Assistance Required

The Road Trip Part 1

TW cursing, Remus

Sat March 13

Virgil groaned as he was dragged out of bed. He didn't want to be awake this early, but they insisted he'd be able to sleep in the car. He took his meds before he dragged his bags down to the parking lot and threw them in the back of the car. He waited until everyone else had gotten their belongings situated before putting his box of paints and a canvas in the back. He didn't want them piled underneath everyone else's stuff.

Janus and Logan stood in the parking lot going over the directions on their phones while everyone else worked out the seating. Once they got in the car, Virgil propped his pillow on Roman and tried falling back asleep but he kept getting caught up in the others' conversation. Remus and Roman ended up getting in an argument about an hour into the trip and Janus yelled at them to shut up. Virgil gave up on sleep at that point.

He sighed as he sat up and pulled out his sketchbook. He sketched in silence until Remus punched Janus in the arm.

"Punch buggy green! No punch backs!"

Janus punched Remus' arm. Remus gasped.

"I said no punch backs! You can't break the rules!"

"I don't follow rules!"

Remus turned around.

"Uh uh! You only get one punch per car! You don't get to change victims because he punched you back!" Roman said.

"But Janus doesn't play fair!" Remus whined.

"Well, maybe next time you won't punch me."

"But that's how the game works! You're closest to me! You can't expect me to punch Roman every time a punch buggy shows up!"

"You can also punch Virgil."

"You're right next to me!"

"Well, prepare to get punched back."

"Roman! Back me up here!"

"Honestly, you kind of deserve to get punched. You'd randomly punch me saying 'punch buggy clear.' So-"

"We were kids!"

"You did that to me on the trip to the mountain!"

"Did I?"

Virgil tuned out their banter as he felt his phone buzz. He noticed Patton's name appear on the screen. He looked up at they loudly bantered before picking up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Virgil? Is everything okay? Why do I hear yelling?"

"Hold on," Virgil pulled the phone from his face, "Would you guys shut up for a second! Patton's calling me!"

"HI PATTON!" Remus yelled.

"Um... am I on speaker?" Patton asked as Virgil brought the phone to his ear again.

"No, Remus just wanted to say hi. Do you want me to put you on speaker?"

"Sure."

Virgil put the phone on speaker before putting it near his mouth to speak again. "Okay, you're on speaker."

"Okay, well, we were thinking about stopping for lunch. What do you guys think?"

"About lunch?" Janus asked.

"What?"

"About lunch?" Virgil repeated.

"Well, we're trying to decide if we should stop and dine in or if we should just pick something up for the road."

"No! Let's eat in!" Virgil cringed as Roman yelled in his ear.

"You're right next to me! Why are you so loud?" Virgil asked.

"Sorry."

"Okay, Thomas is looking at places to eat right now."

"We should all do a funny walk when he enter. Like tuck in our shirts, pull out pants up high, and walk around like we haven't peed in days," Remus laughed quietly.

"What's wrong with you?" Roman asked.

"No, that's stupid. We could just talk in weird voices. Can you do an accent?" Janus asked.

"Not well," Remus said.

"Oh! We found a little burger joint. Do you guys want to go there?" Patton asked.

"That sounds good," Janus yelled back.

"Stop yelling!" Virgil hissed.

"Okay! Thomas is putting the address in the group chat!"

"Thanks, Pat! We'll see you there!"

Virgil hung up the phone.

"We need to pull a prank on them!" Remus said. "I haven't done a good prank all semester!"

"Yeah, what have you been doing?"

"His homework!" Janus said. "Like he should be doing!"

"It's boring! And we're on break now! Come on! There has to be a prank we can pull on the others!"

"Like what?" Roman asked.

"What's wrong with the accent bit?" Janus asked.

"That's for the servers. We'll talk in stupid voices when we order. I want to prank the others!"

"Just pretend everyone else is asleep and don't wake up," Virgil muttered.

"I don't know. That doesn't sound funny enough," Remus said.

"It was a joke. Do we have to pull a prank on them? I don't want to participate."

"You don't have to," Roman said.

"Ooh! We should all walk in with matching marks on our face!" Janus said.

"How is that a prank?" Remus asked.

"It'll confuse the hell out of them!"

"Can we draw dicks?" Remus asked.

"No! I'm not drawing a dick on my face!" Roman said.

"You wouldn't draw it on your own face anyway, Dumbass!"

"I'm not having that on my face! I will not tarnish my looks with something so... crude."

"Okay, well what do you suggest?" Remus pouted.

"I don't know. What about stars?"

"That's lame!"

"It's better than dicks!"

"Will you two shut up!" Janus said. "I'm trying to drive! Unless you want to crash?"

Virgil glanced at his phone. He traced over the cracks on the screen with his finger. He couldn't tear his eyes away. He could hear the others still talking. He could hear the world around him moving. But he felt stuck.

"Virgil!"

Virgil jumped at the sound of his name and looked around to see who caused it.

"Wh-what?" he asked.

"Do you think you could draw it?"

"Draw... what? I wasn't paying attention."

Remus let out an exasperated sigh.

"We're thinking about calling ourselves the chaos gremlins and we need you to make us matching face marks! It'll confuse the hell out of the others. Not that they're allowed to join our cult anyway," Remus explained.

"Oh, what were you thinking?"

"Just a little gremlin or something! Can you do it?"

"You expect me to draw on Janus' face while he's driving?"

"Nah, but we'll figure it out, you in?"

Virgil glanced at his phone again before turning to his bag and pulling out a marker.

"I'll see what I can do."