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Roman let out a groan of despair, letting his head fall onto the desk with a satisfying ‘clunk’.
Why oh why had he decided to double major? He was sorely regretting that decision right now. Sure, his theater and acting classes were easy enough, but the history classes that the major required on the side were a pain. And just because Roman clearly hated himself, he got to balance that with architecture.
His physics notes lay scattered before him on the table. On his laptop, his American History slides were pulled up from what he had been reviewing before.
“You should take a break,” Janus observed, leaning over the barrier that separated the two.
Roman looked up in frustration, “I don’t have time to take a break! Both of my exams are tomorrow, and I’m completely doomed!”
Janus rolled his eyes, “And if you don’t give your brain any sort of rest, how do you expect to be able to keep going? At least take a walk around the library before continuing.”
Roman sighed. It wasn’t as if Janus didn’t have a point. He could understand the importance of breaks. But at a time like this, where every second was essential? It was hard for him to force himself to take a break.
“5 minutes,” Janus argued.
Curse that pre-law student. He always knew how to bargain with him.
“Fine,” Roman said, “But only 5 minutes.”
He reluctantly got up from the chair that he had claimed around 5 hours ago. With a brief stretch, he allowed himself to rest and wander around the library.
As he wandered, he saw students in various stages of despair. Some were desperately flipping through material, while others were carefully walking through problem sets. Others had decided to catch up on sleep, as their heads were down on their desks.
Normally, Roman and his friends would be sitting in a large group together, despite the large differences in subjects that they studied. Roman’s exams landed fairly late. Because of that, Remus and Patton had already finished up all of their classes and were probably relaxing at home. How Roman wished that was his reality.
Virgil was currently in his last exam, some biology course that had taken up much of his time throughout his semester.
The other two found their own spaces to study around the library. Since Janus was a philosophy major in pre-law and Logan studied chemical engineering, they had decided it was best to limit distractions by studying apart from each other.
Roman ran a hand through his hair distractedly. All of his friends managed to impress him each and every day with how smart they were. He was sincerely proud of them and how far they had come since their first days as freshmen.
Roman wandered back to his seat.
Janus had clearly focused back on his work. Headphones placed securely on his head, and fingers flying across the keyboard.
Roman glanced further down, where Logan sat with a giant whiteboard, scribbling down different math problems that honestly didn’t make any sense to Roman.
Roman let out a sigh and sat down heavily. He honestly wished he could just fast-forward until after his exams were done, and he didn’t have to deal with the stress again until the next semester.
He grabbed his coffee, which had been sitting on his desk while he had been studying. It had long since gone cold. Roman wasn’t picky; he needed anything he could get to help him concentrate on the physics material before him.
And with that, he started his careful review of material as well as working through practice problems. At least, that’s what he would’ve done had an intense headache not begun around 10 minutes after he had started studying again.
He groaned, dropping his face into his hands. The last thing he needed was a headache. He sipped his coffee desperately, hoping that caffeine would help his case.
His head began to spin only 5 minutes after that. He could barely read the words on the page as they smudged together in his mind.
“Janus,” he hissed, trying to catch the attention of his friend, “Do you have ibuprofen?”
Janus looked up, eyebrows pinched in concern. “I should have some,” he said, digging through his backpack. He emerged victorious, the small bottle clutched in his hands.
Roman took the bottle and swiftly took two of the pills, hoping that would be enough to alleviate the pain.
Janus watched Roman’s face, “If your head hurts, maybe you should shut your eyes for a few minutes, set a timer on your phone. You can’t work like this.”
“You’re right,” Roman responded weakly. Honestly, he couldn’t remember the last time he had a migraine this bad. Typically, Remus was the one plagued by migraines; Roman was lucky in that he managed to escape from them.
He quickly scrolled on his phone, setting a timer for 15 minutes. And with that, he slumped on the desk, desperately hoping that when he next woke, his woes would be resolved.
He woke blearily to Janus shaking his shoulder.
“Ro…ma…Roman!” He exclaimed, panic clear in his voice.
“Huh?” he mumbled, blinking unsuccessfully to clear his vision.
Logan was also here, it seems, as his nerdy friend’s voice rang over his head, “I don’t think he has a fever.”
Janus fluttered around him, “But something’s wrong!”
“Yes, something is wrong,” Logan agreed thoughtfully.
Roman tried to lift his head. His muscles clearly weren’t listening to him, as he could not do it.
“Logan,” he slurred out, trying to grab his attention.
The engineering major leaned down so that he could look into Roman’s eyes, “Yes, Roman?”
“I can’t… move…” he managed to mumble. Exhaustion pulled on his bones, threatening to pull him under again. His eyes slipped closed.
“Don’t sleep!” Janus gasped, shaking Roman again.
Logan stood up quickly, “Roman’s eyes don’t look right, I’m calling an ambulance.”
“What?” The philosophy student gasped, spinning around, “What do you-”
He cut himself off suddenly as Logan spoke quickly into his phone.
Roman felt a pressure building in his throat. He allowed himself to cough weakly.
His eyes flickered open again as a coughing fit took hold of him. He couldn’t breathe because of how much he was coughing. His lungs burned, and his throat became raw.
Relief warmed him to the bone as finally, the cough released its grip from him and allowed him to breathe again.
“What the hell?” Janus exclaimed.
Roman’s eyes flicked down to where Janus had been staring. It seemed that Roman had coughed up a red puddle. How strange.
Janus wiped the side of Roman’s mouth quickly with his own hand, which Roman thought was odd. Red stained Janus’s fingertips.
Roman couldn’t fight off the exhaustion any longer. His eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and his head spun as if he were caught on the edge of a tornado.
The last thing he heard before he slipped unconscious again was Janus exclaiming, “He’s coughing up blood, Logan! What do we do?”
–
Roman awoke to beeping.
He kept track of the steady sound. It seemed to echo through the room he was in.
The next thing he became aware of was that the raging headache from before had now gone away. That was a win.
His eyes opened slowly. White walls surrounded him. This was decidedly not the library.
He jolted up, looking around frantically. Why was he in the hospital? He had been studying for finals just a moment ago. Had he missed his finals? His heart rate sped up as the beeping’s tempo picked up as well. Depending on how long he had been here, he may have missed both of them.
He jumped as he felt a hand rest on his. He looked up and saw Virgil sitting in front of him. “Roman?” he asked.
“Virgil!” Roman gasped, “How long have I been here?”
Virgil frowned, looking around, “I should notify a nurse that you’re awake.”
“Virgil, please,” Roman pleaded, “Did I miss my exams?”
Virgil turned back to Roman, shock clear on his face, “Are you seriously more worried about your exams right now?”
“Yes!” Roman exclaimed, “If I missed them, I’m going to fail my classes.”
Janus shot up from where he had been slumped in a chair. He caught sight of Roman sitting up. “I’ll go get a nurse,” he said, quickly leaving the room.
Roman realized that Patton and Remus were also in the room. Both of them were napping on chairs around the room.
“You haven’t missed your exams yet,” Virgil said, “But I don’t think you’re going to make them. Remus has emailed your professors explaining the situation.”
Roman grabbed onto Virgil’s hands, “Virgil, I can’t miss those exams. What do you mean, I’m not going to make them?”
Virgil tried unsuccessfully to free his hands from Roman’s grip. “I mean, Logan’s taking his exam right now,” Roman jolted. Logan’s exam was tomorrow at 8 am, which means… “So, I think it’s too late for your first exam, regardless. But I don’t think the hospital will let you go today.”
“What?” Roman exclaimed. He saw his twin stir in his chair. He might’ve been a little too loud. But who could blame him? He was about to fail two of his classes. Two of them!
“You almost died, Roman,” Virgil said quietly, “I didn’t know anything until I left my exam, and by then I thought it was too late. I came to the hospital as fast as I could, but they had already taken you away.”
“I… I what?” Roman said, suddenly feeling light-headed.
Remus sat down on the end of Roman’s bed. “The easiest way to explain it was that you were poisoned,” he said.
“Poisoned? By who? How?”
“We’d like to know the ‘by who’ as well,” Remus muttered darkly.
“Your coffee,” Virgil responded, turning back towards Roman, “At least, that’s what Logan gave to the investigators to test.”
“Someone spiked my coffee?” Roman asked, “When could they… oh.” He said as he suddenly came to a realization.
“You know something?” Remus asked, leaning forward.
“Not much,” Roman responded, “But it must’ve happened when I went on a walk around the library. I left my drink on the desk and didn’t have my eyes on it.”
It was then that Janus returned with a nurse in tow.
“I’ll just take some vitals,” the nurse explained, “Right now, we’re just monitoring you, to make sure the poison is completely out of your system.”
Roman nodded as he let the nurse do her job.
“Your history professor agreed to waive your final,” Remus said quietly, “Your physics professor will let you take a make-up later on.”
Roman sighed and leaned back, letting himself fall onto the soft pillows, suddenly feeling very, very tired.
“Just sleep,” Janus advised, running a hand through Roman’s hair. He couldn’t lie; the rhythmic feeling was relaxing, and his eyelids felt heavy again. “We’ll figure it all out later, just focus on getting better.”
This time, rather than the dizzying darkness that had taken over him in a rush, unconsciousness warmly embraced him. He fell asleep with his friends surrounding him, knowing they would be there when he woke up again.