and that's a promise!