And They Were Roommates

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November 6th, Tuesday Afternoon
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Bright light flooded through the window, with such natural light there was no such need to keep the lights on. The room was quiet with the two of them, only the soft scratches of coloured pencils on paper. Nothing big happened between them, yet Travis wasn't being as antagonistic as he usually was. It was definitely confusing to Larry, why was he acting like this. If only he knew the actual story.

Lisa's kind words were the only thing Travis could focus on. Was it really possible for him to do such a thing?  He has no clue how to do it though, everytime he thinks he's getting somewhere by being nicer he always falls back to his old habits. Flipping through his ideas, he decided the least he could do is apologize. So here he was sitting on his bed writing a note.

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I want to apologize for hurting you and your friends. I know this doesn't make everything okay and you don't need to forgive me. I wouldn't blame you of you didn't. I thought maybe things could be different between us all. Maybe not as friends, but it would be nice to not be at each other's throats. I'm sure none of us enjoy it in the first place, it's just that
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This was stupid, what was he thinking. He groaned and crumbled up the paper throwing it in the small trash can that was practically glued to the floor. He could've sworn he saw Larry look up from his notebook but he quickly brushed it off as the tech came in, holding out their refills for soap.

"Here you two go." They dropped it in Travis' hands and left.

"Do you want the shower first?" Travis said avoiding eye contact, fidgeting with the tiny bottle.

"Nah, you can go. I want to finish this first." Larry gestures to the notebook where he was presumably drawing.

Travis gave him a thumbs up and took his clothing to the bathroom. Putting the bottles on the toilet lid, he got a good glimpse of himself in the mirror. Or rather the 'funhouse mirror' as most of the patience called it. It made sense seeing how distorted he looked. It made him look fat and disfigured. Shaking his head he got in the shower and tried as quickly as he could to finish rinsing off the soap duds. It was annoying having to press the button every couple of seconds, but it got him out of the freezing cold water quicker.

He got out, feeling the water evaporate from his skin leaving more cold than before as he got dressed; taking note on his healing bruises. He walked out only to see Larry standing by the trashcan, holding a scrunched up piece of lined paper. Specifically the one he just threw away.

"What the fuck are you doing Johnson?! Put that down!"

"What do you mean? Was this some sort of joke of yours or something? And to think you were trying to be genuine for once." He tore the paper in half and threw it away.

"I am being genuine. I wanted to apologize but no. Larry Johnson couldn't find his own fucking business!"

"Even if you are, you really think this changes anything?! After you physically and mentally hurt my friends? Huh?! Did you forget what you did to Sal and Todd?!" Larry shouted at him, letting out all of his pent up anger, stepping closer to him. Despite being taller, Travis started to feel smaller with each step backwards.

"Of course I fucking know what I did. You think I don't know? You think I don't feel bad for it all?!"

"Obviously not because if you knew why didn't you stop doing it?!"

"I don't know, okay?!" Travis yelled out, huffing as it all came closing in on him. "I don't fucking know!" There was a tightening in his throat, breathing was getting harder as his gasps for air became more frequent.

"Bullshit. What do you mean you don't fucking know?"

"I don't know how to fucking stop being like this, okay?! Everyone keeps telling me so many different things and it's fucking with my head. I'm fucking scared, there I said it!" Instantly it went quiet, the air he was trying oh so hard to get was gone. He had said too much.