Pieces of Us: Living in Parallel

Chapter 7 - Patton: The Band's Together

Summary: Patton moves into the apartment, excited to meet everyone - but especially a ginger extrovert that he has more similarities with than first expected.

Btw I don't speak Spanish so if there's any translation errors please correct! I'd recommend having Google Translate whenever Patton speaks XD.

"Mira, si alguno de ellos se siente atraído por los hombres, te hablaré bien. Pero no hay promesas... Si hay más de una persona gay allí, tendrás una noche de mucha suerte." Patton giggled to his childhood friend as he left the Uber to arrive at his new apartment block. It was early evening, almost time for dinner, so Patton had taken it upon himself to also stop and get some takeaway pizza for the group. Balancing four pizza boxes, his suitcases, and his phone while speaking Spanish wasn't easy but luckily there was a ginger saviour to let him in. "Tengo que irme Nic, hablaremos más tarde, ¿Vale?" The phone call ended with laughs at the other end of the phone as the red-head ran forward to help grab suitcases from the trunk of the car.

"Hablo espanola? I almost minored in Spanish in college, it'll be good to keep the language up with a cool roommate!" Roman started, absolutely butchering his Spanish in the way only an American who had been through the American school system could do. Patton laughed anyway, honestly he was bummed none of his new roommates spoke other languages so teaching Spanish would supply some entertainment.

"Yeah, my childhood friend emigrated from Mexico when we were eight so I became bilingual through him. You're Roman right? It's so cool to finally meet you in person – I'm super excited to live with you all!"

Roman playfully scowled as he opened to door to the block and rolled his eyes in a jokey tone. "I'm excited to have someone to talk to! Logan and Virgil are shut-ins, which sure – the opposite of a shut-in would be hell to live with, but I wouldn't expect much interaction from them during our lease." Well, good thing Patton was a master at helping people out of their shells. "I managed to get them in the living room for pizza though, the first time we're all going to spend time together! We're probably going to eat our pizzas together and watch a movie on Disney+. Any Disney+ favourites?"

This man luckily seemed as extroverted and cheerful as Patton, they could both chat forever. "101 Dalmatians was my favourite as a kid. Although the recent Pixar film, Turning Red, really hit a chord with me. Such a beautiful simile for female puberty and family pressure." Patton also loved Turning Red because of the sudden magic power appearing out of nowhere and actually being celebrated and meaning something – although of course he couldn't tell people that.

But Roman gasped excitedly and almost screamed the elevator to a halt. "No way! We were all just talking about that movie, decided to watch it together tonight. Turns out it's all our favourite." OK, Patton loved these roommates already. As he got closer to the front door he was building up with anticipation. These were the people he'll be spending his early twenties with – they'll become a found family and be each other's best friends for life!

The front door opened and Roman spoke gently – he had warned Patton not to be too loud around Virgil as it made him uncomfortable, which of course was no problem. "We have pizza miz amigos! We have veggies with vegan cheese, mozzarella, pepperoni and pineapple – you actually like pineapple Lo?" Virgil and Logan were sat together. Virgil was sat on top of the sofa, headphones in and on his phone, but he brought an earphone out when Roman started speaking.

Logan stood from sitting on the sofa like a normal person, walking over and grabbing a piece of pineapple pizza before the plates were out. "Pineapples aid digestion, contain antioxidants and reduce risk of cancer so it is highly beneficial to have some healthy food while eating junk food. Thank you for the treat though, here you go Patton." As Logan passed, he handed Patton enough cash for three of the pizzas. Even though Logan seemed straight to the point over text conversations he seemed to be a kind person. "If you don't mind, I'll be working while we watch Turning Red. It's just some emails, so it will be over in a second."

The movie started, and the group were invested deeply. Logan even put his laptop away within a couple of minutes, citing his emails were done for the evening. "How can you do emails so quick? I can do an email a day, if that, you must be magic at emails."

"Practice makes perfect with them. There's no magic anywhere with me – magic doesn't exist though of course – because if it did my entire major would implode within itself." Logan chuckled and nonchalantly stuffed his face with pizza, acting like no-one would notice, but it was obvious. Everyone's stuffed their face with pizza once though so there was no judgement.

Roman had made himself comfortable hanging upside down on the armchair, filing his nails as a nail had broken during his writing process. "Hey, if you guys could have magic though, what power would you pick? Mine would be healing – though I guess mind reading would be handy too."

Virgil laughed so unexpectantly that Logan and Roman flinched. He had his eyes on the movie and no-one else but was invested in the conversation. "Mind reading sounds like hell. You have any idea how many people think all the time? It's exhausting listening to everyone's thoughts 24/7... It would be, I mean. Just imagining it."

Logan smirked, ruffling the back of his hair as he swallowed the last pineapple. "Control of time seems more useful; it would help my emails get done even quicker. And I wouldn't need to waste hours on sleep, I could work all night and take time-paused breaks to nap."

"I would vote communication magic. I have it already, with my major and all that. It's magic how I can keep everything in my brain though." Now, Patton had told people about his magic power before – mainly Nico and his family, and none of them had believed him. He liked to throw out a question to test reactions prior to the reveal though. "If any of us had magic though, would we reveal it to each other?"

Logan and Virgil choked on their pizza slices and didn't respond for a while, until Logan finally had the courage to speak up. "Very interesting question but um – this is the first time we're meeting. Such a big – thing – would only be trusted with people I trust deeply." Virgil nodded in agreement but said nothing. Usually, that question would be responded with chuckles, no matter the relationship, and an 'of course, I'd become the main character of the universe' – or something along those lines. Silence was a new and very unusual response.

Roman hadn't responded verbally either. He wasn't watching the movie when that question was asked. His eyebrows furrowed and he tilted his head, staring at Patton intently. When Patton realised he was surprised by that response as well. It didn't seem nervous like Virgil and Logan, or jokingly nonchalant like other people in Patton's past. It seemed like a serious look – a serious contemplation.