Assistance Required

Money Stress

TW cursing, verbal abuse

Sat Nov 14

Virgil flopped down on his bed. He smiled as he looked up at the ceiling. Roman had gone to the library to work on a research paper. The others were downstairs doing other schoolwork. He was left alone with his thoughts but for once, he didn't mind. They were actually happy thoughts. He let himself savor the happy feeling. He could get used to dating Roman. He was going to spend Thanksgiving with him. He thought about sitting down with Roman's family and trying a traditional Thanksgiving feast. His dad had spent most of his time either at work, at a bar, or hanging around the house drunk. Sometimes he forgot to go grocery shopping leaving Virgil to learn how to handle his own meals. Virgil used to pick up frozen dinners at the store after school or something easy like pasta. He had always made sure he had spaghetti and a jar of sauce at home in case his dad didn't get groceries again. He hadn't had a home-cooked meal since his mother died. He was really excited to have a home-cooked meal again. And it was going to be with Roman. He heard his phone buzz. He picked up his phone to see who had messaged him.

His heart dropped. He looked through all of the messages his father had sent him.

Do you have any idea how much your little stunt is going to fucking cost me?

It would have been cheaper to bury you.

I shouldn't have to take care of your bills. You don't want to act like my son, why should I treat you like one?

You decided you're so grown up! You don't want to live with your old man anymore! Handle your own shit.

You wouldn't be where you are today if it weren't for me! You act like you can do whatever the hell you want and get away with it! You ungrateful little shit!

I gave you food, I put a roof over your head, and this is the thanks I get? You run away, crash your car, and leave me with the bills! All so you can go around screwing guys!

Disgusting.

Virgil stared at his phone. He couldn't keep reading. He set his phone down and curled up on his bed. It wasn't his fault he crashed, was it? He didn't want to crash his car. He had driven before when he was tired and he hadn't blacked out before. He didn't know he was going to blackout. He didn't know. Was it really his fault?

(A/N driving drowsy is JUST AS DANGEROUS as driving drunk if not, more so. You can blackout and crash, people have died. Please don't do this!!!)

He sniffled as tears ran down his face. He didn't want any of this to be happening. He wasn't going around screwing guys. He didn't run away. He was still working. He was working hard for the most part. Although he did just spend two hours with Roman instead of doing homework. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! He should have just gotten his work done. He was wasting time! Maybe he should try to pick up an extra shift or two? Shit! If he went to Roman's for Thanksgiving he wouldn't be able to work. He'd have to take the week off!

Was his dad just chewing him out or was he actually going to make him pay the hospital bills himself? Did he have the money? He grabbed his phone to check his account. He stared at the charges on his phone. He didn't realize how much he was spending on food. A pang of guilt shot through him. That was a lot of money he was wasting on food. He needed to save up for the hospital bills, tuition, and maybe a new car so he could get himself to work again. He was saving up to get himself a laptop, but there was no way he could afford that now.

He moved to his desk and grabbed some paper. He found an egg sitting in the corner of the drawer but ignored it. He grabbed a pen and started calculating his savings. He wasn't spending as much on gas, although he intended on paying the others back for driving him around, and he still had to pay for his insurance. Car insurance. He groaned as he thought about how high his rates were going to go up because of the accident. He didn't know how much his medical bills were and he didn't really want to ask his dad. He glanced through all of his father's messages, but none of them really mentioned how much the bills were going to cost him.

He started doing research on his phone. He wasn't sure how much his dad's medical insurance would cover for him either. After he got some rough estimates on what he thought he would be charged for he started looking into cars. He found a few prices for used cars and created a rough goal. Then, of course, there was tuition. He wasn't able to get many scholarships so he still had to pay for most of it himself. Although the school did have a pretty good scholarship for local students, he was still taking out a lot of loans. Oh gosh, how long would he be paying these off? Assuming he found a better job after he got out of college. He hadn't been able to keep a job for more than a year. Not to mention he didn't even know what he was majoring in. But none of that mattered if he couldn't keep his fucking grades up!

He grabbed his calculus textbook and opened up to the assignment. He wasn't going to get anywhere in life if he couldn't get his work done.