⭑.ᐟPast Lovers {} Ticci Toby x F!Reader⋆˙⟡
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ Summary: You were Toby's best friend in Highschool. You defended him and stayed with him even at his lowest. Unbeknownst to you, Toby has had feelings for you and you had feelings for him , but fate is cruel, and one event would cause Toby to snap and leave without a goodbye. 6 years later, your now adult self, decides to search for him.
A/N: SOOOOOOO THIS TOOK WAY LONGER TO PUT OUT THAN IT SHOULD'VE. ty to my amazing, beautiful, kind, humble, pretty, smart, intelligent, wonderful friend for this idea. So bc this took me so long im js gonna make this 2 parts!! boo yeah ik.
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To say you were lucky would be an understatement. You had what most people would call a perfect life.
Your parents care about you and give you everything you could ever want or ask for, you have amazing friends and even the bullies at school like you. You have straight As, the teachers favorite you and to be honest, you are very pretty. Even though you have a perfect everything, you still feel incomplete. Was it selfish of you to feel this way? You practically had everything handed to you and your still not satisfied. Maybe you just have a bad case of melancholy, but even so, you shouldn't feel this way.
Closing your door behind you, you began walking to the bus stop a few minutes walk away from your house. You live in a quaint and cozy little town. There are woods and trees almost everywhere that make the atmosphere relaxing. There are many roads and shops scattered around. One thing you appreciate is how every shop and restaurant are the perfect distance from each other.
Your neighborhood is one of the richer ones in the area. You were born into a fairly wealthy family and quite frankly have a bigger house than needed since your an only child and only have a cat. Your house is more secluded than the others due to the fact you have a large amount of woods surrounding it.
Your family technically don't own the surrounding woods but neither does the state which makes it public property that you have created trails on for when you want to take walks.
While your making your way to the bus stop you glance over to your favorite diner. Your a regular there, often bringing your friends when you hang out together or going there to order some coffee and destress. You know the people who run the diner, an old married couple who have been there for 43 years. They love it when you come to eat there. Whenever they are around when you show up they'll give you a desert of your choosing on the house.
The bus stop finally came into view and you could already see other students standing around. It's your first day of eleventh grade so by now you recognize all the faces who stand before you. So it takes you by surprise when you walk up to the bus stop and notice a boy standing off to the side, away from the others. You don't recognize this boy. Your school never gets new students since it's the only high school in your town so every teenager has already been enrolled there.
Obviously if people moved to your town they would be enrolled into your school as a new student but you know for certain that no one has moved into town recently.
The curse of small towns is that gossip spreads fast. Whenever new people move here the locals are quick to spread the word and make up things about them that may or may not be true.
The boy is standing awkwardly, far away from the others at the bus stop. He has messy brown hair and dark brown eyes. His eyebags are prominent and his lashes are long. You don't know by how much but he is definitely taller than you.
You first think that he might be a freshman but upon further inspection he looks to old to be a freshman. You assumed that he's a junior just like you since joining a new school your senior year seemed like a stupid idea .
The boy looked up and the two of you make eye contact. A part of you expected him to break it right away but surprisingly he holds the eye contact. You don't know what else to do so you give him a smile and a tiny wave, that's when he finally breaks eye contact and tenses up a bit. He fixed his backpack and jerked his head to the side that looked to be involuntary. You looked away from him and turned away coming face to face with one of your friends.
"Hey Y/N! How was your summer?" The red headed girl asked. Carly is someone who you never talk with inside school but spend every minute on the way to school together, even sometimes walking home together since your houses aren't to far away from each other. Even with the short amount of time you spend with each other each day you'd say you know her pretty well.
"It was really good, did a lot of stuff." You replied to her. Right when you were about to ask her about her summer she immediately got close and whispered into your ear.
“Do you know who that guy is over there?” She whispered quietly to you. She glanced over to the boy far behind you, signaling that he was the one she was talking about. “No, who is he?” You asked her.
She looked back at you and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, that’s why I was asking you. Usually people tell you all the gossip and stuff.” She told you.
“It’s really not that big of a deal, he’s just a new kid.” You brushed it off. Carly looked like she agreed with you but you know that she loves to know everything about everyone.
“Yeah I guess.” She sighed. Her eyes went to the bracelet you had on your wrist. “Ohh, that looks pretty, where’d you’d get it?” Carly asked you, picking up your wrist to inspect the bracelet.
“Oh, over the summer I saw Sam and she gave it to me.” You answered. Sam is a mean girl, but not in the extreme way like other mean girls are. She has a big ego and acts like she’s better than everyone. She doesn’t seek out people to bully but if she heard that someone was bad mouthing her she’d waste no time to make them miserable. Normally you wouldn’t hang out with someone like her, maybe you’d exchange waves or nods in the hallways, but you have known Sam since kindergarten and you know her better than anybody.
“That makes a lot of sense.” Carly muttered to you.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” You asked her, confusion evident on your face. “Sam is like, obsessed with you.” Carly replied.
You wouldn’t call Sam obsessed, she just really appreciates your friendship. Yeah, she buys you random gifts, makes lunch for you, saves a seat for you whenever she can but it’s all platonic. You genuinely believe that Sam only sees you as a friend despite most of your friends telling you otherwise. You’ve never seen her more than a friend so you think that Sam feels the same way, but you are oh so wrong.
“Whatever you say.” You told her. This isn’t the first time you’ve had a talk like this with Carly. No matter what you say you can’t convince her that Sam only sees you as a friend.
Before Carly could get another word in the school bus pulled up and the students flooded the bus. You and Carly waited till most of the other students were on the bus before hoping on yourselves and making your way to your seats.
Carly sat in the window seat and you sat beside her on the aisle seat. You reached into your backpack for your phone and earphones so you could listen to music while you made your way to school. Scrolling through your playlist you look up at the aisle for a second to see the boy from earlier walk to the back of the bus to sit down.
You looked at him one last time, contemplating if you wanted to go over and offer to sit with him, but before you could make a choice the bus had already started moving. You plugged in your earphones and drowned yourself in music until you got to school.
The bus finally got to school and you slung your backpack around your shoulder and made your way down the stairs of the school bus. You and Carly exchanged your goodbyes and you walked through the school’s doors heading towards your locker.
You opened up your locker looking at the empty lot. Decorating your locker was one of the best parts of the first day back at school for you. You usually use your lunch period to go and customize your locker with posters of your favorite bands, stickers, string lights, Polaroids of you and your friends, etc.
You were putting your books away, already mapping out the layout of where you’re going to put each decoration you brought, when someone came up to the locker next to yours to open it. You glanced over to your right and you saw the boy from the bus stop.
He had a slip of paper with number that appeared to be his locker combination on it. He fiddled with the lock attached to his locker trying to open it to no avail.
You quickly finished putting your books into your locker, shutting and locking it.
"Excuse me? Do you need any help?" You asked turning to the boy next to you. He glanced over at you, studying your expression as if he thought you might've been trying to trick him. He looked at you for a few more seconds before responding.
"Y-Yeah." He spoke with a stutter to his voice. The boy glanced away from you to the lock in his hands. You gave him a smile and moved closer to him. The paper that held his locker combination was cheap and flimsy, in fact, almost everything in this school is old and cheap. In your freshman history class you learned that this school was originally built in 1876. The school had obviously had rework and expansions but in certain quarters of the school the age really shows. From what you can remember, between the years 1880 and 1900 the entire school had shut down due to children from the elementary school, that was apart of but not attached to the high school, going missing in the forest near the school.
The same forest that those children had gone missing in connect to the woods that surround your neighborhood. Your grandmother had kept you out of those woods as much as possible when she was alive. She drew these pictures of a tall man in a suit, his skin paper white and he lacked any facial features. You didn't know why but those pictures of him made you feel sick to look at, the way he had no face yet he seemed to stare into your soul, it was an uncanny feeling. She had asked you repeatedly if you've ever seen that man in the woods or in your dreams. When you reassured her that you've never even heard of him she warned you to never go into the woods at night and if you ever felt like you were being watched to quickly close your curtains.
You were young and didn't comprehend that your grandmother wasn't mentally stable, at that time, you actually believed that the tall man was real. Your smarter now and realized she was just making things up but for some reason you still get a weird feeling whenever thinking about those drawings.
"I-Is there something w-wrong with it...?" The boys voice snapped you out of your trance. "What?" Your eyes followed his to the paper in your hands. "Oh! oh, no its fine, just let me-" You cut yourself off reaching for his lock. You twisted the nob, occasionally glancing between the slip of paper in your hands and the lock to make sure you were putting in the correct code.
"You need to turn the nob clockwise past zero, three times then counter clockwise to your first number, clockwise to the second and then counter clockwise to the third." You told him whilst following your own instructions to show him how it's done. After you twisted the lock to the last number, you pulled it down opening up his locker.
"T-Thanks." He added, giving you a small smile of gratitude before slipping his backpack off of his shoulders to place his books into his locked.
"I'm Y/N by the way." You told him. It's normal for you to want to get to know the new kids but for some reason you want to get to know this boy way more than the others you've met. Something about him made you want to be close to him, like he might be the missing piece to your incomplete puzzle.
He glanced from his books over to you. "T-Toby, Toby Rogers." He told you.
Why did that name seem familiar to you?
You took a moment to try a figure out where you could've heard that name before, and then it clicked. Lyra! He must be Lyra's little brother.
"Your Lyra's brother, right?" You asked him. Lyra had already graduated but when you first entered high school, she was very nice and welcoming. You wouldn't consider her your friend but you both were in honor society together so you regularly talked and did activities together. Now that you get a better look at Toby, they have some resembling features, both are very good looking.
Toby looked surprised that you knew her, not that he thought the people at school didn't know his sister, but Lyra would usually tell Toby all about her friends and day's at school and he had never once heard of you before.
"Yeah, I-I am." He replied. You nodded at his confirmation and looked down to the schedule he was holding in his hands. "Oh! Hold on, let me see if we have any classes together." You spat out, quickly bending down to rummage around in your bag for your schedule. You really hoped the two of you had at least one class with each other, you were eager to get to know him especially now that you know he's Lyra's brother.
"Lets see..." You told him. You held up your schedule next to his and looked for any similar classes.
"We share second period science everyday and fourth period history on Fridays!" You told him excitedly. Toby just stared at you in confusion and awe. He didn't understand why you were so happy that you got to share two classes with HIM of all people. You looked genuinely excited to be around him. The look in your eyes was the only look he ever got from his sister or mother, and that made his heart flutter.
"Y-Yeah." He mumbled. His nerves were getting the better of him and he could feel his ticks about to act up, but just in time, the bell ran signaling all the kids to get to class.
"See you soon." You said before you waved goodbye and made your way to class.
Toby just stood there for a moment, relishing in the warm feeling he had before taking a look at his schedule and heading to his own class.
Your first class went by pretty fast. School for you had always been relatively easy, making the need to pay attention in class less of a need and more of a chore. Most of the class you just listened to your favorite songs and doodled on your paper, if you really needed, you could always just ask a classmate for the notes.
Your math professor was kind. You’ve never really had problem with teachers despite hearing negative stories about them.
The bell rang and everyone in your class scurried to collect their belongings and rush out the door. You had 3 minutes to get to your next class so you didn’t feel the need to rush like the others.
You picked up all of your books, throwing them into your bag. You walked out of class, looking around to see if you could spot Toby anywhere. You knew that you would see him in a minute or two but you still wanted to walk to class with him.
You found the science classroom and opened the door revealing a well decorated classroom. Your science teacher wasn’t much older than you, she was only 23 which made it somewhat easier to talk to her.
The science classroom was on the cleaner side, the walls weren’t filled with handprints and random dark splotches of who knows what. The floor was a white tile and the desks were new lab tables. The walls had posters, some related to science like the periodic table and some related to the drama clubs upcoming play.
The classroom was basically empty, only four other students who were sitting down. You spotted Toby sitting by himself at the back table.
You walked up to the table and stood next to the empty seat next to him.
“Mind if I sit here?” You asked him.
“U-Uh, yeah go a-ahead.” He mumbled while nodding his head. You sat down next to him and placed your books down on the table. When you sat down, Toby could feel the heat rise to his face. Why did he feel like this? Did he like the attention you were giving him?
The two of you sat quietly next to each other for a second before you turned over to him. “Would you mind if I showed you around the school later?” You asked him. You were resting your head on your hand, looking him in the eyes. His eyes were very pretty, they looked tired but that was alluring to you.
“S-Sure.” Toby replied with a little too much enthusiasm. Truth be told, Toby really wanted to spend more time with you. You were so kind to him and never really brought up his stuttering. He didn’t know if you had already seen his ticks or not but he’s been trying his best to not tick around you.
“Great! I can take my lunch period off since you have study hall sixth period.” You told him. Toby raised his eyebrow at that. “How d-did you know I have study hall s-sixth period?” Toby asked you.
“I saw it on your schedule earlier.” You responded. Toby just nodded in acknowledgment and the teacher walked into the classroom to start the lesson.
The first portion of class was just the teacher introducing herself and explaining what our goals for the year are. The teachers name was Ms. Heinz. She was pretty tall standing around 5,8, she had long black hair that reached her waist and bright blue eyes that stared into your soul.
“I have a project picked out for all of you, we will spend one month on it and you will be put in pairs of your choosing.” Ms. Heinz spoke. She took out a note pad and told the class to find partners and then report back to her once we’ve found our pair.
“Partners?” You turned your head over to ask Toby. Toby just nodded with a small smile on his face and you stood up to grab his arm and haul him over to Ms. Heinz.
Toby leaned into your touch, drowning himself in the feeling of your arm around his. Toby is touch starved, that’s for sure, and he drank up all the attention you gave him.
“We’re gonna be partners.” You told the teacher. She began to write your names down on the paper. “Y/N and….Toby?” Toby nodded. “Y-Yeah.” Toby replied.
Ms. Heinz smiled at him. “Glad you could be here.” She told him. She then gave us a sheet that outlined the project and the next people came up to her so she could write their names down.
You and Toby sat back down at your table. You ripped a piece of paper off from your notebook and wrote your address and phone number on it. You handed the paper over to Toby and he took it. His wrist jerked and he cracked his neck.
“You can call me for whatever and if you want you can come over to my house tomorrow so we can work on the project.” You told Toby. You looked between him and the paper he was holding.
Toby had NEVER gotten another persons number let alone a girl. In his entire life he’s only ever had 1 friend and it took a months to get to that point, and now all it took was an hour and a half.
“Y-yeah, u-uh, than- th-ak, a-, uhm s-shit.” Toby stuttered. He scratched his arm and broke the eye contact between the two of you. “I-I have Tourette’s..I can’t really c-control t-this.” He told you. Toby looked embarrassed, his ticks controlled most of his life by scaring others off and making communication difficult.
You shrugged your shoulders, brushing it off. “It’s fine, it really doesn’t bother me.” You replied to him with a smile on your face. If he wasn’t obsessed before, he totally is now. You were the first person to be genuinely interested in him and he will never let you go. Toby wondered if you were like this with everyone but it really didn’t matter, because you were this way with him and that’s all he needed.
The remainder of the class was going over the project which was pretty simple. It was on seed germination, all you and Toby had to do was figure out how different liquids germinate seeds and do more research into that.
Eventually the class ended and the two of you went your separate ways. Toby knew he’d see you in a few hours when you give him a tour of the school, but to him it felt like an eternity.
Sixth period came around eventually and Toby basically rushed to his locker to find you.
You were already at your locker, waiting for him. You had previously put away all of your books and supplies into your locker so you could start the walkthrough right away. Toby walked up to you, rubbing his arm as he stood next to you.
“Hey Toby!” You chirped with a smile on your face. Toby smile back at you. “Hey.” He replied. You motioned to the hallway.
“I’ll show you the original part of the school first.” You told him. You put your hand on his back to lead him in the direction you were going to tour first. Shivers ran down Toby’s back, and he sighed when you let go.
You walked him down the hallway and showed him where each club room is and shortcuts to get to them, not like Toby would ever join a club.
About halfway through the school, the two of you ended up in the courtyard. The school’s courtyard was well maintained and extremely big. It was placed at the back of the school, not too far away from the woods. The gardening club usually plants flowers and take out the weeds at the end of each week. It was a relaxing place to go after a stressful class. You would come here sometimes with Sam to have lunch or just hand out before class.
You and Toby sat down on the bench to take a break. He seemed a lot more at ease now, he didn’t tick as often or stutter. You were happy he felt safe around you.
“How’s Lyra doing? Shes in the process of applying to collage right?” You asked Toby. He nodded and leaned his back onto the bench.
“She’s looking at h-her options. She’s hesitant to leave though, s-she said she doesn’t want to leave me alone.” Toby told you. The words left Toby's mouth before he could even think about it.
"Why is she hesitant to leave you alone?" You asked Toby. Toby's eyes went from you to the floor. He bounced his leg up and down nervously, not knowing if he should be honest with you.
"I d-don't have the best home life. My dad is a a-alcoholic and he's abusive." Toby said. You sympathized with him. You've never lived in an abusive household nor been hit by your parents, even if it was for scolding.
"Oh, I'm really sorry Toby. Is there anything I could do to help? Like...call the police or something..?" You asked him unsure. Toby smiled and let out a small chuckle. He just shook his head and looked back at you. "T-There's nothing yo-you can d-do. Thanks though." He said. You just now realized how close the two of you are now. You can feel Toby's ragged breath on your skin. The way his knee pressed up against yours. You felt every small movement and noticed every little detail on his face.
The scene was quite romantic. The sun slightly setting casting an orange hue along the sky. The worn out bench with paint chipping off of it just outside the old school building. The darkness of the woods in-front of you making the world feel smaller, as if it was only the two of you.
The two of you got caught up in the moment, you didn’t know what this was going to lead to. Seemingly out of nowhere you heard your name being called.
“Y/N?” Sam called out. She was standing at the courtyard door staring daggers into Toby.
“Why are you out here and not at lunch?” Sam said to me. She kept staring at Toby, clear annoyance on her face. Sam is picky when it comes to who you hang out with. Obviously you are your own person and don’t let her tell you who you can and cannot hang out with but she does throw a fit when you don’t let her pick your friends. Sam always gets a little mad when you don’t tell her that you’re not going to lunch, but she usually doesn’t find you hanging out with a guy ESPECIALLY not as close as you two are right now.
“I’m just showing the new kid around the school.” You scooted away from Toby, putting quite a lot of distance between the two of you. Toby also scooted away. Toby was intimidated by your friend, but he knew if he had to he had to, he could take her in a fight…..why was fighting her his first thought?
“…whatever, just call me after school…” And with that Sam walked back into the building, glancing one last time behind her at you and Toby.
“Uh, the periods about to end, we should get back inside.” You said to Toby. The boy next to you nodded in agreement and the two of you got up in unison.
You can’t lie, you were disappointed that you couldn’t find out what would’ve if Sam hadn’t interrupted the two of you. It doesn’t matter anymore, you enjoy Toby’s company and he DEFINITELY enjoys yours. That’s all the two of you needed.
You don’t plan on separating from Toby anytime soon, he finishes the piece of you, you thought would never be completed.
A month or so has passed since the first day of school and you meeting Toby. You and Toby have hung out a lot over the time you’ve known each other and you’ve helped him escape his unfortunate home life quite a bit. Usually after school Toby would hang out at your house for a bit before walking back to his. You knew that he had lived in your area since the two of you are on the bus together, but he surprisingly only lived a five minute walk away from your house. On weekends you’d call each other nonstop and sometimes even go out to eat together.
Last weekend you didn’t talk that much with Toby. He wanted to spend some time with Lyra before she went off to college. You were happy that Lyra finally found a college she liked. Even though it was only 2 days since you last heard from Toby, you still missed him and you were excited to get to school and see him.
Today was a normal day back to school. No new events going on, no new projects to complete.
When you got to the bus stop you noticed that the tall brunette was nowhere to be seen. This wasn’t the first time Toby didn’t show up at the bus stop. Sometimes Toby would sleep in late and have to walk to school. Surprisingly he’s never skipped school once, probably because he doesn’t want to have be in the same house as his father as much as possible.
You assumed that he’d just walk to school, so you didn’t worry much about it and went on about your routine per usual.
When you got to school, you expected to see waiting for you at your lockers, but he was still nowhere to be seen. You were beginning to get worried. You thought if Toby was planning on skipping school he’d at least give you a call. You still had hope though, maybe he’d be a little late and come in later in the day. You decided to let it go. You pushed any bad thoughts about what could’ve happened to Toby down, carrying on with your day per usual.
It was already second period and still no sign of Toby. You were begging to get extremely worried. Obviously if any one of your friends mysteriously disappeared or did something crazy different from their schedule you’d be worried, but for some reason because it’s Toby your worries are a hundred times worse.
Lunch eventually came around and you found yourself sitting at a lunch table with Sam and two other friends. You weren’t hungry at all. You picked up there fork next to your plate and scraped it against your chicken.
Sam kept giving you small glances from time to time. You were quieter than usual and she noticed. The two other girls were too busy talking and gossiping with each other to even notice, but Sam did, she always does.
“Y/N are you ok?” Sam turned her head over to you. She searched your face like she was going to find answers just by looking at you. “I’m fine. Thanks though.” You replied to her.
“Is it because of that Tony guy?” She said. It’s been over a month and she still doesn’t know his name. I mean come on, you’ve basically talked about him to her every chance you got, not like she listens. “Toby.” You corrected her, “And yeah, he didn’t show up to school today and I’m just concerned.” You told Sam.
She looked at you confused. “Wait you didn’t hear?” She said to you. What was she talking about, what didn’t you hear? Your heart sped up. Did something bad happen to Toby. “No, what happened?!” You replied.
“He got into a car accident with his sister, pretty sure she died.”
You felt your heart clench. You are aware about all Toby’s disorders and mental health issues—and you know how badly the crash has affected him, even without of seeing him yet. You’re already overthinking things. You just need to clear your mind….easier said than done.
You were so caught up on the first part of what Sam said—it took you until now to realize what she just said.
Your breathing is ragged—your thoughts going a hundred miles an hour.
Time seemed to slow down. Since you and Toby have spent almost all of your time together, you and Lyra had also grown really close—and now she’s dead.
How did this all happen so fast? It has only been 2 days since you last saw them. This had to be a joke. You felt sick, you could only imagine how beat up Toby got. Not like he could feel pain, but it still takes a toll on his body.
You started to feel sick—the lunch you just ate threatening to come back out.
“S-Sam are you being serious? Please don’t joke around about things like-“ You were cut off by the bile coming out of your throat.
You doubled over and sprinted to the garbage can that was fortunately not too far from you. Your fingers gripped the plastic of the garbage bag as your head dipped down into the can to catch your throw up. A few people were staring at you and sharing concerned glances to one another.
Sam ran up behind you, grabbing the back of your hair to hold your head up.
“Y/N?! Are you ok?” She asked you. You couldn’t respond, you were too light headed. Why were you getting this way about a guy? Feeling sad and empathy is normal—but throwing up? Don’t you think that’s a little dramatic? It didn’t matter to you at this point. All you could think about is feeling of Sam’s hand holding your head and the sound of students calling for the teachers. Everything blurred together and before you knew it the world went black.
You were taken out of school early. You needed to rest BADLY. Before your parents came to pick you up, Sam stayed with you in the nurses office to make sure you were ok. When you did get home you immediately turn on the hot water in your shower and hoped in. Taking a warm shower felt so good and stress relieving. As the water droplets slid down your back, you could feel your muscles unwinding.
You leaned your head against the wall as the running water washed out the suds in your hair. You were still thinking about Toby. He was probably at his house right now, locking himself in his room. You turned the water off after you washed all of the soap off and dried yourself off. It was only 4:00, so still fairly early.
You were contemplating going over to Toby’s house to check on him. You didn’t know if he wanted to see you, let alone see anybody.
You were still making your decision while putting your dirty clothes in the laundry basket, when you felt like someone was watching you. A shadow passed out of the corner of your eye—but when you turned to look, you were faced with window to the forest surrounding your house. Your eyes searched the forest for anything in it, but you couldn’t find anything. You ignored it for now.
After you finished getting dressed you decided not to visit Toby. He was already going through a lot, and so were his parents. You didn’t want to intrude and make things worse….you were also kinda scared of Toby’s dad as well. Surprisingly, even though you’ve been to Toby’s house a lot—you’ve never met his dad. Sure you’ve seen his mom here and there when she makes food for the two of you or opens the door for you when you arrive at their house.
Your eyes started to feel heavy. A yawn left your lips and you sat on top of your bed. It was still early—wouldn’t hurt to take a quick nap.
You laid down and pulled your covers over you. You felt oddly relaxed, like you were floating around in a world without evil. In the distance you could hear the faint sound of water dripping from the shower head. You forgot to shut it off all the way…oh well. You’re too comfortable to get up, plus it was only a tiny drip. The dripping sound slowly got quieter and quieter until you drifted off into sleep.
It was already school the next day. The day went by pretty fast which you were happy about. When you got off the bus instead of going to your house—you made your way over to Toby’s. The walk was short and before you knew it you were standing face to face with his front door.
You lifted up your hand and knocked on the wooden door a couple times. Your eyes looked up to the second floor of the house—specifically the window to Toby's bedroom.
Your head snapped to the sound of the door unlocking. The door slowly opened and you caught sight of Toby's mother. Her hair was disheveled and she had dark eyebags, similar to Tobys. A small smile made its way onto her head when she saw it was you.
"Hey, Y\N. I'm assuming your here for Toby?" She asked you. You nodded in response and she fully opened the door, moving out of they way for you to step into the house
Tobys house was somewhat cozy. You could see how hard his mom tried to keep the house clean as best as she could considering her husband was a lazy fucking bum. In the distance you could spot the kitchen that Mrs. Rogers would make lunch for you and Toby when you'd come over. Floral wallpaper covered the kitchen walls and oak woods counter tops freshly polished. linen lights illuminated the entire house. To your right you could see the living room with beer bottles and cigars lying around on the couch and coffee table.
"You know the way to his room." Mrs. Rogers said politely while motioning to the stairs. You smiled at her and began walking up the stairs to Tobys room.
You opened the door to his room to find him sitting on his bed looking out the window. He didn't even notice you yet—seemingly lost in thought as he stared at the side walk.
"Toby?" You asked. His head shot to your direction and you could see the relieved look on his face. He shot up out of bed and hugged you tight. You wrapped your arms around him as he stuffed his head into the crook of your neck.
"God, I'm so h-happy your h-here..." He mumbled. Toby looked more depressed than usual. He looked genuinely fucked up. His hair was messy and his eyebags were ten times darker. The bandage on his cheek had a tad bit of dried blood on it.
For awhile you and Toby just sat on his bed talking about whatever came up. After twenty minutes Toby went a little quiet. He seemed like he was contemplating asking you something and decided on telling you.
"C-Can I tell you something?" He looked away for a second before locking eyes with you. "Yeah! Of course you can." He sighed and pointed to his window. "There is s-something out there." He said. Your eyes followed him to the window. You were confused, nothing was out there? "What do you mean?" You asked him.
“I-It’s not out there right n-now…but at night or in t-the evening I see it.” Toby said. “Ok hold up. What are you referring to when you talk about ‘it’?” You asked him. You were confused and worried at the same time.
He was starting to see things which probably isn’t a good sign. But—you never know, maybe he isn’t schizophrenic and there is something actually out there.
“Th-there’s this man. He’s t-tall, uncannily t-tall. He has no face—I-It’s just white. H-He’s wearing a black suit a-and he just stands a-at the light p-post staring at me…” Your eyes slightly widened. That was the exact description of the drawing your grandmother drew. You had always thought she was crazy—I mean she definitely was—but now Toby is seeing the exact same thing. Was he really real? You refused to believe it. You couldn’t come up with a rational explanation but that didn’t mean you’d stop trying.
“Toby.” You pressed the back of your hand against his forehead. As you expected—he’s burning up. You knew about Toby’s CIP. He couldn’t feel his body temperature so you would sometimes check for him. He one hundred percent had a fever. His face was all red and sweat beads fell down his neck.
“Wait a second.” Before Toby could say anything you were already off his bed and in the bathroom getting a cold compress. You walked back over to Toby and laid him back onto the bed, placing the damp towel on his forehead. “You’re burning up. Just try and get some rest, if it makes you feel any better I could try and do some research on the man you’re seeing?” You said and Toby nodded.
You stayed with him until he fell asleep. You probably should’ve told him about your grandmothers drawings and the man he described but he was already going through a lot—and you didn’t want him to overthink things.
Four have passed since the accident. Toby has been going to therapy, but nothing was working—nothing ever will. If anything, Toby's feelings toward you had grown tremendously. The way you would stop by his house after school to check on him, bring him his favorite snacks, listen to his complaints, all of it made him fall for you again and again. He knows its tiring for you. He feels bad he can't hangout and talk with you the way he used to. His ticks have gotten worse—and he stays in his room all day.
Today was another day his mom had dragged him to the psychologist. Same annoying bright waiting room, same annoying people. Surprisingly this time he saw a familiar face in the hallway.
She was on her phone—seemingly on call with one of her friends.
“Oh, Y/N? I haven’t hung out with her much lately. But soon we’ll go back to the way we were.” Sam said to the person on the other line.
What was she talking about?
“You know that new kid. Yeah well she started hanging around him since the first day of school. Pretty sure that guys in the crack house now—so she’ll forget about him soon and it can go back to just being me and her.” Toby clenched his fists. He knew you would never abandon him, but he still hated to even think about it.
He started to tap his foot on the floor anxiously and bite the inside of his cheek. His sanity was dropping. Too many things have happened in such a short time and he can’t handle it. His therapist didn’t help, his mom didn’t help, his dad sure as hell only made things worse. The only one who has made this experience even a tad bit easier is you, and now he was sure he was going to lose you to.
He keeps seeing that thing. He told the doctors, they didn’t believe him, what did he expect. It kept visiting—staring—lurking. What used to be fear was now replaced with curiosity, oddly enough Toby feels drawn to it.
It was already nightime. Toby sat in his bed, unable to fall asleep. Thats when he saw him once again. The slenderman.
Toby felt like he was going insane. His mom wasnt home, only him and his father.
God, he hated his father.
He always had anger in his heart towards him, but tonight, it was amplified by a hundred. He looked out his window, staring back at the man per usual. This time Toby had....an urge.
He wanted to kill his father.
"Y/N, honey, do you mind coming downstairs for a minute?" You heard your mom call from downstairs. You had just gotten out of bed and brushed your teeth. You had planned to take a shower but you could take one later.
"COMING!" You called back, hopping down the stairs.
When you were fully down the stairs you saw your mom standing infront of the TV with the remote. She handed it to you and left the room.
Confused you turned on the TV and the news channel popped up.
You saw the regular reports talking along with a video of a familiar looking neighborhood set on fire.
It was fucking Toby's house.
Tears started to well up in your eyes.
"56 year old man found dead in his house set ablaze. Upon further identification he was confirmed as Mr. Rogers. His daughter recently passing and his son nowhere to be seen. Officers suspect his 17 year old son Toby Rogers was behind the murder of his father and the fire in his neighborhood. 9 additonal casualties were caused by the fire."
This had to be a bad dream. Theres no way this is happening. You slapped yourslef in the face in hopes of you waking up in your bed, but unfortunetely that was not the case.
Why would Toby do that? Why would he—no, theres no way he did that. Toby was the cutest and most awakward boy you ever met. Yeah sure his dad was a total jackass, but hes not the type of person to act on his anger to that extent.
Even if you didn't believe Toby was the muderer, he was still gone. There is only one place he couldve gone, and only one reason he went there. You're going to find him. No matter how long it takes.
