'i don't have anywhere else to go.' - a sleepy boys inc story

"Okay I'm going shopping; it's been a while. Does anyone want to come with?" Wilbur calls, his voice slightly muffled from the kitchen, his head buried in the fridge.

Looking up from behind the open plastic door, he sees Tommy smiling and nodding at him over the kitchen island. "Yeah! Phil, Techno, you guys wanna come?"

Tommy's invitation is met with denial from the latter. "Techno, why aren't you coming? You busy or something?"

"Nah, I just don't wanna come, nerd. Shopping is borin' as hell."

Wilbur snorts. "Fair enough. Dad? You'll come, won't you?"

The older man smiles uneasily, rubbing the back of his neck, and declines the invitation, claiming he has an idea for a video he has to work on.

"Phil. Come on. Please?" Tommy draws out his vowels in a whine.

Laughing, the other blond insists, "I really have to work on this, mate. Maybe some other time. It's just groceries."

"Alright. Toms, come on, get your shit, we're leaving in ten minutes."

---

"HE'S IN YOUR BED AND I'M IN YOUR TWITCH CHAT-"

"BOM BO DOM BO DOM BOM BO DOM BO DOM-"

Wilbur's heart is soaring as he and his friend yell along to the music blasting out of the surround sound speakers, sounding utterly terrible as they race along the highway, on their way to the nearest Tesco.

As the wind ruffles their hair, they smile contentedly and Tommy plays air guitar painfully inaccurately.

"How far is this fucking Tesco's, dude? We've been driving for like, 15 minutes." The younger raises his voice to be heard over the blaring melody, complaining loudly.

Laughing, Wilbur replies, "Not much longer, chill. Be patient, you're such a child. It's only about five minutes away."

"I am a big man, how dare you." He argues, shrieking in comedic exaggerated offence.

"Keep telling yourself that, gremlin."

---

Eyes flitting through aisles of cereal boxes, Tommy calls to his older friend, asking which brand they usually get. Receiving no answer, he walks up the aisle, towards the refrigerated items, and out, walking up and down the tall hallway, looking for his brown-haired friend. He finds him in aisle 7, bending over to look at paper napkins. Wilbur glances up at him before going back to scanning the various stacks of serviettes.

"What, Tommy?"

Sliding on the beige linoleum floor, the teen runs toward him, tackling him and almost knocking them both off their feet.

"Oof." Having successfully knocked the air out of his tall friend's lungs, Tommy pulls his arms off the bent-over figure, giggling.

"TOMMY." Wilbur raises his voice without thinking, forgetting they're in public and earning angry and passive-aggressive side glances from people passing the end of the long aisle.

"Oops. Sorry!" He calls a rushed apology to the strangers before turning to his friend.

"Hey, Wilbur!"

"You can't just do that; you scared the fuck out of me!" Despite his scolding tone, both friends are grinning widely.

"Heeeeey."

"Did you actually want anything? Or did you just want-"

"Ok, no-" They're both still trying to recatch their breath from the American football-style tackle Tommy just performed and their barely controllable laughter.

"Did you just want to annoy me?"

"You tell me to get cereal but don't even tell me what fucking brand you get, man."

Both of them laughing, the brunet admits defeat. "Okay, okay. Phil usually makes us get special K or cornflakes to be healthy, but I'm sure he'll not care if we get coco pops just this once."

Jumping up and down, Tommy giggles, "YES. LET'S GET COCO POPS. COCO POPS ARE POG."

Wilbur laughs as he places a hand on his young friend's arm, stilling him. "Chill, man. Go get us the cereal if you want it so bad, I still haven't gotten us any napkins."

As the blond-haired boy walks away, he shoots over his back, "By the way, yes, I also just wanted to annoy you."

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