Parasocial Family

Poor Wilbur. He had to do CUSTOMER SERVICE.

AUTHORS NOTE: I will try to upload once every two weeks. Very few people in this story have happy childhoods, but I don't explore that much. Let me know if you think it needs to be rated mature. Please comment, I can't tell if I register as a reader to Wattpad, so I have no idea if anyone is actually seeing this.

Tw: the death of a parent.

Wilbur tapped his fingers against the car wheel nervously. He was sitting in his parked car, outside of the college he'd be attending. It had taken him far too long to get here from his apartment. Thankfully traffic had been better than it usually was. Of course, it didn't matter how good the traffic was since Wilbur had been sitting in his car for ten minutes. He was glad that there wasn't anyone around, or else he'd probably be getting some stares for his behavior.

College was going to be starting soon. Wilbur felt like the anxiety was eating him up from inside, despite being really excited and happy for it. He'd never been to college before. What if everybody there hated him and shunned him?

No, that wasn't going to happen. Wilbur knew that he was good with people. His charming personality and sharp wit had not faded since highschool if the customers who always told him so were to be believed. Still, there was a difference between customer service and all the college students he would be around. Most of them would likely be around five years younger than him.

Wilbur had turned twenty-three earlier that year. He'd also managed to save up enough to go to college. Wilbur's previous apartment had been too many miles away to commute back and forth. So Wilbur would be rooming with someone. It would save gas money and time if he just moved into the dorms instead of commuting from his apartment.

Wilbur could deal with living with somebody else. He had tons of roommates before. Granted, they weren't the best, but maybe he'd luck out? Honestly, Wilbur would settle for someone who didn't even do their chores, as long as they left him alone. Normally Wilbur would love to make friends but becoming friends with someone who he would live with?

Becoming friends with someone who would always be around; someone who might see more about him than he'd let anyone see since his mother died? The thought scared Wilbur. No, it was more likely that if he did end up with a half-way decent roommate they'd be mere acquaintances, if not outright strangers. He would never meet his roommate if he didn't actually go to college. The best time to have gone in was half an hour ago, but the second-best time was always now.

Wilbur took a deep breath and opened the car door. He slid out, shut the door gently, and opened the door to the backseat. He pulled out his two suitcases, then locked the car. He looked at the college and then back at his car. Wilbur turned to face the building again, put the keys in his pocket, rolled his shoulders, grabbed his suitcases, and strolled into college with a confident stride.

Wilbur had been here already for orientation, so he knew what to do and where to go. Orientation had gone well, the teachers he'd met were nice, the campus had a straightforward way of organizing things. They even sold cheap cups of instant ramen in some vending machines. Since he'd been to orientation he knew he needed a key to get to his room. He walked up to the receptionist to get his room number and key.

"Hey." Wilbur smiled at the receptionist. She smiled back, and Wilbur read her nametag. Her name was... Nihachu? He was not going to try to pronounce that.

"My name's Wilbur Soot," Wilbur introduced himself. "Can I have my room key, please?" He showed her his I.D., so she could make sure she wasn't handing the key to a random person.

Nihachu tapped the keys of her computer quickly, before finding what she was looking for. The smile on her face grew at what she read. She pulled a set of keys out from under her desk.

"Of course," She said. "Room number 114. At least try not to lose these?" She handed him the keys with a grimace. Wilbur nodded while taking the keys.

He walked down a hallway to the left of the receptionist's desk. His roommate's and his room would likely be far. Probably on the highest floor. Now Wilbur wished he had asked where his room was instead of assuming that going to orientation meant he knew everything. Whoever organized the dorms must have a real sadistic streak and that meant a lot coming from Wilbur.

After multiple flights of stairs and nearly getting lost several times, Wilbur finally found his dorm room. The key worked, thankfully. The first thing he needed to do was pick his bed. All his unpacking can wait until either tomorrow or whenever he feels like it. Except for clock, of course.

Wilbur pulled clock out of his first suitcase and hung it up on the wall above the side of his bed. He then stashed the suitcase under the bed he claimed as his. He took the next suitcase and sat it at the foot of his bed. Without any decoration, the whole thing looked pathetic.

Wilbur surveyed all the work he'd done, which frankly was not a lot, and wondered what to do next. Wilbur flopped onto his bed, pulled out his phone, and brought up the internet. He spent the rest of the afternoon scrolling through Reddit. Wilbur had the bad habit of procrastinating on things by browsing on Reddit for ages.

The hours seemed to hurry by, and soon enough it was around the time Wilbur would usually eat dinner. Now, there were several places close by to get food. A diner, a Chinese restaurant, a pizzeria, and there were other options as well. They got a lot of business when college when in session.

Wilbur didn't feel like going places though. Especially because he'd have to come back to his mostly empty room. He could just use one of the several vending machines around that sold instant ramen. He wouldn't even have to leave the building, and it was very unlikely that anybody would try to talk to him. Score.

After having eaten his ramen, Wilbur was ready to go back to messing around on social media until he fell asleep. Unfortunately, he had to do things like self-care and proper hygiene. He hadn't even unpacked his toothbrush yet! So Wilbur got out his toothbrush and his toothpaste and all his few other toiletries. He brushed his teeth, put on his yellow sweater in case it got cold at night, and slid under his plain white sheets with his phone. Then the front door opened.

Wilbur instantly went on alert. It could be something harmless. Who would try to rob a college student, anyway? Everybody knows college students are dirt poor, and practically nobody had moved into the dorms yet. Which meant that they weren't there to rob people. Wilbur's anxiety levels skyrocketed.

Whoever it was happened to be carrying something bulky, and kept bumping it into things. The intruder headed straight for the bedroom door. Wilbur tensed even further, gaze locked on the door. It swung open to reveal a blond man, who recoiled a little in shock at the sight of Wilbur.

The blond man relaxed and chuckled slightly. Wilbur caught sight of two large suitcases behind the man. Wilbur let out a silent sigh of relief. It wasn't some random guy come to murder him, it was just his roommate.

"Hi," His new roommate introduced himself brightly. "I'm Phil."