Runaways (Ticci Tobi x male!reader)

Chapter 5 The Slender man

A/n!: sorry this chapter took so long I was severely demotivated :,). But I decided longer chapters are better lol!

The next morning you woke up to the irritating sound of your alarm clock. You used to have it set to play whatever your favorite song was, unfortunately it managed to ruin whatever song you put on to wake you up. I get up and take a shower, brush my teeth, all the normal things people do. I put on black skinny jeans, a black hoodie, and a beanie. I get my bag and walk to school, skipping breakfast as always.

While on my walk I find myself thinking about Toby and the fight. I feel bad and it is my fault we saw this thing in the woods in the first place. It clearly operates on a different system than the other entities you had been told about. It stalks and no matter what you say, it won't stop watching. Just the thought of it makes you so nauseous and a little irritated even. "ugh,... as if moving to a new town wasn't hard enough.." I mumble under my breath as I continue my walk to school

I walk to school and I see Eryk and Kev talking to each other and Toby is near them, but he's not talking at all. He sees you and still looks a little mad and Eryk and Kev definitely look on edge. You feel bad now, seeing Toby still mad at you and Eryk and Kev nervous. Damn... maybe you did really mess up... you walk over to the group and Kev notices first and waves and you waves back even with a slight smile. The closer you get though, the more you can see that Toby's definitely pissed. "Hey, uh Toby, can we talk somewhere else for a second?" You ask. He looks at you slightly suspicious but nevertheless, he agrees "y-yeah sur-r-e whatever" he says with a slight nod.

He follows me somewhere secluded away from Eryk and Kev and stands there. At this point, he knows why you brought him here, and he's waiting for his apology and to be told how right he was and that you're such a dick. Which is what you're going to say, so he is 100% correct "look, I'm sorry Toby, I fucked up. And I'm even more sorry for telling you that you were overreacting-" he interrupts you "b-be-because I was-s-sn't" he adds before letting you continue "yes, I know, I'm sorry. You weren't overreacting, I did put us in danger and I won't ever do that again, I promise. And I'd really like it if you still wanted to help me find out what this thing is and what it wants" I ask. Toby seems to ponder your questions for a second before speaking up again "A-Alri-right. Apology acc-ac-accepted, we'll meet u-u-up at the lib-library after s-sch-school." He says. You can tell he's still angry but def not as mad as he was before. You don't completely know why, but you actually care if Toby, Eryk, and Kevin like you. It's odd

You get back to the group, Eryk is the first one to speak up "so, what were you two doing back there?" Eryk asks you and Toby. "Nothing much, I just wanted some help with math and I asked Toby for help" you lie artfully. "Oh, ok! If you need help with any subjects, we're here for you too" Eryk says with a kind smile. Their kindness and understanding makes you feel bad for lying, but you know it's probably for the best. "Yeah, I understand if you need help understanding math, our teacher doesn't really teach it too well" Kev says with a nervous laugh. "y-y-yeah she's-s really bad at her job" Toby adds.

School drags along until lunch. You and Toby sit next to each other, you talk about random things and he seems a lot more comfortable with just you around then Eryk and Kev here too. "S-s-so why di-i-id you move h-here?" Toby asks. You assume the accent is what gave you away. It makes you stick out like a sore thumb in any place that isn't in the south. "My dad's an abusive dick so my mom dragged me from West Virginia all the way to fuckin Colorado" I say with a sigh. "Oh w-well that s-s-sucks" Toby says. "Yeah it does, I'm away from all the friends I had at home and I have to start all over again and my mom expects me to love this place and her soooo fucking much" You say back. "I d-don't rea-l-lly have any friends so I don't underst-sta-stand what it's like, but it sucks you're going through that" Toby replies. Wow, you've received a lot of backhanded compliments, but backhanded comfort is new to you.

"Uh, Toby, you do realize I'm your friend? Or at least I'm trying to be your friend" you say with a giggle, masking thinly your irritation at Toby's comment. "O-o-oh you a-a-are? I thought you were only hanging around me because of that man that keeps stalking us" Toby says, he seems completely serious too. "I wouldn't give a shit if a unicorn was stalking you if you were cool enough to at least hang out with" you say with a chuckle. Toby laughs as well between the occasional tic "are y-y-you sa-s-saying the only thing stopping you from let-t-ting a unicorn kidnap me is our fragile friendship?" Toby says in an overdramatized and joking tone that makes you crack a smile at how ridiculous it is. "Yes, I would let Sparklebutt the unicorn kidnap you if you were less cool" you quipped sarcastically as you rolled your eyes, a slight goofy smirk still present on your face. Toby laughs at your sarcasm

Time passes and eventually school ends and leaves you with a shit ton of homework in your backpack as you wait for Toby. Which gives you a reason to be at the library with Toby. Though, it's not like mom cares where I go, what I do or who I'm with. She only pretends to care, half of the time she's in her room either sleeping, working, or stress eating. The longer she spent with your father, the more isolated she became. She pretends to care for you, but really she tries not to do more than the bare minimum. You're pretty sure she didn't even want you that much. You were probably a pathetic attempt to make dad stay. Clearly, that didn't work out. Dad just got worse and mom couldn't take it anymore.You snap out of your thoughts and back into the real world. Thinking about things like that will just send you into and annoying, shitty spiral of reflection which is not what you need today, tomorrow or even this week. Just as you're hoping for Toby to get here soon so you aren't left alone with your thoughts, you see his messy brown hair and pale complexion in the distance.

You wave to him and walk up to Toby "hey Toby, you ready?" You ask. "Ye- ye- ah, y-you?" He asks. "Yeah, I've been ready waiting for your slow ass!" You say jokingly and nudge his shoulder slightly. Toby let's out a soft laugh and rolls his dark, almost black brown eyes "yeah well I have to take the long way around unless I wanna get bullied through my entire walk home" he says. "Yeah, and speaking of getting followed, we should probably get going before someone decides to follow us." You say. Toby nods and starts to lead the way to the library.

Your walk to the library with Toby was actually really nice. There were some moments of silence as you both took in the beautiful autumn trees and their colors. "You know, these trees remind me of home. Like the colors of the leaves and everything" you say. "You ha-ha-have s-s-seasons in th-the south?" Toby asks stupidly. "It's the south, not a different planet. Of course we have seasons" you say, as if Toby had said the stupidest thing you've ever heard. "N-No, like is th-ther-there an a-actual difference i-in the wea-weather?" Toby restates. "Well the south is a pretty big region, but in West Virginia we do" you say. As you and Toby make it to the library

"Hey, Toby, how about you start researching on the computer and I'll join you in a bit, I just wanna see if there's any books that might help us" you say. Toby nods "y-yeah, t-th-that's a smart idea" he say as he goes to the back of the library where all the computers are. You, however, go up to the librarian "hey um do you have books about supernatural entities? Like uh, monsters? It's for a project" you ask. The librarian smiles before speaking "of course we do! In fact we had one donated to us recently, it's called,-" they look down at the book "slenderman! An odd name, isn't it?" The librarian says with a smile as she hand. You look at the cover and notice something even stranger than the book's name. It's a circle with an 'x' in the middle, it's the same symbol you'd draw in your doodle in your books ever since you could remember. You take the book and nods slightly before speaking again "thank you, I think this is exactly what I'm looking for" you say, before walking to the back of the library with Toby.