Assistance Required

Hatred

TW cursing, homophobia

Wed Feb 3

"Get out here, Bitch!" Janus called from the hall, banging on the door to Virgil's dorm.

Virgil groaned as he saved his graphic design project and got up from his desk to answer the door.

"What do you want?!" Virgil snapped.

"You aren't spending the day in your room on my birthday! Just come spend the day with us."

"I'm still sick, Dumbass."

"You think I care? Come down with the rest of us! I want the whole group together! It's bad enough I had to go to classes on my birthday! We're all going out to pizza in an hour, but come do homework with us or something until we leave! Please!"

"Yeah, whatever," Virgil sighed. "I don't want to hear your bitching."

"Don't pretend like you don't love me."

Virgil rolled his eyes but couldn't hide the smirk on his face. He gathered his stuff from his desk and placed it in his bag before leaving the room.

"Did you get Logan to join us as well?"

"Actually, he was already sitting with us. I think he's starting to realize he needs friends."

"Ah, he's not so bad. He just tends to overwork himself sometimes."

"Yeah, we all have our problems. Now come on!"

Janus dragged Virgil down to the student center where everyone was already sitting.

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

"Barely."

"Are you going to join us?" Roman asked.

"Yes, he is!" Janus said. "Now sit!"

"So rude."

Virgil sat down at the table while everyone else went back to their conversations and homework. He set up his stuff and started reading his geology textbook. As much as he wanted to continue his graphic design project, he needed to get this reading done.

An hour later Virgil was stretching to try to remove the stiffness in the back and legs from sitting for so long when Patton walked back to the table looking a little distressed.

"What's wrong?" Virgil asked.

Patton turned his attention to Virgil.

"Um-" Patton paused seeming to consider his words, "someone... wrote something on the bathroom walls."

"People do that sometimes, it's not going to change," Logan said.

"I know... it's um... it's what they wrote that concerns me," Patton said slowly as he sat down.

"What'd it say?" Thomas asked.

Patton shook his head.

"I'd rather not say." Remus stood up and started walking towards the bathroom. "Wait! Remus please don't-"

Patton stopped as Remus disappeared from view. He sighed and curled in on himself a little. Logan reached across the table and grabbed Patton's hand.

"What kind of message was it?" Logan asked.

Patton stared at their hands and silently chewed on his lip. The group remained quiet for a minute until Remus came storming into the room again.

"Those homophobic little fucks are going to pay for this!" Remus seethed.

"Oh," Logan said quietly.

"Well... that's one way to ruin your day," Janus muttered.

"No! We're not going to let this ruin your birthday!" Patton said.

"Should we do something about it? What are we supposed to do about this?" Roman asked.

"I guess we can talk to the front desk or something and see what they can do about it," Logan suggested.

"Or we could find out who did it ourselves and fuck them up!" Remus said.

"We don't want to go down with them. We'd get in trouble instead of them. We'll just let the school administrators figure this out," Logan said calmly as he stood up. "Patton, you found it and you're calmer than Remus, why don't we go talk to the front desk."

Patton glanced at the others and nodded before Logan led him away. Virgil glanced back at his textbook. How was he supposed to go back to reading after all of that? He was kind of curious about what Patton and Remus saw but he thought it'd be better if he didn't see. He already hated himself enough and seeing some hate message on a bathroom wall would probably make things worse. It's not like they chose to be this way. Why did so many people hate them? What did they ever do wrong? It's not like they were going around trying to tell people to live the same way or actively hating straight people. What did they ever to do deserve all this hate? Why couldn't anyone just accept them for who they were?

Virgil felt a hand cover his own. He turned to see Roman smiling sadly at him. Virgil leaned into him and Roman wrapped an arm around him. Virgil buried his face in Roman's chest and Roman rested his chin on Virgil's head.

"Don't let them get to you, Stormcloud. We're still valid, no matter what the world thinks," Roman said gently giving Virgil a small squeeze.

"We have each other and that's all we really need," Thomas said. "We shouldn't let a bunch of strangers get to us when we have friends who make us feel valid. Right?"

"Geez, you're a bit of a sap sometimes, aren't you?" Janus asked.

"Oh hush, you dumb snake," Roman said.

"I still think murder should be an option," Remus said.

"No murder, Remus!" Patton said as he sat down again. "The front desk said they'd call someone down to clean it up and find out who did it. They assured us it was against their code of conduct and whoever did this will have to face serious consequences."

"Yeah, I hope so," Joan said.

"You okay, Virgil?" Patton asked gently as he saw Virgil nuzzled up against Roman.

Virgil nodded. He was glad he had Roman to help comfort him when he was upset. He couldn't understand why people were like this and it hurt. He knew first-hand just how much people could hate them just for who they were. He was trying to keep himself calm and Roman was helping, but he couldn't bring himself to say words. So, he just nodded and tried to avoid looking at anyone. He felt Roman give him a gentle squeeze. He just listened to everyone else talk while he tried to collect himself.

After some time, he was able to tear himself away from Roman and turn back to his reading. He still didn't feel like talking, but he had to admit that his friends did help. He wasn't perfect, but he was okay.

A/N So, this is something that actually happened at my school when I was in college. There was a mass email sent out about how someone wrote a homophobic message in the bathroom and how that wasn't okay. The student was expelled and had to face charges since they considered that a "hate crime." We then held a "day of pride" to show that their actions weren't with the school and show support to the gay community. Everyone mostly just wore rainbow pins and such, it was kind of cool.