~𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐴 𝐶𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒~ +SIDE STORIES

10

"Y/N, care to tell me how it ended up there?" she questioned.

"Uhhhh," I started, when Tommy spoke up.

"She lent me her AirPods last night, mine died." he said.

"Why did you need AirPods?" she asked

"Erm- I stayed up late last night on social media." he said flatly.

"For how long?" she asked.

"Like, from midnight to six?"

She sighed heavily.

"Even after I told you strictly not to?"

"Yes.."

I looked at him in awe. He just told a thousand lies. To protect me.

"Tom, wherever you're going, no you're not. You're grounded today. No streaming or recording either. Go up to your room." she said clearly.

I hadn't realized it, but Tommy was holding my hand. Not the kind of tight, interlocking finger grip, just a simple taking of the hand. When he walked up towards the stairs, I felt his palm slip out of mine. He turned to look back at me, with a frown on his face.

The strange thing about him holding my hand, is that it wasn't visible to his mom, our sleeves were covering our hands. So, why would he hold my hand when he knew it wasn't visible? Did he not know it wasn't visible? I shoved the thought at the back of my mind and came back to the situation at hand.

His mom looked back at me. Was she going to do the same to me?

"Where are you going Y/N?" she asked, her voice getting friendlier.

"Oh, um, the store." I replied.

"Oh, if that's the case, could you pick up some brown eggs and milk please? We're running out here."

"Sure thing." I said, exhaling silently, relief coming over me.

I closed the front door behind me, and immediately whipped out my phone. I popped in my AirPods, but to no surprise, the left one was dead from being hidden under Tommy's pillow for so long. I opened up the Phone app, hovering over Tommy's name. Was calling something his mother permitted? I decided to just go for it and clicked on his name. The phone was picked up several seconds later.

"Hey," Tommy said depressingly.

"Hey, um, are you allowed to call or.."

"Yeah, Mum just said no streaming or filming, which kinda sucks cause they're expecting me on the SMP today. It's actually a big war so,"

"Why don't you tell her that?"

"No, I tried. Just, log on for me."

"But, Tommy you know that I'm not in this war-"

"I don't care. I can't just leave it unhandled. I trust you to come there on the behalf of me. I can be on call, they'll hear me."

He trusts me.

"They'll speculate." I said.

"I'll say I'm coming down with a cold." Tommy countered.

I sighed. "Just - why did you lie?"

"Because,"

"Because what? I was the one who stupidly left that AirPod there, and the one who insisted to keep watching with you."

"Because it felt right, okay? I-"

Silence.

"I don't know what came over me to lie, I just knew that I wouldn't let you get in trouble. If lying was the way, then lying is what had to be done." he finished.