TW:
•Crying
•panic attack
•meanies
•missing

It had been days, and Patton and Logan were finally starting to talk to each other again.

...Over text, at least.

It was progress, though!

Group chat

Romano: who keeps changing the group chat's name to group chat

Romano has changed the group chats name to 50 shades of gay

Logan: Are you serious, Roman?

Romano: have u evr known me to be serious

Logan: You are insufferable, at least type correctly.

Romano: in this day and age, i dont think any1 knows how to type lolzz

Virgil: Calm down ya'll, this is the most boring conversation i've ever seen, and I didn't even have any friends a month ago

Roman has changed Virgil's name to JoyKiller

Virgil has changed his name to killjoy

Romano: how is that better

Killjoy: Because you didn't come up with it

Romano: :(

Killjoy: : ' )

Pattton: hey guys!!!!!

Logan: Oh, god.

Pattton: what?

Logan: Well, for one, your name has three t's in it.

Pattton: well, you've always called me extra

Logan: That's because you are.

Logan: It's been a while since we've talked.

Pattton: its been like three days?

Logan: That's a long time for people who've been best friends since kindergarten.

Killjoy: Imagine having friends from the age of five, who you still keep in touch with and have awesome memories with, I-

Romano: We don't HAVE to imagine it lmao

Pattton: wow you're mean

Logan: Get yeeted boi!

Killjoy: Patton, for the love of god, burn his vocab cards

Pattton: oh, he's just having fun : )

Logan: I most certainly am not. What even is a 'yeet?'

Romano: you have much to learn

Killjoy: Hey, is Pat back with his parents yet?

Pattton: I texted my dad, he said that mom's still burning pictures of me

Killjoy: how about we burn her?

Logan: I'm perfectly okay with that idea.

Romano: Sammmee! We shaLL AVENGE PATTON, AND SLAY HIS DISHONORABLE MOTHER!

Pattton: lol guys, thanks

Patton: he's telling me that this is basically child abuse/neglect, so, he knows that kids who deal with that are depressed and have anxiety and stuff, so he comes over to see me like, every day, to make sure I don't feel neglected. But he knows he can't make up for my mom, and he's told me that, but he's enough. I never really liked my mom anyways

Killjoy: That's really sad 🥺🥺🥺

Logan: Virgil, are you crying?

Killjoy: YOU'RE LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO ME WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SAY IT HERE?!?!

Logan: Because I wanted to.

Killjoy: stories like that just get me so emotional.

Roman: what happened to big bad emo?

Killjoy: i'm still big bad emo fite me

Logan: Fight*

Killjoy: -_-

Logan: So, what do ya'll plan to do today?

Patton: Probably getting a prenatal checkup after school

Killjoy: That sounds kind of scary

Patton: yeah, i'm kind of overthinking

Killjoy: don't worry, if they start judging you, call Roman, he'll beat them up for you

Romano: why me and not you or Lo

Killjoy: because i'm a scrawny sleep deprived pile of bones, who do you honestly think i'm going to stop? Also, Logan's not really a physical kind of guy, no offense

Logan: None taken.

Pattton: he can get very physical when he wants to😅😅😅

Logan: What is that supposed to mean?

Pattton:🥴🥴🥴

Roman: guess yall took the breakup well if you're already joking about..THAT.....

Pattton: what?

Virgil: omg

Pattton: we play fight all the time !!!

Virgil: LOL

Pattton: where are you guys? The first bell's about to ring

Logan: we're already in class

Killjoy: lol, the first bell rang as soon as we got here, you're talking about the tardy bell.

Suddenly, the class door bursted open to reveal Patton, and let's just say that everybody heard it.

Killjoy: wtf was that

Patton: I made it to science class

Killjoy: how, its so far away from where you were

Patton: magic

Logan: I love how we're so into our phones that we didn't even look up to see what the noise was. We just asked each other through text. Plus, we are sitting right next to each other.

————————————————————

The day continued, and nothing bad happened for once. The classes were just as boring as all of the previous days of the year had been, because it was true—nothing really happened at all.

Even public speaking was fine. Actually, it was the most eventful class they'd had all day, researching different people and giving presentations proved to be really fun after a few days of the class passed.

And after the bell rang, they were all more than ready to go home.

"Well, bye guys, i'll text you about the project later, cya!" Virgil signed to his friends as they walked out of the building, already knowing that Virgil had to take the bus home that day.

"Bye Virgey!" Patton yelled, skipping out of the school, Logan and Roman following behind.

Virgil tapped his foot as he began to put some things into his locker, setting his phone down way in the back so that he could grab his homework and put it into his bag, when suddenly, he got slammed into the locker, the door shutting loudly with a bang as he heard a familiar cackle, and footsteps running hurriedly away.

'Damn it Remus' Virgil thought, eyebrows furrowing as panic set in.

He wondered how the hell Remus got into the school-maybe he had a disguise?

Virgil squinted his eyes to look though the very slim vents in the locker. It was so slim, that he actually saw nothing.

This locker was so tight that he couldn't even turn around, or bang on the door. The most he could to was tap.

Suddenly, Virgil couldn't breathe, it was dark, his vision was blurred, and he was worried—very worried.

Damn it! How was he small enough to fit but not to move?!?!!

Suddenly, the intercom came on, calling for the final load of buses. Virgil panicked as the hallway flooded with students, yells and screams.

Virgil's breathing picked up, he felt crammed, and he felt suffocated. He passed out, slamming his head on the sharp metal shelf behind him with a thud. Blood pooled around his skull.

He was okay-it wasn't bad enough to make him have a critical injury or anything, but it sure as hell would sting when he woke up.

___________________________

Alexandria tapped her foot as she checked her watch. It was eight pm. She'd already called the school.

Seven times.

She was considering calling the police at this point. Maybe she needed to call Virgil's friends?!

Ugh-no! Curse her for not being that overbearing mother who demands their kid's friends's phone numbers!

Clinton explained to her time and time again that he was probably at a friend's house doing teen things. But Virgil would never forget to tell them! He overthinks everything, he would've thought at least a hundred times before  doing anything like that without asking.

Remy told her that if Virgil was missing, then he was the first damned priority, and that they shouldn't sit on their asses, thinking he was at a 'friends house' when he could be in someone's basement.

————————————————————

Patton laughed, throwing popcorn in Roman's face, "Roman, i'm not going to have twins, that's absurd!-hold on i'm getting a call!"

"Helloooooooo?" Patton cheered into the phone.

Roman listened as intently as he could to the conversation, Patton seeming shocked by the information he was receiving.

"N-no...really?" He asked quietly as he listened, "he-he did say he would 'text us later-' and and it is later, and he hasn't texted! Oh my gosh—we'll do everything we can, thanks for telling me." and after they hung up, Roman immediately asked what had happened.

"Alessandra told me that Virgil's missing!" Patton cried, tearing up, "he never came home from school, and the bus driver said that he never even got onto the bus!"

"Maybe he's at a friends house?" Roman asked hopefully.

"We're his only friends!" Patton exclaimed.

"Oh-right." He said dumbly.

"Uhh, You think Logan knows?" Patton asked, worrying over his dark strange son.

"Let's text him and find out."

They tried texting Virgil in the group chat, first, of course, but he never responded. Logan asked what the hell was going on, and once he received an answer, was of course, panicking.

————————————————————

Virgil woke up, groaning as he opened his eyes. No light came through the vents. It was completely dark. Virgil shifted, trying to turn around, which after much difficulty, he was able to achieve.

He tried to reach his arm back to grab his phone, but found that he couldn't. His phone had been lit up with several notifications, suddenly, and he tilted his head to see them. His phone was stood up against the back of the shelf. Three am. Damn.

His phone's screen stopped lighting up, and was now dark again.

He did what any sensible person would do in this situation, and started crying.

Soon, he began to hyperventilate, feeling his back pressing hard against the hard metal behind him, his arms stuck between cramped shelves.