Assistance Required

Okay

TW cursing

Wed Oct 21

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Virgil groaned at the sound of the alarm. Why was it always so loud? Why did it have to keep bugging him? Why did he have to wake up? Why couldn't he just ignore the world for a little longer? The alarm turned off. Virgil didn't want to move. He was too tired to deal with life today.

"Virgil?"

He grunted to acknowledge Logan's presence.

"You have class soon, get up."

"Don't wanna."

Logan sighed. Virgil heard footsteps and the door open. A few minutes later he heard more footsteps before the blankets were ripped from his bed.

"GET UP, HOT TOPIC! IT'S TIME FOR SCHOOL!" Roman yelled.

"ROMAN, I FUCKING SWEAR!" Virgil yelled back as he sat up.

"I said to wake him, not everyone," Logan groaned.

"What's going on?" Patton said from the doorway rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Virgil didn't want to get out of bed this morning," Roman said.

"Did you have trouble sleeping again, Kiddo?"

"Again?" Logan asked. "Have you been struggling to sleep? That could be-"

"I've always had trouble sleeping, Pocket Protector. Don't worry about it."

"That raises more concern, actually," Logan said.

Virgil sighed.

"As long as you're standing here, can you hand me my crutches," Virgil told Roman.

"Oh, sure," Roman said as he stooped down to grab Virgil's crutches.

Virgil moved to sit on the edge of his bed as Roman handed him the crutches.

"Virgil, you're avoiding the question," Patton said.

"Yeah, I had some trouble falling asleep last night."

Patton walked into the room and sat next to Virgil on his bed.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I kind of already talked to Thomas about it last night," Virgil said. "I don't want to go over it again."

"Thomas?"

"Yeah?" a voice said from the distance.

"We're just talking about you," Roman said.

"What'd I do?" Thomas said appearing in the doorway.

"You talked to Virgil last night?" Logan asked.

"Oh, yeah. I found him in the hall while he was getting water."

"What were you doing up?" Patton asked.

Thomas cleared his throat as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Uh... watching Parks and Rec?"

"Again? We talked about this!" Logan said.

"I know! But it's such a good show!"

"That's not the point! What time did you go to bed? Both of you!"

"We talked around one? I fell asleep soon after that," Virgil said.

"Oh, I stayed up for a couple of hours after that," Thomas said. "I wanted to at least finish the episode I was on and then I didn't stop."

"We'll get back to you," Roman said to Thomas before turning to Virgil, "What was keeping you up?"

"I already went through this last night with Thomas! Ask him about it. I'm going to the bathroom!" Virgil said as he stood up.

They let him pass. He took his time in the bathroom, not wanting to talk to the others about last night but he couldn't avoid them forever. He had classes with two of them today anyway. But he could at least delay the inevitable. After brushing his teeth and doing his makeup, he walked back into the room. The others stopped talking when he entered. Virgil stood in the doorway staring at them.

"So... are you feeling better now?" Patton asked breaking the awkward silence that had fallen between them.

"Yeah, it was just late-night thoughts. I'm fine now."

"You didn't... do anything last night, did you?" Roman asked shuffling on his feet.

"Are you asking if I cut myself or something?" Virgil asked.

Roman nodded sheepishly. Virgil lifted his sleeves and showed them his arms.

"No, I didn't. I thought about it, but I didn't."

"That's good... I guess... I mean not that you thought about it or felt the way you did, but you didn't hurt yourself and that's good!" Patton said.

"If such a situation occurs again, I don't mind being woken up. I'd rather you wake me than do anything that could harm you," Logan offered.

"Yeah, Kiddo! You don't have to be up alone all night dealing with these thoughts."

"I'll most likely be up anyway if you want to talk to me," Thomas said.

"No, see that's bad too," Roman said.

"Thomas, we talked about this. You can't stay up watching Parks and Rec every night," Logan scolded.

"It's not every night," Thomas muttered.

"It's enough!"

"I appreciate your words of encouragement and everything, but I need to get dressed. So, if you don't mind..." Virgil said as he walked further into the room to grab his clothes.

The others decided to continue berating Thomas for his sleeping habits in the hall. After he got dressed, he joined the others in the hall. Roman grabbed his stuff and they started walking to Spanish. Logan walked with them for a bit before he had to turn away to go to his own class. Virgil thought about the others' offers for him to wake them in case he needed to talk. As much as he appreciated their offers, it didn't feel right. He knew he promised to talk to them instead of hurting himself but waking them up in the middle of the night? No. He'd figure something else out. Once he was over his concussion he could just go back to scrolling through Tumblr again.

Although he did have to admit, expressing his negative thoughts helped more than suppressing them. It was also nice to hear a friend's reassurance that they were just thoughts in his head and not a reality. He actually managed to get some sleep last night and he wasn't dwelling on the thoughts from last night. Sure, he wasn't exactly happy, but he was okay. And that counted for something, right?