Sweatpants, Ice Cream, and Runaways
Chapter 12

Thanks to the 26 people who reviewed! You guys are all amazing, and like I promised, here's the next chapter. I would have posted it sooner but I had two tests today and I spent all Tuesday and Wednesday studying. Lucky me huh? But they're over, but now I have a test tomorrow to study for. Only 13 more days of school and then I'm out for the summer, yay!

Disclaimer: Hopefully you've gotten the hang of what should go here.

If you forgot, this is where we left off:

Lily walked out of her room. "I'm going back to Australia."

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

Kyra stood up. "What?"

"I'm going back Ky," Lily repeated.

"You can't! Why?" Kyra exclaimed.

"Let's face it, I don't belong here," Lily said.

"Says who? You belong here because I say so. I need you," Kyra said. "Lily, you just got here and now you're gonna turn around and leave?"

"I talked to my boss and he never wanted me to come to London even though the company wanted me to. He's offering me more money and better benefits if I come back to Australia," Lily said.

"Lily, you can't go," Kyra whined. "You're my best friend and I was so ecstatic when you told me you were moving here. If you leave, I'll have nothing."

"You'll still have Sirius," Lily pointed out.

Kyra paused. "I'll have nothing!" she cried out.

Lily laughed and sat down beside Kyra. "It's too hard to stay here."

Kyra sighed. "James?"

Lily nodded weakly. "He obviously doesn't want me here and there are too many memories here. I thought it would be good for me to come back, but now I just realize I was crazy to think that."

"Lily, why won't you tell me what he said to you?" Kyra asked.

"It doesn't matter," Lily insisted. "I'm doing this for me."

"Really? Because it sounds as if all the reasons you mentioned have something to do with James," Kyra said harshly. "You're just going to run from this? Lily, that's gotten you in trouble in the past! And what are you doing? You're running away from the guy you are clearly in love with to the guy you lied to James about!"

"Kyra," Lily said calmly, not wanting to get into an argument.

"Robbie's the one who got you into this big mess in the first place!" Kyra cried out.

"I'm not going back to Robbie! I'm just going-"

"You don't think he'll figure out that you're back and try to contact you?" Kyra asked harsly, her hands on her hips.

"Kyra," Lily said through gritted teeth, trying to stay calm. "I'm leaving after work on Tuesday." And with that, Lily got up and went into her room, shutting the door behind her.

Kyra sighed and trudged down the stairs. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs when she saw the framed picture of Lily and herself hanging up. In the picture, Kyra was laughing at Sirius who was taking the picture as Lily was pulling Kyra's hat over her eyes.

Kyra's eyes started to sting from the tears that were forming.

"Kyra? Surpr-" Sirius started to say, entering the house but immediately stopped when he saw Kyra standing on the bottom stair crying. "Kyra?" He rushed over and put his arms around her.

"I don't want her to go," Kyra sobbed, falling into Sirius's arms.

"What do you mean Lily's leaving?" Remus asked the next morning.

Sirius just stared at him. "I thought it was self explanatory. Lily…is…leaving."

"But…why? When? Where?" Remus shook his head on confusion. "What?"

"I'm not sure," Sirius said slowly. "Kyra was quite hysterical. I didn't understand her at times."

"Was it awkward?" Remus asked. "Her sitting there crying?"

"What? No, of course not. She's my girlfriend, she can cry," Sirius said with a shrug. Remus gave him a look. "Okay, yes, it was very awkward. Why do women get so emotional?"

"Especially over guys," Remus noted. "You don't see us fretting over girls."

Just then James came out of his room. "Is there any more ice cream? And have either one of you see my red sweatpants?" James said. Remus and Sirius exchanged glances and burst out laughing.

"I take back my previous comment," Remus said.

James looked confused, but took a carton of ice cream out of the freezer and went back to his room.

Remus sighed. "Are you going to tell Prongs?"

Sirius shook his head. "I don't really know if Lily's leaving for good, or just for a little bit, or what. I didn't really understand. But Kyra would never let Lily just leave without putting up a fight."

"If she leaves she'll just be proving James right," Remus said.

"About what?"

"About how she runs when something gets hard," Remus said. "I never thought of her that way, but it seems to be all she's good at."

"She's not leaving," Sirius insisted. "Things were starting to feel right again. She can't leave, because I cannot deal with a miserable James for another four years."

"None of us can," Remus said. "That's why you have to make sure she doesn't leave."

"Me? Why me?" Sirius asked.

"Because she likes you," Remus said.

Sirius paused. "Are we talking about Lily or Kyra?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Lily. You were always her favorite."

"Really? Because I thought James was her favorite," Sirius said.

"Well…not right now," Remus said.

"Okay but Rem, we don't even know if Lily is leaving for sure," Sirius said.

"She's Lily, of course she's leaving. What has she done in the past?" Remus asked.

"Ugh," Sirius said. "I guess I should go talk to Lily huh?"

"Unless you were thinking of sending her telepathic messages," Remus joked.

Sirius paused. "Can I do that?"

"You can hardly dress yourself in the morning," Remus said.

Sirius opened his mouth to retort but then closed it. "Boy it's a good thing I have Kyra."

Remus laughed.

"Sirius?" Lily asked, obviously surprised. It was the next morning and Lily was sitting at her desk.

Sirius just waved.

"What are you doing here?" Lily asked.

"What? A guy can't come over and just pop in to see his good buddy Lily?" Sirius asked.

Lily looked at him apprehensively. "No really, what are you doing here?"

Sirius sighed. "I'm here to take you out."

"Does Kyra know you're here hitting on me?" Lily teased.

"I'm not hitting on you," Sirius exclaimed but then paused. "But now that you bring it up you look really pretty today."

"Sirius!" Lily exclaimed with a laugh.

"Come on, just come out with me. We'll go grab dinner, a movie, maybe a walk in the park. It'll be fun, like old times."

Lily hesitated. "I have a lot of work to get done."

"So you're not going to come out with me?" Sirius pouted.

"Oh, no. I'm definitely coming out. I just wanted you to know I had a lot of work," Lily said, packing up her stuff. Sirius laughed at Lily.

"Okay if you buy me any more food, I'm going to get fat," Lily said with a laugh.

"Oh come on. Salad, spaghetti, wine, bread, cake, and ice cream is not a lot of food," Sirius protested.

"Well maybe not for you, but you're a bottomless pit."

"Come on, split a pretzel with me," Sirius urged. Lily laughed and nodded in agreement.

After they got the pretzel, they sat down on a bench to talk.

"So Lily, how are you liking it here in London?" Sirius asked.

"It's very different from Australia," Lily said with a shrug, "But I've always loved London."

"I know," Sirius said. "I never want to leave here."

Lily just looked down at the sidewalk and didn't comment.

"Let's play Frisbee!" Sirius exclaimed.

"How does Kyra put up with you?" Lily groaned, getting to her feet.

"I pay her to pretend she can put up with me," Sirius teased, using his wand to conjure up a Frisbee and threw it over to Lily.

"So Sirius…why are doing all this?" Lily asked. "You all of a sudden visit me at work and want to hang out with me all night? What's the catch?"

Sirius thought about telling her he knew she was leaving, but he didn't want to ruin the night. "I miss the good 'ol days. You and I always used to take our walks around the lake and we would just talk."

"I always looked forward to those walks," Lily said with a smile. "Although I think the conversation always went the same. You would ask me if you could push me in. I would tell you to get away from me. You would splash me, I would shriek and splash you back and we would always walk back to the dorms soaking wet."

"To which the other guys would ask us what happened and we would smile to ourselves and not say anything," Sirius finished. "James was always so jealous."

"He always thought there was something going on with you and I," Lily said.

"But I would always convince him that I only liked sluts and bimbos," Sirius said.

"And although James was skeptical at first, he would always be convinced when you brought a girl up to your room that same night," Lily concluded. Sirius laughed as he threw the Frisbee to Lily.

"I miss those days," Sirius said "Why do we have to grow up?"

"Because believe it or not, life is more than water fights and bimbos," Lily said with a shrug.

Sirius gasped. "Life is never more than bimbos!" Sirius teased.

Lily laughed. "Well for some reason, someone out there believes that we are all supposed to become grownups."

"Get a job, get married, have kids," Sirius said and then he paused to think about what he just said. "…or at least get a job."

"I miss being eighteen," Lily said with a sigh. "And some of us haven't grown up."

"James?" Sirius asked, wondering if that's who she was talking about.

"Exactly," Lily mumbled.

"You only get to be a grown up once," Sirius said. "And he hasn't gotten the hang of it yet."

"Neither have I," Lily mumbled, sitting down on the grass. Sirius walked over and joined him.

"I think the better your childhood and teen years, the harder it is to grow up," Sirius offered.

"Well then it's going to be impossible for me to grow up," Lily muttered.

"Alright this day was supposed to be a happy day. No talking about James or being a kid or Hogwarts," Sirius said, taking Lily's hand and pulling her up from the ground. "There is one good thing about growing up."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"It's legal to drink," Sirius said with a laugh.

Lily laughed. "Hey look, ducks."

"Ducks?" Sirius asked.

Lily grinned. "In the pond."

"What are they doing out at night?" Sirius asked, walking over to the pond. "Hey Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I push you in?"

"Well Sirius, I must say that was the best day I've had in a long time," Lily said, hugging Sirius as they reached her front door.

"I'm glad to be of some help," Sirius said.

Lily looked up at Sirius and bit her lip. "Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

Lily opened her mouth to say something but immediately closed it. "Nothing, forget it."

"Okay," Sirius said. He started walking away but stopped and turned around as Lily was almost in the house. "You can't leave."

Lily turned around. "What?"

"If you leave we won't have any more nights like this one," Sirius said with a frown.

"Did you do all this for me because you were trying to get me to stay?" Lily asked.

Sirius looked down at the ground. "Not completely. But I guess you could say that was part of it."

"So this was almost like a bribe. The more you buy me the more you hoped I'd stay?"

"It's not like that Lily," Sirius said. "You just can't go. You'll be proving James right."

"What are you talking about Sirius?"

"James thinks that all you do is run away when things get hard. If you leave, you'll be proving him right."

"Well then let him be right," Lily said stubbornly. "Look Sirius, he doesn't want me here and I'm going to respect that okay?"

"No," Sirius said sternly.

"Excuse me?"

"I am not going to respect that. I don't know what he said to you but I sure as hell know that you love him and he loves you. You ran out on love last time and I will not stand here and let you do that again."

"There's nothing you can do about it," Lily said. "And James has made it very clear that he doesn't want me here."

"Screw James!" Sirius exclaimed. "Well don't screw screw James. You know what I mean. Don't screw him literally. Actually, maybe you should. I mean it's probably-"

"Sirius," Lily said tiredly. "Get on with it."

"You don't like talking about screwing James?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yup. I love talking about screwing James. In fact, I want to do him right here, right now."

Sirius paused. "Okay, I don't like talking about screwing James."

Lily smiled. "I figured. Now can we talk about something other than James?"

Sirius sighed. "Lily, I don't care what you say about James not wanting you here. I want you here. Kyra wants you here. Remus wants you here. Pe-"

"Australia is where I belong now," Lily said. "I had no right to come back."

"Lily, what did James say to you?" Sirius demanded to know.

Lily paused and bit her lip. "It's not important. Sirius, I love you and everyone else, but I need to go back to Australia."

"You're just running away again!" Sirius exclaimed. "Why can't you just face your problems! Don't you get tired of always running away?"

"Thanks for the night Sirius," Lily said and then opened her front door and shut it in Sirius's face.

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

Do what you all do best and review! Like always, I'll post the next chapter faster if you take ten seconds out of your time and review.