-

"Y/n as much as I enjoy eating takeout, I feel like you have an alternative motive," Tommy remarks the following Wednesday. "You never willingly buy me food unless you do,"

"I've willingly bought you food before," Y/n objects.

"Only when I say I'll pay you back,"

He rolls his eyes before sitting down at the dining room table. But when he reaches for the bag of food in front of him, Y/n smacks his hand away.

"Ow!"

"Wilbur's gonna be here in a second, we're waiting for him," She scolds.

"Why's he coming?"

"Because he's our friend and we can invite him over for dinner from time-to-time,"

"He's a liability if he's causing me to starve to death," Tommy reaches for the bag again. Y/n grabs it and moves it to the counter, out of his reach. "Hey! Y/nnnnnnn-"

A knock at the door cuts him off. She's about to go get it, but the boy runs to the door to do it before her.

"Wilbur's here!" He announces loudly.

My neighbors probably hate me from all his yelling...

Y/n smiles at Wilbur, ignoring Tommy when he grabs the bag of takeout away from her to bring to the table.

"I almost thought you weren't going to show up," She whispers to him.

"I almost didn't," Wilbur replies, chuckling softly. "But this is important,"

"What's important?" Tommy asks, overhearing their hushed voices. "Why are you both acting weird?"

The other two exchange glances before Y/n takes a seat at the table across from him. Wilbur, obviously feeling tense, lingers awkwardly where he is nearby.

"Tommy, there's something important that you need to know," She begins, looking over her shoulder at Wilbur for approval. He just smiles a little when they momentarily lock eyes. "Uh...Wilbur and I are...dating..."

Tommy just stares at her for a while, then moves his gaze to Wilbur.

"What...?" He finally murmurs.

"We're dating," Wilbur repeats, smiling a little.

"But I thought you said you weren't," Tommy responds.

"Because we wanted to see if it would work first," Y/n explains. "And it has been working,"

"How long have you been hiding this?"

"A couple weeks," She shoots Wilbur a nervous glance, but finds that he was avoiding eye contact with both of his friends.

"Why do you guys have to date each other though?!" Tommy stands up as his voice becomes increasingly angry. "I thought you were fine being friends!"

"Tommy what's the matter with you?" Y/n asks.

"No! What's the matter with you? Both of you!" He shouts.

"Tommy-" Wilbur tries to finally speak up, but by then Tommy is already walking out of the room. He goes into the office and slams the door shut.

Y/n lets out a heavy sigh and runs her hands through her hair. She looks back at Wilbur again, who seems to have the same concerned expression on his face.

"Well..." She mumbles awkwardly. "That went..."

"Not good..." He finishes.

Y/n nods in agreement and sits there for a minute, trying to process what had just happened.

"I'm...just gonna go..." Wilbur mumbles.

"Okay," She does her best to smile at him. "I'll see you later,"

"Yeah..."

Y/n feels her smile disappear when he refuses to look her way. Wilbur sees himself out, and the house becomes eerily quiet all of a sudden in the absence of her friends.

No longer feeling hungry, she stores the takeout away in the fridge for later. She debates trying to talk to Tommy as well, but decides that it would probably be better to let him calm down a while first.

Y/n goes into her room and tries to distract herself instead with work. She had been using her laptop a lot more since Tommy had moved into her office, so she was able to do her editing without bothering him.

Time felt like it was passing slowly, but by the time she finally pays attention to the clock, it was well past midnight.

Dammit...

Y/n rubs the tiredness from her eyes and ignores the late hour. If she tried to go to sleep she knew her mind would only be plagued with an unholy amount of negative overthinking.

Okay...I need to import the title card for...wait, what was I doing again...?

Now aware of the time, she can't stop focusing on how much she just wanted to go to bed. Her mind was finding it harder and harder to think fluidly. Y/n frowns before slapping her laptop shut.

She checks her phone in silent hopes that maybe Wilbur had texted her, but there were now new messages there to note.

This is my fault...this whole thing was my idea...

Finally she lays back in bed. Just as she had predicted, her brain keeps her away with a million stupid thoughts about what had just happened. It takes her almost 3 more hours just to fall asleep.

-

The following morning she tries to check on Tommy, but he just tells her to go away when she knocks on the office door.

"Tommy I just want to talk,"

"We're talking right now. And now we're not," He snaps from the other side of the door. "Goodbye,"

Y/n lets out a heavy sigh. "Okay...I'll come check on you later,"

"Don't,"

She eats a bowl of cereal for breakfast before busying herself with work in her room again. At one point she hears Tommy come out of his room, but when she calls out his name, the only reply she gets is rushed shuffling as he apparently hurries back into he office.

Y/n texts Wilbur a few times, but after receiving no replies from him either, she decides not to bother him any more.

That day she felt more alone than she had been since she had first moved to Brighton. Her cat hangs out with her for the morning and most of the afternoon, but otherwise she doesn't talk to anyone else for several hours.

Some time around 4 o'clock, Niki calls asking if she wanted to play minecraft on-stream with her. But since her laptop wouldn't run the game and Tommy wanted nothing to do with her, Y/n comes up with an excuse and politely declines.

After that, she tries to call Wilbur. But just by her luck, the phone eventually goes to voice mail.

Y/n sits there for a while, trying to keep herself from breaking down. The loneliness was finally sinking in with its entirety. She debated calling Niki back just to try and have someone to talk to, but then remembers that she was going live soon. She didn't want to be a bother.

In one last effort, she sends Wilbur another text.

> Y/n: is everything okay? please just say something

She waits for a response for almost an hour, but there's no reply.

By the time the sun had gone down outside, she was done with all of her editing projects for the next few days. Her eyes and head hurt from staring at the laptop screen for so long.

I don't need a break...I need to stay busy...

She was still tired from not sleeping the previous night. At some point she ends up nodding off until she ends up falling backwards and snapping herself awake again.

After the initial shock passes, Y/n almost immediately falls asleep again, lulled by the mental exhaustion and the warmth of the covers.

At some wild time of the night though, she's woken up by the sound of her phone ringing. Her half-asleep mind lets it ring until it stops, but when it starts up again she finally wakes up enough to have the common sense to answer.

"Hello...?"

"Y/n, honey?" To her surprise, it's her mom on the phone. "Sorry if I woke you up,"

"It's fine..." Y/n sits up and rubs her eyes. "How are you...?"

"I'm...okay," Her mother sounded just as tired. "Y/n...listen, you need to home,"

-

sotd:

Ship in a Bottle - fin