Chemistry - A Sander's Sides Fanfiction

- 31 -

Well, I struggled a lot with this one for some reason but here it is. It's not gonna get any better so whatcha gonna do.

Patton arrived to chemistry in the best mood he could be in on a Tuesday -- which, for Patton, was pretty darn good. He was still running on elation from getting a 'yes' out of Logan the other day in regards to the dance, and he doubted he'd be coming down from that high any time soon.

As soon as Logan had left his house on Monday night, Patton couldn't refrain from squealing "Yes!" at the top of his lungs accompanied by a little tap dance of excitement. Luckily, no one else in his family was home so nobody heard or questioned it. The only downside to being vigorously excited was that it took Patton longer than usual to fall asleep. However, that was easily counterbalanced by his excitement to wake up as well.

The first oddity of fifth period came when Patton saw that Virgil was already present, which had never happened in the history of knowing him. The second oddity came immediately as he sat down, for it became starkly obvious that Logan was not feeling like himself today; he was rigidly uncomfortable and looked exhausted. First Virgil, now Logan? Patton thought to himself, shaking his head.

"How are you, Logan?" he asked, taking out his binder, trying not to let on that he had noticed anything.

Logan shot Patton a quick, nervous look. "I've been better. How are you, Patton?"

Patton frowned. "I'm wonderful," he replied, "but you're not...?"

Logan shook his head. "Don't occupy yourself with it."

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Patton trailed off, perplexed and concerned.

Logan sighed. "I've just been a little..." he paused, searching for the right words, "overwhelmed by my emotions recently. I find it so easy to forget that I have to deal with them at times, so let's just say that I've been caught off guard. I simply don't understand them."

Patton nodded, giving Logan a reassuring smile. It was painful for him to see his friend's emotions in turmoil and desperately searched for some advice to give. "Well," he began, "emotions can be tricky, but they're a good thing too. Whatever's gettin' ya down, just try to focus on the good things and the good feelings." Logan looked over to Patton hesitantly out the corner of his eye and Patton raised his eyebrows. "I think you probably understand your own feelings more than you give yourself credit for," he added. "Anything you may be feeling is a result of thoughts you have. If you can figure out what core ideas or worries cause your unrest, you can more quickly figure out how to regain control those emotions."

Logan frowned at Patton's words, casting his gaze off to the side in thought. "That seems like... logical reasoning," he finally concluded, looking a little bit calmer now that he finally had a game plan. "Thank you for the advice. I will attempt to regain control of myself." He drew his eyes back to Patton, scanning the boy's face in contemplation. "And I will definitely try my best to focus on the good things."

Patton smiled, happy to see some pressure lifted off of Logan's chest. "Always, glad to help," he said. "You help me so much with the stuff you understand -- like algebra --" he wrinkled his nose, "-- so it's nice to help you for a change." And he really, really did mean it. Logan simply nodded, signifying the end of the conversation, and Patton was left with his unanswered curiosity for the rest of the day.

That night, Logan returned to Patton's house for their evening tutoring session. Patton would have gladly taken the walk to Logan's house like he used to, but the boy insisted on holding the session in a place that Patton was comfortable. Luckily, Patton was beginning to get a grasp on the concepts in his precalculus class and probably didn't need to see Logan every night anymore -- especially right after break when they weren't quite learning anything new yet. But he got the impression that neither of them could really bring themselves to say that point. It's not like they could really stay on the topic of math anymore anyway; it always somehow drifted into something interesting that Logan had just learned, thought about, or made or some fun idea Patton had come up with or heard somewhere.