Shouldn't Have [TomTord]

Chapter Fourteen

A red, rustic car pulled up to the front of the apartment building that Tom has been standing in front of for close to a half an hour. It slowed and came to a stop right in front of the eyeless male, quick to roll down the driver side window to reveal that it was Edd who has been driving it.

"Hey Tom! How was it?" He's awfully cheery for whatever reason.

"Horrible. Let's go home." Tom rounds the front of the car and opens the passenger side to get into his usual seat. Once he's inside, he doesn't even have the energy to put on his seatbelt, too tired and pissed off to care if he goes flying through the window.

"Where's Tord?" Edd asks before he starts the car, leaving the key to barely stand right in front of the ignition.

"I don't know." Tom huffs. Just thinking about Tord now makes him want to throw up again. It's faint, but he's feeling the tightness of his throat again and he really wishes he can just go home now.

Edd turns in his seat, towards Tom, and puts down the keys. "You two didn't get into another fight, did you?"

"No." Tom snaps, turning his head to look at Edd with aggravation, "Now, drive. I'm tired." He expects Edd to immediately comply and put the key in the ignition, for them both to forget this day and have it where like this whole thing never happened. Instead, however, it grows eerily quiet as Edd states right back at Tom with an intense gaze.

"You need to stop talking to me like that," Edd sighs, closing his eyes, opening them, and then shifting them to the backseat of the car, "Im only ever trying to help you." He refuses to look back at Tom, which only makes the other angrier. So what? Is he now so undesirable that he can't even be looked at? Is he so immature that he can't be told something like he's an adult?

"I don't care." Tom turns around to look out the side window, avoiding the driver.

"You should care, Tom. If you don't care enough, you'll get hurt." Edd scolds. Tom can hear his chair shifting slightly, as if he's moving around.

Suddenly, a hand grabs his shoulder and pulls him back.

"Wha--?!" Tom chokes out a noise as surprise take him, suddenly feeling his body being man handled to turn back around to look at Edd again. When he turns, he sees that cola-lover is looking at him with narrowed eyes. He's no longer the nice and sweet friend he was a second ago; now he is someone to not reckon with.

"Tom, you're going to tell me the truth because I know you're hiding something. What is going on inside your mind?" Edd is giving him a glare that, in some way, is almost kind. He cares so much in this moment, because this is where he will get answers, even if it means he has to break character on being the always sweet hearted, mother-like friend.

Tom can't form any thoughts, only staring in fear as Edd's eyes continuing to glare right back at him. It's intense and Tom wants to go home and drown himself in alcohol and tears and throw up. He doesn't want to release all these emotions that he's been keeping inside so well.

Although, the tantrum that he had earlier that day probably wouldn't back him up on that statement of keeping his emotions bottled up. In fact, if anything, Tom was probably chipping away like old paint. It's only a matter of time before this disease completely eats up at his insides and eventually makes his throat so raw that he can no longer breathe or eat. His lungs are probably slowly disintegrating right now as he sits there and continues to stare back at his friend.

Tom is going to die, and he so badly wants to say this out loud. He so badly wants to tell Edd, so that he can have one more person to understand and give him slack. He wants to voice to the whole world that he's going to die via flowers, and that this disease will take him down whether he likes it or not. He wants to scare Edd with this information, so that maybe he can leave Tom alone to spend the remaining of his life as he pleases. Maybe, at some point, Tom can do the same with Tord, and have it where the Norwegian will allow Tom to beat him up without protest. Everyone will be at Tom's feet, and it all starts with him confessing this little, tiny secret.