Roman hurried away, burning tears now streaming down his face. How dare he. His thoughts got clouded with hatred and distress. Not only did Charlotte tell everyone the secret he trusted with her the most, but now Virgil was with her. She knew that he hated him. Was this all just some sick prank? Will someone jump out of the lockers and yell 'it's just a prank bro' and everything will go back to normal? Roman choked on his sobs, opening the door to the library and rushing over to one of the corners of the large room, behind a few bookcases. Covering a hand over his mouth, and one rested on his head, he tried to repress his tears, closing his eyes tightly. It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair.

He grabbed his bag he had placed beside him, taking out a book and a pen. Journaling was a coping mechanism he had learned to do very early on in his life when his imagination was running wild. He'd write down all of his ideas, realistic or not. But recently, he'd mainly use it as just a way of venting about things, school, his doubts, the usual.
A few of his tears dropped down onto the page he began writing on, but at this moment Roman couldn't care less whether it ruined it or not. He read back over his entry from earlier in the day, specifically 10 minutes ago, when he locked himself in the bathroom stall to hide from some dickheads calling him names. He cried his heart out, ruining his perfect jacket he put on that morning.
Wow, Roman thought bitterly to himself with a dry laugh, I've probably cried more times today than my whole life so far. He pursed his lips, wiping his eyes once again, Just my luck, I guess.
Logan had his chin resting on his arm against the table, a small smirk on his face as he watched Patton ramble on about dogs. Well, at first it was about his siblings, then somehow it changed to dreams, and he mentioned something about wanting to get a dog in the future, so here they were. "And I don't know, they're just so amazing, Lo. And adorable. And the best. And did I mention they're.."
He only broke out of his daze when he noticed the other stopped talking, and he sat up from his then slouched position. "What?"
"I just-" Patton paused, "I think I saw Roman." He started to get up, glancing in the direction he saw the person going. "I'll uh-be right back. I'm gonna check."
"Patton you can't just go...." Logan trailed off as Patton already made his way to 'Roman'. He sighed, running a hand through his hair and rubbing his temple. "Patton, why must you do this."
Roman sniffled quietly, wiping his eyes free from the tears, only for them to form again. He grabbed onto his hair with one of his hands holding his head. Closing his eyes in frustration, his grip tightened on the pen in his hand. He tensed up slightly when he heard footsteps coming towards him, his heartbeat speeding up. Roman quickly wiped his face dry with his jacket sleeve, closing his book and swiftly putting it back in his bag, but keeping the pen to hold onto.
"Hey." A soft voice greeted him, one familiar but not quite what he could put his finger in. Looking up towards the sound, Roman immediately recognised him.
"Patton," His voice cracked slightly, and he shifted awkwardly in his seat, his face heating up.
Patton simply smiled warmly at him, taking a few steps over to the table. "We didn't really get off on the right foot," He chuckled lightly, sitting down across from him, "I thought we could try again."
Roman took a while to respond, mainly focusing on trying to keep himself from bursting into tears. "...y-yeah. That would be..good." He nodded quickly, fiddling with the pen, clicking it again and again.
"So how's your day going?"
Roman froze, biting down on his lip. He looked down at his hands, "Uh, well. Not great. I mean, my best friend has been a complete jerk to me for basically no reason, she shared something that I trusted her with when we were friends, and today I figure out that she's hanging out with the guy who hates me the most. So, yeah, my days not going as well as planned." He forced a smile, looking back up at Patton and his concerned expression.
"Oh. That's..horrible." Patton tilted his head slightly at him, "Why...did you two stop being friends? ...If-If you don't mind me asking, it's fine if you don't feel comfortable telling me." He added quickly, not wanting Roman to be weirded out
.
"No, it's..alright." Roman tried to give him a reassuring look but probably failed miserably. Yes, he technically just met Patton, but honestly, he was just happy to be able to talk to someone about this instead of venting to a stupid book. "It was sometime last week, I was hanging out at her house- we were both doing homework. And she asked me if I wanted to hang out the next week with the rest of the 'group' and I said I couldn't cause my mum would be making us do stuff with our dad. Then she starts accusing me that I 'never want to hang out' and 'I suck at excuses' 'if you don't like me just tell me' 'honestly I don't know why I bother being nice'," he did his best impression of Charlotte, a few tears making their way into his eyes as he did so. "And like...that's not..what I was trying to do. I'm not trying to get out of hanging with her, I just-can't." He stopped talking momentarily, realising that he probably sounded crazy right now and Patton was probably getting bored. "Anyways, it ended with her getting angry and essentially kicking me out her house. And that brings us to today."
Patton sat there with a face Roman could only describe as disbelief. "Why-she-...Why would she do that?"
Roman shook his head slightly, "Charlotte's...the kind of person who takes things out of context, over-exaggerates certain things, and makes small things a much bigger deal than they are. She knew why I couldn't hang out, yet she just took my words without reasoning and jumped to a conclusion that I hated her- which I didn't -and then she, metaphorically, blew up at me." A few tears rolled down his cheeks, but this time they were mainly angry tears, unlike the first two times today. He quickly wiped them away, his hands shaking ever so slightly. Patton took his other hand and squeezed it gently.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that." He spoke quietly, as to not cause the other any more alarm. "No one deserves too. If you ever need anything, or anyone to talk too, I'll be here, okay?" Roman nodded.
"I just feel kinda weird telling you this, I mean we basically just met." He added nervously, smiling slightly.
Parton shrugged, "I just wanna help. Besides, Roman, you seem like a really cool person!"
Roman's face flushed a light pink, "Thank you."
"No problem. Now, do you want to spend the rest of lunch with me and Logan?"
"..Logan?"
"Mhm..! He's really good with advice and I'm sure he'd be able to help you with this-"
Roman interrupted him with an awkward laugh, "Uh, no. I don't–" he sighed, "Can we not tell anyone about this. Please. Especially not Logan. He'll just start lecturing me."
"But-"
"Please."
Patton went quiet for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Okay. I won't. But do you still at least wanna sit with us? So you're not by yourself. ..unless you want to be, which is fine as well...!"
Roman shook his head, smiling genuinely for what probably was the first time that day, "No I will. Thank you, Patton, by the way."
"It's absolutely fine. Like I said before, I really just want to help."