shiver | wilbur soot

18

petty, toxic tweets, replies and comments were slowly becoming a lot more noticeable to hope. she had tried her hardest to pay no attention to it for as long as possible, but it was out of her control. even wilbur was proud of her for not letting it get to her, even though she was simply putting up a facade to hide the fact they were slowly eating away at her from the inside.

she was frustrated. hope never had any intentions of being in the limelight, it was just because of who she became friends with. but now she was stuck, with random people digging into her personal life, trying to tell her that she did not deserve wilbur and that she was using everyone for clout, when the last thing she cared about was likes and followers.

laid in her bed, curled up beneath the covers, the hate had consumed her. it was all she found herself looking at, searching up her own name on twitter or 'hope and wilbur' which she told herself to never do again. there were so many dating accusations, so many people curious as to why people liked her so much as she was 'boring' and more of the 'using' for money and clout. it was disheartening being told she only posted wilbur for the likes, when he was her best friend.

hope did not know what to do, she could not avert her attention away from twitter, tik tok, wherever clips of her and wilbur had been posted or comments had been made about them. and what made matters worse was that wilbur was in his office streaming and watching it on her laptop, she realised he did not seem to be ending anytime soon. she just needed someone to talk to.

but was it wilbur she even wanted to talk to? hope was worried that if she confided in wilbur about the hate getting to her, it could get between them and they could potentially drift apart - that was the last thing hope could ever want just because of strangers on the internet.

gazing at the face and voice she recognised so well on her screen, her heart felt as though it had made a permanent place in her stomach. hope often watched wilbur's streams, she enjoyed his very upbeat, chatty and energised personality that he presented to his audience, which definitely contrasted with how often the two of them would lounge around together, barely even talking, just content in one another's company. but she was not enjoying it today, wilbur had randomly brought up her name, blabbering on about something the two of them did a couple of days previously, meaning that everyone in chat would not stop mentioning her until the topic changed.

it was 8:45pm, meaning that even george would be awake - but is that who she wanted to speak to? maybe she could text one of her friends back home in london, but would they understand? she considered even calling her mum, who absolutely adored wilbur, but she definitely would not get it. the only person she was closest to, who would get it, was george and surprisingly, his replies were fast for once.

imessage
george

hey, are you busy right now?

no not at all

how come?

i could do with someone to talk
to, but it's okay if not

it's fine, what's wrong?

it feels so stupid

especially because you guys
get it way worse than i do

i'm sure it's not stupid

how do you deal with receiving
hate?

because i'm really starting to
notice it and it's kinda bothering
me

want me to call you?