* ╱ 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯.

‘that is a fact.’ roman had to admit. and with the way this food smelled, it had to be a pretty great creation. ‘you finished it without me?’ roman whined dramatically, ‘nooo, i thought we were gonna watch it.’ he pouted like a little kid, but then smirked as he said, ‘well guess i’ll have something to do when you’re at work.’ he took one of the cans, studying the outside while callie talked. ‘yeah that sounds fine with me. i wish we could leave the cleaning up till tomorrow but..’ he looked up, glancing around the room, ‘i think it might be too messy for that.’ with a big sigh, he walked over the the stove to turn it off and plate the food, putting a plate in front of callie and finally sitting down himself. ‘you know, actually this might be better cause i’ve wanted to talk to you about something. or tell you something.. i don’t know, i kind of think i know what i’m gonna do but i want your opinion.’ he rambled, poking his macaroni with his fork. he’d been thinking about this for a while, and finally decided that he probably should go for it if it kept bugging him so much, but he always appreciated callie’s advice, ‘i think i want to go back to school?’

‘at least if ian comes home he’ll probably help us clean.’ roman said, knowing how his roommate couldn’t handle a messy apartment. something roman had clashed with quite a few times before. after seeing callie laugh at him trying to take revenge by flicking water at her, he finally felt himself relax a little after such a stressful day. he hadn’t really made it better for himself getting angry at callie first thing after walking through the door. ‘i do have faith! but with the state of the kitchen right now..’ he grinned sheepishly, not wanting to ruin their sudden shift in mood again. he walked over to the stove, avoiding puddles along the way, and peeking into the pot and feeling even more hungry when he smelled the food. after turning on the stove and while waiting for callie to grab towels he got two plates, ready to eat himself into a food coma. ‘italian soda things?’ roman turned to face callie and see what she was talking about. ‘sure? what are they supposed to taste like? also do we wanna watch a movie or a show? we could continue that thing we watched yesterday.’

roman instinctively lifted his hands to block the water currently drenching him but it didn’t really matter. within seconds his shirt was soaked and water dripped from his hair onto his face. he wasn’t even sure if it was on purpose or not, but either way he felt like he deserved it. ‘did you just say mac n cheese?’ he asked as if he hadn’t just been attacked with a spray head. water was seeping into his socks as callie redirected the spray head to the floor. ‘you might wanna.. you know.’ roman gestured from the head to the sink. he couldn’t help but laugh at the current situation. they’d meant to clean the kitchen up, but it was even more of a mess now. he ran his fingers through his hair, wiping wet curls out of his field of vision and then flicking his hands at callie to fling some droplets her way. ‘but did the mac n cheese actually work? like did you succeed? because i think i need to eat before i start cleaning up this shit.’

roman stopped in the middle of stacking up dirty dishes, frozen in place as his tired mind finally put the pieces together. ‘you-’ he turned around to look at callie, still holding a dirty plate, ‘you were making me dinner? you were making us dinner.’ he closed his eyes for a moment. ‘yeah i guess dick would be the right term.’ he said softly, ‘i didn’t know i swear.’ he continued cleaning up the kitchen, trying to think of a way to make this up to callie. ‘i could just clean everything on my own if you want?’ he finally offered. ‘what- uh, what were you making anyways?’

of course she got defensive, in the back of his mind roman couldn’t even blame her. it wasn’t like he was acting all nice and sweet right now. ‘okay, so let’s clean it now because i also still have to make myself dinner or something...’ he said, not wanting to let their current conversation escalate into something bigger. he didn’t want to spend money on yet another take out order, but the thought of having to cook also really made him want to just crawl into bed and never come out again. roman sighed, rubbing his eyes in an attempt soothe the mild headache that was spreading through his head now. ‘you do that part, i do this part.’ he gestured, pushing past callie without waiting for an answer and getting to work.

‘hold on to what?!’ roman cried out as well. he was trying very hard to not panic too much, because that was never going to make anything better, he needed to be able to still think straight, but it wasn’t working very well since he kept sinking lower and leo pulling on his arm was barely doing anything. ‘rope? why would i bring rope this wasn’t supposed to be that adventurous. just... i don’t know? google something? call 911?’ he said, trying to reach out to the solid ground surrounding him, maybe he’d be able to pull himself out, though it didn’t seem very likely.

roman: it's me and harry styles meeting in paris and falling in love

roman instinctively kissed callie back and then he reached up to wipe whatever was on her cheek away but he froze halfway, instead gesturing to the mess in the kitchen. ‘work was.. not great but god didn’t i ask you to clean this shit up last time?’ he even sounded harsh and whiny to himself, but not enough to actually try to change his current demeanor. it was just the last straw after a day full of last straws. he sighed, shifting his gaze back to his girlfriend in front of him ‘what were you even doing?’

usually penny was roman’s hiking buddy, but since she’d left he didn’t have anyone to go explore with anymore. roman hadn’t expected to actually be able to convince leo to come along, it had been sort of a joke to even try, but somehow here they were. maybe he should’ve known this wouldn’t end well for the both of them, but especially for roman himself. only a few days ago he’d had a whole conversation with callie about how as kids they thought quicksand would be a much bigger problem than it actually turned out to be. so of course, that was what roman had walked right into, and he was sinking deeper into it by the second. ‘just fucking grab my hand and pull!’ he yelled at leo, an expression of pure panic on his face. ‘just pull me out, i don’t care how!’

roman: i was gonna put my mom but no one can compare to you

roman usually loved his job, he really did. he liked talking to whoever came up to the front desk and annoying his colleagues but lately it had just kind of dawned on him that he couldn’t possibly do this for his entire life. and although he had been pushing that thought away as much as he could, today there had been just a few too many karens coming to his desk. at the end of the day he left his shift with a mild headache and just feeling like all he wanted to do was fall asleep, preferably wrapped in callie’s arms. that wasn’t what he came home to however. he didn’t even register what the cause of the messy kitchen must have been, he just saw clutter and things he’d have to clean up after already having a hard day. ‘callie what the fuck?’

roman: i'm just creating a whole new language

roman: it's effortless

roman: thanks for your support man it means a lot

roman: kind of tempted to just leave it. thoughts?

roman did his homework very selectively. he really only put effort in the subjects that he actually thought were interesting, it just so happened that he’d done the reading for this class, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do someone else’s homework when he’d rather go explore the forbidden forest with ryder and leo as they’d planned to do later. ‘how about i just help you make it, right here right now. it’s only like.. what? 10 minutes of work? in return i will just eat all these leftover pancakes.’ roman said, already sitting down and filling his plate. ‘so yeah, next answer is c..’ he leaned it to read the next question. ‘the one after that is b again.’

‘it was really bad.’ roman replied dramatically, pretending to wipe away a tear, though a smile was already breaking through on his face. ‘same spot, of course. and i need those notes. you’re a life saver. to be fair i just didn’t read the last chapter and then tried to do the homework so that’s probably why it was really bad. but i had better things to do, in my defense.’ roman rambled. ‘so what’s your next class anyway.’