summary: roman's been found, but virgil still feels terrible about his last interaction with the boy. logan and patton can't yet confront their feelings, so virgil does so by himself.
word count: 1118
i think there might only be a few more parts of this book :( idk yet, next year, college is gonna get extra hard, and i'm already running out of ideas for this, my only real goal was to get to 100 parts and hopefully a few thousand reads by then and i've done that and so much more, which i'm so proud of. but, like i said, i might just continue this to 200, so no need to fret, we'll see :D
tw/cw// mentions of k*dnapping, mention of de*th (don't worry, everyone's still alive, i decided to be nice this time >:)), mention of injuries, sadness, mention of medication/dr*gs, that's it :))
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A kidnapping gone wrong. That's what the police had called it. Virgil didn't like that phrase; it made it seem like it would've been better if it had gone right. Nevertheless, everyone took a sigh of relief to hear the news. Roman's mom and brother offered Roman's roommates to stay at their house while they searched for Roman; he never arrived at his flight, so they assumed he was still in Texas. A week after Roman was reported missing, police found him badly injured by the side of an interstate in Louisiana.
Now, everyone was waiting for Roman to wake up. Virgil, Patton, and Logan hadn't seen him yet, but Remus and Roman's mom had. Remus told them it wasn't too bad; he had several injuries but none too big or deadly. Virgil watched Patton and Logan closely, both distracting themselves rather than working through whatever they were feeling. The two glasses-wearing gays focused on some animal crackers from the vending machine; Patton was eating and describing the crackers while Logan took notes, trying to determine the snack's percent composition without looking at the nutrition label. When Virgil tried to bring up Roman, they'd shut him down and go back to the snacks.
Meanwhile, Roman was all Virgil could think about. Roman put up a fight against his kidnappers, which was a huge relief. But the idea that Virgil might not have seen him again, the idea that someone easily could have taken Roman away from everyone and everything, and the last thing Virgil told him was how obnoxious he was, it made the emo boy sick to his stomach. He knew he could get fed up with Roman a lot, but if it was a problem, he should've talked to him about it; Roman was incredibly understanding.
"I'm gonna go for a walk." Virgil mumbled, rising to his feet. "Hey, Virgin." Virgil rolled his eyes and looked at Remus, who now stood next to him. "Are you going to keep calling me that?" Remus smirked. "Yep. Follow me." Virgil reluctantly trailed behind Remus as he made his way to the front desk. "Hi, can we see our brother? Last name is Prince." The front lady nodded and gave them the door number.
Virgil's eyes widened, but he still followed Remus. "What are you doing? I'm not allowed to see him yet." He hissed quietly as Remus led him down the hallways. "Calm down. My mom went downstairs for lunch, and she wants me to eat with her. She's scared, she doesn't want to leave him alone, but she wants to pretend she's okay for my sake. I figure this way, you can text me if there are any updates on him, and you can see him. I know you want to."
Virgil sighed, deciding against pointing out that Remus avoided saying Roman's name. "Okay, but why me? Why not Logan or Patton?" Remus scoffed. "You're kidding me, right? I just met you guys a week ago, and I can already tell they don't like to face reality. They don't want to admit he's like this, and they don't want to admit how they're feeling. Besides, it's easier to sneak in only one person than it is to sneak in three." Remus stopped in front of a door, staring at it warily. "Talking to him is like talking to a wall, so it's not much different from before," Remus attempted to joke. "But Mom thinks talking is therapeutic, like he might be able to hear." Remus stared at the door a bit longer, then coughed awkwardly and glanced at Virgil before leaving down the hall to the elevator.
Virgil took a deep breath, entering the room and almost gasping at the sight of Roman in the bed. He wasn't in a coma, so he should be waking soon; Virgil decided to take advantage of this quiet time. He sat beside the bed and stared down at the white sheets. "I'm really sorry, Roman. I know you've probably already forgiven me because you're good like that, but I need to say this. I was never a social kid growing up, and I'm new to this whole friendship thing. I guess, in my head, if something goes wrong, then that's automatically a sign that the relationship is toxic. So, when you were too much for me to handle sometimes, I thought that meant we couldn't be good friends.
"That was when Patton, Logan, and I got to talking. I wasn't thinking, Ro. I could have talked to you; you're always trying to adjust to what everyone else wants, I should've given you a chance. I'm sorry."
"No." Virgil's head snapped up to Roman, who was now frowning and trying to keep his eyes open. "Don't apologize. I know I'm not easy to deal with, and I know other people will have trouble with me. That's not your job to fix it; it's my problem." Virgil just stared at him in shock. Was he listening the whole time? Did he wake up earlier? Did he need water? Did he need a nurse? Should Virgil call someone over? Should he text Remus?
"Uh, d-do you need a nurse or something? I don't really know what to do." Roman let out a deep sigh in thought. "No, I won't die if I sit here for a while. Just let it be peaceful for a few more minutes before they bombard me with questions." Roman sounded almost spiteful. Virgil awkwardly nodded, just now remembering that Roman was attacked and nearly kidnapped; the police and hospital staff were probably waiting to ask him a million questions about what he remembered and how he was feeling.
"How bad is it?" Roman asked softly. "Your injuries?" Roman nodded. Virgil hummed and scanned his body, wincing at the unnatural coloring. "You look pretty cool. Like you got in a raging bar fight to protect someone's honor. Or like a Bob Ross painting." Virgil commented, not wanting to stress his friend out. Roman lightly chuckled and nodded again. "I like that. A Bob Ross painting. You and your Bob Ross obsession." Virgil playfully rolled his eyes at Roman's knowing grin.
He wouldn't point out that Roman only knew he liked Bob Ross because he snuck into his room without Virgil's knowledge; that conversation was for another time. For now, he'd let Roman enjoy the calm before the storm that would be his concerned family, the police, the hospital, the pain he'd feel once the drugs wore off, the medication he'd inevitably have to take, before he had to get back to normal. It was the least Virgil could do for Roman after all Roman had done for everyone else.
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geez, it's been over a week, i've been so inactive over internet stuff, like i've even been inactive for assignments that i could've done ahead of time bc this weekend and last week were so bleh, but here this is, got some nice prinxiety going, and roman and virgil admit their mistakes, yayyy :D so yeah, hope you enjoyed (kinda wanted to add more stuff with patton and logan but decided against it), love you all, stay safe, buh bye!!
2/9/21