IT'S YOU - [ Ticci Toby X Reader ]

SEVEN

Note: This is a flashback!

[ Author's POV ]

It was a chilly Monday afternoon, the light rain pattered against the tall windows of the cramped auditorium where the high schoolers ate lunch. Near the corner of the room, Toby sat alone at the round table in silence, his eyes blank as his mind raced with thoughts. Today had been his first day back at school since the incident, so he had been on the rocks the entire day.

Earlier that month, Toby had gotten in a grievous car accident with his older sister. He had made it out alive but his sister on the other hand, was not that lucky. Life had become a blur for him after losing his sister, he could hardly handle all of his trauma. The weekend before his first day back, he decided to reach out to his old friend, even though they had fallen out through the years after she began hanging out with a different crowd. To his surprise, she quickly got back to him and they called on the phone for the rest of the night, almost like how they used to. She made a promise to sit with him at lunch, the same spot they used to sit, and he looked forward to that.

Time began to slow down, the passing minutes starting to feel more like hours. The auditorium had gotten packed full of hungry teenagers, happily chatting and eating with their friend groups, but yet there was still no sign of (Y/N). He just sat there, alone, anxiously awaiting the arrival of his old friend, feeling eyes of the other kids glancing his way every so often. But, he was used to that. The stares and the whispers were nothing new for him, especially after the incident. Their pity-filled faces angered him.

"Hey, Rogers." Toby snapped out of his thoughts after hearing a familiar voice, though this one was not the voice he was hoping to hear. "First day back, huh? Where have you been?" He raised his head to meet the boy who now stood over him. It was Ezra, one of the popular kids of their grade, who had also taken a part in bullying Toby relentlessly throughout his entire school life, who was also friends with (Y/N). Toby hunched over in his seat, avoiding any for of eye contact with Ezra and his followers, his head hanging down and staring at the concrete floor. He knew Ezra knew exactly what happened, the entire school had known about what happened to Lyra as she was loved amongst many students and teachers.

"Aw come on buddy, don't look so down in the dumps." He chuckled demeaningly, pushing Toby's shoulders in attempts to grab his attention. "Please don't touch me." He responded straight away, his body filling with anger as this situation was much to familiar.

"That's too bad about your sister, man. She was pretty cool." Ezra spoke again, the mockery being quite obvious in his tone, making Toby shake with anger as he tried his hardest to ignore him, hoping he would go away. Whenever anyone had picked on Toby, Lyra would always be there to stand up for him, especially to Ezra, and knowing he could never get that back, tears began to sting his eyes.

"Aww, poor little Toby, he's crying—" Ezra's taunting came to a halt as the bell rang. Toby took this as a save and grabbed his lunch tray and storming off, hearing the laughter and chatter from the group of friends fade as tears rolled down his eyes. He just wanted to get away from everything, Lyra was gone and (Y/N) had stood him up on the day he needed her most, he was done.

After he had quickly returned his tray, he made his way through the halls with his head down, wiping the tears from his eyes. He came to a stop as he heard a familiar voice giggling and talking with a deeper voice. His heart sank as he realized what he was hearing, turning his body to locate the source of the sound, only to see (Y/N) with her boyfriend near the lockers, talking and laughing with each other as if nothing happened.

Of course, she stood Toby up to hang out with her boyfriend. He wasn't shocked at all by this, but the fact that she couldn't put aside one day to sit with him after his beloved sister died really hurt him. With a sigh, he ran down the halls, heading towards the back exit, pushing the glass doors open. As the freezing air hit his skin, he broke down, sobbing at the thought of his dear sister, feeling as if his life had completely gone down in a shambles. He had nobody, he was left all alone.

Author Note:
Hi everyone! I'm not sure if anybody is actually still reading this but I have returned and I was finally able to update this story! This is part one to this chapter, part two will be out soon. For this chapter, I really wanted to get deeper into the history of Y/N and Toby's friendship and what all went down, so both these parts will be flashbacks. For the future chapters I will go back into the present so don't worry!