Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The guitar man
“Sorry mate, I can’t really do much for you,”
“Aw come on, why not just help me find it?”
“Sorry sir, we’re not really certain if you did lose it here on the station so the matter isn’t really on our hands now,”
Tommy sighed in defeat, unclasping both his hands and his shoulders dropped. He walked away from the guard on the entrance to the subway, whom he just tried to bargain with. He didn’t have enough money for the trip to his college’s station since he usually charges it to his rail card, and considering his wallet is now missing from his pockets, he is surely going to be late for his classes.
It’s not like he’s made any effort to deal with his attendance before, but he’s never been late to witness the guitar man by the train tracks sing his first song of the day.
The guitar man.
Tommy never really bothered to ask for his name. He was just the usual guy who sat on the bench nearest to the man just to listen to him and his guitar while waiting for his train to college. He tipped the guy every now and then. He even found out that the man always came by at around 9:30 every morning. Tommy would arrive at an early 9:00 and was lucky to witness the man walk down the stairway and set his guitar case down as a donation box, carefully tuning his guitar and finally picking his first song of the day.
He’s heard a few of the acoustic classics, a bit of Frank Turner, some depressing songs that Tommy has yet to search up, and his absolute favorite; His original songs.
Every time the man would play an original, he would say the que “This one’s an original,” or “I wrote this one,” that would never fail to make Tommy’s non-existent bunny ears perk up in excitement. It was odd for sure, but as long as Tommy keeps it to himself- he’ll still get the chance to listen to the sweet strums of the man’s guitar along with his godly attractive voice.
Knowing he might miss the guitar man today, he’s still hoping he’d get to see him tomorrow. So he hesitantly pulled out his phone to call his mother who he prays to have time to take him to college for now. He feels a bit shameful as his ears heard the 3rd ring from the phone, maybe his mother is a bit busy which just adds to the growing guilt in his chest for also losing his wallet.
His mother didn’t pick up for the first dial, so when Tommy was about to call again- someone suddenly ran into him quite forcefully which caused him to drop his phone and also fall to the side along with whoever ran into him.
A faint grunt erupted from his mouth when he felt the jab of the ground at his sides along with the weight of a person falling on top of him. “Fuckin’ hell,” he gasped out of surprise but also out of slight irritation of the moment.
“Oh fuck,” A voice came from the man on top of him who rushed to get up quickly. Tommy also sat up the moment the weight was off of him to grab his phone that fell on the ground. He checked the screen and was thankful it wasn’t all broken nor scratched.
A hand was then offered to him and he looked up to the man.
He took the hand way before he could take in the sight in front of him. And finally, once he’s on his feet he realized, It was the guitar man.
The said man put a hand on his shoulder in a worried manner, “Shit… You alright there?” he asked and it took Tommy a moment to shake off his bombarding thoughts about how tall the man was before he could answer.
“Yeah, yeah, All good… And you?” he returned the question.
The man waved a dismissing hand, “No, no, don’t worry about me. It was clearly you who took the blow there,” the man chuckled. “Sorry about that,” he added.
“No, it’s fine. I was probably in your way, I should’ve been more mindful where I’m-”
“No, no It’s me who was too reckless, but we both should be more careful,” The man finally said and Tommy just nodded. Realizing the man still has his hand on his shoulders, Tommy cleared his throat.
“Weren’t you in a hurry?” He asked, and the man’s eyebrows raised in realization.
“Oh- That’s right… See you around,” And with that, the man left and walked into the station.
Tommy never took off his gaze at the man until he was out of his sight. He wondered what could ‘See you around’ possibly mean? It was probably because he was now familiar with Tommy since it’s not really much of a hidden secret that he watches the man play at the subway every chance he gets. But that was nothing but wishful thinking on Tommy’s part.
So with a forming smile on his face and a lighter mood, he phoned his mother again, and this time, she picked up.
The rest of the day went fine for Tommy. Aside from the whole losing-his-wallet fiasco, everything seemed to flow by smoothly. Until he had to go home and clearly, he forgot to ask his mother for some extra money for today. He is not about to call his mother again to pick him up since he still had some bit of dignity left in him. He’s bothered her well enough this day. It’s not like his father was an option as well since he was also busy with work and will probably be home late for today too.
So as he made his last step that considered him out the university grounds, he was losing options after options.
That is until he heard a whistle and his name being called out, “Thomas Simons!”
He quickly turned to see who called him and saw none other than the guitar man. With his arms waving to call his attention and a big smile on his face like he’s been expecting Tommy. The boy made his way towards him in a hurried walk. The man met him halfway across the street, guitar case on his back shaking as he jogged.
“Hey man!” The taller greeted like they’ve known each other since forever which confused Tommy for a while.
“Yeah, it’s you?” He asked, clearly confused.
The man chuckled for a bit, stopping in his tracks to catch his breath while still maintaining the smile directed to Tommy.
“Hey,” the man greeted again once they’re properly facing each other. Tommy considered their short distance quite awkward since he’s never really talked to the man before, and to stand closely to him like this seemed odd.
“How uh… How did you know my name? And how did you find me?” Tommy started asking the obvious questions.
“Oh- right,” the man said as he turned a bit to reach into his pockets. He pulled out a familiar looking wallet and Tommy immediately realized it was the one he lost.
“I saw your school ID and thought I’d come bring this to you,” he said as he handed the wallet towards Tommy.
Once seeing the leather object close to him, he immediately grabbed it in surprise and opened it up. Looking through the compartments in case anything was missing.
His school ID was indeed there, so does a single credit card, a few pounds, and his damn rail card. He closed his eyes and sighed in relief once he confirmed that nothing was missing.
“Um… You’re welcome,” The man said and Tommy immediately looked back at the man.
“Oh- right… Sorry, I was just so relieved to have this back, I was in a bit of trouble when I lost this. Thank you so much for taking it to me,” Tommy said, holding out his hand for a shake of gratitude.
The man took it, and nodded as a response.
“I completely understand, I’ve been in a similar situation before,” he said and finally let go.
Tommy hesitated for a bit before asking, “May I ask for your name?”
The man looked at the ground for a bit, somehow he seemed like he was contemplating on whether he should tell him or not, which was kind of odd in Tommy’s opinion.
“I- I mean if it’s a bit of a secret then I guess you don’t have to tell me after all-”
“Wilbur,” the man- or Wilbur cut off.
Tommy looked at his eyes, he saw a glint of regret for some reason. It was just his name, he wondered why on Earth the man is so uptight about it. He shook off those thoughts for now, considering it’s a bit rude to make assumptions about the man who just did him a huge favor.
“Right… Wilbur, I’m Tommy- or Thomas, though most people call me Tommy, if you prefer to call me anything else, it can be Tom or whatever,”
Wilbur chuckled at this and nodded, taking a small step back.
“Alright then, Tom-or-whatever, I’ll better get going now,” Tommy’s smile broke into a little laugh and also nodded.
“Thanks again,” he called out and the man only gave him a thumbs up without even turning around.
Tommy watched him as he crossed the road until he boarded a bus. He then started walking his way to the subway station.
‘That was weird’ he thought, still not getting over how the man acted that way when he asked for his name.
‘Maybe his name has a weird history or something,’ was the conclusion Tommy settled for.
As he walked down the steps to the subway, he somehow couldn’t shake off the weird feeling of familiarity from the memory of talking to Wilbur. He was certain this was his first time actually talking to him after months of watching him perform in the subway. Though, his voice from up close sounded as if he’s heard it from somewhere else aside from the subway.
‘Wilbur huh, how strange’ he thought as he scanned his railcard to enter the subway. He then made his way towards the usual bench he’d sit on to wait for his train home.
It’s a shame that The guitar man- or Wilbur didn’t really perform in this station. Somehow, Tommy wished he would have spoken more with the man since he couldn’t really build up the courage to before, but to have the man actually be the one to approach him was really unexpected.
He’d always thought that their first conversation would be at the subway station, maybe in between breaks of Wilbur’s series of songs that Tommy would finally have the courage to go up and speak to him. He’d never thought to bump into the man right outside the subway, “Fuckin’ hell,” as his first words to the man was really something Tommy can’t comprehend. This day has been really out of place from his usual school days.
Once Tommy heard the announcement that his train is arriving soon, he stood up and waited next to the tracks.
He could hear the sound of the incoming train from afar. The faint rumbling and a little screech can be heard.
It reminded him of that one song that Wilbur claimed to be an original.
It was depressing, that one lyric that somehow made him turn his head to look at the man once when he heard it because he was genuinely concerned.
“There’s a reason that London puts barriers on the jubilee line, there’s a reason they fail,”
They fail.
It made Tommy wonder if Wilbur ever really attempted to go over the barriers himself. It was quite a thought indeed, to see that guitar man try to climb over the barriers surrounding the rails. It put Tommy’s mind in a whirl.
The mindful whirl stopped once he realized the opening doors in front of him. He immediately stepped inside the train and found a seat just near the doors as well.
Wilbur.
The guitar man.
How peculiar.