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Chapter 2

Trigger warning: panic attack, self doubt, swearing, unintentional self harm.
POV: Roman, 1st person.
Short summary at the end.

I appear next to Thomas in the bathroom, and he stumbles over in surprise.

"Roman?" He says weakly. His eyes are bloodshot, and he looks as though he's been crying. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, it's my job to check on you from time to time, Thomasto. What's wrong?" I ask, concerned.

"Do my friends even like me?" When I don't react, he continues: "I had a nightmare in which they told me how much they hated me-" "Nightmares aren't real," I interrupt.

"Yeah, but it made me think; do people actually like me, or are they just pretending to? It's just-" he chokes on a sob. "I feel like after I became a YouTube star, I started hanging out with them less, and..." His sentence is left unfinished.

He starts hyperventilating. Tears come flooding out of his eyes. He leans against the wall, hiding his face in his hands. Shit shit shit shit shit. Where are the others when you need them? What am I supposed to do? I can't even help myself when I'm feeling like that, let alone Thomas!

Suddenly, I remember something. I crouch down to Thomas's height. "Thomas, just breathe in through your nose for-" shit, how long was it? "-four seconds." He breathes in with a bit of difficulty. I breathe with him.

"Then, hold your breath for seven." Thank goodness, he manages to do that.

"Breathe out through your mouth for eight seconds." He does this and then repeats the exercise a couple of times.

"Can I touch you?" I ask. He nods, and I gingerly rub his back. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah," he mutters. He still looks tired as hell, but he manages to smile even so. "Thanks."

"No problem. Just... Call any of us if you're feeling like this again. It's our job to keep you happy, you know," I tell him.

"You don't have to face this alone. Even if you don't have a lot of time to hang out with your friends anymore, they still love you. They'll always be there for you when you need them. You're selfless and kind, and you've helped them several times. They'll return the favour, I swear."

I wish the same would go for me.

"Thanks, Roman. You can go back to your room now."

"Yeah. I'll, uh, see you later." I make a peace sign. "Adiós!" As I sink down, I see him waving goodbye.

-----------------

I'm back in my room. Despite it only being one PM, I'm already tired. Maybe I should write a little to distract myself from the overwhelming urge to sleep.

I grab a notebook. It has the Disneyland castle on the cover, with follow your dreams written above it in cursive. A bit ironic, considering what happened just a few minutes ago.

The notebook opens, and I grab a Beauty And The Beast themed glitter pen. The ink is yellow, which is a nice touch. Anyway, I should probably start writing.

"The..."

I crossed "The" out. Horrible way to start a story.

"Once upon a time..."

Ugh! Can I be anymore uncreative?! Everyone uses that line as a start!

"Dear diary..."

I decide to just give up. I'm unable to think of anything. Both the notebook and the pen end up in the trashcan. The trashcan isn't copyrighted, unlike literally everything else in my room, by the way.

Maybe I should just go to sleep. It's not like I've got anything better to do. I try to summon my alarm clock, so that I won't sleep through another important meal. Unfortunately, my nightstand is completely obliterated, so I don't have anywhere to put the clock.

A bland grey cube with a number display appears in my palm. There are buttons on the back. I press the one with a bell on it.

"Your alarm will now go off at exactly six PM," the cube declares. I have no idea how it knew that. I guess it's just magic. Speaking of magic, I also form a nice blue nightstand with little stars sprinkled on it. Attached to it is a tiny white reading light.

But I don't have time to appreciate my own creations. It's nap time. I jump on my bed and fall asleep before even changing my clothes.

--------

I'm back at the lake. Still no goose poo to be found. The lake itself does seem a bit more polluted than usual, but I wasn't planning on swimming either way.

I know this is a dream. I know what's gonna happen when I go into that water. So instead, I walk away from the lake. I climb over the fence that surrounds the field.

Now I'm in the void, sort of. Remus showed me this place, before we got split into two different Creativities. In the void , you can travel to any place in The Imagination. For example, you could go take a trip down Memory Lane, and enjoy moments that happened years ago.

No one seems to really appreciate Memory Lane, after what happened in the Moving On videos. Patton used to have a house in Memory Lane but he moved out somewhere in 2017.

Anyway, that's not important, because I'm not going there. Where I'm going, is my garden.

See, when Remus and I were still in one piece, we got a garden. The garden used to be beautiful and clean, but after The Dramatic Split Of 20XX, it kind of got abandoned. Logan once told us that it's supposed to represent something, but we got distracted by a butterfly. We were, like, six when we got the garden, c'mon.

Remus doesn't visit the garden at all, but I still do, though less often than before.

I close my eyes, and when I open them again, I'm in the garden. Beautiful roses are blooming everywhere, except for a few wilted ones. I grab my gardening equipment from the shed.

Out of curiosity, I try cutting a rose with the hand pruners.

A terrible pain goes through my entire body.

--------

My head is horribly aching when I wake up. I carefully open my eyes and look around the room.

Surprisingly, Remus is there. He obviously hasn't realized I'm awake, as he's grinning mischievously while sneaking towards my new and improved nightstand.

I decide to play along, closing my eyes until I hear him put something on the nightstand.

"Boo," I mutter.

Remus lets out a demonic high pitched scream, and then hides his hands and whatever he's holding behind his back.

"Roman! Hey!" He nervously says. I look at him, unimpressed.

"What have I done to deserve a visit from you, Dookie?" I respond. "Surely you weren't planning on pulling the same prank as this morning?"

"What? How dare you accuse me of something like-"

"Remus, did you manage to plant the alarm bomb yet?" Logan appears in the doorway. My brother gives him desperate signs, which all basically translate to 'Shut up or I'll tear your teeth out with my feet.'

"Oh, he's awake. Hello, Roman. Did you manage to sleep well?" The Microsoft nerd says. I nod. My head's still aching, but other than that, I'm fine.

"That's great. Remus and I were going to put a bomb in your room, this time stronger."

"Why?!"

"Well, Remus was bored and I wanted to get back at you."

Get back at me for what?

Short Summary: Roman comforts Thomas after a panic attack. Roman then goes to sleep and to the void. In the void is a garden. When he tries to cut one of the flower, he wakes up in pain. He catches Remus and Logan trying to prank him.

Question of the day: what's your favourite colour?

A/N
My chapters are kind of inconsistent with length.