Not a Fan (Wilbur Soot)

Aurora

Returning his attention to the task at hand, Wilbur began prepping the sandwiches. 

"How many girls are you talking to? Some chick named Aurora texted you a photo." Tommy spoke with a mixture of a laugh and a scoff as he grabbed Wilbur's phone from across the counter. 

"Aurora is Rori you idiot." Wilbur countered while grabbing his phone out of Tommy's hand. Why on earth would she send him a photo? 

Wilbur opened the message, revealing possibly the worst video she could've clicked on. The photo was of her laptop, a video titled 'Wilbur Soot Falls in Love at First Sight with Girl in Store!!!!' pulled up. The thumb nail had a candid photo of him, edited to have a prominent pinkish-purple blush across his cheeks, cropped next to a screengrab of her. It was the moment in Niki's stream where she was staring directly above the camera at his photo, a smile on her face when she recognized him. 

 I regret sharing this information with you lol

Wilbur texted once he finally peeled himself from over analyzing the thumbnail. He set down his phone, returning his attention to the sandwiches. Barely a minute past before he heard a faint laugh through the walls, soon followed by another. Wilbur set down the first sandwich in the pan before pulling up his phone, texting her again.

I can hear you laughing through the wall x 

As soon as he sent the message, he regretted adding the x at the end. It was second nature to include them in messages, not adding them in his other ones felt forced. He hoped she wouldn't be alarmed by it, seeing that Niki didn't use them. 

I'm not even to the good part yet. I was laughing at your sad excuse of an American accent :)

Oh boy

Wilbur was painfully aware of how Tommy and Toby were analyzing his every move as he looked up from his phone, a grin plastered on his face. 

"Wilbur, would you care to share with the class?" Toby said while sitting up straight, pointing to Wilbur's phone. 

"No, I would not." Wilbur laughed, setting down his phone to flip the sandwich.

The grin slowly fell from Wilbur's face as the laughing next door never returned. He finished making the rest of the sandwiches, handing them to the boys before texting her again. 

Haven't heard anymore laughing, not sure if I should be thankful or mortified 

Wilbur watched his phone for a moment, hoping the see his messages turn to read, for the three dots appear. They didn't. 

He tried keeping busy, cleaning the mess from making the boys dinner in a hurry, doing his best to avoid looking at his phone. 

Wilbur sighed in defeat as he caught a glimpse of the stove's clock, only five minutes had passed since he sent his last message. The entirety of the clip could be watched three times with how long she was taking. 

Yeah, I'm going to lean into mortified 

Wilbur typed in defeat, locking his phone and setting it on the counter. He turned around to grab a rag, getting ready to wipe down the counter. When he turned back, his phone was missing. 

"What the-" He mumbled, tapping each of his pockets. He felt like he was going crazy- he just set it down? 

"Spend time with us. We're leaving tomorrow." Tommy spoke up, holding out the phone. Wilbur sighed, guilt setting in. He reached out for his phone, but Tommy quickly recoiled his hand. 

"Give me my phone Tom. I promise I'll come hang out with you guys in a minute." Wilbur huffed, making a grabby hand motion to Tommy. Tommy didn't budge, giving Wilbur a look that held much more than just craving attention. 

The look was a warning. If Wilbur was this distressed about minutes passing between texts, he was on a slippery slope if his gut feeling about her reaction to what he said was correct. Tommy didn't even know she was watching the video, yet he somehow always picked up on any slight shift in Wilbur's demeanor. 

"You win." Wilbur answered, raising both arms in defeat. "Do you guys want to play a video game, drive around for a bit, watch TV?" Wilbur listed off random ideas. He was mainly thinking of whatever would distract himself from the unanswered messages from Rori. 

"Let's watch a movie!" Toby pitched, moving past Wilbur to put his plate in the ever growing pile of dishes in the sink. 

"Okay, you guys put on whatever. I'm going to do these before the tower falls." Wilbur gestured to the plate Toby had stacked on top of several mugs like a Jenga piece. 

Tommy and Toby made their way to the couch, arguing over what genre of movie to play, while Wilbur started up the hot water. He hated mundane chores like doing dishes, taking out the waste, and so on. In this moment, he was just thankful for a distraction from his phone. 

After about twenty minutes of washing, and missing the boring character building part of the movie they had decided on, Wilbur collapsed into the couch, pulling a pillow to his chest. He hadn't realized how thoroughly exhausted he was until that moment. 

The last thing he felt was a blanket being laid over him before he fell asleep to the sounds of the movie and his two friends laughing quietly next to him. 

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(2,783 words)