Assistance Required

Itching Hands

TW mention of death, mention of violence

Thurs Feb 18

Virgil tapped his pencil on the paper as the professor droned in front of him. He wanted to draw something. His hands were itching to create something. He liked painting and everything, but he wanted to draw. He wished he had his sketchbook with him, but it was in his room. It wasn't like he could try to draw on his laptop right now. He was supposed to be paying attention to geology. Doodling was fun and all, but he wanted to do something more elaborate than that.

He tried to think about what he wanted to draw. He could try drawing something more realistic like when he did before, but he was doing a lot of realism. He kind of wanted to try something that didn't make sense. Maybe not to everyone else, but he knew he'd understand it. He started to get an idea, but he wasn't entirely sure about it. He decided to just go for it. First, he had to get through the rest of his classes.

He went to his painting class and got his stuff situated. Remy showed up a few minutes later and sat down next to him.

"Hey, Babe! How's it going?"

"Um, not bad, I guess."

"You guess?" Virgil just shrugged.

"So, I was thinking about going rollerskating this weekend. You want to come? You could meet my boyfriend!"

"Is it just going to be the two of you?" Virgil asked.

"I don't know yet. I've asked a couple of my other friends and they said they'd get back to me, so we'll see. Would you be interested? You could bring your boyfriend if you wanted!"

"Oh... well... m-maybe. I uh... it kind of depends on the time and everything. I work on the weekends and the others like to have a weekly movie night on Saturdays. Plus, there's the whole... homework thing."

"If you can't come, you can't come. It's all cool. Here, let me have your number just in case you find the time. I can text you the details."

"Oh. Uh... okay."

Remy handed him their phone and Virgil typed in his number. He handed the phone back and soon enough a text appeared on his phone. Virgil placed his phone on his desk and picked up his brush.

"So, where do you work?" Remy asked.

"Hm?" Virgil asked not sure why the topic was coming up.

"You mentioned you work over the weekends. I was wondering where. I don't really know the area but I'd like to know it a little better. It's an interesting place."

"Oh, well, it's kind of like a cafe. It's not the best, but it's nice. The coffee and food isn't bad."

"Coffee?" Virgil nodded. "Well, I might just have to try it. I love a good coffee." Remy shook their cup to prove their point. "Do you think it's better than the coffee here?"

Virgil shrugged.

"I don't actually drink it often enough to really tell the difference. It's not bad but I don't think I've ever had bad coffee."

Remy scoffed.

"You have a lot to learn about the beautiful world of caffeine. Coffee is a wonderful thing. People make art out of it and it tastes great and it gets me through the day. Who needs sleep when you have caffeine?"

"Sleep is a glorious thing. I wish I could spend the rest of my days sleeping. One day I hope I die in my sleep. Then even if I'm brutally murdered, I'll have been in a peaceful state. I won't even know what happened to me."

"That took a bit of a dark turn. Sleep is cool sometimes, I guess. But it's more fun to be awake. Plus sleeping is hard when you have all this homework to do, you know?"

"Yeah, it's pretty stressful and such, but like... sleep is still great. Homework should just not exist. Then sleep would be so much easier."

"I can't argue with that."

Virgil smiled as he continued his work. After his painting class, he wanted to grab his sketchbook, but he knew he needed to get at least some of his homework done. Especially since he didn't get much done on Monday. He knew he mostly needed to focus on what was due tomorrow, which was Spanish and graphic design. He could focus on the rest over the weekend. Was it the best use of his time? No. Did he care? Absolutely not. He wanted to draw more than anything else right now and he was going to get that done at some point today. He decided to finish his graphic design project before starting on his Spanish.

He had gotten some of his project done already so he knew he had a pretty good start. It really just needed some finishing touches before he could call it done and start on his Spanish. He also had a couple hours between his two classes tomorrow in which he could throw in a few extra finishing touches if he felt it necessary.

After finally finishing his project, he moved on to his Spanish. He called on Roman whenever he started struggling, but he wanted to get as much done on his own first since it was faster. Roman wouldn't just give him the answer. Even if he did, Logan and Patton wouldn't approve of cheating. He didn't need a lecture from the parents.

His homework ended up taking him longer than he had wanted. He wasn't done before dinner. So he had to wait to finish until after. As much as he wanted to just skip and get it done, he still needed Roman's help. Plus, the others didn't like letting him skip meals. He didn't have any good excuse to get out of a man other than getting his homework fine so he could draw, which probably wasn't a valid excuse. He didn't think they'd see drawing as more important than food.

It was already dark when he finally finished his work, but he didn't care. He was done and had no other obligations to worry about for tomorrow other than waking up and showing up. He went up to his room, grabbed a pencil and his sketchbook, and sat down on his bed. He finally had the freedom to draw... but he forgot what he wanted to draw. He stared at the blank page with a frown. He had been looking forward to this all day and he couldn't figure out what he was thinking about earlier. He didn't know what to draw!

He closed his eyes as he tried to picture it. He ended up getting an idea. He knew it wasn't exactly what he was thinking of, but it was... something. It felt right. Though he knew it probably wouldn't make sense to everyone. He didn't think he'd share it with the others. This drawing was for him anyway. Most of them were. He still didn't understand why people wanted to look at his work. He still didn't like all of them, but that wouldn't stop him from continuing. He loved the way the pencil glossed across the paper. He loved watching the pieces come together. Even if it wasn't entirely what he had in mind, it was still something. It was strange to think about what he could do with a blank page and some time. He really couldn't picture himself doing anything other than this. He knew it'd probably be a lot of extra work, but he liked the work. He didn't mind doing this for the rest of his life.