TW: Panic attacks
***
"What do you mean...you never loved Roman?" Virgil repeated in a quiet tone.

This is when Tom realized what he'd said and swiftly turned around, beginning to pace, "This is none of your business anyway, Virgil." He muttered.

"Uh, it kinda sounds like it is." Virgil folded his arms, glancing at Lea who simply pushed his sunglasses up on the bridge of his nose and shrugged, much chiller than he had been mere minutes before hand. Virgil's eyes then darted back to Tom, "You-! Tom...I was there- you can't lie to someone who was there." He furrowed his brow in confusion.

Tom laughed sarcastically and turned on his heel to face Virgil, "You're as oblivious as you were when I first met you!"

"What's that supposed to mean...?" Virgil cocked an eyebrow.

Tom's shoulders drooped, "Virgil!"

"Tom!" Virgil mocked.

"I was trying to make you jealous!" Tom threw his hands up.

A choking noise came from Lea in the corner, soon followed by Virgil.

"Excuse me?" Virgil's eyes widened.

Tom's face turned red and he sat down on the lower bunk, "See this, this is why I hate you."

Virgil's eyes widened, "Really? Because, if you ask me, sounds like you feel quite the o-opposite." Virgil began to fiddle with the cuff of his jumpsuit nervously and with confusion.

"I don't-" Tom huffed, "Those are way suppressed feelings by now, I got over you the day I fucked up that leg of yours."

Virgil flinched, mentally feeling the pain in his leg and chewing anxiously on his cheek.

"The fact that you didn't even notice me pining after you is why I did what I did." Tom crossed his arms shakily.

Virgil was quiet for a moment before letting out a shaky breath, "You're clinically insane, Tom."

Tom sat rigid now, turning to glare at Virgil, "Obviously, considering I somehow fell for you."

Virgil was visibly shaking by now, the events of the past day catching up to him, "Y-you can't just go all ballistic when someone doesn't like you!"

"Are you naive enough to think it's just that?"

"W-Well, it seems s-so!" Virgil tried to keep ahold of himself.

"Don't think I don't know what you did- you ruined me." Tom growled.

"I ruined you?" Virgil felt his breathing become ruptured.

"If you hadn't forgot, we're teenagers, and know what the worst thing for a teenager is?" Tom glared at Virgil.

"I-I don't know!" Virgil rolled his eyes.

"Humiliation!" Tom replied.

"H-How did I contribute to any of your h-humiliation?" Virgil glared.

"Freshman year, pric." Tom narrowed his eyes.

"What the hell does-"

"Let him have his super-villain monologue." Lea smirked in amusement at the two bickering boys.

Tom shot Lea a warning glare to which Lea responded with raising his hands lazily, "Don't shoot." He deadpanned, "Come on, if this were a book series, the readers would have wondered why you've been such an ass for...let's say...oh well it'd probably be something like three books? And then somehow you're a nice guy to me- I'd like to know as well- though, I'd blame it on your emotional instability and-"

"Lea!" Tom whipped his head to the shorter figure, "Shut up for a second!" He then looked back at Virgil, "Freshman year."

"Th-that far back, huh?" Virgil smirked, trying to act like everything was fine.

"You got a note in your locker." Tom was fuming.

This is when something seemed to clicked in Virgil's mind, "Shit-"

"Mhm- there's the recognition- you went broadcasting about that someone liked you-" Tom was cut off.

"And I lost the note..."

"You sure did- and it was signed with my initials." Tom bit his lip in rage.

"Oh g-geez..." Virgil put a hand to his forehead.

"Yeah, that little note that got stolen- made it onto the school's Twitter, went viral in a day- ever wonder why people started bullying you out of the blue Virgil?" Tom hummed menacingly.

Virgil couldn't breath.

"Why they called you all those names? Why they hurt you? Why they cursed and crushed you until you couldn't move and why you're broken and so am I- and it's all your-!"

"Tom, that's enough!" Lea interjected quickly, stepping in between the two, "Look, I'm all for gay shtuff but look at him, Tom, you're launching him into a panic attack." Lea nodded to the slowly crumpling Virgil who was now curling into a protective ball.

"Says you! You were just yelling at him yourself!" Tom argued.

"Threatening and arguing are different- and I sure as heck wasn't doing that to him, you literally just exposed his triggers and used them against him- not cool, you can't do that to someone, Tom- even if they deserve it." Lea folded his arms over his chest.

"You're siding with him?" Tom scoffed.

"I'm not siding with anyone."

"Really? Because it sounds like-"

"Tom, could you stop acting like a this for one second?" Lea's firsts clenched.

Tom instantly shut up.

"Just leave him be for now." Lea turned back towards the bunk and flopped down on the bottom bed.

Tom stared at his feet before glancing up at Virgil.
He hated feeling guilty- it made him upset which made him angry which led him to doing horrible things. He chuckled, "You're just like him..."

"What?" Lea smirked.

"You're just like him!" Tom looked at Lea with tears in the corner of his eyes.

Lea looked moderately surprised that Tom was this upset.

"Ever wonder how I feel?"

Lea opened his mouth to respond but Tom was already out the door, letting it swing shut as a guard went to escort him to wherever he was planning on going.

Lea sat there quietly for a moment before looking over at Virgil who was a shaking mess.

There was more silence and Lea got up and fished around in the desk, grabbing something and walking over to Virgil.

"You're not going to get very far without a coping mechanism." Lea muttered as he stopped in front of Virgil, tossing something to him, "And if you don't mind, I'd appreciate you not further upsetting my coping mechanism." Lea headed for the door, slipping out of it.

Virgil continued to shake but wiped away forming tears for a moment to spot a black permanent marker on the ground.
Shakily, he picked it up.

****

I promise
I promise I'll have a chapter that won't contain TWs soon...we just need to get past all this gritty stuff...

-Jay 🏳️‍🌈

Also can you appreciate this fantastic cover that Pyangsi made??? Like wow this is ASTOUNDING!! I love it <3

I also drew the boys