The Bully's Crush | Logince

Nine

word count: 645

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Two weeks.

It had been two weeks since Roman came back and attempted to confess to Logan. But he chickened out.

Despite always making fun of Logan, Roman has always been jealous of how strong and straightforward he was. Even as kids, Logan stood his ground and spoke his mind. He wished he had that kind of strength. He wished he could tell Logan what he so badly wanted to say. He wished he could say a lot of things.

And as badly as Roman wanted to say and do a lot of things, he never had the confidence to do so. He'd established a reputation in school over the years as the badass, the prankster, a guy with no cares in the world.

While it wasn't too far off from his true personality, it wasn't exactly him. He was the type of person that wanted to be as fair as possible to others, he wanted to show off his singing voice proudly, he wanted to geek out over cartoons and Disney. He wanted to be closer to Logan.

And, over the school year, it became obvious to Roman - and his family - that Logan was the only person to bring out this side of Roman.

But that stupid lack of confidence kept him back. What if Logan was still hurt by Roman's actions in the past? What if Roman just wasn't likable or redeemable at this point? Roman couldn't blame Logan if that were the case, he was always aware of the impact of his words, he was always aware that what he was doing was wrong, but he never stopped.

"¿Te sientes bien, mijo? Apenas has tocado tu caldo de res." Roman shrugged but didn't say anything.

"Creo que tiene muchas cosas en la cabeza, Mami. Dejémoslo solo por ahora." Remus said quietly to their mother, shocking Roman a bit. Roman watched as his mom nodded and placed a kiss onto her sons' heads before putting her bowl in the sink and heading off to bed. Remus didn't look up from his bowl, Roman just stared at the side of his brother's head in confusion.

"You're never usually that nice, what's going on?"

Remus shook his head. "You didn't seem to be in the mood for Ma's never ending questions or my teasing. I'm not the monster you paint me out to be, I can tell you're really struggling with something so I'm not gonna make it worse." Remus stood up and brought his bowl to the sink.

"I never thought you were a monster, annoying, sure. But not a monster." Remus didn't respond, just keeping his back to Roman.

"Can I, uh, ask you something? You're a lot more experienced in this stuff than me. I like this guy but we don't have the best...history. We've gotten closer this year but I'm pretty sure he still sees me as the jerk I was before. I just- I'm not sure if I should tell him or not at this point."

Remus came back to the dining room table and sat in his previous seat. "This about the kid with the glasses, right?" Roman reluctantly nodded. "Okay, well, he seems to be nervous a lot of the times but also blunt and honest. Plus, a while back, while you were getting some bags from your car, he told me that he loved spending time with you and he'd come to trust you a lot."

"Really?" A shade of pink tinted Roman's cheeks.

"Eh, in so many words. He said, 'Something, something, I appreciate his company. Something, something, he's a trustworthy friend.' I honestly kind of blanked out while he was talking but I got the general idea." Remus waved his hand dismissively.

Roman chuckled lightly, pausing before speaking again, "Thank you, Remus. You really are a great brother."

Remus scoffed lightly but smiled sincerely. "Let's go to bed before Ma comes down here and yells at us."