Pieces of Us: Living in Parallel

Chapter 6 - Logan: Move In Day

Summary: Logan has spent his life hiding his magic weirdness from the world and expects to live with normal roommates. His roommates seem the opposite of typical though, with very unusual traits.

It took five minutes for Logan to carry his three suitcases up to the third floor. Time control really had its perks. He had also taken those five minutes to memorise the number for the front door lock and take a walk to notice what food shops were open and when they were open. Now it was time for Logan to meet his roommates – and unfortunately time could not be paused for that.

The door opened to a tall man wearing red, with wild ginger hair. "Hey Logan! Great to meet you. I'm Roman." Logan was brought into a hug he didn't have time to pull away from. A whole year of a touchy extrovert to live with... great. "I was just watching some Bluey. Virgil's in his room, he doesn't leave it a lot but he's a lot better once he's comfortable." Roman lead Logan into the apartment, his hand absentmindedly pointing to the shut door beside the TV. "Wow you have a lot of stuff, didn't you just tell me you were in the Uber ten minutes ago?"

"I would love to chat, but I've got some emails to answer before I start work next week, sorry." Logan tried to shuffle past but was met with Roman mirroring his actions with a wide smile on his face. He was watching his new roommate like a Labrador puppy. He then tilted his head and a smirk came to his face.

"Are you tired?"

That question was asked in an unusual tone, more of a statement rather than a question. But this was a way out of this conversation, so he took it – even if he only woke up half an hour ago. "A little yeah, I'll probably nap once I'm fully unpacked."

"Well, I'll be here if you need me." Roman placed a hand on Logan's shoulder and grabbed one of the suitcases with his other hand. A normal interaction but it caused a weird sensation inside him, volts of electricity surging through him from his shoulder down his arms. When the energy left Logan's arm wasn't aching from lugging the suitcases up the stairs. "Do you need any help unpacking?"

"I'll be fine, thank you." In all the conversation Roman and Logan had reached Logan's new bedroom door. The room was the smallest in the house, he really didn't need that much room, and the only sound was the clank of the kitchen as Roman mentioned he was making dinner for his new roommates.

*****

The second door next to the TV had been closed all day, even though Roman had shouted about every change in Disney movie for the last few hours. But the bedroom belonged to Virgil, a mystery in the roommate group chat. The most socialisation he did there was a thumbs up or a short 'OK' message.

So, Logan was rather excited to meet Virgil. A fellow introvert was the route to sanity. It was unfortunate he was so introverted that he didn't leave his room. The only solution was for Logan to go into the dark, half-decorated bedroom himself.

He knocked, hearing a mumbled: "come in," from the other side of the door. Logan opened the door ajar slightly, poking his head in. The room was relatively messy, the white walls were covered in band posters and art supplies were laid all over the floor. A dirty washing basket was almost filled, and a Diet Coke was half-drunk on the bedside table. Virgil was sat at his desk, on his laptop designing something, headphones in.

When he noticed Logan he removed his headphones only to flinch forwards and groan. "Uh, um, sorry. You made me jump – uh..." Virgil's voice was mumbled, and he spoke quickly, his eyes frantically going between looking at Logan and then looking at the floor. "Are you busy?"

"No, I just finished work for the day, looks like you've just started." Logan softly laughed and tried to push past the awkwardness, but Virgil seemed to have a very extreme reaction to Logan's presence. His arms were crossed, he put a finger in his ears every so often and kept his eyes on the floor. Logan had no idea why his new roommate was acting like this, he was being absolutely silent although his mind was thinking about the planning he had to do for his research position, and what food shopping needed to be done tomorrow, and he should really encourage a chore list with his new roommates although he didn't want to be the one to suggest that. "Do you want me to come back later?"

"You're..." Virgil finally looked up at Logan, a shine in his brown eyes, as he seemingly hesitated over what he was going to say next. "You're thinking a lot. Do you need to relax in my room for a bit?"

With a confused nod Logan sat on the purple covers of Virgil's bed, as Virgil went on his phone and scrolled through some apps. "I have a meditation app, just do a few exercises. It's clear you need to relax." Virgil leant over and gave Logan his phone. This apartment was weird with the overly helpful roommates but Logan could use some help and caring.

Logan tried his best with the meditation app. He didn't think he could fail at meditation, but he was doing a pretty good job at it. There were just so many things to think about it was hard to focus. While he was trying to meditate, Virgil was designing logos and advertisements on his iPad, his shoulders visibly relaxing as Logan's thoughts started to slow. Eventually the meditation ended, and while Virgil was still working, he was willing to talk. "By the way, if you want to do a chore list – totally random suggestion I know – we could suggest it together. I don't think Roman is that organised."

"I was just thinking about that. Of course, food shops and laundry can be individual responsibility, but I believe there should be a rota. But we should wait until Patton gets here to fully assign responsibilities." That was another thing off his mind, brilliant. Now was just the boring task of the big food shop as well as laundry and work emails and deciding which suit would be best for his first day – would a blue suit be too informal, would he need to wear a bla-?

Virgil winced under his breath again but instantly apologised. "Sorry, um... I was also thinking of doing a big food shop at Walmart tomorrow – do you want to come with? I'm not a huge fan of crowds though so I'll be wearing headphones."

"That will actually tick something else off my list, thank you." Logan chanced a look at his phone, seeing it was almost reaching the hour – which meant it was almost time to move onto his next task of the day. He wished he could pause time forever to chat to a fellow introvert but unfortunately that was impossible. "I've got to get some work done – but come into my room tomorrow when you're ready to shop. My room is the smallest, near the kitchen."