Conquering Nightmares of the Past

14. Being Scared is Part of Being Alive

has it been a week and a half since i said i would update? yes.

are we going to talk about it? nope :)

here have a longer than normal chapter to distract you :D

amusement park time!

tw//panic attack (lmk if i missed any <3)

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Wilbur woke up happy. He had noticed that happening more, recently. It was nice. He wanted it to happen more often.

He sat up in bed, swinging his feet over the edge and getting up. He made his bed, placing friend in the middle, right below the pillows and smiled before walking out the room and down the stairs to bug Phil.

Right before he reached the bottom of the stairs, he put on a pout and slumped against the railing of the stairs, in perfect positioning for whining.

"Daaaaaaad. I'm bored." Phil looked up when he heard Wilbur, smiling at his son's antics.

"Well, we can't have that. What would you like to do, kiddo?" Phil replied, layering on his 'dad voice' extra strong.

"I dunno, that's why I asked you." Wilbur's sassy tone pulled a laugh from Phil as he thought of activities that would satisfy Wilbur's boredom.

"Hm... How about we go to an amusement park?" Phil suggested. He had been wanting to take Wilbur somewhere fun for a while and this was a perfect opportunity. Wilbur tilted his head.

"What's that?" He asked. It doesn't matter how many times this happens, Phil will never not be heartbroken slightly by Wilbur not knowing about such simple things. He hid the sympathy and heartbreak from his facial expression, not wanting to bring down Wilbur's mood.

"It's a place with heaps of fun rides and stalls with games. You can also get a lot of sugary foods and drinks. I think you'd enjoy it. Wanna give it a shot?" Wilbur's eyes lit up when Phil said 'sugary foods' and he nodded his head vigorously.

"Alright. You gotta go get ready, though. Sooner we leave, the more time we get to spend there."

Wilbur ran up the stairs, not slowing when Phil yelled after him to be careful. He kept running until he reached his closet and he quickly changed into some random clothes he liked, falling over multiple times in the process.

Once he was dressed in a white t-shirt with an unbuttoned button-up over the top and black jeans, he raced to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, his mood dampened. Normally it would be his weight that made him upset, but now it was his hair. At school he had been wearing beanies, putting them on before going into the bathroom and taking them off right before bed, but now his head was uncovered and he was forced to face the bird's nest he was sporting.

On the first day of school, he had attempted to brush his hair, but it hurt, a lot, so he gave up. He ended up putting a beanie on and mussing the parts that came out the front, making the mess look intentional. He just kept that going every day from then on.

Now, however, all of his beanies were in the wash, so he had to face his painful and permanent bedhead. He grabbed the brush, trying to pull it through his hair gently, but only got frustrated when it wouldn't move and pulling harder until he had to release it from being close to tears from the pain.

He tried multiple times more, only resulting in the same outcome. His only two solutions were to ask Phil for help or go out like this, and he had way too much self-respect to ever let this monstrosity see the light of day so asking Phil for help it is.