Falling For You

Chapter 3

TW

Tim stood there awkwardly as Moby and Julie embraced one another. It seemed like they forgot that Tim was even in the vicinity. Eventually, they pulled away and looked into one another's eyes and Tim cleared his throat. The couple looked at him before blushing and stepping away from each other, though they kept their hand interlocked.

"Hi!" the girl named Julie said with a smile on her face. She raised her right hand to wave at the awkward boy, while her other was interlocked with Moby's.

"Hi . . ." Tim said, sheepishly. "How do you two know each other?"

"We met online a couple months ago. We've been dating for around a month. I didn't realize that when he said he was moving, he was moving closer to where I lived. It's so exciting!"

"I can't believe I could get to see you more often," Moby said lovingly to his girlfriend. She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and looked down at the floor before looking up into Moby's eyes.

"That's cool," Tim said awkwardly.

"I know, right! So, how do you know Moby?" Julie asked.

"We actually live next to each other. We were just coming here to retrieve a letter." Tim answered.

"That's so awesome. Moby you'll text me later, right?" Julie asked as she looked into Moby's eyes.

"Of course, babe!" Moby answered enthusiastically.

"Alright, it was nice to meet you, Tim!"

"You too Julie."

Julie then turned to Moby and placed her hands on the sides of his head before pulling him in and placing a kiss on his lips. "Bye, Moby," she said softly, before hurrying out the front door of the Post Office.

"She was nice," Tim said as he turned to Moby, who seemed to still be distracted my Julie, even though she had already left.

"Hmm . . ." Moby mused. "Oh, Julie. Yeah, she's great."

Tim didn't want to continue to talk about Moby's enthusiastic girlfriend so he silently lead his robot counterpart to their box. "Here it is," he said. Tim grabbed the key out of his pocket and opened the box. Several letters fell out, due to the box being severely overfilled.

"That's a lot of letters," Moby said in awe.

"Really, I couldn't tell," Tim answered sarcastically. Moby chuckled at Time remark and proceeded to pick up the letters that had fallen out. "I've been getting behind on checking letters," Tim so dad he tried to explain the abundance of letters.

"I don't even know where to start," Moby said. "I'm just going to pick out a random letter. Is that ok?"

"Of course."

Moby picked a letter that had fallen on the floor and began to open it. " 'Dear Tim, What was the Emancipation Proclamation? It sounds made up. Sincerely, Freya'," Moby read. "Are all of your letters this dumb?" he asked incredulously.

"You'd be surprised at how much you can tell the education system has failed these kids," Tim retorted.

Moby chuckled and tucked the letter in his pocket. Then, he followed Tim out of the Post Office. They walked along the gravel road back to their houses. The cool December air felt pleasant against Tim's skin, and Moby's programming told him that 67 degrees was a nice temperature. "Thanks for letting me help out with BrainPop. I had fun today."

"No, I should be thanking you. Maybe I can finally do things outside of the videos and school. You've given me an opportunity I haven't had in years," Tim said, his voice thick with emotion.

Tim looked to the ground when he suddenly felt a metallic hand touch his face. He lifted his gaze to see Moby looking into his eyes with a small smile on his lips. Tim blushed and looked away before gazing into Moby's eyes. They began to lean towards each other their faces inching closer and closer before a loud sound broke them out of their trance.

"What was that?!?" Tim whisper yelled to Moby. He swiveled his head frantically in every conceivable direction to try and find what had startled him. Tim noticed a broken branch about 15 feet away and he sighed in relief. It was just a branch, he told himself.

Tim felt the mass behind him disappear. "Moby . . ." he called timidly. His head began to swivel once again and he began to hyperventilate. His arms began to flail in every which direction and he felt like the whole world was beginning to shrink. His head felt like it was going to fall off from all the swiveling. His lungs felt exhausted from all the exertion from his rapid rate of breathing. His arms weren't hitting anything, despite Moby being there just a couple seconds earlier.

Tim felt like his whole world was crashing down. And yet, in between all of his panicking, he felt that is only Moby were there, everything would be better. The mere thought of Moby seemed to make everything just a little more bearable. Just thinking of him made everything seem okay, even though they had just met.

Tim's breathing had begun to speed down, before he made this realization. Now, his breathing speed had all but tripled. He had just met Moby. They were practically strangers. How could he trust Moby, of all people, to make everything feel better. Especially after what Veronica did to him. He had told himself that he wouldn't let anyone hurt him like Veronica did, but here was Moby. If he didn't let anyone in, no one could hurt him. How could he have been so stupid. Maybe letting Moby help out with BrainPop was a bad idea. Actually. Scratch that. It was a horrible idea.

God. How could he be so stupid.

Suddenly, Tim felt 2 large hands wrap around his waist. Tim let himself slouch against Moby's strong arms and let all of his worries fall away. He could worry about whatever was to come later. School, family, friends, BrainPop, all could wait. All he wanted to do was let himself sink into Moby's arms.

Tim and Moby stood like that for an unmeasurable amount of time. It could have been hours, it could have been seconds. All Tim cared about was how safe he felt within Moby's grasp.

Moby cradled Tim until Tim felt his breathing slow. His cold metallic grasp made Tim feel warm inside to combat his negative wave of emotions.

Tim didn't realize it, but a small smile began to appear on his lips and he felt his heart warm up, ever so slightly.