killing time 𖥻 TOMMYINNIT

XVI. occupied

it had been nine days since anybody had heard from iris. anybody aside from ranboo and her family, at least. tommy was going out of his mind. he was alright during the day, when he was streaming and making videos and hanging out with two of his best friends, but at night, when he'd lay down to sleep on a mattress on tubbo's bedroom floor, that was when she came. in many different forms, iris was there. she was there in her darkest, the times that tom went into her bedroom and found her on the floor sobbing her eyes out. her brightest, her and tommy on a rainy morning in the summer before college, when they caught the earliest bus to go to nottingham city guitars right when they opened at 10. she'd saved up the entire second semester for an electric guitar. tommy had learned piano in school, so he didn't know what to expect when she offered to play him something with it, but a soft acoustic cover of a lizzy mcalpine song he'd never heard before was not it. sometimes, after a particularly long day, he'd see her at her softest.

iris had been there for most of tommy's major life milestones. they graduated high school together, got their licenses together. iris was there when tommy made his first nutpig video, watching as his content evolved. he watched her grow too, but his favourite moments were the small ones. one night, they'd been at the park, at iris's favourite spot. both of them sat on their bench, a carving on the underside that only they knew about, done on the night of tommy's 16th birthday (it was a penis). tommy was fiddling with the buttons on irir's coat in a rare moment of silence, and iris was scribbling in her notebook.

"hey," tommy nudged her, their shoulders brushing. "you okay?" she looked up at him. the one flickering street lamp was lighting up her face, and tommy's heart sank. he'd been trying to quash this for weeks.

he'd thought that admitting the crush would be the hardest part, but this was worse. he was leaving back to nottingham in two days and he was anxious to see her again. since she'd left he'd felt this tugging feeling behind his stomach, trying to pull him back to her. saying goodbye to ranboo and tubbo, the entire train ride back she was all he could focus on.

his mum picked him up from the train station, and then dropped him down the street at iris's house with a knowing look. he didn't have it in him to be embarrassed by sarah being obviously aware of his crush, bounding up the stairs to iris's bedroom. he knocked gently, hands shaking to stop himself from throwing the door open and eveloping her in his arms. he knocked again. twice. three times. four, until he finally opened the door. her bedroom was empty, curtains drawn in the mid-afternoon. there was a towel over the mirror hanging on her door, and her bed was made messily. iris kept her spaces pristine, so tommy considered for a moment that she'd been ransacked.

"tom?" it was iris's brother. "what are you doing here?"

"i'm looking for iris," he said dumbly. "is she not here?"

lachlan's face darkened. "she's out. she said she'd be back for dinner, though, you're welcome to come back and stay. our mum's gonna be home,"

"uh, yeah. okay." tommy went to leave, but lachy stopped him

"do you want to stay? i'm sure she won't mind, and you look a bit rough, mate. you okay?" despite being way older than the two of them, iris and her brother had always been really close, and by extension so had he and tommy.

"i'm alright, just needed to chat with her about something. i'll just hang out here, if that's alright? where abouts is she, do you know?"

if lachy's face had darkened earlier, he had to have been outright scowling at this. "she didn't tell you?"

no, iris hadn't told him anything. iris had been avoiding him for nearly two weeks now, and she was prepared to do it for as long as he would let her. he wouldn't be back for another two days, though, they were meant to get home thursday, so she had some time to prepare for having to face him after what had been happening for the last two weeks.

she climbed the stairs on her way up to her room, wanting to change into some softer clothes before her mum got home. her eyes were closed as she shouldered her way into her bedroom. her she tossed her phone blindly onto her bed and went to pull her hoodie off, but before she could, a voice startled her. "occupied."

it was tommy, and contrary to three hours ago, he didn't look happy to see her. she gulped. "hey, tom."

he sat up, her phone sitting in his lap from where it had hit him. "i was going to ask why i had to find out from your brother that you had a new boyfriend, but i can see now." he gestured to her hoodie, it had bunched up around her stomach revealing her homemade taylor swift and lorde t-shirt she'd made. "that's jack's right?"