Once Flames Now Flowers

Chapter Eleven

It had been two weeks since Virgil had spoken to his neighbors. He had been avoiding them as much as possible. Today, though, it was a lot harder. Patton and him had run into each other when checking the mail.

“Virgil! I haven’t talked to you in forever! How are you?” Patton grinned.

“Uh, I’m fine. I have to get back to cleaning before work, so bye,” Virgil rushed to leave.

“Can I help you with cleaning? I am not working today and my house is already clean. Cleaning with you will be better than wasting all of our groceries by baking,” Patton shrugged sheepishly.

Virgil didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want Patton to be so bored. He may not be allowed to talk to the males, but he didn't want them to hate him. Carlos wouldn't be home for hours, Patton could come in for a little bit.

"That sounds fine," Virgil nodded, a small smile forming on his face.

Virgil led Patton inside and showed him around the house, telling him what had yet to be cleaned. Patton followed Virgil through the spotless house and grew rather confused. He wanted to question it, but he didn't want to scare Virgil off now that they were finally talking again.

"You can't be here after six, ok," Virgil looked at Patton with the types of eyes that told Patton not to argue.

"Oh, date night?" Patton asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Virgil averted his eyes.

"Coolio! I will start dusting in the kitchen. Do you want to work on the counters?" Patton chriped.

"Sounds like a plan," Virgil smiled and they began to work.

Virgil could feel the tension in the air grow with each passing second. He knew that Patton had questions for him. Patton was concerned, it was easy to tell. Virgil did not want to lie to Patton, but he didn't want Carlos to seem bad.

Patton was really worried about Virgil. The boy had bruises on his face and he looked really thin. It had only been two weeks since they last saw him and he wasn't looking good. There were so many questions Patton had.

"How'd you get those bruises?" Patton asked, dusting off the top of the fridge.

"We went to Carlos' grandmas and played rugby with all the kids," Virgil lied as if he had been preparing it for days.

"Ooh, fun! I mean it sucks that you got hurt, but rugby was one of my favorite things to play with my cousin, I was no good but it was still fun," Patton recounted.

"I'm not good either," Virgil muttered.

"Well, maybe sometime we can all play together. Logan and Roman are ok at it. We could do couples,” Patton offered.

“I think you have to have at least three players for it to make sense,” Virgil stated.

“That does make sense. Well, my friends Remy and Emile are coming by really soon. They want to build a house and I told them about that empty lot behind your house,” Patton smiled.

“Ooh, that sounds fun. Hey, why don’t we take a break for tea?” Virgil suggested.

Now that he was with Patton he just wanted to talk to him. Virgil just wanted to tell Patton how Calros was being more violent. He wanted to see if Logan and Roman did this to Patton too. There were so many questions he couldn’t ask.

Virgil made tea while Patton sat in the living room. Patton looked at the pictures that were hung on the wall, and noticed a few of Carlos and Virgil from highschool. Virgil looked so different, he looked so much happier. The now anxious male looked so excited to be alive and with Carlos in that photo. Now, he looked like he just wanted to sleep and not wake up.