astrophile // analogical au

three

tw: none

previously:

"Well, uh, I'm Virgil Sanders. I'm a junior. I'm sixteen. I like listening to music. Sorry, I'm really awkward, sorry." Virgil murmured just barely loud enough for Patton to hear.

"It's fine, kiddo, don't worry." Patton reassured the pale boy with a smile.

It's not fine, Virgil thought. It's never fine.

/ - \

Virgil awoke to the sound of his blaring alarm.

Ugh, not again, Virgil thought, not this again. He was about to reach for the snooze button, but then he remembered Patton.

Patton! I'm getting out of bed for Patton today. Virgil decided, reluctantly peeling the covers from himself and getting out of bed.

Virgil often found himself lacking motivation when it came to waking up in the mornings-- or doing anything in general-- and usually had to think of something that he was looking forward to for the day in order to decide to get up.

    Today's motivation was seeing Patton, which was all Virgil thought about as he got ready. He pulled on his usual outfit, black skinny jeans, a dark grey shirt, and his black and purple jacket. He thought about the previous day's lunch with Patton as he applied eyeshadow to his under eye-- which was already extremely dark from his bad sleeping habits.

    Virgil decided to skip breakfast, like most mornings, and start his walk to school early. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and checked his pockets for his phone, earbuds, wallet, and house keys, which were all accounted for. He left the house without a word, plugging his earbuds into his phone and settling them into his ears.

He opened the music app and clicked into his playlists. Even though most of his life was extremely chaotic, he kept his playlists organized. He had a playlist for everything; a playlist for dancing, a playlist for crying, a playlist for walking, one for  ignoring people, and one for just wanting to listen to music.

His personal favorite-- which was a hard pick considering he was the one who carefully and thoughtfully constructed each of the lists-- was one of late 1990s and early 2000s alternative rock, or 'emo'. The list consisted of bands like Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, and Blink-182. He had named the list "GAZING" as he listened to it while he stargazed in the park quite a lot.

Virgil clicked into the playlist, pressed the shuffle button, and sighed contently. He walked through neighborhood for what seemed like hours, even though it was only about twenty minutes.

Virgil had walked that route to school for as long as he had been going to the high school, which was about three years considering he was a junior. He knew the path by memory, he knew when to leave his house and what time he'd be at the school. He knew which houses had dogs and which residents didn't mind him walking across their lawns. He knew who was at work in the early hours, and who would be leaving for work during his walk. He didn't know any of his neighborhood's residents personally, but he was an observant person, so he was able to collect all of this information over the years.

Virgil found himself on the school's road and sighed. He remembered what his cousin had told him so many years ago, back when he and his mother attended family gatherings.

He remembered vividly as his cousin told him that school was such a waste of time and that was actually an abbreviation for, "seven cruel hours of our lives." He remembered when the same cousin had said that homework standard for, "half of my energy wasted on random knowledge." He also remembered when that cousin dropped out of school.

Virgil Sanders was definitely not school's biggest fan, but he didn't want to become an unemployed high school dropout like his cousin. In fact, Virgil was starting to think about going to college. His mom didn't have the money to send him to college for too long, so he figured that he would probably end up taking community college courses. Virgil had decided that he would rather shoot himself in the groin then become an unemployed dropout, begging for money from any and all relatives and people on street corners.

Virgil shook off the thought as he approached the school.