Ranboo glanced down at his phone. 4:43. It had been a little bit more than half an hour since he had been asked to leave Tubbo alone in the library, so he supposed that it was alright for him to head back. The blonde hadn't really wanted to leave the table, but it wasn't like he was going to argue with the other boy. It certainly had been odd though. After all, Tubbo wasn't doing anything important...just sketching in that green composition notebook that the boy had gotten for him. Surely he wasn't interrupting anything? Either way, he had collected his books and had retreated from the library...not before noticing the way that those other students looked at him. The way that they glanced at Tubbo and smiled...almost as if the group were a part of some elaborate inside joke. It had caught him off-guard, if he had to be honest. The blonde had seen people and heard people joke about him before...but this time he didn't know why they were laughing at him.
A pit had grown in his stomach since then, however, regarding Tubbo. Was he...in on it? After all, he did hang out with Tommy outside of the classroom...maybe even outside of school, although the blonde wasn't certain. And, from the interactions that Ranboo had had with Tommy, he knew damn well that the boy didn't like him much at all. Said he was weird, said he was too quiet, said if he spoke more then maybe he would have friends. Commented on the way he dressed, and how he stood, and how he sat, and how he walked. Picking out the small things, like how his hair looked dumb or his shoes were always untied, things that Ranboo himself didn't even notice...things that any normal person wouldn't make fun of unless they were just doing it for the sake of being mean...unless they were looking for things to make fun of. And hell, Tommy did seem to do that often. And Ranboo never understood why. Was is the mask? Was it the sunglasses? Was it the fact that he stood proudly taller than him, never shrinking into himself when he was approached by the shorter? Was that what Tommy wanted? For him to be intimidated by someone who only used words as a shield?
The truth was, Ranboo didn't really give a shit about what anyone had to say about him. At least, he didn't take it to heart. Their words couldn't hurt him, and he honestly didn't even know why they bothered trying. It had been going on for the entirety of the year, and he never understood why. He at least wanted to know what he was doing wrong, apart from the mask and sunglasses, because surely that couldn't be it. If Ranboo was speaking honestly, and he hated to say it because he always found that he sounded narcissistic admitting it, but a small part of him had just assumed that Tommy was jealous of him. Why? He wasn't sure. Again, it could be the height. Tommy was surely used to being one of the tallest kids in the school, maybe even the tallest, but that had certainly changed when Ranboo came around. But it couldn't be something as petty as that, could it?
Either way, he had noticed the way that Tubbo wanted to distance himself. Not always, though, just only when other people were around. When other people were around...he was practically silent. He was cold, and he hardly wanted anything to do with Ranboo...or so the blonde believed. And the way that the students had laughed as soon as the blonde stood up...it just sort of put him on edge, if he had to be honest. He didn't like it. Why was Tubbo being so adamant that they only hang out while it was just the two of them? It's not that he hated the idea of being alone with him, it was quite the opposite...he just didn't like the fact that it was the only time they were allowed to hang out. Maybe he was overthinking it. Was he being clingy? The boy was probably just being clingy. After all, he had only met Tubbo the previous day...but he had liked him for over a month prior. Maybe that was why he expected more...he had probably been infatuated with the boy longer than the brunette had been in return. If the brunette even liked him like that...Ranboo assumed he did. After all, he didn't just go leaning against random people and allow them to wrap their arm around him...to be fair, he also didn't talk to people.
Maybe he was expecting too much out of all of this. Maybe Tubbo had simply befriended him out of pity, and was now trying to find a way to get out of being close to him...maybe this was all just some elaborate joke that Tubbo was in on. Something that Tommy had set him up to...maybe that was the entire reason that he had stayed after school the previous evening; because he knew that Ranboo would be there. Because he knew that the blonde didn't have a single friend...and that he was in a vulnerable enough position where he would become attached to anyone who showed him the bare minimum: respect. And the worst part of it was that is was true. Even if Tubbo were to admit to all of this...if he was to admit to never even liking Ranboo in the first place, that wouldn't stop the blonde from admiring him. It wouldn't stop him from wanting to be his friend. It wasn't desperation, though, it honestly wasn't. The blonde genuinely appreciated Tubbo for even speaking to him in the first place...and just the fact that it was him made it so much better. The fact that it was someone who Ranboo predicted could be kind to him...it was enough to make his heart lift in his chest.
