In the New House [DISCONTINUED]

Patton?

(TW: Feeling hopeless)

A few days had passed since Logan asked about Remus.  Since then, Roman had been abnormally quiet.  At least around Logan he was.  When Logan saw Roman with just Patton, he seemed much more energetic.  It would have hurt Logan's feelings, if he weren't so busy trying to piece together the mystery of who Remus is.

After hours of searching, he found almost nothing about 'Remus Prince.'  It seemed like the entire world was trying to keep Logan from figuring out who the mysterious person was.  Lately it felt like the universe had been conspiring against Logan.  The power was still down in his house, he was feeling more worn down and tired than on average, and he kept finding his things in random places around the house.

It was infuriating.

"Dad?  Have you seen my hoodie?"

"Which one?"

"The one we got at the Aerospace Smithsonian museum."

"I think I saw it in the living room."

Sure enough, the hoodie that Logan had hung up in his closet the previous night was now draped on the back of the couch.  He'd gotten to the point where he didn't even question it anymore.

"Thanks."

"No problem, Logie Bea-.. Logan."

Logan disappeared back into his room, slipping his hoodie on.  The entire house was chilly since the power was out, his room in particular was absolutely freezing.  He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and sat on his bed with his laptop.  Resuming the search for answers, Logan put on some music for background noise.

Still, there was nothing to be found about Remus Prince.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day at school, Logan was surprised to see that Patton and Roman weren't at their usual table in the library.  He wandered the hallways looking for them, eventually finding them sitting on the floor just outside the auditorium.  Patton was holding Roman comfortingly, rubbing small circles on his back.  Roman looked like a total mess.  Something must be very wrong.

"Hey... guys."  Logan said as he approached his friends.

"Hi, kiddo.  Not to be rude... but could you give us some space?"  Patton asked gently.

"Oh, sure.  I'll... I'll just go back to our spot in the library."

"Thanks."

Logan nodded and started walking back to the library.  It was obvious that something was very wrong.  He considered trying to eavesdrop, but that felt like a step too far.  Instead he decided to just stay out of it and spend his early morning reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Roman!  Logan!"

Patton shouted as he ran over to their usual lunch table with small red box.  He looked almost as disheveled as Roman had looked that morning.  His hair was tangled, his backpack was half-open, and he seemed to have forgotten to fasten the top buttons of his polo.  He hurriedly took a seat next to Roman.

"Sorry I'm late.  My alarm didn't go off this morning so I missed the bus and I didn't feel like walking so I had to wait for my mom to bring me to school and there was a wreck and... it was just crazy."  Patton explained, panting.

"Wow, sounds like your morning was awful!  I'm so sorry, Padre."  Roman gave Patton a sympathetic look.

"Meh.  I don't want to upstage you today of all days.  Happy birthday, Ro!"  Patton grinned and slid the red box towards his best friend.

"Aww, Patton you really didn't need to do anything..."

"Nonsense!  It's your seventeenth birthday!  You deserve a special day, even though I missed the first half of it."

"Wait, what?"  Logan interrupted.  "What do you mean you missed the first half of the day?"

"I told you.  I missed my bus and ended up waayy late."  Patton shrugged.  If Logan had learned anything in the last few weeks, it was not to push his luck asking questions.  He decided to drop the subject for now and interrogate-... talk to Patton later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How was school, Loga-."

"I don't want to talk."  Logan snapped, heading straight to his room.  He was sick of all of this!  The secrecy, the lack of answers, and most of all how alone he felt...

Even though he had friends, he knew they were keeping things from him.  It was obvious that they didn't trust him enough to let him know what was going on.  As usual, Logan had been left to figure everything out on his own.  The only person he had was his dad, who only reminded him of everything he'd lost.

Feeling utterly hopeless, Logan threw his backpack onto the floor and sat in his deckchair.  He curled his legs up to his chest and tried to let his emotions out... but he couldn't.  Even though he wanted to cry, he couldn't form the tears.  Logan sat there, his chest heaving and his heart throbbing.

Suddenly, he felt a familiar touch.  Again, his dad was rubbing circles on his back.

"Go away..."  He sniffed.  Still the feeling didn't leave.  Frustrated, Logan sat up and spun his chair around.  "I don't want to be touched right now!  Please, just go awa-."

Logan froze when he saw the person who had been rubbing his back.  Instead of his dad, there was a cloudy-looking figure.  It looked to be a boy, somewhere around Logan's age.  He was standing a few meters away, crouching on Logan's bed.  The boy was scrawny looking, but also quite intimidating.  Maybe it was the beginnings of a mustache on his upper lip, or maybe it was his fishnet fingerless gloves and black-painted nails.  Something about him just radiated 'trouble'.

"Wh-Who?"  Logan stammered.  The boy rolled his eyes and sat cross legged, hovering just above Logan's mattress.  He tilted his head to the side, just a little too far.  If Logan tried to imitate him, he'd probably snap his neck.  The boy noticed Logan's shock and huffed, clearly annoyed.

"What's your deal?  Never seen a ghost before, fucko?"