Transcending Abnormality

Caving In

Roman slumped down into his seat, arriving a whole twenty minutes early for his college lecture. He was pretty goddamn exhausted just from the journey over here, and the rest of his morning of course.

In the room was just him, his professor, and one other early girl. The professor was the same one as usual - her bright orange hair descending to her shoulders. She was typing something out on her computer.

More people began to flow in, and she looked to the hall, smiling. "Come take your seats guys, but still talk and stuff - we aren't gonna start for another fifteen."

Roman sighed, taking his phone out. His dad had texted him.

'Where are you xx'

Shit, yeah. He'd forgotten to keep his dad in the loop. It wasn't exactly as if he could tell the truth to the man, so he just typed out a basic reply.

'staying with virgil all week, big group project to get done love you x'

When he looked up from his phone, his professor (whose name he now realised he'd never caught) was crouched next to him. He almost jumped out of his skin.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." She laughed.

"It's fine, haha." Roman replied, very awkwardly.

"I was just going to ask you if you've heard from Virgil? He's not been at the last few classes and I worry he'll fall behind."

Roman bit his lip. "Uh, no. Sorry."

The woman stood up. "Ah alright, well if you do hear anyth-"

"Holy shit!"

Everyone in the classroom snapped their heads to look at the person who shouted. It was a tall person with long, neon green dyed hair and multiple piercings. Their mouth hung open in shock.

"That fuckin' quiet emo kid is like famous and hella rich."

"Firstly, language in my classroom, Blaine." The professor started walking over. "Secondly, what?"

Roman immediately felt a huge wave of guilt hit him.

"Virgil. Apparently his uncle is Janus Dyle and he's gonna inherit the whole ass business! He's proper rich and all!"

Immediately, the whole room began to gather around Blaine's phone - some opting to take their own mobile devices out and refresh their news apps

A hubbub began to form, everybody talking and jittering excitedly about this newfound revelation. They were in the same class as the heir to the richest guy in the country? Why did he never even brag about it? And why didn't anyone know until now?!

Roman felt wrong. He felt so incredibly wrong that he thought he might collapse from the guilt eating him from the inside out. He had to get out of here. He had to get out of here and he had to find Virgil and find Logan and he had to make amends and he had to fix this shit. All of it.

He stood quickly, and the action was noticed by many people.

"I just want it to be known that I knew way before any of you." He proclaimed, chest puffing up in pride.

Without waiting to see any further reactions from anyone, Roman turned on his heel and marched himself out of the classroom in search of a way to get the stupid tracking device off of his ankle.

He wandered aimlessly around the corridors of the school building for a little bit before finding himself outside one of the design technology rooms. Seeing there were people milling around in there, Roman pulled out his wallet and took $100 of the money Emile had given him.