Changing cover cus I can

Update: 10th November 7:13pm;

What the fuck. Why. I couldn't have added, I don't know, something more to this? I could have said this in a fucking OneShot! I filled up space with this!? Why? I might delete it and just write a new OneShot.

I'm deleting this and writing a new OneShot for this book.

Au
—

"We are not lost!" Roman argued, snatching the map away from his partners eyes, speeding up his pace a little so he could read the map by himself. Virgil huffed, rolling his eyes at Roman's denial. "Just face the facts, nimrod, we're lost, and it's your fault" Roman twirled around and glared at the boy, holding the map to his chest with one hand while pointing accusingly at Virgil.

"If it weren't for you deciding to go off track to relieve yourself, we wouldn't be lost!" He countered, once again returning to the map that was swiftly stolen from his grasp by Logan.

"I could have been paired with anyone" he sighed out in annoyance, thrusting the map in Roman's direction once he realised they were, in fact, lost, and the map wouldn't help at all. "But I was paired with three morons who I do not even know" he had repeated this for the millionth time that afternoon. The teachers thought it would be a "good idea" to pair them all together because they didn't know who any of them were, and this trip could bring four strangers together.

"You didn't have to follow us, why didn't you go off with your nerd buddies?" Virgil retorted, grouching. "That would have been irresponsible of me. What was more irresponsible was the actions displayed by Patton, though, who somehow forgot to obtain any teachers' phone number! That was his only job! How do you mess that up, Patton?"

While the three had argued, Patton secluded himself on a log that had fallen over, gently playing with the sleeve of his cardigan as their arguing made his heart turn blue. Figuratively. "I don't know..." he murmured in response to Logan's question, flinching when the tie-loving boy huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Patton knew he was an idiot, he got that a lot from the nerds in the school. He had tried to befriend them once, but when he was met by their sneers and mocking laughter because he didn't know an answer to a 'simple math question' he gave up trying. It seemed no one really wanted to be his friends, the nerds were his last resort - he spent nearly all of his time in different classrooms, chatting happily with the teachers rather than the kids his age. It hurt, but he didn't want to be another issue to everyone's lives, so he bottled it up and kept that hidden away - he did have a flicker for hope for this trip, but it dwindled and died once they started to become lost - especially when the argument started up.

"Let's agree we all had some fault in this" Roman eventually caved, crumpling up the map and stowing it in his backpack. "I had nothing to do with it" Logan fired back, hands clenched by his side. Virgil stared at him in bewilderment, throwing up one arm. "Really? You were supposed to bring the compass!"

"Fine! But if we stayed on the path, we would have no need for a compass!"

"You followed me! I told you all to stay on the path!"

"Sue us for not wanting you to get hurt!" Roman jutted in, glaring at the two boys who were shorter than him.

As their words grew louder and louder, none of them expected to be silenced by a scream. Whirling around, each of their eyes widened and their entire bodies froze as they spotted what Patton had screamed at. A black bear. Admittedly, it wasn't doing anything as of yet, only staring, but that didn't stop the fear that struck each of their hearts.

Slowly, Roman grabbed Patton's arm helping him stand and move away from the bear. "Run" he muttered lowly, enough for all of them to hear. Logan slowly shook his head, trying to talk but Virgil grabbed his arm before he could, and they all fell into a sprint away from the animal who still hadn't moved. As they ran, Logan tried to tell them the best thing to do with black bears is to fight back, but his words of fact fell on deaf ears, so in the end he gave up but didn't stop running - the last thing he wanted to be was lost on his own.

"Wait, wait, stop!" Roman suddenly declared, sliding to a stop just before a deep fall. He grabbed Patton before the boy could slip, and held out an arm in front of Virgil and Logan who both crashed into it, landing on their asses, but no one fell down the land, so with some sort of relief Roman slumped down on a boulder and rubbed his face tiredly, panting like the others.

"Thank you, Roman..." Patton whispered, laying on the ground tiredly, legs achy.

"We wouldn't have needed to be saved if you all just listened to me!" Logan cried, rolling onto his stomach to push himself up. Even if he wanted to argue, the others were too tired to do so. Patton looked defeated, Virgil looked anxious and tired, while Roman looked blank, staring at the ground covered with layers of burnt orange leaves.

Licking his lips, he slumped against a tree, tilting his head up to gaze at the sky barely visible through the thick foliage. It was quite hard to tell, but he knew the sun was setting, as the sky wasn't such a vibrant baby blue as it was earlier that day. Not only did he not have a phone - much like the others - (apart from Patton, but this whole field trip was supposed to make students get a feel for nature, so it was a shitty, burner phone with enough credit to make five calls) - but Logan felt...scared. He knew they could quite easily survive this, but what if someone gets hurt? Bitten by a spider? Or worse?

Breathing in and out deeply, he pushed up from the tree and looked down the drop at the land below, noticing not too far away was a stream. If they followed the water, they were sure to find a way out of this forest.

Turning to his field trip partners, he opened his mouth to speak. "We need to go down here" while gesturing down the very steep hill. Roman looked up from the ground, raising one eyebrow. "Why? We will only get hurt"

"There is a stream down there. If we follow it, we have a better chance of survival"

Virgil hoisted himself up on his elbows, biting his lip in thought. "I'm with nerd on this one" he eventually gave in, laying flat against the ground once more. "Thank you. Patton?" Said boy looked up from his legs, large brown eyes swimming in sadness. "Sure..." he trailed off, almost worried he'd say the wrong thing to the smarter boy who titled his head in confusion, but didn't press anything on the matter.

His quiet voice did catch Virgil's attention, though. The boy glanced over, feeling his heart constrict when he noticed how depressed the boy looked. "Have you got any grand ideas on how to get down there safely, specs?" Roman cocked his head, standing up and stalking over to him.

"I suppose we could go down that beaten down area" he gestured towards the slope that didn't have as much vegetation overtaking it. "Plus, we could hold onto the trees-"

"What if someone falls? Slips? Loses their grip? Then what?" Roman questioned, taking a step closer. Logan took a step back, clenching his jaw.

"If we all hold onto one another, then we are sure to get down safely-"

"But what if we don't? Who will we blame then?"

"Do you have any bright ideas?" Logan shot back darkly.

"I'm sure I could come up with a few that doesn't consist of putting us in danger!"

"I would love to-" Logan couldn't finish, because an strangled yell escaped his throat as he felt himself falling back. In panic, he tried to grip the closest thing to him, which was Roman, but he didn't have much balance on anything, so along with Logan he came tumbling down the hill, knocking and smacking into rocks and trees as they rolled and bounced.

Their cries of pain filled the air around them until they both landed on the flat ground below, Logan beneath Roman who planted and gasped in agony, a few lines of blood dripping down his face, much like Logan who couldn't even fully open his left eye, somewhere in the fall his glasses had been lost, and all he could see was Roman's face, the world around him blurry colours.

"Guys! Are you okay?" Patton called, gripping onto a tree to keep his balance as he stared down at his partners who laid, unmoving. Virgil was hyperventilating, sweat accumulating in his palms as he clenched his hands and tried to keep calm, but he could fell himself falling into a panic attack, unable to control his thrashing thoughts - some told him they were dead, others told him if he didn't help they would be dead, then they joined together to yell at him that this was all his fault.

Somewhere in the mist of actions he couldn't entirely control, he found himself on the ground, heart pounding harshly in his chest, hands shaky as his vision distorted around him. When he felt hands on him, he pushed them away violently, never one for physical comfort in moments like this. "No-stop-can't-" he tried to talk but his words jumbled, and he couldn't get out a coherent sentence.

He felt selfish - which only added to the list of raging thoughts. Selfish moron! Get over yourself and help the two boys!

Feeling an overwhelming sense of dread churn his stomach, his throat clogged up, and he couldn't breathe. Once again, hands were on him, but he thrashed wildly, somewhat telling the person to stop, but at this point Virgil didn't know what he was saying - he felt like he wasn't with the world anymore, he couldn't feel anything, only his intense emotions circling through his body like tidal waves.

"Virgil, breathe, you need to breathe, long deep breaths, please, Virgie" He heard Patton's voice, but it was muffled, like he was underwater, trying to understand a voice pulling him up. When two hands wrapped up in his own, he tried to focus on the blue blob before him, breath wavering and hitching as he drew in through his nose for five seconds, and out his mouth for the same amount.

With Patton's words of encouragement, and the continuous breathing, he slowly felt like he could mostly control himself again, and finally feel aware of his surroundings. His breathing was back, his vision was, too, along with his hearing. But his heart was crumpled with the weight of fear and anxiety, because those two boys were still down there, dead or alive; yet to be determined.

"Virgil, look at me" Patton soothed, resting one hand on his cheek. "You're okay, I'm here, the boys are okay, they're sitting up. We need to get to them, okay? Can you do that? Can you stand?" Patton didn't mean to bombard the boy with so many questions, but he wanted to get to Roman and Logan to make sure they were okay along with helping Virgil.

The darkly dressed boy nodded, not at all caring he clung to Patton while standing up. Patton didn't mind, either, in fact he felt...warm. With one arm around Virgil's waist, and the other gripping to trees and branches, the two slowly slid down the bank, never letting go of the other with their free hands.

While Virgil had the panic attack, the two boys slowly woke up from their short, passed out moment.

Roman groaned, using his shaky arms to push himself up from Logan who stared up at Roman with glossy eyes. He was scared. It broke Roman's heart to see him in such a state. "I'm-I'm sorry-" he whispered, hissing and gripping his wrist as he tried to move it.

"Shut up" Roman demanded, "that was my fault, I pushed you to the edge, I'm just..." he trailed off, closing his eyes for a few moments. "I'm glad you're alive" he finally managed, finding himself unable to meet Logan's gaze. Instead, he eased himself up off of Logan's body, favouring his right arm that burned with pain. His legs weren't entirely a-okay, but he could stand on them without crumpling to the ground, so while holding his right arm to his chest, he helped Logan stand.

"Ah!" The boy cried, falling into Roman's chest. His left leg seethed with pain, and Logan found himself crying at the sudden agony he found himself in. Worried, Roman wrapped both arms around the boy, even if his right screamed in protest. Slowly, they both sat down again, Logan mostly in his lap as he rolled up his ripped trouser leg to see a harsh bruise wrapped around his ankle and shin.

"Shit.." he cursed, falling against Roman's chest for a moment. "We...we need to get out of here" Logan sounded urgent, lifting his head to stare into Roman's eyes. "We will, I promise you" he replied, and again helped the boy stand, even if most of his weight was on Roman, he still hissed and whimpered, so without any hesitance Roman scooped Logan up bridal style.

"Roman-"

"Please don't protest, let me help" Roman begged quietly, biting down on his tongue with the pain resonating through his arm. Not too long later, Patton and Virgil rushed over, questioning them as to what hurt most, and if they were alright.

After a brief explanation, they all rushed to the stream and followed it through the woods. Frequently, they made stops so Roman could gain some energy back from carrying Logan around. The others offered to take his place, but in reality none of them were strong enough to carry Logan in such a position for as long as Roman was. Even with their offers, though, Roman declined, somewhere in his heart telling him he should be the one doing this. Maybe it was his unhealthy incline to save people, or maybe the guilt, for it was his fault they had both fallen.

Night had fallen by the time the boys reached the edge of the forest, although life wasn't so simple. Before them laid stretched out lands of field after fields. Even if they were now in the open, they weren't anywhere near home.

"We should rest" Roman suggested, letting Logan rest against a tree. "And cuddle for warmth!" Patton suggested, briefly glancing at Virgil unintentionally. The emo-boy noticed, the darkness around them hiding his light, pink twinge of a blush.

"Alright..." Logan sighed, rubbing his cold, bare arms. "I suppose I'll cuddle Mr. Autocorrect, over here" Roman purposely sounded like he was against the idea jokingly, leaning against the tree beside him. "Joy" tie-boy murmured sarcastically, smiling briefly at the laughter that bubbled out of Roman's mouth. The regal boy curled both arms around Logan's waist and pulled him close, allowing him to hold both of his arms between their chests so they could conceal some sort of warmth.

Opposite them, Patton and Virgil snuggled together on a soft pile of leaves. Virgil had unzipped his jacket, allowing Patton to wrap both arms under its warmth and around his torso, his face nestled into his neck. Virgil had laid rigid for a few minutes, his own arms tightly pressed up against his back - he had never been cuddled before, so this was a new and - admittedly - amazing occurrence he knew he would never be able to get enough of.

Even on the uncomfortable ground, being cuddled up to someone who made each boy feel so warm allowed them to fall into a peaceful slumber.

Next morning, they carried on with their voyage across the fields to see if they could find any farm houses to use their telephone (seeing as Patton admitted to losing their shared, burner phone awhile back). Instead of arguing, they laughed, shared jokes, and shot banter. It was great relief for all of them - being surrounded by such a hostile atmosphere like before was quite draining, and strained on each of their hearts.

In the end, they did find a farm house. The family welcomed them in, and called the police. No time at all, Roman and Logan were laying in hospital beds - Roman with a cast on his arm, Logan with a cast on his leg. Patton and Virgil visited on both the two days the boys were there, and made sure to accompany them when they could finally leave.

Somehow, even after their arguments that was held on the field trip, they all fell into a comfortable friendship with each other.

For some, it was...more than just a friendship.

—

8:36pm