coasting - tommyinnit

4

monday, july 11th, 2022; 6:43pm
3 days, 16 hours, and 17 minutes until flight home

clara, makayla, annalise, and i had decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood. our short amount of time was coming to a close alarmingly quickly, and we wanted to just spend a minute taking it all in before it was time for it to be over.

we heard someone say "you again?" from a distance, and our heads snapped in that direction. it seemed that tommy, wilbur, fundy, and niki had somehow had the same idea, and we once again found ourselves talking to that group. wilbur was the one that noticed us, and he and the others walked up to us, casual smiles on all of their faces.

"y/n! hi," said tommy, specifically greeting me. "we went back to the beach earlier and my conch shell was still there. ranboo's sonic was gone, so now who do you think is the better artist?" he had a small smirk. our two groups had gotten physically close by that point, and tommy and i stood a couple of feet apart from one another.

"i'm still not convinced you actually drew a conch shell, so my bet's still on ranboo," i answered, playfully shoving him.

"well, conch shells aren't my strong suit i guess. i am an artistic genius though, i guess you just don't get to see it," he said, shrugging.

"oh, so now you're an expert and a genius?"

"what can i say, it just comes naturally."

"i guess you'll have to show me something that is your strong suit."

"definitely. oh... the only thing is... we don't have paper here, and sand isn't my regular... medium," he reasoned.

"that's okay, i have pencils and paper back at the house, i can get some for you...?"

"oh, no no no no, i wouldn't want to use your materials, i'm sure you need them."

"it's really okay, i want to see your art in action," i told him with a smile.

"no offense, y/n, but i'm sure your paper isn't... up to my standards. i think it just won't work out unfortunately."

"aw, man. i was excited to see a genius's work but i guess it just won't work out."

some time along the way, the others had migrated away from us. i wasn't sure whether it was intentional or not, but tommy and i were left alone and i couldn't see where they had gone. tommy seemed to notice this, too, but we didn't particularly change anything that we were doing. i was enjoying his company, and as far as i could tell, he was enjoying mine.

we had both started walking together, and we had no real destination in mind, but that didn't quite bother me for some reason.

"so you're from england, right?" i asked him, causing him to laugh slightly.

"yeah, i am. a few of us from that group are, like wilbur and tubbo too. fundy's from the netherlands, and niki's from germany but lives in england right now. karl and ranboo are both from america but i'm not sure where, and i think quackity's from mexico," he explained. i could tell he was excited to talk about his friends, and seeing him so eager made me inexplicably happy. "are you four all from the same place?"

"we are, we're from [your hometown]," i explained. "we all still live there but most of us are moving out soon for university."

"are you going to university this year?" he asked me.

"i'm doing online school for now. i'm not quite sure if i'll do it all four years, but i want to have some freedom and be able to do everything when i want to do it, ya know?" he nodded. "did you just finish school this year?"