lovely neighbour | tommyinnit

five.

I looked at the dining table where Tommy was. We both quickly scrambled to the door. Had they finally fulfilled their promise? I was so excited, I grabbed Tommy's hand as I opened the door.

Only for it to reveal a delivery man holding a large parcel.

"Delivery for Ms. L/N? Please sign here," he said as he held up a pen and clipboard to my face. I had no idea how to react, I slowly started to laugh.

"I'll sign it," Tommy said as he took the clipboard and took the package. In one hand was the package, and in the other was my hand.

The lights in the house were all turned off except the one in the dining room. I looked down at the table still hysterical.

"Here we go, it's warm again. Just how you like it!" Tommy said as he placed the plate he microwaved in front of me. I could see my shadow against the food.

I didn't want to eat, I wanted to see my parents. I stared straight ahead wondering why I still tried. Maybe they really didn't love me.

Tommy lifted the fork in front of my mouth signalling me to eat. I lost all my appetite for the day. I leaned against my right, resting my head on his shoulder. I felt Tommy looking at me with his worried look.

"Here," he said as he took half a spoonful of Mac and Cheese and stuffed it in my mouth. I chewed my food, after all it tasted really good. I was thankful that at least I had him.

The door unlocked by itself, I knew it was Tommy's parents. I gave them my parents' key as they didn't even use it. They both came to where the light shone brightly.

"I'm so sorry dear, your parents just told me they had a last minute project," Tommy's mom said as she came towards me wrapping me in a hug.

His parents sat in the same way we usually sat when I was over at their place. That felt like an actual family dinner. The warmth these people had in their hearts warmed my cold house. I started to smile and joke around again.

In that moment, I looked at Tommy. He was laughing at a joke his mother had just cracked. Smiling happily, laughing loudly. I watched the small dimple on his left cheek move each time he spoke. I smiled. That was the exact moment I knew. I knew that everything would be okay with him around.

We packed up after dinner and the parents went back home leaving me and Tommy to wash the dishes. He suddenly looked up from washing the dishes and asked me, "Do you want to sleepover at mine?"

"Don't you have a stream to do?" I quickly replied without thinking. He stared at me as if I said something wrong.

"How did you know?" He asked. OH MY HE DOESN'T KNOW I WATCH HIS STREAMS. I looked straight up at him and hesitated.

"You usually start screaming around this time," I said as I looked back down at the dishes I was wiping.

"You can stay at the side, just don't make any noise," He muttered.

"Sure," I replied. I finished wiping the rest of the plates and putting them back as Tommy headed home to wash up. I quickly ran to shower and put on a cropped singlet with baggy sweatpants before going to my room. The window was big enough for me to climb through to get to his room.

I brought my phone, laptop and package for entertainment as I waited for him to finish.

"Hi," I said as I climbed through the window. He looked up from his PC acknowledging my presence. He was probably setting up for his stream. His headphone slid onto his head as if they were two magnets that were attracted to each other. It was a funny sight to see.

I quickly put on my earphones as he started his stream. I'd just watch a reupload of his stream on YouTube tomorrow.

His stream was finally ending and I was unpacking the package as if I were doing a YouTube video. There were items as souvenirs from the place we temporarily moved to when I was 7. At the bottom there was a handwritten card, I took one look at the handwriting and knew that it was my mother's assistant's handwriting.
Typical.

I began going through my old pictures on my phone. Stumbling across a whole album of photos with a certain kid I used to hang around a lot. He had brown hair and I remembered that he was a year older than me.

As I heard Tommy end his stream, I went towards him and sat in his lap with my head leaning onto the crook in his neck. He wrapped his arms around me to type on his keyboard. He still had things to finish even after the stream.

"Was it Theo or Toby?" I said out loud.

"What are you talking about?" Tommy said as he typed into his computer, eyes not leaving his screen.

"Just an old friend's name, I just found a picture of us from years ago when I left," I said as I showed him the picture.

"Wait I know him," he said.

897 words