EddsWorld: A Pull on my Heartstrings | Tom x Reader

Arcade Stumble

(Y/N's P.O.V)

(Small note, this story might switch from the "I/My/Me" and "You/Your" context repeatedly.)

I was at the local arcade, playing some skii-ball at the far left of the section, earning a ton of tickets to spend. I really wanted to get a (F/C) stuffed animal from the shelf, but it costed quite a bit of tickets. It was around 10K, and I was only at 4K. The arcades around here always had ridiculous standards for prizes. I grunted in anger as the last of the tickets inched out, and grabbed and placed them into a bucket I carried around every time I went here. It filled around less than half the bucket, and I just sat at the dining area and stared blankly at the menu. 'How come I'm losing my edge? I was always good at these sort of games, and it sucks that I'm growing worse.', the thoughts continued to fill my mind, as I supported my head on my hand with elbow on the table. 'Screw table manners, I'm not eating anyway.'

A waitress came around five minutes later and asked me if I wanted to have anything, and since I didn't want to be rude, I just ordered a plain (F/Topping) pizza with some water. The waitress nodded and trailed off, leaving me back to my thoughts. 'I'll never get that plush I want so badly... I might as well give up, I've been trying for a week now.' I continued to belittle myself, starting to tear up, when my hand slipped and I banged my forehead quite hard on the table. You flinched, and you were too embarrassed to lift your head to see if anyone caught you. So you just lay your head there awkwardly. 'God, this day is getting so much worse.'

You figured if you were gonna continue looking like an idiot, you might as well make it look like you intended to. So you just started to repeatedly hit your head on the edge of the table. It really hurt your forehead, but you didn't care. Things were bad as they were, anyway. You did this for about two minutes straight, until a foreign voice startled you, causing you to jump a little.

"Are you alright there, Miss?"

I looked up to see a tall male with ginger hair staring at me worriedly. I looked quickly up and down at him, to examine. He had a light lavender hoodie with a green overcoat on top. 'That's quite an odd color choice...' You sneered in your head. You didn't mind, of course. You quickly averted your eyes in a bit of embarrassment, and muttered a small reply.

"Yes, I'm okay... just a bit..." Your sentence trailed off into silence. The ginger blinked and waited as if you were actually going to continue your sentence, when three other males walked up from behind him. You had your head down, so you couldn't see them. You did realize they were there, though, because you could see 3 pairs of shoes. One green, one black, and one checkered. He side glanced at them, before deciding to sit at the booth chair in front of me, still looking up at you with a bit of worry.

"You seem stressed out. Is anything wrong?" He continued, clearly oblivious that you had nothing else to really say to a stranger like him.

"Well, I'm just a little down that I can't get a prize I want." You decided to look back up, to try and be polite, only to find out that the ginger had completely lost interest and was now looking at himself in a pocket mirror. You face palmed by instinct and continued to grunt again. 'And I thought I was the rude one.'

"Sorry, he can get like that sometimes..." You looked over to see a brunette male in a green hoodie, the one with the green sneakers, spurt out. "He's narcissistic. Sorry about that." He continued.

"No, it's quite alright. Even me getting that off of my mind was enough." You sighed. You thought that since you had already talked to two of the guys, you could at least consider yourselves acquaintances.

"The name's (Y/N), by the way." You smiled a bit.

"Oh, cool! That's a nice name. I'm Edd, and that's Matt," he pointed at the ginger. "And this is Tord, and Tom." Your eyes trailed off to Tord first, and his robot arm and patched up face caught your eyes. You quickly gave him a nod as a hello, then proceeded to Tom. Tom was a bit strange to you. He had... black eyes? Sockets? EYEPATCHES? You didn't even know WHAT they were. You just assumed they were eyes, though. It seemed as if you were staring at Tom a bit longer than both Edd and Tord, because he awkwardly had to wave his hand a bit for you to snap out of your thoughts.

"Oops!," You quickly jumped back to reality. "I'm sorry, I got lost in my head."

"Ah, hah, that's fine. It happens to all of us." He replied, with a AWFULLY monotone laugh following it. Was he actually laughing? Or just trying to pass the minimum standards for basic human socializing? You tried not to let your face slip into confusion, and carried on back to Edd.

You were about to say something to him to break the silence, when the waitress came back with your order that you placed around ten minutes ago. At this time, you were conveniently feeling peckish. 'Sweet.'

After a while of MORE awkward silence, Tord finally spoke up for the first time. God, if you weren't so awkward around new people.

"Hey, is it alright if we can all sit with you? If it's okay, that is." Woah. His accent was extremely heavy. It caught you off guard, and you nodded quietly upon instinct, a bit intimidated by his voice.

The group proceeded to sit, Tom next to Matt, and Edd next to you. Tord also sat next to Tom and Matt, since Tom was a bit scrawny. You thought for a moment, before picking up a slice of your pizza.

"Well, you can help yourselves to the pizza, if you'd like. I can't finish this all by my lonesome self, after all." You squeaked, as the guys chuckled a little at your playful tone. They all grabbed a slice, and Matt finally looked away from his mirror and did the same, finally. You started up general small talk with the group, getting to know them a bit better. They all seemed like great people, except Tord had a bit of a dark sense of humor, but you didn't let it bother you. Although, Tom did stir up a bit at Tord's jokes, and shot a glance at your direction.

You quickly noticed and cocked your head to the side and questioned. "What is it Tom? Why are you getting a bit jittery?" It looked like he tensed up a bit, before standing up and quickly spurring out words.

"Nothing, I just need to use the restroom, excuse me." And with that, he scurried off. 'Huh, that was a bit sudden.' You looked over at the others to see if they had answers. Matt eventually remarked.

"Pardon him, he isn't too very fond of talking to others, the fellow. That is, besides Edd, Tord, and myself~" He cooed, pulling himself over to look at his mirror. You shrugged it off and continued your conversation.

(Tom's P.O.V)

'I can't do it, I can't sit there. What's up with me?' I ran into the men's restroom and stared into the mirror. This was strange. I knew I didn't like socializing, but why was it so... intimidating all of a sudden? I stared at myself, wondering to myself, before turning on the sink and splashing some warm water into my face. I figured maybe I needed some Smirnoff, I hadn't drank that in around a day or two. 'Damn, too bad I didn't bring anything with me.' I just let the water run, as I left the bathroom. I started to head back to the table, but my leg's started getting shaky. 'What?' This was just getting weirder and weirder. I've never felt like this before. Instead of trying to walk back, I just backed up, and away from the table. I felt a bit light-headed, so I decided to play an arcade game.

"Man, me not understanding myself makes me wanna go and shoot things." I muttered under my breath as I inserted a coin to play a shooting game. As I played, I thought about that girl. I believe it was (Y/N). Then it hit me, could it be her that's making me feel like I can't socialize properly? I reassured myself. No, it couldn't be that, I'm usually normal around every other girl. But as I kept thinking, it just made me feel strange. It felt... weird, to think about her. What is happening to me?