Janus was staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom. He didn’t know what time it was, but it was night. He was probably supposed to be asleep, oh well. 

Janus wasn’t sure how long he had zoned out for. Maybe an hour? Maybe two? Who knows? The last thing he remembered was Logan dropping him off, sitting down on the couch, and then he blinked and he was in his room. 

“--blem!” He heard his mother telling his father in the other room. “He can’t keep living like this! Your son spends most of his day staring at nothing, he’s going to kill himself at this rate!”

“He needs time.” His father said. “You know how serious--”

“And we’ve given him time, Damian. He should be over that boy by now!” She sighed. “He needs to grow up and find someone new! Have you seen how he--?”

Janus tuned them out.

He pulled the blankets up a little more around himself. His mom thought he was being childish, huh? Janus supposed he was. It was pathetic to be so hung up over someone like this. Why couldn’t he just move on? 

Had he depended more on Remus than he thought he did? 

“Janus,” Remus laughed as Janus latched himself onto his back, “I have to go! I have work!” 

“Take the day off.” Janus tightened his hold on him, burying his face in the crevice of Remus’ neck. “Stay here with me.”

“I took yesterday off.” Remus replied lightly, grabbing his shoes. “And I took the day before that off too! I gotta go!” He laughed.

“Noooo…” Janus whined into Remus’ neck. “Tell them you’re sick.”

“I need money, Jan-Jan.” Remus chuckled. “Why are you so clingy today?” 

“‘M not clingy.” Janus grumbled from his position on Remus’ back.

“Babe, I gotta put my coat on. You need to get off.” Remus told him, a smile on his face. 

Janus removed his head from Remus’ neck, forcing tears to come to his eyes. “You don’t love me anymore.” He whimpered.

“What?!” Remus barked out a laugh. “When did I say that?!”

“You want me to get off. You don’t love me anymore.” He sniffled, crying overdramatically. 

Remus laughed. “Babe.”

Janus cried louder.

“Babe!” Remus repeated, louder this time. Janus stopped his wailing, sniffling a bit. “I love you so very much.” Remus told him. Janus hummed in reply, giving Remus’ shoulder light kisses. “I really want money, though. So please get off my back.” 

Janus stared at Remus, aghast. Remus could see the expression, apparently, because he burst into laughter again.

Janus was snapped out of his thoughts as he heard a door slam. 

“Lindie!” His father exclaimed, and Janus could hear his mother grabbing her car keys. 

“I’ll be back in the morning.” She growled, and a few moments later the front door was opened and then closed. 

Janus held his breath as he heard his father release a loud curse. 

---

His mother wasn’t back in the morning, was the first thing he noticed. 

“Where’s mom?” He had asked his father.

“Gone.” His father replied blankly. 

“Gone where?” Janus furrowed his brow.

“I don’t know.” His father turned to make breakfast. “She’ll be back soon.” 

Janus nodded slowly. “Well, I’m gonna go to school.” He informed his father. 

“Okay.” His father replied. 

Janus waited for him to say something more. When he didn’t, Janus sighed and moved to wait for Logan outside.

---

“Do you think I’m pathetic, Lo?” Janus asked during the ride to school, eyes gazing blankly out the window. 

“We’ve been over this.” Logan hummed calmly. “I don’t think you’re pathetic.” 

“My mom thinks I’m pathetic.” Janus mumbled. Logan frowned, glancing at him briefly. 

"Did she say that to you?"

"No, she said it to my dad. I just happened to overhear it."

“Well, she’s wrong.” Logan hummed. “She doesn’t understand that everyone deals with things differently, and it takes some people longer than others to process things that have hurt them.”

“Most people don’t spend all day thinking about how terrible they were to their ex.”

“But you’re not most people. You’re you.” Logan told him. “And you’re unique, don’t try and conform yourself to what other people expect of you. I’ll support you through all of your endeavors.” 

“Thanks, Lo.” Janus looked over at him.

Logan had a completely neutral expression on his face, but Janus had known him long enough to see the warmth in his eyes. “You’re welcome.”

---

"Janus? Mr. Orm?"

Janus glanced up at his teacher, who had been calling his name for the past five minutes. She smiled sarcastically when she saw him looking. “Ah, glad to see you’ve returned to the world of the living! What’s the answer to number five?”

Janus glanced up at problem number five. It was a jumble of letters, numbers, and symbols that he didn’t even know existed about a week ago. 

“No clue.” He muttered honestly. “Maybe you should ask someone who knows.”

“That defeats the purpose of ‘teaching,’ doesn’t it, Mr. Orm? After all, I’m trying to make it so you understand.” She crossed her arms. “Though, that’s a bit difficult if you keep daydreaming in class.

He hadn’t been daydreaming. That wasn’t the right word for it.

Disassociating was a bit more accurate. After all, he thought class had only just begun, but he glanced up at the clock and saw they had about 4 minutes left.

At least he hadn’t been out for long. It wasn’t so bad this time.

His mouth moved to form some sort of intelligent response to the teacher’s comment, but no sound came out. She hummed at his silence, apparently interpreting it as her victory.

“Please pay more attention, Mr. Orm. I wouldn’t want to have to contact your parents.” She said to him. “Now, do you know the answer to the question, Mr. Sova?”

Janus felt a scowl form on his face involuntarily, glancing over at Remy Sova.

He looked up from his phone, which was hidden underneath his desk. “Hm? Oh.” He murmured. “Uh,” He squinted at the board through his sunglasses, “roughly...83.4, yeah?”

“Right.” The teacher nodded. “Perfect, actually. Good job, Mr. Sova.” 

“I do my best.” Remy murmured, looking back at his phone. 

“You should take some lessons from Mr. Sova here, Mr. Orm.” The teacher said to him, which was really just what Janus had wanted to hear.

He huffed, slumping a bit in his chair. He glanced at Remy, who didn’t even look up at the mention of his name. 

He glanced over at Remy’s phone, curious as to what exactly the coffee addict was doing.

He was texting someone, it seemed.

He narrowed his eyes, trying to read the contact name. He usually wasn’t this nosy, but he was feeling particularly intrusive today.

Remus Prince <3

Janus frowned. He didn’t care anymore. It wasn’t that he was jealous, no. Remus wasn’t even his boyfriend anymore. He just didn’t wanna peep into Remy Sova’s love life.

What love life? Remus clearly wasn’t into him. Janus knew Remus’ type, and Remy wasn’t it.

Janus lightly scolded his brain. That was such a petty thought. 

Based on the size of the text bubbles, Remus’ replies weren’t very interesting. One word, maybe two word answers to Remy’s messages that were filled with emojis.

Janus felt a small part of him laugh in amusement at Remy, the rest of him just felt pity. Remy wasn’t a bad person, but Janus didn’t like the thought of him dating Remus. 

He looked away from Remy, instead choosing to actually try and pay attention in class. 

About three minutes into this endeavor, the bell rang.

A/N:

The books I'm working on:

Book 1 - Ghosts, gangs, mystery

Book 2 - Zombies, death

Book 3 - Superheroes, villains, traitors

Book 4 - a...highschool breakup???