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Roman Princeton, theatre geek and musical genius, was well and truly, hopelessly gay, although this wasn’t new information for anyone who knew him. It was rather obvious, with his rainbow shoelaces, jacket adorned with rhinestones of all colours, and multi-coloured hair, even more so with his incredibly loud, boisterous personality.
However, for these very things Roman was now mentally cursing at himself for, as he found himself in a very interesting predicament. It had been a normal day when a black and purple blur flew past Roman as he walked through the school gates. Roman started, and jumped back slightly, before realising that the blur was actually a person on a beaten-up looking skateboard. The person skidded to a halt right where the bike racks were, and Roman noticed the royal purple hair half-hidden by a black beanie, a purple and black checkered hoodie and ripped black skinny jeans, which made him internally sneer at the obvious emo nightmare until he saw the face of this mysterious skater.
Bright silvery-black eyes, framed perfectly by black eyeshadow and winged eyeliner, and lips lined with a pair of purple stud snake bites, and Roman felt himself choke on his spit. This person turned suddenly from an emo nightmare to a punk angel in Roman’s eyes, and he felt almost starstruck.
That is until said punk angel walked right up to Roman and shoulder-checked him, hard. Roman was knocked back, realising that this person was at least 5 inches taller than himself.
“Watch yourself, prep,” the person’s voice was deep and gravelly, and Roman felt his heart beginning to pump harder, despite his ears growing red with frustration. The nerve of this incredibly attractive person, to shove /me/ over! However, Roman managed to compose himself quickly and act as if nothing had ever happened.
At least until he arrived at his chemistry class, and saw the punk angel sat in the seat next to Roman’s own, and he felt his face flush bright red beneath his foundation with both embarrassment and anger. It was almost enough emotion for Roman to refuse to sit down, but when the teacher arrived, Roman bit the bullet and sat next to the emo, keeping his teeth clenched to avoid further embarrassment.
The only good thing that came out of the chemistry lesson was learning this punk angel’s name, which was Virgil Ansia, and once the teacher set the project for the day, Roman actually had a halfway decent conversation with Virgil, learning that he was half Italian and had recently come back to America after living in Italy for a few years. Virgil even apologised for shoving Roman, and that made the red mist finally lift from Roman’s mind’s eye, allowing him to genuinely enjoy Virgil’s company.
Which he did, in chemistry and about six other lessons which Roman and Virgil shared, sitting next to each other for all of them. This weird routine of theatre geek and emo nightmare bonding continued for a few months, and Roman realised that his mild infatuation was turning into a full-blown crush, and it was starting to worry him that if he were to slip up and admit his crush, Virgil would hate him forever and never speak to him again. There was no evidence behind this fear, but Roman was sure that if he acted too friendly, Virgil would run.
Even so, there was this nagging voice pushing Roman to confess his feelings, and the voice’s name was Patton Taylor, Roman’s best friend and a member of the cheerleading team.
“Ro, you’re like a lovesick puppy, just tell him!” Patton urged for the fifth time that week, as the pair sat in the cafeteria, ignoring their lunch in favour of talking.
“You know I can’t do that! He might not even like guys, Pat! He might freak out!” At this moment, Virgil walked past their table, sporting new, golden snake bite studs, and Roman nearly squeaked before managing to cover his mouth.
“You are hopeless, Ro,” Patton sighed, putting a comforting hand on Roman’s shoulder.
Roman /was/ hopeless, he could admit that. Hopelessly gay and in love with a boy who for all Roman knew could be straight as a board. But, Patton was right about one thing; if Roman didn’t tell Virgil how he felt, then he was actually going to explode, but he had no idea how on earth to do so. So, Roman’s head was spinning as he walked home that night, in the dark as he stayed late in drama club to help the younger members practice their lines. The sky was dark and clouded, meaning that the only light was the occasional flickering streetlight, and the tiny torch on Roman’s phone lighting up the pavement right in front of his feet.
What happened next was the one thing Roman never expected to happen. One minute, he was walking along, head down so he wouldn’t misplace his feet, and the next, he was in pain on the ground, having had someone or some/thing/ crash into him and go flying. Roman yelled out in pain once he registered what had happened, feeling an excruciating pain shoot down his leg as it must’ve crumpled underneath him when he fell. While looking down at his leg to try and access the damage, he noticed an all-too-familiar skateboard upside-down by his feet, and everything clicked when he heard an all-too-familiar voice.
“Shit! Are you okay, Princey!?” It was Virgil, and a few seconds later Virgil had moved so Roman could see him, and Roman was winded for two reasons. Virgil was completely bare-faced, no makeup whatsoever, and the only piercings he had in were clear, made to look invisible against his skin. However, Roman didn’t have much time to process this bare-faced Virgil, before the latter was trying to get him to stand up. “Shit we need to get you to the hospital, your leg looks broken, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay...” Roman managed to get out, allowing Virgil to support him, and trying to ignore the fact that they were essentially in a side-hug in this position.
“Did you hit your head? This is the opposite of okay, can you walk against me?” Still in a daze, Roman tried to put weight on his injured leg but quickly retracted it with a loud hiss of pain. That hurt more than anything Roman had ever experienced before in his life. “That’s a no, then,” Virgil sighed, biting his lip for a second, and Roman had to actually look away. He was in serious physical pain and did not need his stupid gay heart making things more awkward. However, because Roman wasn’t looking at Virgil, he wasn’t prepared for the latter hoisting him up and carrying him bridal style, forcing him to once again look into those dark silver eyes. “You good like this? You’re bright red, Princey.” All Roman could do was nod meekly before Virgil started walking, having picked up his skateboard with two fingers.
If Roman had the guts, he would’ve admitted his feelings right then and there, and if he had the brains, he would have probably waited until he could think straight (well, as straight as Roman Princeton could), but frankly, Roman had neither, so it happened while both he and Virgil were sat in the waiting room of the hospital, in complete silence until Roman’s big mouth broke it.
“I have a crush on you,” Roman near enough whispered, before realising what he had said and hoping against all hope that Virgil didn’t hear him. However, Virgil suddenly burst out laughing, which caused Roman’s face, ears and neck to grow bright red. “W-what’s so funny!?” Virgil took a few breaths to stop his laughter before he replied.
“I just potentially broke your leg by crashing into you on a skateboard, I wasn’t exactly expecting a confession right now, Princey.”
“You didn’t have to laugh, that’s a rude way to reject someone…” Roman sighed, his arms crossing subconsciously as he sat back in the small plastic seat he was sitting in. His pride felt extremely wounded, and his face was still burning. Virgil’s smile, however, dropped instantly.
“Who said I was rejecting you? News flash, prep, I have a crush on you too.” If it was possible for Roman’s face to grow even redder, it did at that moment, and he slapped Virgil’s arm before turning away from the tall emo.
“Now you’re just making fun of me!”
“Roman Princeton?” Just then, a doctor came through to the waiting room, cutting Virgil off from whatever he was about to say.
Turns out, Roman’s leg was very much broken, but six weeks in a leg brace was enough to fix it, so soon enough Roman was back at school and more eager than ever to get back into his extracurriculars, especially the drama club.
And, if anyone noticed a dark figure sitting in the theatre whenever Roman was practising, nobody said a word. Not even when, at the end of the school day, the school’s self-proclaimed dark and gloomy emo grabbed the theatre geek and, in front of everyone, kissed him square on the lips before leaving on his skateboard, leaving a very starstruck Roman in his wake.