The Taste of Vanilla (Sander Sides Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

Haha! You fools! I said I wouldn't update until Saturday but here we are!

Surprise!

Your support helped me so much and I really appreciated all the patience you had with me so thank you! Anyway, this chapter is kinda long and vaguely angsty so yeah... I had fun writing it though.

TW: swearing, lying, getting beat up, past heterosexuality

love from, Cora

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"Virgie?"

Well fuck.

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Virgil turned and was immediately tackled by someone. Arms wrapped around his neck and the air pushed from his lungs.

"Virgie!" the girl pulled back so he could see her full face, round and framed with red-dyed haired, before hugging him again.

"H-Hey, S-Steph," he cringed, still trying to recover his breath. He gently pushed her away and gestured around the table to his friends. "Th-these are m-my f-friends." Steph gave an enthusiastic wave and Patton returned it gleefully, everyone else waved awkwardly. Logan had gone back to his book.

"Virge I haven't seen you in so long! How are you, sweetie?" Steph asked, sitting on his knee.

"Virge?" Remus asked incredulously.

"Sweetie?" Logan asked, snapping his book shut. Virgil cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"St-teph, w-we b-broke up-p over a y-year ago." He reminded her, pushing her from his lap. Her left eye twitched and her smile became more forced.

"Yeah because you were leaving, but now you're back." She said forcefully.

Virgil gestured to Logan. "Th-this is my b-boyfriend, L-Logan." Steph's eye twitched again before the fake smile fell into a glare, directed straight into Logan's eyes. Logan glared right back. Tension fell over the table as the two had a vicious staring contest.

Steph let out a frustrated yell before turning and marching away in her cheap red heels. All eyes in the cafeteria turned toward their table and Virgil sank down in his seat. He could feel the glares of the football team on his back. He knew that was going to cause problems later.

"Seriously Virgie? You dated her?" Remus scrunched his nose in disgust, looking after Steph. "She seems even more deranged than me."

"O-oh y-you have n-no idea-a," he groaned, "o-one time I-I didn't-t a-answer her te-texts so she broke int-to the h-house I-I was l-living in t-to m-make sure I was-s okay." He shivered and Remy snorted.

"Oh I remember that. That was right after she told me to stopped talking to you, right babes?" Virgil nodded and stared down at his lunch, reaching over to hold Logan's hand.

The rest of the day went by quickly.

Soon Virgil was stepping out of his last class in the art building to wait for Logan. The crowd of people pushing past him was dense and it would have been easy to get engulfed in the flow of people. Virgil scanned the crowd, looking for his boyfriend.

Apparently he should have been paying more attention to the crowd and less to finding his boyfriend because suddenly he was no longer by the door to his classroom. A hand grabbed the back of his hood and he found himself suffocated by the throngs of people. Clawing at whoever had hold of him he was dragged outside and around the back of the building.

He had known the football team was going to cause problems.

As he was finally tossed onto the ground he looked up into the faces of a few members of the football team. Thick, strong, and dumb as rocks. They stood tall and confident, which was not something he specialized in.

"Well, well, well," one of the three smirked, "what do we have here?"

"Sh-shouldn't you know-w? Y-you're the o-one who b-brought me h-here after all." Whoa. Where the hell did that come from?

"Oh, so you're a smartass?" Two glared. Virgil stood and looked him over.

"L-least I'm-m not a-a jackass." Jesus Virgil, he mentally screamed, shut up. The smirk fell off One's face. He cracked his knuckles. And the other two copied him after a moment.

"You're gonna regret that."

"P-probably not," was all he said before his head snapped backwards with a punch to the cheek. He stumbled back and another punch came, this time hitting him in the nose. Someone kicked him in the shin and he gasped sharply.

"Why were you talking to Steph?" Three asked. Virgil shrugged.

"W-wasn't. Sh-she w-was talking to m-me." Three glared and punched Virgil on the cheek once again. Someone shoved him hard against the wall behind him and he fell to the ground. One final kick was planted in his gut. He grunted in pain.

"See you, punk." He could hear their voices swimming through his ears before they turned and walked away.

His head and cheek were pounding. He struggled to get air into his lungs as tears welled up in his eyes. The noises of the bustling school, which were already pretty far away, were becoming more distant as if he was hearing them through cotton. He could feel his blood pounding in his ears and his phone buzzing in his pocket but he didn't have the strength to answer it. He squeezed his eyes closed and pressed his hands hard against the rough pavement beneath him, trying to steady his breathing.

When he finally steadied himself and stopped crying he checked his phone. He had countless texts from his friends, specifically Logan, asking where he was and if he was okay. He read through them all and took note of one saying that they were all meeting in the green at the middle of campus when he was ready. With a smile at how much they cared he entered the nearest building and went straight to the bathroom, checking his reflection.

His cheek had already started to bruise and his nose was bleeding. Somehow he hadn't noticed before. He wiped the blood off his face before pulling out the makeup he kept in his bag and spread it over his bruise until it wasn't visible. He then left that bathroom and made his way to the green.

Sadly enough this was about what he had been expecting for his first day back.

"Stormcloud!" Logan smashed into him and he let out a grunt as Logan wrapped his arms around Virgils- most likely bruised- abdomen. "I was so worried about you. Are you okay?"

"We were all worried about you, kiddo," Patton said. Virgil pasted on a small smile and looked up at his friends.

"W-well thanks f-for w-worrying but I-I'm fine. I just needed a little bit and then forgot my phone in the classroom." It felt so wrong lying to his friends but he didn't need their help. He had dealt with bullies before. They all nodded in understanding and Logan squeezed his shoulder comfortingly.

"Well that's good babes," Remy said, finishing off her coffee with a loud slurp. "Let's go to that cafe down the street to celebrate, I need more caffeine."

The walk to the cafe was cheerful enough, though once they got there Janus stopped him before he could enter. Virgil wasn't really sure when Janus had joined them but apparently he had.

"Why did you lie to them?" He asked softly. Virgil looked into his eyes, nervously tapping his fingers.

"I d-didn't." Janus raised an eyebrow and Virgil blanched. "Okay I-I did-d but please d-don't tell. I don't w-want them t-to w-worry."

"Where were you really?" Virgil shrugged, looking at the ground. The two stood in silence for a moment before Virgil opened the door, walking past Janus and into the cafe. He lightly touched his cheek and sucked in a deep breath.

This was going to be a long year.