Assistance Required

Closed Doors

TW panic attacks, anxiety, basic angst

Sat Nov 7

Virgil woke up to a faint light shining in his face. He rolled over and grabbed his phone. It was almost noon. Why didn't anyone try to wake him? The real question was whether or not he was going back to sleep. He just laid under the covers with his eyes closed for a while before giving up on going back to sleep and rolling out of bed. He assumed the others were in the student center again working on homework or something. As Virgil entered the hall, he heard a noise coming from Patton's room.

He shuffled closer to Patton's door and listened. He realized it sounded like someone was crying on the other side. He stood there while he pondered what to do. He couldn't help but feel like he wasn't supposed to be there. The person thought he was asleep. Besides, it was Patton's room. Patton was probably comforting them. He wasn't good with people anyway. Patton was pretty good at comforting people, he could probably handle it by himself.

Virgil decided to go to the bathroom for now. After he got ready for the day, he went back into the hall to find the door open again. The room was empty now. He decided to go down and join the others. Almost everyone was planning what movie to watch this weekend. Virgil sat down in an empty seat by Janus, Remus, and Joan.

"Hey! You're alive!" Joan exclaimed.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Virgil deadpanned.

"Virgil! Perfect! Tell Roman we're not watching Frozen again!" Janus said.

"It's a good movie!" Roman said.

"You've already seen it a dozen times!" Remus protested.

"I'm sure Patton would tell us the number is higher than that," Logan muttered.

"Patton would be on my side!"

Virgil realized Patton wasn't sitting with them.

"Wait, where is Patton?" Virgil asked.

"He said he was going to the library. He's been there all morning," Thomas explained. "And I think Frozen is a-"

"Wait! Then who was in his room earlier?"

They all turned to look at him.

"What do you mean?" Janus asked.

"I... I saw the door closed when I first went out, after I got dressed it was open again. I thought Patton was in there with one of you."

"No, we've barely seen him all morning."

"He probably forgot something in his room. What's the big deal?" Roman asked.

Virgil was nervous to tell the others. Was he a bad friend for just leaving like that? He should have done something. He should have thought that it might have been Patton crying. Why didn't he do anything?!

"I... I thought I heard crying."

The tables were silent for a minute before Logan stood up.

"Is he still upstairs?" Logan asked.

"Why didn't he come to us?" Thomas asked.

"He wasn't in his room when I left or at least I didn't see him. He could have gone to the bathroom or something."

Logan pulled out his phone and started typing on it. He put it to his ear and started pacing. A few minutes later he looked at his phone again. He pressed a button and held it up to his ear again.

"Should we text him?" Thomas asked.

"I already tried," Roman said.

"Yeah, but Logan is calling him. How is he supposed to answer?"

"Logan!"

"What?"

"Stop calling him! We're trying to text him!"

"Why don't we just go look for him?"

"Are you sure? What if he wants to be alone?"

"He's upset! He might need us!"

The voices started blurring together while they argued over what to do. Virgil didn't know what to do. He had the chance to do something and he didn't take it. He could have prevented all of this from happening. Now all of his friends were arguing around him and they were getting loud. He hated loud noises. He hated yelling. He covered his ears to try to block out all of the noise around him. It was too much. There was too much happening and it was all his fault. He could have stopped this. This shouldn't be happening. It was all his fault.

All his fault.

He thought he heard his name. They were probably blaming him. He told them what he heard. He told them he was there. They knew he could have been there for him. He knew he was a bad friend.

He jumped as he felt something touch his arm. He looked up to see Thomas touching him. He was saying something. He uncovered his ears.

"Just breathe. Okay? Breathe," Thomas instructed him.

"In for four," he heard Logan say.

Virgil followed Logan's instructions until he was able to breathe normally again. He hadn't realized he was panicking. He could feel himself shaking and he had stabbing pains in his stomach. He looked around at the others. They were all looking at him. He curled in on himself. He wanted to disappear. He wished the floor would swallow him. Were they upset with him? He felt like he couldn't breathe.

"Woah! Hey! Breathe, Virgil! Breathe!" Thomas said rubbing circles on his back.

Virgil focused on breathing again.

"What's going on?" Roman asked sitting next to Virgil.

"I-I-I was there! I should- I should have d-done something! I-"

"Virgil, we'll find him. Everything will be okay," Thomas assured him.

"How can you be so sure?"

"We're going to go look for him. Maybe you should stay here," Logan said. "If Patton shows up here, let us know."

"I'll check the library," Janus said.

"I'll go check the dorms," Roman said.

"Thomas and I will see if he's walking around campus," Joan said.

"I'll check some of his favorite places on campus," Logan said.

"Where should I go then?" Remus asked.

"Maybe you should check the library and Janus stay with Virgil so he doesn't freak out again?" Thomas suggested.

"Oooooooooor!" Janus said with a wicked grin on his face, "I check the dorms and Roman stays behind!"

"Don't tease Virgil right now. We're dealing with enough problems right now," Logan moaned.

"Fine! I'll stay with him," Janus said.

Janus sat down as the others walked away.

"Shouldn't I at least try to help you guys look?" Virgil asked while he watched them leave.

"I don't think you're in the best mindset for that right now. Besides, Patton would feel bad if the boy with the broken leg was walking around looking for him."

"He feels bad enough already-"

"Exactly! Right now I think you should focus on getting something to eat. You didn't eat much of your dinner last night."

"I'm not hungry right now."

"Shut up! You're not getting out of breakfast."