Chapter 8
Well, this was awkward.
"What is this!"
"Prongs, what are you yelling about?" Now it was Remus' turn to have a look. "Oh..." There was a disappointed shock quality to his voice that was overshadowed by my own embarrassment.
"Wormtail ... Padfoot ..." James could contain himself no longer. He burst out into laughter and then fell to the floor. James was becoming breathless and sweaty at my expense, but not in the way I had imagined.
"Um ... Sirius," Remus could barely speak over James' laugher. "Are you finished yet? Thanks. Sirius, is this why you've been avoiding us?"
Yes! But no! This was far too complicated to explain. I just wanted to sink into my covers and never see the light of day again. And that is what I did.
"Padfoot, you don't need to hide. Seriously, James, stop it! Just come out and we can talk about it. No one is judging you."
"Really?" I said popping my head out of the covers.
"Really."
"Well, I've been so alone forever! You all won't talk to me, and when you do you are rude to me. I've had to eat lunch by myself and do my own homework. I READ A BOOK! Wormtail was the only one who showed me kindness in this dark time, and all I wanted to do was thank him!" I started to get misty eyed.
"Oh sod off! Stop being such a wanker. We've been treating you the exact same, it's you who's been acting weird. If you and Wormy have this queer thing together, whatever, just stop trying to gain sob points." I wanted to be so mad at James for saying that, but the way he dominated the situation was just so sexy. Damn him.
"Prongs, you're not helping anything. Do you know how hard it is to come out as a queer?" Remus' voice was rising.
"Why do you?"
Remus shrank back, "No, of course not."
There was something weird in Remus' response. I'm sure we all would have picked up on it if the focus wasn't on me. Damn it, why was the focus on me?