Escape - Wilbur angst

Chapter 8 - New fear unlocked

I thought the title was funny. I hate time skips, but otherwise this shit would be a 10000000000 chapters long. When I say shirt I mean like you know the striped ones and uhh y'know.

TW'S

Mentions of ED and past trauma, social anxiety

Wilbur's eating hadn't improved. He still only ate one meal a day consisting of a fruit and drank lots of water. He mostly stayed in his room, rarely talked and was emotionally unavailable. "Do you want to talk about anything?" Phil had asked, only to be answered with "I'm fine."

Something was obviously incredibly wrong. Wilbur had gotten his bandages removed and his stab wound was healing nicely. He felt kind of bad, Phil had been such a great host. But he didn't have any energy left to try. The exhaustion was mental, because no matter how much he slept, no matter how much or little he exercised he never felt more energetic.

So, when Phil asked him to go to the mall, it seemed like the end of the world. He didn't want to meet any new people, and what if they were there? No, they couldn't be, the trial was tomorrow. But yet, something inside of him told him that the public was scary, that he himself was doing something wrong and that they would look weirdly at him.

But he agreed. He had promised Phil to go. All three of them sat in the car, Wilbur offered to sit in the backseat so that father and son could spend some time. They were chatting away, trying to get Wilbur to participate but failing.

Wilbur's mind was occupied with fear, anxiety if you will. When the car stopped outside of a large mall, Wilbur's mind went blank and legs numb. He felt as if he couldn't move, only waking up once Phil opened the car door. His eyes quietly asking if he was okay. "Sorry, I just zoned out for a bit. I guess."

Phil nodded and backed away as Wilbur got out. They started walking towards the building as Wilbur just focused on staying calm. He could do this, he had Techno and Phil by his side, and they could just leave whenever.

They walked into a clothing store; a shirt caught his eye. It was really nice, would probably go nice with a white T-shirt. "Found something you like?" Techno asked, he had noticed Wilbur's stare. 

"Yeah actually, see that brown, white, beige - you get the point - over there?" Techno and Phil looked over and nodded. "Well then go get it mate. You can go around picking up some stuff and try them on. I'll be looking for some of my own so just come find me when you're ready." Phil smiled.

Wilbur smiled back and walked over to the shirt, Techno following. "What's your size?" Wilbur thought for a second. "Uhm, I think medium or small. Kind of depends" Techno pulled out one of each, hooking them onto his arm and bowing in a joking manner. Wilbur laughed at this, and Techno soon joined.

Wilbur kept moving, eventually finding a maroon sweater and a white button up. He also grabbed a pair of black jeans and black sweats. Before entering the dressing room, Wilbur grabbed the white T-shirt he had been thinking about.

He entered the booth. It was surprisingly not too small. Spacious, but not unnecessarily big. He first tried on the pants, as that would be easier for him. The medium ones fit well and were comfortable.

Wilbur wanted to try on the whole outfit. He hadn't switched shirts since he got to Phil's, he was afraid of what he would see. He lifted the hoodie off of his body, his shaking hand moving across 'disgusting'. At the sensation he inhaled sharply. 

He hadn't gained any weight, to his relief, although he did look healthier. He quickly put on the white button up, and then the sweater. After fixing the last few details he looked at himself. He looked great and decided to keep it.

When he had tried on all of the clothes he separated them into two piles. Buy and not the right size. The two boys found Phil and they went to checkout.

Next was room decorations. Phil led them to one seemingly having two sides; decorations more suited towards adults, and ones suited towards children, which had a lot more colours, shapes and even some game themes.

Wilbur so happened to like the plainer decorations. He looked at a few items, eventually picking out the ones that would look good together. After buying those they stood in the middle of the mall, Wilbur looking anxiously around them.

"Do you have any other things you would like that could not be found in there?" Wilbur looked back at him and thought for a bit. "Actually yeah, some plants and books would be nice. And if it's not too much, I do enjoy drawing." 

"Of course not mate! Let's go get that for you." Phil was happy to see the boy being comfortable with asking for stuff.

I know I cut this off short, but I lost all motivation and would rather quit than continue and it ending up badly.

- Bread