Only You ── TOM HOLLAND

10. Turmoil

           I hadn't realized I dozed off until Mandy called my name, forcing me to leave my thoughts and face her. She wore a look of concern, eyes looking over me, hoping to catch sight of what I was feeling through my eyes. She must have seen something because she let out a heavy sigh, hand going to rub the back of her neck. "You don't have to–"

           I quickly shook my head, pushing my doubts of Isaac to the back of my mind. "I'll just text Tom, I'm due to spend some time with him anyways." I saw Mandy slowly nod her head out of the corner of my eye, still seeming hesitant on the matter, but not making an effort to protest. I received a response from the boy almost instantly, a smile unconsciously tugging at my lips as text after text came through, a spam of heart emojis taking over my screen. "Yeah, Tom is fine with it."

          I looked up to Mandy to indulge in her reaction, only to see her eyebrows furrowed once more, calculating look in place again. "What?" She quickly shook her head, blank expression settling before she walked away silently. Weird.

          Though it wasn't requested, Tom waited for me in the lobby, the boy's face visibly lighting up when I stepped into the building. Wasting no time, he threw his arms around me, causing me to drop my bag in the process. I let out a huff of air when he lifted me off the ground, a breathy chuckle passing my lips. "Okay, Tom, I get it."

           "You went almost a week without seeing me," he muttered, before dramatically inhaling. "Nice to see you still smell the same after all this time."

          I pushed away from Tom at that, an amused smile spreading when I caught sight of his grin. "You're so dumb," I snickered, reaching for my bag, only for Tom to sling it over his own shoulder. "You better not be like this all night."

          "Can't promise that."

           I realized something when I stepped into Tom's apartment. As cheesy as it sounds, his apartment is one of the few happy places I have. It's not tainted with negative memories, only one misfortune happening here, and even that ended in the two of us hugging it out and spending the rest of our time happy together. I found myself fighting a smile as I walked further into the apartment, before flopping down onto the couch, a sigh of content leaving my lips. This is it. The sense of peace I've been searching for while hiding away at Mandy's apartment, I've got it.

          "For someone who claims they didn't miss me all that much," I cracked an eye open to look at Tom, his lips turned upwards into a sly smile, "you don't put on a believable act."

          "I did miss you," I admitted bashfully, feeling the heat creeping up on my cheeks. "Mandy is great and all, but you know you and I have got something special." For a moment, I saw something flash in Tom's eyes, but as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. Instead, he grinned widely at me, before throwing a pillow in my direction. I let out a laugh as I covered my face, the pillow bouncing off my hands. "Too cheesy?"

          "You know I don't like cheese," he joked with a roll of his eyes. "Now, what are we doing for dinner? I'm feeling–"

          I'm starting to think the world is against me. Like, if there is a higher figure overlooking all of us and everything we do, he enjoys making my life much harder than I find necessary. Because there's no fucking way that this was going to happen without some sort of assistance.

          Tom and I shared a look as he was cut off by urgent knocking on his door, and by the look on his face, I knew he wasn't expecting any company. Slowly, he made his way to the door, taking a peak through the peep hole as the knocks continued to sound. My heart dropped when he turned back to me with a grim expression, and that was all the explanation I needed. With my nod of approval, Tom pulled open the door, revealing a very disgruntled Selena, with an equally disgruntled Isaac.