shiver | wilbur soot

20

"wilby." hope hummed, eyes fixated on wilbur's guitar sat across the room and threw her phone beside her, no longer wanting to pay attention to the annoying messages and notifications.

after her couple of days away back in london, spending time with her friends, she felt much more refreshed. they comforted her, they told her that listening to the toxicity aimed at her would not get her anywhere. on one of the nights, they went out to a few bars and splashed out on cocktails and vodka lemonades to try and take hope's mind off things - and it did. but she was definitely missing wilbur's company.

"hopey." he swivelled around to glance at her.

"it's so cringey when we do that," she chuckled, "teach me to play one of your songs." she smiled softly, "if you're not busy that is."

he shook his head, "no i'm not busy, but i thought you knew how to do some of my songs?"

"a few," she shrugged, "but i really want you to teach me saline solution, if you don't mind?"

his eyebrows raised out of surprise, "erm, yeah. sure." he nodded his head eagerly, pulling his body up from his chair to grab his guitar. awkwardly holding the instrument, he stood in front of hope with a confused expression, "i don't know how we should sit."

"erm," she pondered, "next to me? i don't know." she giggled.

"hang on, i have an idea." wilbur said as he perched himself on the edge of the bed beside her, "now stand up and sit here." he patted between his legs as he placed the guitar beside him.

she stood still, staring at him - bewildered, "are you sure?" she questioned with a tone of uncertainty.

"yes!" he laughed, "sit, sit." he patted once again and hope slowly nodded her head, seating herself in between his legs whilst he slowly grabbed the guitar from beside him and placed it in front of her. wilbur began to explain the tuning process, "... when you put it on capo five, just adjust it again."

"okay, okay." she nodded, feeling wilbur's hands place themselves over her's. swallowing harshly, hope allowed him to take complete control of her hands, relaxing herself as she faced down, looking at where he placed her fingers and wilbur peered over her shoulder with a cocked head.

"okay, so it's basically zero, two, two, zero, zero. that's the first cord." he strummed the guitar, making sure that hope knew how it was supposed to sound.

"mhm." she mumbled, continuing to listen to his instructions, but she found herself distracted. his scent was intoxicating, his chest brushed up against her back filled her with warmth and his fingertips moved gently along her hands, leaving her confused and barely able to listen.

"... and then slide it up to two." he steadily moved her finger back up, "you got that?"

"uh -" she stalled for a moment, "i think so."

"it's fine," he chuckled, moving her fingers back to where they started off, "i'll show you again."

"thanks." she whispered, this time around, trying to listen perfectly to his instructions.

a content sigh fell from his lips after going over it again, "now you try." he hummed, slowly moving his hands to his sides and leaned back slightly, leaving hope with the guitar. she ran her fingers over the strings, a harmonious tune emitting from the guitar and a grin instantly plastered itself across her lips, "i don't know why you needed my help, you're good at guitar anyways." he smirked.

"not as good as you."

"well, that sounded really good. i'm proud." he said, beaming from ear to ear as he pushed his body forwards, chin resting on her shoulder, "okay, so the tapping is like, strum, strum -" he demonstrated, finally hitting his fist into the centre of the guitar.