Craving Normality - A Wilbur Soot Angst

Chapter 26

'So, why'd you do it?' Wilbur asked Tommy as he sat down at the breakfast table. Kristen was at work and Phil had gone grocery shopping, so they were home alone. Tommy had a piece of untouched toast sitting on his plate, but Wilbur just assumed he wasn't hungry.

Tommy hesitated. 'I... I don't know. They... deserved it?'

Wilbur narrowed his eyes at his little brother. 'You didn't do it, did you?'

The younger boy looked panic-stricken. 'Y-yes, I did. I promise. I did.'

'You don't have to lie to me, you know.'

Tommy was silent.

Wilbur continued. 'Why take the blame for something you didn't do?' At the lack of a response he prodded further. 'I won't tell anyone.'

Tommy looked up, his eyes watery. 'Promise?'

Wilbur nodded. 'Promise.'

'They'll kill me.' Tommy muttered under his breath.

Wilbur looked confused. 'Who?'

No response.

'Tommy, who?'

'The boys. They h-hurt me. They said I did those things, but I didn't.'

'Oh, Toms...' Wilbur sighed and placed his hand comfortingly on Tommy's arm, but his little brother yelped and pulled his arm away.

'What?' Wilbur looked confused, before the realisation came crashing down. 'Have you been hurting yourself?'

Tommy shook his head vigorously.

'Show me your arm, Toms.'

'No.'

'Just show me. I won't tell anyone.'

Tommy had begun to sob. He slowly pulled up his sleeve, revealing patches of angry red blisters; some area that were particularly bad appeared to be black and charred.

'Are those... burns?'

'T-they took me to the l-loo and held m-me down and... and he used a lighter.' Tommy sobbed.

'Toms, this is serious. You need to go to the hospital for these, you need to tell someone-'

'No! You promised.' Tommy's voice cracked in terror.

'If you tell someone those boys will be expelled and you won't have to worry about them again.'

'No Wilbur, p-please. They're sporty. The main guy is going for a scholarship next year, the school won't get rid of them. Please don't tell anyone.'

Wilbur sighed, defeated. 'I won't. But you need to tell me when something like this happens, and I'll help you deal with it. These are really bad. Are there more of them?'

'Y-yeah, on my stomach.'

Wilbur grabbed the first aid kit from the kitchen cupboard and followed Tommy up to his bedroom. He grabbed his laptop on the way, and sat down on Tommy's bed to begin googling how to treat burns.

'Okay, can I see the ones on your stomach?'

Tommy nodded and carefully removed his t-shirt. Wilbur's eyes widened.

'Toms...' His brother's entire chest consisted of angry, inflamed red blisters, with only a few gaps of pale skin exposed. Again, some skin had been completely charred away, something Wilbur wouldn't have thought was even possible from a lighter burn.

Wilbur cleared his throat nervously. 'It says here that we need to cool them down, like put them under water?'

'Oh, I did that.' Tommy said, thinking back to the damp towel.

'Uh, okay. Maybe we should put some antiseptic on them?'

That was how they ended up spending the next half an hour with Tommy clenching the sides of the bed, tears of pain rolling down his face while Wilbur rubbed antiseptic cream onto the wounds as gently as he possibly could.

'According to google we need to bandage them...' Wilbur trailed off, noticing that the first aid kit only had plasters and small adhesive wound dressings. There was nothing big enough to cover the surface area of Tommy's injuries.

'It's fine.' Tommy assured Wilbur. 'Can I have some of that paracetamol?' He indicated to a packet peeking out of the first aid kit.

'Sure.' Wilbur passed him a couple of tablets which Tommy swallowed dry.

'Tommy...' Wilbur awkwardly began. 'You really need to tell someone. These wounds are serious.'

'No. You promised, Wil.'

Wilbur sighed.

'Okay, fine.'

A/N: Sorry for the lack of updates! Life's been kinda hectic.

Anyways vote or next time you paint ur nails you'll get your hair stuck in the nail varnish xoxo