An alarm rang out in the air, waking a tired boy with messy blonde hair. He grumbled as he fumbled with the alarm clock, knocking it onto the floor. It seemed to ring even louder as it lay on the floor. It probably wasn't the most excellent idea to have stayed up so late (or early in this case) streaming with Dream. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, then stretching and yawning. He let one leg fall down the edge of the bed, telling himself he'd get up in a second... just a second... one second...

.

.

.

.

"Tom! Get out of bed! Your alarm has been going off for a half-hour. What the heck!?" His mother's voice pierced through the air as his door slammed open. Oh no, Tommy thought, now I've done it. He felt a pillow smack across his face.

"Gah, I get it! I'm getting up!" He slipped out of bed, his mother leaving and mumbling something about her son and something worthless. After getting dressed, he headed down the hall for breakfast.

"Uh, no, Tom. You have an online meeting with your teacher in twenty minutes. Get yourself back in your room." Just great, Tommy thought, heading back to his bedroom. He would've had plenty of time to get something, but he didn't argue, just locking the door to his room then positioning himself at his desk. He breathed in, preparing himself for the day. The muffled shouts from his parents barged through his door. He exhaled, realizing it was going to be a long day.

-

The exhausting school day had finished, and he was getting tired. He didn't have a schedule to stream, so he thought it would be a way to relax and unwind. His eyes lit up. He might even be able to talk to Wilbur today! He would always be able to speak with Tubbo, and he appreciated his company whenever they had conversations. However, he never failed to feel guilty after hanging up on him. He felt that the jokes he made were sometimes cruel, but he couldn't stop the insults from spilling out of his mouth. Tubbo had told him he never minded, and that was comforting until he said the last words. "That's just you."

Tommy's head spun, and he felt like he was about to throw up.

Cruel, insulting, and loud. That's just me.

Tommy felt pain mentally and physically. It could've been from the kick he received for yelling too loud on stream from his father the other night, or it might've just been the overwhelming guilt of being awful to his friends. Either way, it hurt like heck (here we go again...). He was about to get ready to sleep, but a discord notification came up; it was a call request from Wilbur. Tommy quickly straightened himself up and answered.

"Hello?" Tommy's voice sounded depressed.

Crap. That sounded weird.

"Hey. Could you hop on the Dream SMP really quickly? I need to do a bit," Wil asked. Tommy almost exhaled in relief that he hadn't noticed his tone.

"Yee, just give me a second," Tommy replied, in a more cheerful voice. He opened Minecraft, getting ready to log onto the SMP.

"You doing okay, Tommy?"

Frick.

"Yeah, just a little tired from school."

"Ah, okay. If you need help with anything, just ask," Wil said. Tommy, opening up Twitch to start streaming, just shook his head slightly. That's the type of thing people say just to be nice; they don't actually intend to follow through with it. Empty words.

"So, what's going on today, Wil?" Tommy asked readily.

"Here's the plan..." he began.

-

Everything had gone well with the bit, and everyone was heading off. Tommy made some sarcastic and rude comments directed at Wil to live up to his childlike persona. He felt so guilty doing it, and he must've gotten carried away because Wilbur seemed to snap.

"For fricks sake, Tommy! Can you not tell when to shut up!?" Tommy tried his best to hide his hurt and shocked face. Wilbur's words had seemed as genuine as his anger did.

Still trying to mask his true feelings with a fake smile, the hurt and shock still glinted in his voice as he stammered, "S-sorry."

Wilbur didn't answer, just letting out an annoyed, "ugh," and muting himself to monologue to his chat.

Tommy sat in his chair, unable to move. His eyes scrolled through the chat, seeing a ton of messages reading, "Madbur." Tommy quickly left the VC and turned the stream to just the facecam, dryly thanking everyone for watching. He ended the stream and leaned back in his chair, breathing out.

You overdid it.

What's wrong with you?

You're so useless-

Another Discord call notification called through his headphones. He answered it weakly, getting light-headed from the awful combination of whatever disturbances he was feeling.

Wilbur had ended his stream. "Tommy, we need to talk about what you blurt out; it can be offensive to people. So you need to-" Wilbur's slightly pissed-off voice slithered through Tommy's headphones, turning into background noise as Wil continued, Tommy just spacing out. You need to do this, you need to do that. He trembled, a breath of air let out as a squeak. The young boy almost said something before Wil's words sprang into his mind again, yelling their evil shriek:

Can you not tell when to shut up!?

Tommy breathed in a shaky breath.

"Get it?" Wilbur was still slightly frustrated after he finished counseling him.

"Yes." His answer was short, but he felt like it didn't have to be too long; he'd just do anything to stop noise from echoing in his head, bouncing off the sides of his mind so that they'd come back to haunt him like the harsh words always did. No, he shook away the previous thoughts. You're being selfish. And he was, but it wasn't his fault. His way of thinking was selfish, and it needed to change. Tommy couldn't handle the change all at once; it needed to be gradual.

But he didn't know that, he didn't even think that at all. All he thought he knew was that he was being self-centered, and the pain of self-pity and everything else ripped at him. He didn't know how to react; it was such a shock to him. Help, he wanted to scream, HELP, his mind begged.

"Tommy?" Wilbur's irritated voice was in no way the soothing that Tommy needed. "You're not fricking (PG) answering me. You're being-" Wil sighed out of frustration. "Ughh- you're being so-"

He was cut off as Tommy's door slamming open, and a booming slurred voice ran through the microphone, "Get off your butt (PG again) and-"

The call ended, leaving a still slightly-angry Wilbur to himself. He shook his head, muttering a word to himself, "Irresponsible..."

~~~~~

The next update will be out tomorrow, possibly with part 3 as well. I already have the story all written out (which is a possibly once-in-a-lifetime type of thing), and I don't want anyone who's not comfortable with this type of thing to have to wait too long for another story, so there'll probably be two updates per day on this story :)