Changing Sides and Heaving Sighs

6

     Virgil had not expected Patton to look for him after school. After all, he had convinced himself that Patton actually didn't like him in the slightest and was just being polite when he talked. Really, Virgil considered Patton virtuous for being even somewhat nice to a lowlife like him. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that Patton was too good and pure for this world and Virgil had no right to even look at him.
     As an added bonus, he took into account how different from Virgil Patton's friends were. Logan didn't struggle to handle senior year in the slightest, and he had been willing to literally stand between Virgil's notoriously dangerous friends and someone he cared about. Roman- painfully gorgeous Roman- seemed to be annoyingly remarkable at anything, according to Remus's griping. In comparison to them, he was a poor excuse for a potential friend.
     Of course, all of these self-deprecating conclusions were wildly incorrect.
    Virgil had been wandering around the halls with his headphones on, waiting for Remus's tutoring to end. (Remus didn't do homework but he also had to do well on his tests, so Circe ran him through the things she somehow knew were on the tests.) Deceit had disappeared somewhere, possibly to commit a petty crime of some sort. Seeing as Virgil was used to people avoiding him, he was understandably startled when he felt someone lightly tap his shoulder.
     Virgil's instincts took over, and he wheeled around completely prepared to throw a punch. Once he recognized Patton, however, he dropped his fist and took off his headphones. Guilt shot up his spine, he nearly punched the nicest human on the planet. Said nicest human on the planet appeared to be wearing a brand new cat themed hoodie and was fiddling with his sweater paws.
     "Sorry I startled you, " Patton gave him a smile.
     "Sorry I nearly punched you, " Virgil responded. "D'you need something?"
     "I'm just glad to see you. When I didn't spot you in the halls at all today I was worried you were sick or something."
     Did hungover count as sick? Virgil probably still smelled like alcohol, he had never changed gout of the previous day's clothes. He couldn't tell Patton that, could he? "I was- I guess I- I slept in."
     Patton clearly knew Virgil was omitting something, but he didn't push it. "Well, I was going to head to a nearby cafe with Logan and Roman. Do you want to come with us?"
     "Come with you?" Virgil repeated haltingly. This was a bit of a shock for him
     "Yeah, we always clear our Wednesdays to go. it's a pretty quiet place, very cozy."
     "I mean- It sounds great, but if that's a thing you guys always do as just the three of you I don't want to- don't want to impose." Virgil struggled for words. Nobody aside from the other Dark Sides had asked him to hang out in so long that he had forgotten how to react.
     "You wouldn't be imposing at all!"
     "Eh, you sure?"
     "I'm sure." Patton's smile turned a tad concerned, "if you're not comfortable with going you don't have to."
     "No, it's not that I just..." Virgil mulled over his words a second. "I don't get invited places."
     "Well, you're being invited to a place now. Do you wanna come with?"
     Virgil nodded slowly, a small smile ghosting across his face. "Yeah, I'd like that a lot actually."
     Patton's face broke out into a big beaming grin, tooth gap and all.
     Patton and Virgil met Logan just outside the school near the flagpole. Interestingly enough, his outfit appeared to be completely identical to the one he had worn the day before, the only indication that he wasn't actually wearing the previous day's clothing being the slightly darker blue of his shirt. He gave Virgil a nod in greeting just before Patton bounded up to him and tackled him into a hug.
     Patton and Logan had a height difference of about five inches, so when Patton jumped up to hug Logan he ended up not quite touching the ground. Logan, clearly used to this greeting, held Patton with surprising ease considering he clearly was not one for athletics. The hug lasted just a tad longer than most greeting hugs we're supposed to before Patton released his hold on Logan and touched back down to the ground. Patton seemed as effervescent as ever, if not more so than before, but there was the slightest tinge of pink in Logan's cheeks.
     Smoothing out his shirt, Logan addressed Virgil. "I presume you'll be joining us?"
     "Yeah, Pat invited me. Is that alright or...?"
     "I have no qualms with it, Patton is clearly fond of you and he is a very good judge of character."
     A part of Virgil doubted that was actually the case. After all, if Patton had such moral intuition, why invite such a horrible person as Virgil to hang out? None of that came out of his mouth, of course. All that he managed to respond with was a small 'Thanks' and a nod.
"Roman texted me earlier, " Patton slid easily into what was almost an awkward silence. "He says his coach wanted to talk to him, so just go on ahead and he'll show up soon."
"Does he have an estimation as to how long he will be talking to his coach?" Logan checked his silver watch. "I would prefer to only be slightly earlier than him so as not to cause any contradictions in timing."
     "I dunno, he just said soon."
     Virgil's phone buzzed just then, and he immediately took it out of his pocket to see what his alert was. He had received a text from Circe. Seeing as she was supposed to be tutoring Remus, that was concerning.
     The text read: The Duke filled me in about what's happening at midnight. I have a hunch you don't want his or Deceit's company right now, so whatever you're doing you should get out of sight fast. Deceit is looking for you
     That's the thing about Circe, she tended to be right about things. If Deceit was looking for Virgil already he didn't have much time to hang around on school grounds. Glancing up, Logan and Patton were still talking, the subject had changed to the importance of punctuality. Virgil wasn't sure if he should interrupt.
     Bless Patton Heart, he noticed Virgil's look of concern in his peripheral and immediately stopped mid-sentence.
     "You ok?" he asked.
     "Deceit's looking for me."
     "Do you have to go? You can if you need to."
     "No, it's just- he doesn't like you guys. At all. He'd lose it if he knew I was going somewhere with you." He felt guilty saying it, like he was insulting them by admitting he wasn't technically supposed to be there.
     "You're implying you want to vacate the premises immediately." Logan pushed his glasses up his nose and picked up his bag.
     "I- yeah."
     "In that case, we'll take the slightly longer route in the hopes Roman will take the shorter and our arrival times will be closer."
     "Sounds good to me, let's go." Patton glanced at Virgil, mostly to make sure he started walking with them but also partly to silently ask if he was ok.
     Virgil nodded and fell into step with them, answering both silent questions at once.