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Logan really was grateful that he was able to dorm with his two best friends. He really was. Not only did they all work well together (well, he worked well with Roman, and he worked well with Virgil; Roman and Virgil, however, were working on it), but being three people to a dorm meant that they were upgraded to a suite with a private bathroom, which definitely had its perks. It was killing two birds with one stone- he spent every day with his two closest friends, and he didn’t have to walk down a long, dark hallway at three-a.m. when he needed to relieve himself.
But tonight, he was in the situation where he believed that if he kept repeating to himself I am grateful that I live with my friends in college and not some random roommate who steals my clothes and, eventually, my identity, he would begin to believe it.
Unfortunately, it was proving to be very hard.
Tonight, he wasn’t frustrated with his roommates for their bickering. Roman and Virgil had actually pushed whatever petty comments they had aside because -wait for it- they were going to a party together. Somehow Roman convinced Virgil. Which lead to them getting ready together because they couldn’t show up alone. Which then lead to Roman taking over the bathroom to get ready, blasting his music, while Virgil got ready in their shared bedroom, blasting his music. And that left Logan sitting on his bed, textbook and notebook balanced on his knees and headphones shoved in his ears, trying to get the words on the page to make sense while attempting to drown out the garbled mix of today’s pop and ten years ago… whatever Virgil listened to.
Logan shouldn’t be frustrated. It was a Friday night; it wasn’t like he had exams or any assignments due the next day. But over the next two weeks he would have one lab report and two essays due, along with the fact that he had five chapters to read for two classes each .
He didn’t want to ruin his friends’ fun and ask them to quiet down, but with each music note heard and paragraph reread, he felt his skin crawl.
Just finish taking notes on this chapter and outline your essays and then you can take a break, Logan thought to himself. Take a walk to the dining halls because they probably still have coffee and-
He was shocked out of his thoughts when a hand came down on the notebook in front of him. His eyes shot up to meet Virgil’s and it was then that he realized that his edgy, loud music had been turned down significantly.
“Is everything okay, Virgil?” Logan asked, taking out his headphones.
Virgil arched an eyebrow from behind his dark bangs. “I could ask you the same question.”
Roman’s music was suddenly lowered and Logan knew that their third friend was listening in on them.
Logan huffed and adjusted his glasses. “I’m just stressed, that’s all,” he answered cooly, trying to keep any tenseness out of his voice. “I have a lot of work to do tonight.”
Virgil blinked. “Lo,” he said. “It’s a Friday night. I don’t think anyone, even professors, are sadistic enough to make something due on a Saturday.”
Logan shrugged. “How do you know that I’m not doing work that’s due tonight?”
“Because I know you, and you would have had it finished already,” Virgil said before snatching up one of the syllabi from Logan’s bed. “And from the looks of this-” he trailed his eyes over the syllabus before looking at the textbook in Logan’s lap “- that chapter is not due until Wednesday.”
Logan rolled his eyes and grabbed the syllabus back. “Aren’t you the one who was stressing on the first day of classes about the final paper you would eventually have to do?”
Virgil shrugged. “Yes, but you know me, syllabus week stresses me out.”
“Everything stresses Virg out,” Roman called from the bathroom, his music now turned off.
“Lovely for you to join the conversation, Roman,” Logan said with a bit of sarcasm as Roman appeared in the doorway. Clad in dark jeans and a burgundy t-shirt button up, his red hair styled to look perfectly imperfect, he looked very put together for a guy who would be drunk enough to mess it up in two hours.
“It’s instantly better now,” Roman beamed. Virgil rolled his eyes. “But, Surly Temple here does have a point-” another eye roll from Virgil “-It is a Friday night, Logan! Not only is it a Friday night, but it is only the second week of classes! This entire weekend is full of welcome-back parties, and we deprived ourselves of all of them last weekend! You shouldn’t be so stressed out already, and you should also consider coming with us.”
Logan sighed. “Roman, I would if I could but-”
“No buts!” Roman jutted a finger in his direction. “You very well can, my dear friend. As Virgil here has already discovered, none of the assignments you are working on are due in the next two days. When is your next assignment actually due?”
“Well I have a rough draft due Tuesday and-”
“And you will have all day tomorrow to do it,” Roman pressed. When Logan gave a resigned sigh and raked his fingers through his hair, he continued on. “Come on Logan, just think! In three months it will be cold and damp and dreary and everything will be awful because you will be up to your eyes in papers and stress. Do you really want to look back on this day and think, ‘Wow, I really wished that I listened to my amazing friend Roman, who has never let me down before, when he wanted me to go to that party because now I crave the heat and the smell of overpriced alcohol’?”
Logan opened his mouth to protest again but Virgil beat him to it.
“Princey does have a point, actually,” he said. “I mean, it’s a given that I don’t think this is that dramatic-” he shot a look at Roman over his shoulder “-but it still might be good for you to get out for a while. You had no classes today and you’ve been holed up in here all day. Obviously we’re not going to be pissed at you if you don’t come, but if you do come with us, it’s not like you’re going to be left alone.”
Logan considered that as Roman said with a flick of his hand, “Well, yeah, obviously we’re not going to be annoyed if you stay here, I’m just-” he sighed and flicked a fallen piece of hair from out of his eyes “-Basically everything Virgil just said. And don’t you think it will be fun if all three of us go? With the summer and us barely being able to drive around to see each other at our homes, we haven’t really gotten the chance to do anything together. It could be fun, all three of us! It has to be, if I was able to convince Virgil to go.”
“And you don’t have to stay for the whole time,” Virgil continued. “Just, y’know, maybe get a drink in you to bring yourself down, and then duck out.” He shrugged. “It’s what I did to make myself go out until I had people to go with.”
Logan worried his bottom lip and looked at the books on his bed. His friends did have a point. Glancing over his syllabi now, he did begin to realize that he had time to do everything, even if he gave himself the night off. Roman was right in saying that this would be the chance to get the three of them back together after the summer, and it’s not like either of them would leave him by himself once they got there.
Logan looked back up at the two of them. “I don’t even know what I would wear,” he said, looking over Roman’s outfit again and Virgil’s dark purple t-shirt and ripped jeans. He figured that his flannel pajama pants and old t-shirt wouldn’t cut it.
Roman grinned and clasped his hands together. “I know exactly what you should wear,” he said, walking over to Logan’s dresser with enough confidence to give Logan the impression that Roman already planned this.
His suspicion was confirmed at the certainty Roman looked through his drawers with, immediately finding a pair of black jeans and a light blue t-shirt.
“Now go get ready,” Roman beamed. “Even if we’re fashionably late, we’ll still have time to get good drinks.”
--
Roman was right when he said that the party would smell like alcohol.
It was held in one of the fraternity houses on campus. Logan was surprised to hear that, but less so when he found out that it was Roman who got the invite. Out of the three of them, Roman was definitely the most social. It wasn’t saying much, since Virgil wasn’t fond of social situations that didn’t include all three of them, and Logan rarely went to parties anymore.
“A guy I know said he would be here,” Virgil said as they walked into the house, pulling them closer so that he didn’t have to shout over thumping music. “Nice guy, just transferred here this semester.”
“I’m so proud that you’re branching out without me needing to throw you into the deep end alone,” Roman said. Virgil responded with a less-than-pristine hand gesture and Logan laughed.
Roman lead them through the crowd, shouldering past people who were dancing -who were more so bobbing aimlessly- in search of where drinks were. Logan and Virgil stuck close to his friend’s side. Logan at parties tended to stay on the outskirts; he wasn’t a fan of being pushed into by careless people who were much more drunker than him (most people were, he didn’t drink much, but he digressed). And Logan had a feeling that the only reason Virgil had come was because Roman was going.
“If we see my roommate from the first semester last year, we’re fighting him,” Virgil said as they pushed through.
“I doubt he’ll be here,” Logan said.
“But we will still fight him,” Roman assured. “I’m positive that the three of us could take him down.”
“Hopefully that won’t have to happen, however,” Logan said, hoping to sedate Virgil’s anxiety before it had time to fester.
Virgil’s eyes scanned the crowd as they finally approached the drinks table. He must have found someone he knew, for he gave them his classic small smile and two finger salute. Logan tried to see who he was looking at but couldn’t find them in the sea of people.
“There’s my friend,” he said. “I’ll be right back, you guys stay here.”
“What do you want to drink?” Roman asked before Virgil could walk away.
“Whatever you’re having,” Virgil said before turning back.
“And what will you be having?” Roman asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Whatever you are,” Logan said weakly with a shrug.
Roman rolled his eyes. “You two are so boring,” he said before grabbing three bottles of beer. He passed one to Logan before giving him a small, sheepish smile. “And, uh, you know that I just wanted you to come because I thought it would be fun, right? I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was pressuring you or that it would be a big deal-”
Logan held up a hand to stop him. “Roman, it’s fine,” Logan smiled, opening his drink. “I’m glad that I’m here with you two. I probably would have lost my mind if I stayed in our dorm all night.”
Roman grinned. “See! Now we can all have fun together.” Roman opened his own drink and the two clinked theirs together before taking a sip.
“This is disgusting,” Logan said, making a face.
“You said you were having whatever I was, so deal with it,” Roman said with a smirk.
They waited around a couple more minutes, Roman greeting some people that he knew and Logan nodding along, acting like he was invested in the conversations. Finally, Virgil -and only Virgil- returned.
“Hey,” Roman said, handing Virgil the remaining beer. “Where’s your friend?”
“He’s going to find us later,” Virgil said, popping off the cap. “For someone who has only been here for a couple weeks, he is very social. Like you, but less obnoxious.”
“You love me and you know it,” Roman said. “One day you’ll admit it.”
“In your dreams,” Virgil scoffed. Logan rolled his eyes.
After a little while longer of just standing, the trio finally managed to find an open couch that wasn’t too littered with cans, bottles, and solo cups. Placing a crushed can on the side table, Logan sat down with Roman in the middle and Virgil on the other end.
“You could have been writing an essay right now, but instead you are here, being socially reclusive with us,” Virgil said, leaning over Ronan so that they both could hear him over the music.
“I already told Roman that I would have lost it if I stayed back,” Logan said. “I will admit, this is fun.”
Virgil smiled slightly as Roman said, defensive, “We’re not socially reclusive! I’m being very social, along with you two. We’re perfectly social.”
Virgil directed his eyes ahead of him. “Well, we’re about to be more.”
Logan followed his gaze forward and landed upon a beaming figure walking towards them. A boy with light hair, wide black glasses, and a wider grin was approaching them, giving a wave to Virgil.
“Your friend?” Roman assumed.
Virgil nodded, scooting over to make room between him and Logan for the other. “Patton, wanna sit?”
The boy -Patton, Logan learned his name was- nodded enthusiastically. “If you guys don’t mind!”
“Not at all,” Roman beamed as Patton sat down.
“Patton, meet Roman-” Virgil jutted his thumb at Roman “-and Logan-” A nod in Logan’s direction. “Princey, Specs, meet Patton.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” Patton said. “Virgil’s mentioned you two so much!”
“Good things, I hope?” Roman asked, side-eyeing Virgil.
(Logan was glad that Roman was the one taking over speaking. He was currently distracted by two things. One, how Virgil found someone so upbeat and positive, Logan could practically see the sun shining out of him. Two, how Patton’s glasses framed nice, big blue eyes. But he brushed that latter thought away.)
“Oh, of course,” Patton said as Virgil looked shyly in any other direction but theirs. “Great things!”
Logan finally regained his senses and his voice. “Can you believe it, Roman? Virgil actually enjoys our presence.”
“It’s a miracle,” Roman teased. “All along we just thought that he wandered into our dorm room and stayed out of laziness.”
“Fuck you guys,” Virgil bit with no bite behind it.
“Virgil, be nice!” Patton exclaimed, receiving Virgil’s infamous eyeroll in response.
“Yeah Virg , be nice to us,” Roman agreed, smirking.
Logan laughed, actually enjoying himself along with how the new addition to their trio fitted in so nicely. The four fell into easy conversation, as if Patton had been in their group since it formed. After a while of chatting and Roman running back and forth for drinks (mostly for him and Virgil), Roman was ushered into a round of beer pong, and he ended up dragging a slightly-unwilling Virgil with him.
“I saw water in a cooler out back, I’m going to go grab one,” Patton said. “Do you want anything?”
“I’ll go with you to get one,” Logan said, standing up. He wouldn’t mind taking a step away from the pounding music and shouting voices.
“Great,” Patton grinned and lead the way. Logan followed closely behind Patton, not wanting to lose their new friend in the crowd. Finally, they approached the back door and pushed it open, descending down a flight of stairs before finding a couple coolers lined up.
The backyard was set up as if it was prepared for people to be sitting out there; chairs were arranged in circles around tables or fire pits. But with the unexpected spike of both heat and humidity, the party had congregated itself into the air conditioned frat house.
Logan did like the quiet, however.
After grabbing two waters from the water cooler (which looked like it hadn’t been touched before them), Patton turned to Logan and said, “Do you want to stay out here for a little bit? Just to, y’know, not have all that shouting right in our ear.”
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Logan said, pulling one of the chairs set up at a table out for Patton before sitting in the one next to it. “Virgil and Roman seem to be occupied, so I think we have some time to enjoy the quiet before we’re needed.”
Patton nodded, twisting the cap off his water. “Have you known them for long?” he asked before taking a sip.
Logan nodded. “Roman and I met last year on move-in day,” he said. “So we’ve been roommates since then. Fortunately, we get along for the most part, though his… eccentricities tend to get a bit distracting. And Virgil we met a couple weeks into the semester. He lived down the hall from us. Well, I actually met him first. We had a class together and happened to sit near each other. One night he got into an argument with his old roommate and at the time we had an assignment due the next day. I told him to come to my room to do it together, and by the spring semester, the three of us were rooming together.”
Patton smiled. “It’s nice that you all found each other here,” he said. “I think it’s good to room with someone that you really get along with.”
Logan nodded in agreement. “Exactly, it makes living here much more easier,” he said. “And Virgil mentioned that you just transferred here. I hope that your roommate situation is treating you well.”
Patton gave out a laugh that Logan thought was a bit too forced. “Yeah, funnily enough, my current roommate is Virgil’s old,” he said with a smile and a shrug, two gestures that definitely do not apply to Virgil’s old roommate.
“Oh, really?” Logan asked, furrowing his eyebrows. “And, uh, how is that… working out?” He didn’t want to outright condemn Patton’s roommate to Patton himself, but he couldn’t act like he didn’t know anything about him.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Patton said with a wave of his hand. “He can be a bit of a downer sometimes, but not every set of roommates is going to get along. I actually met Virgil because of that. We were having a bit of a… disagreement, and Virgil just happened to be in the area and stepped in. It was very nice of him! We really weren’t getting anywhere….”
Logan thought for a moment, remembering a time last week when Virgil returned to their dorm, more stressed and anxious than usual about his old roommate. He assumed that was the day Virgil met Patton and saved him from the “disagreement”. It must have been on a much grander scale than that if it convinced Virgil to step in and aid a stranger .
“Well, just know, Patton, you can always come to our dorm if you need to get away,” Logan offered. “One of us is bound to be awake, and there’s surprisingly enough room for four.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to be a burden,” Patton deflected.
“Nonsense,” Logan said with a shake of his head. “I -well, none of us- would mind your presence. You already fit in nicely with the three of us. It was obvious that you would with Virgil’s good impression of you.” He hoped that he said enough to distract Patton from the fact that he almost said, “I wouldn’t mind your presence” .
Patton smiled at him, his eyes sparkling behind his glasses. “Thank you, Logan,” he said, happiness and genuineness filling his voice. “I’m still going to give him the benefit of the doubt, though, y’know? Sure we may not… get along, but its only been two weeks! We’re still just getting to know each other, I wouldn’t want to doubt him as much as I wouldn’t want him to do the same.”
Logan nodded, silently hoping that Patton’s own hope wouldn’t hurt him in the end. He would just have to make sure to be increasingly aware of any knocks on their dorm door. “Well, my offer still stands,” Logan said. “And you really wouldn’t be a burden. Even if we’re all doing assignments, it wouldn’t hurt us to branch out to new people. And, of course, none of us would want your first couple weeks on campus to be full of only disagreements with a roommate.”
“That’s so sweet of you, Logan, thank you,” Patton repeated, beaming. Logan hadn’t thought of it as him being particularly nice, though he meant no malice, he just thought he was being reasonable.
But I’m not going to object to him calling me such, he thought, followed by a quick, Take it easy, Logan .
Before Logan could even think of saying anything else, the back door swung open and he heard a very loud (and drunk) Roman shout, “We just fucking crushed it and you weren’t there to see it!” followed by a very tense Virgil saying, “Wait, Ro- if you fall down those fucking stairs I’m killing you. ”
Both Logan and Patton’s heads snapped to the stairs, where Roman could be seen leaning on the railing and Virgil gripping the back of his shirt to stop his from plummeting onto the concrete patio.
“Congrats on your win!” Patton said as, finally, Roman began his descent down the stairs as Virgil, who was also drunk but not nearly as inebriated, held onto him.
“I was the one who was carrying the team,” Virgil muttered, shoving Roman into one of the chairs before sinking down in another.
“That is a lie ,” Roman defended, still rather loudly, and Logan attempted to shush him. “I cannot be quieted, Microsoft Nerd! I put all my energy into bringing you here, and you can’t even be there for me when I -and only me - absolutely dominate at beer pong!” He then pointed a finger unsteadily at Patton. “Patton’s cool, though. He’s a nice guy who I also do not know well enough yet to yell at. But you-” he now directed the finger at Logan “-you, Logan, have failed me.”
Logan kept a steady, exasperated look on Roman before turning to Patton. “So, Patton, you should know that I am the logical one in our friend group while Roman is the dramatic one, or the ‘extra’ one, as others might say.”
Patton, who had been laughing the whole time, managed out, “Well I think this is great!”
“Well this is one of the worst things to ever happen to me,” Virgil said.
“And that’s a hyperbole,” Logan noted.
“We get it, Logan , you know big words,” Roman said before resting his head on his arms.
“It’s really… not?” Logan said, side-eyeing his friend.
Virgil rested his elbows on the table and looked to Patton. “You don’t know this yet, Pat, but I am always the one stuck taking care of Prince Roman over here-”
“Prince comma Roman,” Roman interjected, his voice muffled by his arms.
“ You- ” Virgil flipped his hands in frustration before abruptly standing up and grabbing a water from the cooler. He shoved it at Roman. “You drink this and shut up. Anyways- ” he looked back to Patton “-I am the one who always has to make sure that Princey doesn’t do anything stupid because this one right here always suddenly has to sleep or a suddenly an assignment due. The bullshit I put up with? It’s crazy.”
“Is that true, Logan?” Patton asked with a grin, less accusatory and more joking.
“Listen, I do not do feelings,” Logan defended. “And, after a while, Roman’s intoxication turns into multiple displays of emotions that I have no clue how to handle.”
“I think I have a worse grasp on feelings than you!” Virgil exclaimed. “Any minor inconvenience for me might as well be a death sentence, and I’m the one stuck with him?”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like it’s so terrible, Virgil,” he said.
“Well, maybe I do need to stick around,” Patton said. “Since it seems like you need someone who can handle others and their emotions.”
Virgil pointed at Patton. “This is why we are friends,” he said. “You’re a cool guy, Patton.”
Patton grinned one that might as well have brought the sun back out into the night sky. “It’s what I’m here for,” he said.
“You can be here forever,” Roman, who had downed only a quarter of the water, said.
“And that is our cue to leave,” Logan said, standing. He wrapped an arm around Roman’s waist and hoisted him up.
“You coming back with us, Pat?” Virgil asked, standing.
“I’ll come for the walk,” Patton said, and the four (well, three, with Roman practically being carried) began their walk back to the dorms.
--
Logan’s clock said that it was 11:37a.m. when there was a knock on their dorm door. He had already been awake for a couple hours to do assignments and managed to lose track of time. He was glad he was brought back to reality, for he might have just powered through all his work in one day since neither of his roommates were conscious enough to stop him.
“Whoever that is, open the door and slam it in their face,” Virgil, who was not so much hungover but not a morning person, said, his voice muffled by a pillow.
“Please make them go away,” Roman, who was not so much not a morning person but extremely hungover, whined.
“You two are pathetic,” Logan said with an eye roll as he opened the door.
To find Patton on the other side.
“Oh, hello Patton,” Logan said.
“Good morning, or, well, almost afternoon, Logan,” Patton smiled as Logan stepped out. He closed the door over behind them.
“Sorry, both Virgil and Roman are still in bed, Roman suffering and Virgil just refusing to get out,” he explained. “Is everything alright?” He really hoped that Patton’s roommate wasn’t already starting fights with him this early in the morning.
Patton nodded. “Oh yeah, everything’s fine!” he assured. “I was just wondering if you would want to grab a really late breakfast. I was going to extend the invite to Virgil and Roman, too, but they seem…”
“Debilitated,” Logan offered for him.
“Yeah, that,” Patton laughed. “So, do you want to?”
“Well, I have some assignments that I’ve been working on,” Logan looked through the crack in the door at the books piled on his bed. He then thought for a moment. “But I could use a break so-” he smiled at the other “-sure, why not. I just, uh, need to get ready.” He looked down at his pajamas and then at Patton, who was properly dressed.
“Of course, take your time,” Patton said, smiling. “I’ll just wait down in the common room!”
“Okay, yeah, I’ll just be a couple minutes,” Logan said and, with that, turned and walked back into his dorm.
He dressed quietly, not wanting to disturb his roommates too much. Also, he couldn’t get the thought out of his head that Patton came to ask him . Even he couldn’t hold a small smile back at that.
On his way out, he turned back to his two roommates, still in bed, and said, “Try not to die while I’m out.”
Virgil said some colorful expletive into his pillow while Roman groaned, “Please just leave.”
Logan laughed before heading out to go meet Patton.