insomnia • jschlatt & wilbur soot

awake.

wilbur was a boy with many emotions.

way too many to keep them all bottled up.

he'd tried keeping them in. in fact, he had a nearly three-month-long streak of pushing them out of his mind, but they'd always come back to haunt him and spill out in the most overdramatic and exaggerated way.

so he'd simply stopped trying to keep them in.

if he felt sad, he'd cry. if he was happy, he'd do whatever he wanted.

although it was a rather large hindrance to his schoolwork and daily life, he acted on his impulses and did whatever would make his feel better, since he knew what was good for himself.

and thus, as his mental state improved, so did his grades, even though he studied less, but he was eligible to attend an exchange program and was then suddenly shipped off to america to live with his friend dave.

but yet again, his emotions hit him like a truck.

living away from home for the first time, better yet, across the fucking ocean, did wonders for his depression.

that was sarcasm if you couldn't tell.

even though he hadn't even started school yet, and he'd only been away for a week, he'd gotten increasingly anxious by the day, doing stupid things like checking if he turned the lights off at least 5 times or washing his hands over and over until his skin was raw.

but tonight was a strange night.

he couldn't fall asleep, no matter how tired he was, and even after scrolling through twitter for what felt like hours, he was still wide awake.

he heard dave's snores coming from the other room, and really did not want to wake the boy up, so he decided to go ahead and explore the town.

oddly enough, he'd stayed cooped up in the apartment for most of the days, scared and anxious of the outside world, but now that it was nighttime, and most others would be at home asleep, he thought it would be a safe bet to go out and relax.

he grabbed a coat of the rack, slipping his arms in the sleeves, as well as his favourite beanie, embroidered with orcas. as he was about to leave the house, he glanced over at the corner of the room, where his guitar laid, almost beckoning him to bring it along.

he picked up his guitar case, slinging it over his shoulder, and slowly opened the front door, turning the key and locking it tightly.

he wandered around the empty town for a while, observing the various buildings and sights around him. one of the places he took note of was a small cafe, lined with bookshelves, which appeared rather cosy. he was sure to visit it soon.

slowly, he approached an odd-looking park, nothing like the well-kept, clean patches of man-made nature they had in london, but rather looking like a chunk of an actual forest, unkempt and wild.

he trudged through the park, stepping over the fallen trees and the bushes, and decided to sit on the ground, leaning against a rather sturdy tree.

he pulled out his guitar from its case, slowly strumming aimlessly as he stared into the barely visible night sky.

the stars were much brighter here. in contrast to the smoke-filled air of london, the skies were actually clear, and the stars bright and yellow. he could even make out a few constellations he'd studied before.

he looked back towards the ground, taking a deep sigh.

he grabbed his phone out of his pocket, hitting shuffle on his spotify playlist. it landed on a song he rather enjoyed, 'i miss you! etc.' by caving.

he started to recall the notes in his head, plucking out the intro on his guitar, before starting to strum the chords, muted, just like in the original song.

he didn't like his voice much. but no matter how much nitpicking he did all the smallest mistakes in his voice, his friends and family would constantly compliment every aspect of it, from his inflexion to its calm tone.

so he continued to work on it, singing at nearly every opportunity he had, trying to stop letting the mistakes get in his head, and rather change them, and improve.

he started singing along to the song, his words harsh and stained with sadness, like his true emotions as well as matching the tone of the song.

as he continued on and got to the chorus, he heard footsteps behind him, behind the tree he leant against.

he ignored them, brushing them off as simply some animal.

but as he kept singing, he could feel the presence of someone else behind him.

he felt the tree shake slightly as the stranger sat against the tree, back against the opposite side from himself.

as he sang the tune, he looked over to the other side of the tree discreetly, and saw the dark sleeve of a sweater behind him, and saw a boy who was roughly his height.

he turned back around and felt his face heat up.

it was nice to feel appreciated. the fact that someone enjoyed his music was enough to lift his spirits.

after a while of strumming his guitar and plucking the strings, wilbur decided it was time to get back. after all, it was nearly 3 am and he had school the next day, and he wanted to make a good impression.

he placed his guitar back in his case, smoothly zipping it up and swinging it onto his shoulder, using the same momentum to walk around the tree and approach the stranger.

he held his hand out to the stranger, who he now knew was a boy, and felt strangely confident in his own skin, deciding to take the first step.

"i guess we're a couple of insomniacs," he said before the stranger flinched for a second, and promptly moved to grab wilbur's hand and stand up.

and when they looked each other in the eyes for the first time, wilbur knew there was something special between them.