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Tommy sat in front of thousands. Not in person but on a screen. He was a minecraft streamer! Most people would think he had the perfect life. Well he did, but it could get difficult. “Tommy you got the wood?”. Tubbo said through discord. “Yep!”. Tommy moved his character to where Tubbo was. Handing him the wood he had collected.
Tommy bit his tongue. Holding back a tic was tricky and sometimes painful. But he had to do it. He was in front of thousands and couldn’t let any of them know. Not even his best friend. People already called him loud and impulsive. What would they think of him when he ticed? How would they act to knowing he had tourette’s?
He’s seen too many people treat him with pity or disgust because of his neurological disorder. He won’t let his friends and fans treat him like everyone else did. So there he was. Holding back a vocal tic in front of thousands. It always went back to that. Him in front of thousands. Tubbo had said something. But Tommy didn’t trust himself to speak. So he just hummed showing that he was listening.
“Okay so I’ll start getting more cobblestone and you start building.”. Tommy hummed again. He was quiet for a minute. Not trusting his body. “So how about we go tall boys!”. Then he spoke. The tic itching to get out. But Tommy didn’t let it, he never let it. Nearing the end of the stream it only got worse. Tommy was stiff like a stick and talked less than normal.
It was common for him and his fans didn’t know why. Since he started streaming the longer he did it the less he talked. The less he would move. “And where at the end of the stream everybody!”. Tubbo laughed as a creeper blew Tommy up. He ended it there for dramatic affect. “Good stream Tommy.”. Tubbo praised his friend. “Ya I know, I’m pretty awesome. I got to go. So talk to you later?”. “Sure. Bye Tommy!”.
Tommy clicked out of discord. He leaned back in his chair. Not even a second later his head twitched to the side. Followed by Tommy making a pop sound. Tommy could hide some of his tics. Like his throat clearing or if he’s blinking too much. He could blame those things on his mouth being dry or he had something in his eye.
Tommy stood up from his chair. He could feel it coming. Like every stream before Tommy fell onto his bed as tics came. He had stopped trying to stop them. “Fucking bitch!”. Pop . Then came another head twitch. After suppressing them the best he could for over an hour his tics came back to him in full force. A tic attack.
Whistle . Pop . Head twitch . Tommy was calming down. His body didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would. None of his more violent tics happened. Which he was thankful for. Tommy’s mouth was dry from ticing. His neck hurt a bit but everything was fine. It wasn’t healthy how many times he goes into a tic attack a week. But it was better than having people find out.
Tommy closed his eyes. Pop . What time was it? Opening his eyes back up Tommy looked to his phone. Sitting up he grabbed it. He had a pretty heavy duty phone chase. For obvious reasons. Opening it up he checked the time. “Pog!”. Tommy read the time. He had to get ready for bed soon. “Fuck!”. Tommy’s voice went a bit higher when he had vocal tics. It’s how his parents and teachers knew if he was just being a jokester or if he had actually ticed.
Getting up from his Tommy made his way to his closet. Opening it up he got out his pyjamas. Head twitch . He quickly changed into them and made his way to the hall. He could hear his parents getting ready for bed in the other room. Pop . Going into the bathroom Tommy reached for his toothbrush. After getting it he started to brush his teeth.
“Fucking bitch!”. Tommy ticed getting tooth paste and spit on the mirror. Looking at himself he groaned. “Stupid tic.”. He whispered. Whistle . Tommy quickly finished up with brushing his teeth. After which he cleaned the mirror. Tommy yawned as he walked back to his room. Sleep creeping closer then the creeper that blew him up an hour earlier. As he reached his bed he stretched.
Pop . Tommy got under the blankets as his eyes shut. He relaxed. Sleep was something he would look forward to. But not tonight. For tomorrow he had a presentation. A presentation that he was going to get laughed at for and called weird. Or much worse, be pitted for. But sleep was stronger than his mind as it claimed him for the night. Sleep always won.
Head twitch
Tommy sat at a lunch table. Silently eating, well mostly silent. He couldn’t help when he yelled out- “Fuck!”. Tommy slump down in his chair. Eyes darted to him. People were used to his outbursts. Pop . Tommy didn’t always mind the eyes on him. He liked it most of the time. But the eyes the kids gave him while he was at school, to say the least, weren’t appreciated.
The day passed by like any other. His presentation did well. His tics only happened when he was changing slides. The only reason being because he let them out then. He couldn’t afford to have a tic attack after the class was over. So he didn’t hold them back as much. After he was done the kids clapped and he sat down. Other kids went up. “Pog!”.
He hated when he interrupted his classmates. They all glared like he could control himself. After a bit he just decided to wait out in the hall. At least he could scroll through Twitter while he waited. It was actually the only good thing about presenting. He didn’t need to listen to the others.
Tommy was having a terrible day. His tics have been bad and was hard to suppress. So he just stared down at the start stream button. Head twitch . Tommy’s mouse hovered over the button. Pressing down on it he smiled up to the incoming fans. “Welcome back everybody!”. Tommy greeted as he began his stream.
After a bit Tubbo, Phil and Wilbur joined VC2. They started work on whatever they were working on before. “Fuck!”. Head twitch . Tommy ticed as he was fighting off a zombie. Thank god for the zombie, really. After killing the zombie Tommy looked to his chat. Scanning for anyone who caught onto his head twitch. No one did. Tommy breathed a sigh of relief.
“You good? That zombie fucking kicked your ass.”. Wilbur joked as he went to see what Tommy was doing. Phil laughed as he kept away from the baby zombies. “It’s because we didn’t light up the area! Who’s idea was to use all our coal for smelting!?”. Tubbo turned to Tommy. He could practically feel the smirk forming on Tubbo’s face out of game. “You did.”. “Oh shut up!”.
Half an hour later Tommy was silently suffering. His whole body was in pain as he bit his tongue. “Tommy you alright mate?”. Phil had noticed the teen not being himself. The VC was quieter than normalcy. Tommy couldn’t reply. He just couldn’t. The chat was spamming things that Tommy didn’t care to look at.
Pop . And so it began. Wilbur had clicked on Tommy’s stream to see why he was not talking. And so his eyes were met with Tommy hitting himself in the head. “Whoa Tommy what was that about?”. Wilbur said, confused. “Wait what happened?”. Tubbo couldn’t see his friend. Head twitch . Nor could Phil. Pop . Whistle .
Tommy tried to hold back. Or at least tell his friends it was nothing. “I’m fine-“. Whistle . “Tommy what are you doing?”. Phil asked, hearing the noises Tommy made. Tommy reached to at least turn his camera off but his arm had a mind of its own. “Fucking bitch!”. Tommy then hit himself in the head for the second time on stream.
“Tommy are you okay?”. Tubbo said suddenly. There was nothing wrong with Tubbo asking that question. But the tone through Tommy off. He was worried. “Keys are dumb!”. Another one of his vocal tics came out. Tommy could remember when he heard his grandmother say it. After that he had just begun to repeat it as a tic.
Both Phil and Wilbur were watching Tommy’s stream. Unable to do anything as their friend repeatedly hit himself in the face and shouted out random sentences and words. They didn’t know what to do. Phil quickly shut his stream off and told the others to do the same. Whatever was happening was a personal matter. Not a twitch one. “Tommy, can you stop your stream?”. Phil tried to help.
Tommy’s eyes just began to water. Tommy tried to stand up and get out of frame but his leg jerked. Making him fall right on his ass. “Wood, wood, wood!”. Head twitch . That tic was a minecraft one. It came to be by all the times Tommy would ask Tubbo for wood when playing. Such a fun experience with a friend was now replaced with an embarrassing memory.
Tommy hated this. His chat was going crazy. “I’m calling your parents okay Tommy. Hang in there.”. Wilbur grabbed his phone from the side as he dialed. He had Tommy’s fathers number because they were going to meet up soon. “Is he having a seizure!?”. Tubbo was clearly upset. Not knowing what’s going on and not being able to help.
“Tommy are you okay?”. Phil was soft. But everyone could hear the fear in his voice. It pained Tommy not to be able to shout out that he was fine. That this happened a lot because he would suppress them. That this was just a bad day. A very bad day. With another hit to the head Tommy’s tears rolled down his face.
Tubbo started to freak out more. “Fuck!”. After a minute footsteps were heard. Whipping open Tommy’s door both of his parents were there. His mom sat by him as his dad went to the computer. “Thanks Wilbur. He’s fine.”. Without giving an explanation Tommy’s father closed all tabs. And then the computer.
“Wood, wood, wood!”. Pop . Whistle . Pop . “It’s okay honey.”. Tommy’s mother said. After some more time Tommy’s tics slowed down. Leaving him silently crying on the floor. His mom took him in a big bear hug. His father also joined. Tommy’s phone dinged with notifications. His parents calmed him down and got him an ice pack for his now sore and headache ridden head.
Tommy rested his head on his pillow. He had turned his phone off a while ago. Too afraid to face his only growing unopened notifications. His parents had left to get his favourite fast foods. Tommy wiped at his eyes. Pop . Getting up Tommy looked around for a water bottle. When he couldn’t find one he got up off his bed. Whistle .
He made his way slowly to the front of his house. Tommy sat down at the kitchen island staring at the tap. Pop . He was tired. Not physically as he took a twenty minute nap right after his tic attack. But mentally. The whole world now knows of his secret. His friends knew…
He could hear cars drive up. And soon one right into his driveway. Knocking broke the silence he found himself in. His parents were back. Getting up off the kitchen island he made his way to the door. Head twitch . He reached out to the door knob as the knocking only got louder. Opening up the door he could see two people. None of which were his loving parents.
“Keys are dumb!”. Tommy quickly covered his mouth as he stared at a very distressed Wilbur and somehow an even more distressed Phil. “Tommy!”. Without warning the two came into his house. Both out of breath. Tommy could see a car in his driveway. Clearly hastily parked. Wilbur wrapped his arms around Tommy suddenly. “You're okay!”. Phil looked Tommy over. To see for himself that what Wilbur said was true.
Head twitch . Wilbur let go at the action. He’s eyes were wide. Tommy was full of confusion. “Why are y-you in my house?”. He said looking in between his friends. Pop . “There it is again. Are you okay.”. Phil blurted out. “You weren’t answering our texts and calls. And you looked like you were, well, having a fucking seizure!”. Tommy shrunk back. They were this worried? To drive a fucking almost two hour drive.
In what? An hour and ten minutes! Whistle . Wilbur let tears slip past his eyes. Tommy flinched back at the sight. “D-don’t cry! I’m fine see-“. Tommy was cut off. “Fucking bitch!”. By himself. It didn’t seem to help as Phil took out his phone. “That’s it I’m calling the hospital.”. Tommy heard the words he said. Hospital? For something that was normal to him? Then the thought sank in. “Wait no!”. Tommy grabbed the phone before Phil could press call.
“Tourrette’s! I have Tourette’s so don’t fucking call the hospital!”. Head twitch . Both Wilbur and Phil stopped for a second. Just staring at the teen whose house they just barged into. Yelling at him that they were worried and had almost sent to the hospital. “Tourette’s?”. Wilbur tested the word. Like if it meant that Tommy was actually safe.
“Like the neurological disorder?”. Phil straightened up. His face became red with embarrassment. Whistle . Wilbur looked between the two. “What the hell is tourette’s!”. Tommy breathed out a long and shaky breath. “Wilbur it means-“. Pop . “Means I can’t control parts of my body sometimes. It’s tics.”. Probably not the best description he could have given the older man. But it was something.
Wilbur looked to Phil. Phil let out a breath as he chuckled. “It’s nothing dangerous Wilbur. He’s fine.”. Tommy walked up to Phil and passed him back his phone. The next few minutes were filled with Tommy and Phil explaining what tourette’s were. The three ended up sitting at the kitchen island. A glass of water in all the males hands.
“Why didn’t you tell us? From what I could understand, surprising them can be dangerous.”. Wilbur looked at Tommy. No worry in his eyes. No pity. Nothing. It was the same with Phil. Tommy looked away shyly. “I didn’t want you guys to think differently of me.”. There was no lying now. “That’s stupid. We would never think differently of you Tommy.”. Phil put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder.
The door slowly creaked open. “We’re home Tommy!-“. Tommy’s mother’s and father’s eye locked with the two men’s that were beside Tommy. Phil raised his hand up a bit. “Uh, hi.”. Tommy scrambled to his feet. “Hi mom, dad. I promise I didn’t know they were coming over! But they were scared for my health so…”.
Both Wilbur and Phil were frozen. The sight of two adult men sitting beside a sixteen year old boy was one that was definitely going to be a good look. After explaining the weird and slightly sweet situation Tommy found himself in his parents had made the two men stay. Why wouldn’t they? They were going to trust them with Tommy on the weekend anyways for the meet up.
And so the night went with chatting and laughter. And gone horribly embarrassing for Tommy when his mother got out the baby book. His friends did not need to see him with flour all over himself when he was five! When it was time for the two to leave Tommy walked them to the door. “Sorry for scaring you guys.”. Tommy chuckled. He didn’t know what else to say.
“No problem mate. Sorry for kinda breaking into your house.”. Phil waved a goodbye. “See you on the weekend.”. Tommy nodded as the men left. Closing the door he went to help clean up the dishes. Whistle . But his mother stopped him. He looked up at her confused. “Don’t you have over one hundred texts from Tubbo?”. Tommy froze, he did.
“Fucking bitch!”.