Toby Who? -- A Toby "Tobuscus" Turner Fan Fiction

Chapter 1: Holding On & Letting Go

“It's everything you wanted, it's everything you don't

It's one door swinging open and one door swinging closed

Some prayers find an answer

Some prayers never know

We're holding on and letting go.”

*1 MONTH LATER*

I woke up to the sound of my best friend pounding on my bedroom door. My Jack Russell Terrier, Boone, was scratching at the door and whining to come in. I must have cried myself to sleep again, which had been happening to me a lot in the past month.

“Emma Leigh? Are you in there?”  Nicole Sears cautiously called, even though she already knew the answer to that question. I rarely left my room unless it was to go to work.

“Come in,” I sniffled, wiping the dried tears from my sleepy eyes.

Nicole obeyed, slowly entering and allowing Boone to run in as well. Her pin-straight, long brown hair that I envied (I always had trouble taming my crazy curls) bounced as she sat down next to me on my bed.  Nikki was my very short, skinny roommate (she was just under 5 feet tall and probably weighed less than 100 pounds) and had been ever since we were just scared college freshman moving into our microscopic college dorm room as total strangers. We instantly bonded and became best friends within 2 weeks of meeting. Our personalities matched better than anyone else I knew. We could read each other’s minds just by looking at one another. There was even this special voice that we only used around each other when we were being goofy (we called it “the voice”), accompanied by a special matching laugh. We always supported each other no matter what and I considered her to be my family by this point in our friendship.

Boone leaped onto my bed, energetically wagging his tail while panting and jumping all over me.

I half-smiled as his tongue happily kissed my nose. “Booney baby! Come here and cuddle, Bubba.” I affectionately cooed to him as I sat up in bed and placed him onto my lap. I had too many ridiculous nicknames for him, I couldn’t count them all even if I wanted to. I adopted him from a Jack Russell Terrier rescue service as soon as I had graduated from college and moved into this pet-friendly 2-bedroom apartment with Nicole around 4 years ago. I’d always wanted my own puppy dog so badly, so it didn’t seem strange when I cried tears of joy as I picked up Boone from his foster family. The cute little doggie foster family of five was pretty big on watching the then-popular TV show “LOST” so they named Boone after Ian Somerhalder’s character on the show who tragically died during the first season. I liked the name and liked Ian Somerhalder even more, so I just kept the name to avoid confusion.

“Emma Leigh Cameron, it’s almost noon! You really should get up and get ready for work.” Nicole scolded, using my full name. Nikki and I took turns being each other’s “mom away from mom” whenever the other needed it (for example, I would sometimes tell Nicole when to do her laundry or she would occasionally tell me when I needed to clean my room). We worked together part-time at a local daycare center for children who were too young to go school while their parents worked during the day.

“I don’t feel like working today,” I pouted while petting Boone’s belly. “I don’t want to be here anymore.” My voice cracked a little as I said that last sentence.

Nicole pouted at me. “Why not?” I knew she sympathized with my situation, but she’d been single for her entire life so she could never fully understand what I was going through. She’d never had a boyfriend, just a few casual dates here and there that never turned into anything serious. She had never even been kissed before! I think this was partly because Nikki's so picky about guys. Trust me, plenty of cute and sweet guys had been interested in her over the years, but she’d always found some reason not to date them. This drove me absolutely crazy sometimes, but I loved her anyway and just kept hoping that one day she’d meet the perfect guy for her very high standards.