How I cope || Wilbur Soot

Chapter 5~ take a break

I got back from shopping with Madison, dropping my bags beside the door and jumping onto the sofa with a sigh of relief.

This is the happiest I had been in ages, I felt like I was finally getting back on track but that piece of me that Noah filled was still missing. I will get it back one day, I hope.

Without realising I had fallen asleep on the sofa with one singular blanket covering me. I had a long day today, fun, but long.

*the next day*

I woke up the next morning to my phone ringing. I groaned, annoyed, I was not a morning person to say the least. I checked the time. 8am.

Incoming FaceTime call: Madison❤️‍🔥

I picked up the phone, rubbing my eyes as I sat up. "What do you want?" I spoke, my voice rough from sleep. She laughed, knowing exactly what she had done.

"I was bored." She laughed even harder. I glared at her and shuffled back down into my position of sleep.

"In that case you can stay on the call but I'm going back to sleep." She chuckled, we did this often. Sat on the phone with each other as one of us or even sometimes both of us slept.

"Ok then, goodnight!" She screamed down the phone as I turned down the volume and placed my phone on the table facing the ceiling.

It didn't take me long to fall back asleep, it never did anyway.

I woke up again two hours later, picking up the phone to see Madison still on the screen. "Morning sleepy head!" She waved through the camera as I smiled back, standing from the sofa.

"Quick question!" She pointed at me as I placed my phone down against the wall of my kitchen sides. "What time are you supposed to be meeting Wilbur? It is already 10am" My eyes widened as I realised I'm meeting Wilbur in three hours at his apartment and I still had to have a shower, do my make-up and get ready.

"Damn it I forgot about that!" I lay my head in my hands as the kettle boiled. "I'll call you back tomorrow Mads I've got to get in the shower and everything. Thanks for reminding me!" I thanked her in a rush.

"No problem Kenz, see you tomorrow!" She smiled understandingly at me.

"See you tomorrow!" I smiled back before she cut off the call. I ran up my stairs switching the shower on and getting myself a towel, picking out some of the clothes I had bought yesterday.

In the matter of 2 hours and a half I managed to have my shower, dry my hair, do my make-up and have something to eat. Quite a record for me to be honest. I know, I know, I take forever to get ready!

I quickly sent a text to Wilbur, letting him know I'm on my way before calling a taxi and waiting at the front of my drive for it to arrive, scrolling through instagram in the meanwhile.

As I began to get bored of scrolling, my taxi finally arrived. The man rolled down his window, turning to me with a bored look on his face.

"Taxi for Mackenzie?" He questioned as I nodded, a faint smile on my face just to be polite. He nodded back at me as I silently sat down in the back of the car.

The drive didn't really last long. Before I knew it, I was outside of Wilburs apartment building, paying the driver with a £5 note.

Wilbur🎶

Mackenzie🥤
What number apartment is yours again?

Wilbur🎶
Third floor right at the end of the hall!

Mackenzie🥤
Ok I'm on my way up :)

Wilbur🎶
Ok see you then!

I put my phone in my back pocket, approaching the building I had been stood in front of whilst texting Wilbur.

This is the first time I was going to actually hang out with Wilbur. I don't count the coffee shop because that's just how we met, not necessarily a hang out as friends. We were strangers that day.

I walked into the large building making my way up to the third floor which didn't take as long as I had imagined it would either.

As I stood in front of his door, I was scared to knock, worried I would be at the wrong door. Although I knew I couldn't just stand in the hallway all night staring at the door so I took a deep breathe and knocked loudly on the door three times.

It didn't take long for the door to swing open and the familiar tall brunette to greet me from the other side.

"Mackenzie, finally! Hi!" he greeted me, stepping to the side to allow me to enter.

"Hey Wilbur!" I greeted back, shyly stepping into his apartment and giving him a small hug. I wasn't used to being with anyone else except the two girls so it felt exciting but also nerve racking to be somewhere new with someone knew.

"What took you so long? It's been like 10 minutes since you told me you were on your way up." He chuckled slightly, I imagined he was thinking of different scenarios in his head.

"Well without sounding like some sort of stalker, I was stood outside your door for a good 5 minutes contemplating if I was in the right place." I laughed nervously, rubbing the back of my neck as he just shook his head.

"I don't blame you, I'd probably do the same if I were you." He nodded at me before locking the door and making his way into the next room, gesturing for me to follow him.

"So how's every thing going? I know you were quite stressed out last time we had a proper conversation." We both sat down on the sofa as he began to speak. He wasn't wrong, last time we had a proper conversation was during my argument with Mackenzie and Harper.

"With what I'm going through, I always have something going through my mind but things with the girls have been sorted." I smiled gratefully at him, knowing that he did truly care about my answer.

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is it you're going through? You've told me a lots going on but you've never specified. You don't have to tell me, I'm just curious." He spoke gently to me in order to not overwhelm me with questions.

I sighed, deciding to tell him about Noah. Even though we hadn't known each other for long, I felt like I could trust Wilbur, like he deserved to know about all this crazy stuff going on in my life.

"Well urmm... just over a week ago my boyfriend of 3 years died due to a house fire that we were both in. Police are still investigating it but they believe it wasn't an accident but that somebody had set it on fire purposely." A tear rolled down my cheek as I spoke about the events of that night.

"Oh my gosh, Mackenzie I'm so sorry!" Wilburs face dropped into sadness and guilt as he looked deeply at me. I knew he could see the tears forming in my eyes.

"No, no, it's fine! I'll be fine!" I tried to brush it off, waving my hand to exaggerate my point but by now there was no point. My voice broke with every word I spoke, it was obvious I was on the edge of crying.

"You need to take a break Mackenzie, clear your mind a bit." Wilbur pulled me into a hug, rubbing his hand up and down my back to calm me down as I began to sob into his arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
word count: 1299