Separated

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Dee was sitting on the stage in the cafeteria, Virgil sitting nearby at a lunch table.

"Why is Virgil over there?" Remus asked, plopping down next to him.

"Oh right, forgot to tell you, he's 'done' with us." Dee said, shooting a sour look at his little brother.

"What? Really? When did that happen?" Remus said, shocked at the news.

"Saturday. Those idiot high-schoolers helped him."

"You mean the ones who saved Thomas that time? And the ones we got those other high-schoolers to bully?"

"Yes," Dee sighed, "there was also the new one who came to help that time." The one who looked familiar? Remus thought.

"Can I go talk to him?" Remus said, starting to stand.

"No! He's a traitor to us." Dee growled, grabbing his arm and pulling him back down.

Virgil had watched the whole exchange from the corner of his eye. He had his headphones on, but no music was playing from them. I want to text Lo or Pat, but they'll try to get me to set up a time for Roman to reunite with Remus. I don't want him to see how much his brother's changed. He started fiddling with the strings on his hoodie.

Suddenly he felt someone slide onto the seat next to him and looked over in confusion to see Thomas. He gave a smile to Virgil, casting a quick glance to the cast on his arm.

"Why are you here?" Virgil asked, going back to staring at the table.

"You looked lonely." Thomas said simply, still smiling. "Thanks for what you've done for me."

"No problem." Virgil said, shrugging and turning away to hide the smile slowly spreading on his face.

Dee was still lecturing Remus, and hadn't noticed the exchange between his brother and his victim. But Remus had. He'd watched Thomas slide into the spot next to Virgil and it made him angrier at the boy than he'd been originally. In fact, much angrier than he should have been, but between his parents and all the thinking about his brother, he currently had a very short fuse and it was about to blow.

"-so it turns out that the new high-schooler is who he thinks is your scummy brother, and he gave me all this crap about how he's so nice and more trustworthy than me, like, I know I lie a lot, but trusting someone you met a few hours ago more than your brother you've lived with your whole f***ing life?" Dee was saying when Remus started listening again.

"I'm sorry, what? He said he met- he said he met Roman? And that he was nice?" Remus said, surprisingly calm at the news, at least until they properly sunk in. Then the fuse reached its end. His expression went from serene to seriously pissed in a couple seconds. Before he knew it, he was marching over to Virgil, ready to throw some punches.

As Remus approached Thomas looked up and saw him, eyes widening as he scooted back from Virgil. Virgil himself saw this and turned around to see his very angry ex-friend practically charging at him.

"Virgil! You deserve so much more than a broken arm right now!" Remus shouted, lashing out and hitting Virgil square in the nose. Virgil tried to fight back, but the cast made it hard for him and his other hand was a bit busy trying to stop the bleeding that had started in his nose. He stared up in pure fear at the tall, lanky boy, who still had hints of a shiner around his eye.

Then the worst thing that Virgil could possibly imagine happening happened. He started to have a panic attack. Remus took a step back, faltering. Virgil's breathing quickened, and his heart started racing. This is it, I'm going to die. Here and now. Tears started pouring down his cheeks and his thoughts didn't make any sense, the world was ending and the last thing he would ever see was Remus towering over him like some sort of monster and- then he felt a hand on his arm. He tensed and squeezed his eyes shut and at first it only worsened his condition.