My Dark Strange Son-Part 5
Part 1-Part 2-Part 3-Part 4
At the end of the day, Virgil and Roman had agreed to meet up. They both decided that the sooner they get done with this project, the better. Virgil’s idea had been the winner from their brainstorming, so they would make an alternate story. One that was not only a twenty first century love story, but a gay love story. They both thought that it would be an interesting take on the play, as both males were gay, neither one admitting it to the other, however.
Virgil stood at his own locker, waiting for the theater geek to get out of his last hour, drama class. It had been running late, which annoyed Virgil, but he had his music, which made the wait a little bit more bearable. At last, he saw Roman hurrying down the hallway. “Took you long enough.” Virgil said, a smirk plastering his face. “I had to stay for a moment, after class meeting.” Roman mumbles in response, getting to his locker.
“So, we’re going to your place, right?” Virgil asks, a hint of impatience in his voice. He followed Roman to his locker, Virgil’s book bag noisily bouncing on his back as he does so. “No. My dad has some of his theater buddies at the house tonight..” Roman mumbles as he throws items into his bag. “Your dad’s into theater, like you?” Roman looks up at Virgil, a look of disbelief on his face. “You can’t tell from my last name? Sanders?” “Uh..no, I’m not into theater stuff.” Roman rolls his eyes. “You should be. Haven’t you heard of Thomas Sanders?”
Virgil thinks for a moment. “Maybe I’ve heard the name somewhere..” “Well, that’s my father.” “Okay..I guess we could go to my house. We’re walking there, though.” Roman sighs and shuts his locker, lifting his seemingly heavy school bag. “Fine, let’s go.” Roman heads directly for the front entrance, passing Virgil. “Hey,you don’t even know where I live!!”
They walked down the street in silence. Roman was humming, but Virgil didn’t notice, with his headphones blasting. He wanted to start talking to Roman, he just didn’t know where to start. He wanted to apologize, but he didn’t know how Roman would respond to an apology. Virgil was half tempted to ask where Roman lives, but again, he didn’t want to risk anything. So all they did was talk in silence, until Virgil felt Roman nudge him,
“Hey, this is my house. Would you mind me stopping to throw my stuff in?” Virgil shut off his music and nodded. “Go ahead. My house isn’t too far from here.” Roman gave a polite smile before running across the street and stepping into his house. Virgil looked over the house. It was a pretty well sized house, two stories. It had a nice roof for star-gazing. Virgil shook the thought, why would that matter? Virgil then realizes just how close Roman’s house was to his.
On the opposite side of the street as Roman’s house, and a few houses down, was Virgil’s house. Virgil was shocked at how close they lived to each other. He had probably looked at his house many times, not even thinking about who lived there. And it happened to be Roman Sanders. Virgil was taking out of his thoughts as Roman ran across the street over to him. “Alright, let’s get to your house.” Virgil nodded and started walking. His abrupt stop in front of his house surprised Roman.
“Wow..we do not live far from each other, do we?” “Nope.” Virgil replied, heading for his home, Roman following suite. As they entered, they were greeted by Patton, who appeared to be baking cookies. “Hey, kiddo! Did you bring a friend?” Virgil shook his head. “More like person-I-got-stuck-doing-a-project-with. Where’s dad?” “Oh, he had to stay at the school to monitor the detention kids.” “That sucks.” Virgil says, slipping his shoes off, motioning for Roman to do the same.
Once both had their shoes off, Virgil and Roman headed upstairs. It wasn’t much of an upstairs, but it was all Virgil’s. It’s basically just a large bedroom with a bathroom attached. His parents’ room was downstairs. Roman stared in awe at Virgil’s huge, and dark, bedroom. Purple and black was definitely a theme. “Wow.” Roman mumbled, stepping into the room. “Can I assume that it’s the complete opposite of your room?” “Kinda..” Roman muttered, looking around the room.
“So..are we gonna work on the project?” Virgil asks awkwardly. Roman nods. “Ah, yes. Is it going to be an essay or..?” “Um..yeah, kinda. I was thinking we could re-write a scene from the original.” Virgil steps into his room and shuts the door, looking at Roman for feedback. Roman tries to hide the smile that was forming on his face. “That sounds fun!” Virgil looks down, trying to hide his blushing. “What scene were you thinking of?” Roman asks. “Well, obviously the most well known scene.”
Roman thinks for a second. There are two scenes that he thinks of immediately. He decides to go with the one that he would expect Virgil to go with. “The death scene?” Roman immediately regrets his assumption, knowing that stereotyping people was not the way to go about. “I was, um..actually thinking about the ‘wherefore art thou’ scene.” “That will be..interesting to translate.” Roman says, smiling.
“Yep, and we should get to work. Go to the computer over there-” Virgil points to a desk at a corner of his room. “-to research the scene and translate lines. I will start writing a rough draft of the scene on my laptop.” Roman stares at Virgil for a few seconds, taken aback by him suddenly taking control of the whole project. “Let’s get working.” Virgil says after a few seconds of silence. Roman nods and heads to Virgil’s desk. Virgil goes to his bed and begins working.
Before they knew it, it was six o’ clock and their brains were exhausted and their stomachs were hungry. “I think that’s enough work for now. How far did you get?” Virgil asks, stretching his arms. “I..um..copy and pasted the original scene to a word document..” “Is that it?” Virgil says, annoyed. He shuts his laptop and sets it on the table next to his bed. Roman spun the chair around to face Virgil. “I mean, I tweaked a few parts, but I don’t know exactly what we’re doing with this..” Virgil sighs. “I’ll just..send you my draft later. I’m too mentally exhausted to deal with it right now.
“Virgil! Time to eat!” Patton calls from downstairs. Virgil stands up and heads for the door. “Come on, Roman. Let’s not keep my dads waiting.” Roman nods, following Virgil out the bedroom door. When they get downstairs, they see Patton, standing in the kitchen with oven mitts and an apron, and Logan sat at the table in the dining room. “Oh, you have a friend over.” Logan says, looking over to his husband. “Why didn’t I know he had a friend over?” Patton simply shrugs, walking into the dining room and setting the food on the table.
“Oh, you’re welcome to stay for dinner, um..” “Roman Sanders, sir.” “Well, Roman, you are welcome to stay for dinner.” Patton corrects himself, smiling. “That’s a very kind offer, but I wouldn’t want to be a bother.” “All right, well, take care, then.” Roman nods, then looks at Virgil. “See ya, Virgil.” “Oh, um, yeah, see ya.” Roman gives a small smile then leaves the house. “He’s cute, isn’t he, Virgil?” Patton says. “W-what! No, dad, he’s not even really my friend. Why would I think he’s cute?!” Patton just chuckles and shakes his head.