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Thomas isn't the type of person to get angry. There are moments when he gets really mad, yes, but even those are rare. It's even rarer for him to feel this way.
Tonight, Thomas was fuming.
He unlocked his door clumsily, not caring if he woke up the neighbours. He marched to the middle of the room, turned on the camera, and said what he wanted to say ever since he'd set foot on the wedding site. "What the fuck, guys?"
Patton appeared in his usual spot, although it was clear that he didn't want to be here in the slightest. He was playing with the sleeves of his hoodie and fidgeting badly. If anything, he was almost copying Virgil's nervous tics. In any other situation, the sight alone would have brought a smile to Thomas's face. Tonight? It just reminded him of what he could have avoided.
"E-ease it with the language, kiddo! You don't wanna hurt our audience feelings!"
Roman appeared, his face a slightly calmer version of Patton's although still showing the visible guilt that he felt. "Patton's right! You don't need to take your frustration out on our devoted fans!"
Thomas forced himself to calm down, taking several deep breaths while the two sides watched in nervous silence. It didn't do much, but at least he didn't feel like smashing the nearest object. "You're right-" even though you're the cause of all this. He turned his face to the camera and sighed. "I'm sorry, guys. I didn't mean to lash out on you." He sighed again and stared at the ground. His eyes landed on the dress shoes he wore, and the shoes reminded him about the wedding, and the wedding reminded him of the callback, and the callback reminded him-
"Thomas, stay with us." Roman snapped his fingers twice to get Thomas's attention. There was a slight pleading look in his red and green eyes, and Thomas nodded slowly as he stopped himself from going into a downward spiral. When Roman saw that he had his attention, he let out a quick sigh and gave Thomas a small crooked smile. "Good. Now let's try to retell what happened today."
"Well," Thomas started slowly, going back to when the day wasn't a complete disaster. The task wasn't that hard to do. For the vast majority of the day it was spent with him dreading going to the wedding, and he ended up overworking Virgil in the process. At least that explains why the anxious side isn't with them tonight. He then spend the next five hours driving to Lee and Mary Lee's venue, and that was when the day began to go sour.
There were no one there. For the next fifteen minutes or so he just... walked around the area. The location was beautiful, with a perfect view of the ocean and the sun casting a brilliant orange glow over the horizon. Twilight was creeping around the corner, and pretty soon it will be night. That didn't concern Thomas much- what really made him nervous was the fact that he was here for half an hour and no one was here yet.
He checked the time. The wedding should be starting in five minutes or so. He stood up from the chair that he had temporally borrowed and dialled Lee. It took them a while to pick up, but soon he heard their voice over the other end. "Hey, Thomas! What's up?"
"Hi, Lee. Um, I was wondering what happened to the wedding? It's tonight, right?"
Thomas heard a person's voice in the background, and Lee shouted a response before replying. "The wedding isn't today, Tom- it's tomorrow."
Thomas felt his heart drop. "I-I'm sorry?"
"Yeah! Remember? Mary Lee wanted it to be held on the fourteenth because of the full moon, and honestly I can't blame her. With the view we'll get from the sea-"
"I-I'm sorry, I have to go."
"Oh. Is everything okay? You sound-"
Lee didn't get to finish. Thomas all but collapsed onto the chair from earlier as he stared at his phone. His hands were freezing cold.
The wedding was tomorrow. The wedding was tomorrow.
How the fuck did he mess up so bad?
The drive back was spent in a sort of numb-like state. Thomas couldn't remember the last time he'd felt like this. How did he mess up the dates? He could have gone to the callback. He could have gotten the part. He could have been in a movie. His one chance of moving ahead in his career is gone- he basically threw away his shot.
It was when he was almost nearing his house did his feelings came back, and they did so with a vengeance. By the time he parked his car and unlocked the door, he was fuming. Great, now he made himself mad again.
"How did we mess up the dates?! I could have gone to the callback- I could have been in a movie! But no! You two were so bent on me attending the wedding that I threw logic out of the window!"
"I-I know, Thomas! I'm just as upset about this as you!" Roman stuttered, and it was true. He did look genuinely upset at the missed opportunity. "But fear not! There'll be plenty of other opportunities for us to take in the future! We'll just have to be patient and-"
"You don't get it, Roman!" Thomas interrupted, his anger dripping off his words like acid. "This could have been my one chance of being something big, but now it's gone! You of all people should know how hard it is to get casted into movies!"
Roman dragged his hand through his face. "Of course I know that, Thomas!"
"Then stop trying to feed me bullshit then!"
Roman scoffed and place a hand on his chest. "Bitch, the only person who's doing that is you!"
Their voices began to overlap into a furious storm, and the only thing Patton could do was watch. Seeing the people he care about the most throwing such hateful words at one another was unnerving enough, but knowing that he was the cause of all this hate made it ten times worse. He took a step back and found himself flushed against the wall, and it took everything in him to not duck out. That didn't stop him from pressing his hands against his ears to block out what the two were saying to each other.
It worked about as well as you'd expect.
"You know what? I'm done listening to you, Roman! I should have just listened to Deceit instead! At least he knows what I want!"
It was too much. Everything was too much. Patton let out an anguished scream, cutting the argument in half. He didn't want this to happen. He didn't want any of this to happen.
"Stop fighting! Two of you, just- just stop fighting for two seconds! Thomas is right- we should have listened to Deceit! We should have gone to the callback! We could have avoided this whole mess if we had just listened to Thomas, but we didn't! We-" His voice broke as tears filled his vision. "I thought that we were doing the right thing. I thought that I was doing the right thing. But we didn't, a-and..." Patton could hear his voice growing smaller and smaller until it was barely above a whisper. He looked at Thomas with pleading eyes. "I'm so sorry, Thomas. I didn't mean for this to happen."
It was... hard to stay mad now. Patton was trying so hard not to cry, and yet he was failing miserably. Now the only thing he wants to do is reach over and give him a hug. Instead he could only sigh and let his arms fall to the side. It was so clear that he wasn't the only one who was affected by this. Even though Roman might not be showing it now, the lights that was usually in his eyes were all but gone. He looked like he'd lost the biggest battle in his life, and Thomas realized that taking his anger on them probably wasn't a good idea.
"You're... right. You're right, Pat, and I'm sorry for... being such a huge dick about it." Thomas turned his attention to Roman, who looked at him through nervous eyes. "Roman, I'm sorry for calling you all those horrible things. It was wrong of me to take out my anger on you when you clearly feel the same way about this entire mess."
Roman gave him another crooked smile and shrugged it off. "It's no big deal, Thomas. It's clear that we royally messed up here. But we'll have more opportunities in the future! One day we'll be on the big screen!"
Patton smiled slightly at the sight and wiped away the few remaining tears. "Roman's right, kiddo!"
Everything still sucked, but Thomas gave the two side a smile. "Yeah. We'll get another chance someday."