Virgil has been happy all his life. He was joyful, bubbly, had friends, had loving parents (keywords: has, had, and was). His parents tragically got into a plane crash and so he got shipped off to Florida to live with his aunt, having to leave his friends, house, family, most of his belongings, and -what he didn't know yet- his joyful, happy attitude behind. He also had no clue his aunt was abusive, emotionally and physically and did drugs. His aunt drank all day and beat Virgil, drunk or sober. She would scream horrible things at him while beating, cutting, and/or whipping him. He was forced to live in his aunts dark dirty shed instead of her house. He had no bed and barely any food or water. She treated him as if he was her slave, making him cook and clean. When he was done with chores she would throw him back into the shed and beat him and yell him and not let him sleep or eat, " Bad boys don't get to eat," she would say, " you have to earn what you get" One day after she left the shed, cackling madly like a witch she forgot to lock the shed door. Virgil was weak, bruised, bloody, and starving but managed to escape. He ran. Ran for hours and hours and hours. People avoided him due to how skinny and vulnerable and beaten he was. Some jerks his age stopped to taunt and tease him about how pathetic he looked. Suddenly he bumped into a stranger who goes by the name of Roman. The moment Roman saw Virgil something inside him told him he needed to protect this boy. He took him in, frantically scrambling into his four bedroom house and over to his friends/room mates Patton and Logan, who were quite shocked to see him in this condition. As they gradually got to know him, helping him get better, Virgil grew close to them, especially Roman. But he always had that nagging thought in the back of his head, "Am I sure i can trust them? What if their going to hurt me like she did? Do they really like me?" After all, how could someone who was taught to fear learn to love?
Patton lives in a world where the first words your soulmate says to you is written on your skin. The permentant presence of the words 'You're in my seat' on his thigh had yet to disappear until his soulmate utters them one day. Deep down he dreaded that day. You see, Patton had no interest in a romantic relationship which was abnormal in a world ruled by the soulmate system.
Virgil hated the soulmate system. He hated it because it gave him the words 'well aren't you a ray of sunshine' printed boldly on his forehead. Luckily for him, foundation was his best friend (and his only friend, for that matter). He never showed it, but he longed for the day his soulmate would sweep the aggravating statement off his forehead and him off his feet.
Logan, to put it simply, was married to his work. A love interest didn't interest him in the slightest. The only heed he took that the soulmate system existed was the thinly printed 'what did you say?' on his left palm. He heard that statement a lot but the mild annoyance on his hand was yet to disappear.
Roman lived up to his name as a big romantic. In his eyes, the soulmate system was the best thing to happen to him, so the fact that the words written on his collarbone were 'go away' really burst his bubble. The thought of spending his life with his 'other half' was enthralling to him, but the fact his dad expected him to settle down with a nice girl was terrifying.
Hope you enjoy ❤️❤️
no smut but some strong language
(they're in tenth grade, 16 years old)
Characters belong to Thomas Sanders, cover art done by @/trash.4.fans on Instagram :)