Apartment Mayhem

Fight for me

        Roman is still a bit solemn and distant from me. It's been weird to see him like this. Usually he's bouncing off the walls about a latest musical or spouting a nickname to us. Yet, it's been a week and he's just...quiet. I try not to go in his room and taint his aura, but something needs to be done.
        I open the door. No knocking or yelling to him. He's wearing a bulky, dark jacket. That's...odd, but not him odd. "Roman?" I ask as I move further toward him.
       He hesitates before turning around, lowering his hood. "Virgil-" He starts but my eyes widen.
       His face is busted up. Lip is bleeding and a few bruises all over his face. I scowl at him and grab the edges of his shirt, "What the hell did you do?"
       He smiles awkwardly, bruises paining him to smile correctly, "It's nothing. Just hanging out with the boys."
       "Lies. You aren't friends with 'the boys' anymore."
       He sighs and I push him onto his bed. "Just sit here. I'll get the first aid kit and some ice."
      I walk out of the room and head to the bathroom to snatch up the first aid kit. I head to the fridge and open the freezer door, grabbing a bag of peas. I head back into Roman's room and toss the peas in his direction. "You're just lucky Patton and Logan are on a date," I say, sitting down beside Roman on his bed.
         "That's so sweet," he says, pulling off his jacket, "what are they doing?"
        "Movies. Now, what were you doing?" I open the first aid kit and look through it.
       "I confronted them. You know, Bryce and Anders, the ones who drowned you. Since I still have their Snapchat, I checked where they were and confronted them. They attacked me so I fought back. I tried my best to just keep peace."
       "Good job, you were friends with sadistic assholes," I wipe the blood from his face.
      He chuckles and I clean up his busted lip, "so you beat them up for me? So sweet, my hero."
      He smiles somewhat proudly at himself and I shake my head at him. I notice I paused cleaning up his busted lip so we are just gazing into each other's eyes. I set the towel down as he leans towards me. I feel myself start to panic and shove the frozen peas in his face. "What the hell was that?" I ask, looking through the first aid kit, letting the peas fall on his lap.
      "You paused first and called me your hero!" Roman yells, pushing the frozen peas onto the floor.
      "You leaned in! That would've been the third time you've kissed me! And the 'my hero' was sarcastic-" I hastily look through the first aid kit then grab the Neosporin and apply it to his busted lip.
       "Well, I couldn't tell!" He tastes the Neosporin on his lip and looks disgusted.
        "How long has it been since you had a relationship?" I ask, not really caring but wanting to see if that's the reason.
        "Uhm-" he shifts his legs a bit, "Senior year? She ended it during prom, right after we were announced king and queen."
       "Brutal,"
       "I know! I was balling all the way home! I was totally Cinderella..."
        I chuckle lightly and feel him looking at me. I push a little bit of bangs out of my face and pick up the peas. "Did you get cut up anywhere else?" I hold out the bag to him.
        "Uhm," he looks at his hands, knuckles all bloodied up.
        I sigh and clean up his knuckles as he grits his teeth. "Weak," I mutter as a joke.
        "Rude," he scoffs, "And you could take this better?"
        I hesitate before continuing to clean his cuts, "Definitely."
        "Wait...no," his voice coated in empathy.
        "Shut up, Princey," I gripe before coating his knuckles with Neosporin.
        He sighs and I wrap his knuckles with bandages, "you haven't unlocked this talk yet."
      He chuckles uncomfortably and I finish off wrapping his hands. "I think that's it," I say, leaning back, "just ice your face, Lava boy."
      "Fine, ice prince," he says and rests the bag on his face, laying back on his bed.
      I sigh and walk out of Roman's room. "Hey, Virge!" I hear Patton say and I turn towards him.
      "What were you..Roman-" He runs into roman's room, dragging Logan behind him.
     I head to the bathroom to put the first aid kit away and wash out the blood from the towel before bleaching it. I head to the living room and turn on the tv before sitting down. Hesitating when Roman asked if I could stand the pain wasn't a good idea.
       I hate talking about my past with...anyone. It's not my favorite thing to think of or talk about. A fair amount of my anxiety comes from my past, so it freaks me out more. It tends to make me scratch myself which I do unconsciously to the point I bleed.
       I look to my arm and notice I'm scratching my right wrist, furiously. I pull my hand away and I feel the pain slowly seep into my senses. I frown as I notice the layer of skin was pulled up. I shove my sleeve down and look at the tv. I hear footsteps tap over to me. I glance over and see Logan sitting beside me. "So, I see that Roman cares a lot about you," He starts, looking at the tv.
       I scoff, "Sure he does,"
       "He does, Virgil. He doesn't go out and punch or yell at his best friends that have just stopped being his best friends for someone he hates."
      "He probably only did that in pity for me. I mean, I did just almost die by said ex-friends last week."
      I hear Logan sigh and look to me with a stern look, "Virgil, I may not be a feeling sort of guy, but I know when it's obvious that someone likes someone else, especially after they just beat people up for them."
      Looking back at him, I feel my stomach knot up, "No."
      "Considering I read an article on Love about 17 times, I think I know he might like you."
      My mouth starts to fill with more saliva and I feel queasy. I rush to the bathroom and open the door. The feeling gets stronger and I fall to my knees in front of the toilet. I hurl into the bowl, spilling out all that was contained in my stomach.
       Great. I groan and hold my head. I forgot to close the bathroom door as the others peak in. I glance over with a slight glare. Patton, Logan and Roman are all looking at me in concern. Roman. Damn you. I get up and flush the toilet before wiping my face on a rag. I toss it in a hamper before pushing past the guys.
       I walk to my room, slamming my door behind me. I fall into my bed and roll into the covers. Tossing up my hood, I curl into a ball. I don't want to believe it. I can't believe it. No one can love me. No one should love me. I'm a mess. I'm disgusting.
       I grit my teeth and hold my head. My eyes feel teary as I feel the weight crawl back onto me. No not again. Everything feels deep and far away on a black and white canvas. I cover myself with my blankets and hide away from everyone.
       The tears roll down my face as I hide away. The feeling falling deeper on me and I hear my door creak open. I go closer towards the wall and the door closes as the tap of footsteps come closer to my bed. "Virgil? It's Patton. Want to cuddle?" Patton says, sitting on the edge of my bed.
         I don't know how to respond. Usually no one is there when this happens. I hold out a thumbs up out from underneath the blankets and I feel Patton crawl under the covers and hold me close.
       I shudder and cry harder before turning into him, hugging him tightly. "I'm here for you," he whispers, "you'll be okay."