~Manipulation~

11 // Open The Door

Tommy had been pacing around his kitchen for the past ten minutes; whatever Wilbur had meant, it wasn't good. After the call, he had completely forgotten his appetite and no longer felt like eating. It was all he could do to nervously run his fingers through his hair while waiting for his inevitable "punishment" or whatever Wilbur had threatened.

It was only when he heard the sound of a car pulling up the driveway that Tommy was brought out of his panicked state. Looking down, he realised that the palms of his hands were white from constantly digging his nails into the skin.

Ding dong.

The doorbell! Tommy reached for his phone and put it into his pocket before making his way out of the kitchen to go and greet Wilbur. As much as he didn't want to, the blonde knew that if he didn't things would only get worse...

No! Screw Wilbur and his stupid ways! What was the worse that could happen? Tommy was sick of always being so... so manipulated! He didn't care anymore! Wilbur could do whatever he wanted – his parents would stop it if things got out of control. Tubbo would stop it. The SBI would stop it. He had the entire SMP as whitenesses if anything went wrong!

Suddenly Tommy was feeling a lot more confident. Instead of going towards the door, he sprinted upstairs to his room and locked the door. The blonde was fuming.

He practically flopped onto his bed and dived underneath the covers; away from the intrusive world around him. Nothing could hurt him in there – it was like his own personal cocoon.

That was, until he got a discord notification. 'Toms I know you're home. Open the door.'

Tommy made no hesitation in typing back his reply. 'Fuck you Wilbur!'

'Suit yourself... it's only making it worse in the long term.' There were a few moments of silence (ok technically all of it was silence... there were a few moments where nothing happened), before Wilbur sent another message. 'I'm giving you one final chance to do this the easy way.'

'I'm not doing whatever this is, in any way at all"

Wilbur left him on read... not that Tommy expected anything any better. Still – panic took over him. The blonde was physically shaking in the bed while a singular tear ran down his face.

Tommy really didn't know how much time had passed while he was like that, but he knew that it was a lot. The boy was brought out of his trance when there was a knock on his door.

"J- just a minute!" His voice seemed to go up an octave when he was stressed.

"That's fine Tommy, I'm just letting you know that dinner's ready."

"Ok mum, I'll be d-down in a sec," Tommy could tell that she was still at his door, "what did you m-make?"

"Nothing special, just a shepherds pie made from some leftovers in the fridge."

"Sounds great mum, j-just give me two minutes and I'll be d-down!"

"Alright Tommy... are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine mum! Just t-tired."

"If you say so."

The blonde let out an audible sigh once he heard her footsteps retreating. Tommy brushed away the loose tears and calmed down his breathing before unlocking his door and making his way downstairs.

At this point, he was running on autopilot so he didn't notice the extra person at the dining table who was casually chatting to his dad. Tommy just helped himself to the portion they had left for him (but left a decent amount for seconds if anyone wanted any) and took his usually seat next to his mum and diagonal to his dad.

"So Tommy," the blonde hummed; signalling for his dad to continue speaking, "Wilbur here tells me that you guys have a cool plan for the next three months! Of course you can always stay longer, but we can have that conversation after your initial three months. I've talked it over with your mum and we think it's a good idea as long as you stay with Wilbur the entire time."

"Cool... WAIT WHAT THE FUCK!?" Tommy immediately stopped eating and looked up to be faced with a smirking brunette opposite him.

"Language Tommy," his mum gently rubbed his arm as she said this, but Tommy flinched away from her.

"Yeah Toms, you remember our plan, don't you?"

"I-I... NO! I don't remember mak-"

"Teenagers these days," his dad chuckled at Wilbur's clear attempt at hiding Tommy's outburst, "always forgetting things!"

"He'd forget his own head if it wasn't screwed onto his neck!" Wilbur laughed, but Katie (Tommy's mum) only frowned.

"You sure you're alright Tommy? You don't have to go if you don't want to."

Wilbur kicked Tommy under the table and sent him a very obvious 'if you mess this up you will regret it' look.