ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴠᴜʟɴᴇʀᴀʙʟᴇ, ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴠᴜʟɴᴇʀᴀʙʟᴇ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ʀᴏʙᴏᴛ
Our project barely was a success. With it being covered in scraps of craft paper and glue, the teacher was probably blessing us with a 79.
"So... What happened to you being good at arts and crafts?" I teased, picking at the glitter on our board. Tommy let out a squawk, glaring at me.
"Hey! I'll have you know that our poster looked good until you added the glitter." I looked at him, unamused.
"You mean, the glitter you asked me to dump on top of the project because it would look 'cooler'?" Tommy's face went slightly pink.
"Shut up!"
---
innitthetommy: hey
innitthetommy: hey
innitthetommy: hey
innitthetommy: ANSWER ME
innitthetommy: HEY
diamandissimp: lol whats up tommy
innitthetommy: my stream keeps asking for u
innitthetommy: wanna come and play minecraft???
diamandissimp: sure! give me 15 and ill be there
---
Tommy's sudden text had surprised me. I thought after the project, he would just ignore me and go on with his life.
Don't be stupid. He probably is just being nice.
I had shoved on my shoes, leaving a note for my mom to tell her that I wouldn't be home when she would be back. Picking up my drawstring, I began the walk to the other side of the neighborhood.
Tommy's mom welcomed me again, even giving me two bowls of food. "One can never eat enough." She winked, before asking me to give the other bowl to her son. "It's nice seeing you again!" She called as I made my way up the stairs.
I knocked before entering, seeing Tommy peek his head over the screen. He laughed my name out, getting excited that I was bringing him food as well.
"Come, come! I set up your spot again." I took the chair slightly behind his, handing him his bowl of spaghetti before putting on my headphones. "Chat! They're back again!"
"Hello!" I cried, eagerly slurping up some noodles. "It's nice to be back again."
"It better be. I'm a fucking pleasure to be around." The chat was immediately filled with doubt, which made Tommy pout. "Chat! I am a nice person to be around!"
A new noise that sounded like a coin being dropped in a bunch of other coins filled my eyes. Tommy looked over the top of the screen, myself doing the same.
It was a donation of ten dollars by someone named GeorgeNotFound. George wrote under the donation "who are you convincing tommy" and caused Tommy to let out a shriek.
"Fuck you, George!" I smiled into my food, watching as Tommy opened up Minecraft. "Okay, chat, today we're gonna play Minecraft, but there's a catch! My friend here is gonna control the keys while I control the mouse." My breath caught in my throat and I looked at Tommy.
He thinks of me as his friend? Maybe that's why he invited me over. Does... Does that mean that I'm not really here for pity? ...Someone genuinely likes me.
"Are you okay?" Tommy asked, quirking an eyebrow at me. "You've been smiling for a minute straight."
"Sorry." I shook my head, looking down at my bowl. "You just called me your friend and... I don't know, it made me happy." Tommy let out a breathy chuckle, pushing my shoulder playfully.
"Well, duh, you're my friend. You're probably the only kid at school who is willing to sit here and play Minecraft for hours with me." I kept grinning, reading over the chat as Tommy made the world.
tommyinnitstannnie: THAT WAS FUCKING PRECIOUS
uwuwhatsthisowo: friend pog?
wronghole: omg tommy knows ppl irl????
"Tommy, why does your chat think you don't know people in real life?" I asked as the world started loading in.
"I think they're intimidated by my masculinity." Tommy quipped back, stretching upwards. "I am quite the fearsome man."
"If you're so fearsome then why did you scream when we found that spider on your desk during History?"
"DON'T SLANDER ME ON MY OWN STREAM!"
It only went downhill from there. We had spawned in and it was going pretty swimmingly until we managed to make it into the nether. As soon as we spawned in, we made eye contact with two ghasts.
It was deadly silent for a moment before-- "FUCKING RUN!" I let out a shriek after Tommy yelled, hopping away from the ghast. Tommy began to laugh at me, tears filling his eyes as he looked at me.
"That was the loudest I think I've ever heard you scream."
"Shut up and focus, Tommy!" I declared, feeling embarrassed. I didn't think I would scream that loud. After successfully killing the ghast with its own charge, we moved our way further into the nether. "Where to, el presidente?"
"I'm-- Let's head this way." As Tommy brushed off my random nickname, I felt my stomach drop slightly.
Was that too far? I didn't mean to patronize him! Oh, God. Did I offend him?
"Hey! Fortress POG!"
"POG?" I repeated, unsure if I was using it right. I knew very little about streamer slang so I was simply relying on Tommy. But by the proud look on his face, I assumed that I said the right thing.
"You've grown so well." He fake cried, wiping a pretend tear from his eye. "And to think this is only your second stream."
A ringing noise interrupted his dramatic monologue and he did a double take at the second monitor and clicked on a bluish-purple icon. A new tab appeared over the Twitch tab, revealing what looked to be a groupchat. Someone was calling in the groupchat and two people were already on the call.
Tommy looked between me and the monitor, seeming to consider something. I only blankly stared at him, waiting for him to inevitably pick up the call. And when he did, we returned to playing the game.
"Tommy! Are you busy right now?" A new, deeper voice joined the noise of the nether.
"Hey, Wilbur. Yeah, I'm kinda in the middle of something."
"Not anymore." Another deep voice, though very clearly North American, had stated. "Get on Hypixel."
"Wha-- Guys, I'm with a friend right now." Unconsciously, a smile grew on my face at what Tommy called me. "We're bonding and you're cutting into our precious time."
"Tommy, we need a third for Bedwars!" Wilbur yelled. "Get on!"
Seeing that the others weren't budging, Tommy turned to me. "Wanna watch me win Bedwars?"
"Sure. Are we gonna beat it later then?" I took my hands off of his keyboard, pushing the chair I was using back so he could claim his desk space again.
"Of course. We're gonna shit on the dragon before you gotta head home." I rolled my eyes as he logged out of the world and clicked on the Hypixel server. "Sorry, chat, change of plans."
"Whoa. Tommy actually has a friend over." The American jokes, laughing as he spoke.
"Tommy, does the internet hate you or something? That's, like, the fiftieth person who made that joke."
"Everyone bullies me."
"You literally called Tubbo clingy the other day."
"You insulted Tubbo?" I said it way louder than I meant to, but it got the point across. Tommy shrunk in his chair, looking guiltily away from me. "Tommy, how can you yell at Tubbo of all people?"
"You've only met him that one time! You can't already be attached to them."
"Someone sounds jealous." The American quipped, causing Wilbur and I to laugh while Tommy let out loud sounds in retaliation. He joined the lobby, following two players. Wilbur was the one who looked like a person, with simple eyes and hair piled to one side of their face. They wore a yellow shirt and jeans. The other player was called Technoblade and they were a pig with a crown and king's outfit. They both crouched at Tommy before telling him where to go.
They got into the pregame lobby, just talking about whatever. I spaced out, looking over at chat and not paying attention to their conversation.
I snapped out of it when Tommy called my name. "The others wanted to ask you something."
Mortification and a twinge of fear hit my body. "Oh. Sorry, I was spacing out."
You had one job. Good luck trying to get them to like you now.
"Yeah, uh, why are you willingly hanging out with Tommy?" Technoblade asked in a snarky tone, clearly poking fun. Tommy laughed, saying an insult back at him. But I paused, frowning to myself.
I knew that if someone made fun of me like that, I'd feel like trash. So, summoning up my best social skills, I started talking.
"Well, besides face value, Tommy's not at all an annoying person. He's very loud and easily excitable and even at times counterintuitive but that doesn't stop me from seeing that he's also very smart and creative. He's pretty organized despite what you guys may think and without him, I'm sure I would have gotten a zero on our project last week." The call was silent after I was done speaking and my skin prickled.
I guess I said too much. As per usual, I can't shut my mouth at the right times. Good going, dude. Messing up friendships left and right.
"Wow, I was not expecting a genuine answer." Technoblade was the first to talk. "That was, honest to God, adorable." I stammered in reply, feeling too flustered to properly reply.
"Good job with this one, Tommy. I like them." Wilbur appraised, like a father to a son. I just kept stuttering, ignoring the fact that the chat was blowing up with heart emojis and a bunch of people calling us cute. I looked over a Tommy for guidance and saw him sitting there, smiling fondly at me.
"You're not too bad yourself." He nudged. And for the first time in our short friendship, I felt as if I saw the natural side of Tommy. Not the entertainer. "Thanks." He said quietly, just loud enough for only me to hear. Before I could reply, he sat up. "Who's ready to play Bedwars?"
Neither of us stopped smiling the rest of the stream.