Chapter Text
The sky had already turned to dusk, clouds floating out of the way of the sky to show the moon’s beauty. The day went by so quickly, it didn’t feel long enough, but also too long. There were barely any memories made today, it didn’t feel like a birthday .
All Toby did today was sit in his room, waiting for any texts to spark up on his phone, for anybody to knock on his door, or even for him to be called down for dinner. All he was greeted with was the unfortunate silence of his dull bedroom, the only sound heard was his faint breathing.
No birthday gifts, birthday celebration, or even a ‘ happy ’ birthday. Toby knew he shouldn’t be expecting a huge birthday party at his age, but he couldn’t help but keep himself hidden underneath the heavy covers and staring at his room’s boring white wall as his mind lingered on the fact that everyone forgot his special day.
His walls weren’t exactly exciting or fascinating to stare at, he kept his room pretty blank. He had tried to make the space resemble the old bedroom from his childhood he used to occupy, even setting up the bed and dressers in the same areas.
It was just like when he was young, stuck in the unsatisfactory comfort of his room as his mind ran to more unpleasant places.
The more he remembered the day, the more he felt like crying. Everyone had seemed to have forgotten his birthday, not even Ben, Jeff, or Jack, his three best friends, remembered. It was a letdown to have the one day of the year that's supposed to be about him completely forgotten.
His eyes would rapidly blink; it was a common tic he had, but it made it harder for him to hold back tears. He was struggling to hold back as he continued to shame himself for caring about his birthday; he felt dramatic.
He pulled himself up from lying down, causing the bed to make a quiet but lengthy creak, rubbing his eye with his knuckles, he asked himself internally. “ Why do I even care about my birthday so fucking much? It’s not like I had good birthdays in my childhood anyway,” He pulled a strand of hair behind his ear.
He began to sulk and allow his doubts and self-depreciation to flood his mind, but almost immediately after, he heard a knock on the door. The sounds were rapid, loud knocks that quickly ended before continuing once more, but this time, Toby could hear someone yelling.
“Tobyyyyy!! Open the fuck up!” Toby turned his head towards his door, it was Jeff who was beating up the damn door. “Quit banging on it before you break the fucking thing!” Toby shouted back, unimpressed with the pale man’s antics.
Though Toby knew Jeff was going to be a pain in the ass, he couldn’t help but feel his heart begin to race with excitement. At least there was one person who remembered his birthday. He was longing for somebody to come along.
He would never admit this to anybody, but he had a small crush on the raven-haired man, though it was childish to admire the angsty serial killer this much; he couldn’t help himself. His heart raced as he realized his small, childish crush was the one who remembered his special day.
Jeff pushed the creaky door open, entering quickly before slamming it closed behind himself. A large grin grew on his face as he stared down at Toby. “I didn’t almost forget your birthday! I just slept in today,” he strolled up to Toby’s bed, holding a black shopping bag in his hand.
The bag was completely black with a white abstract logo on one side, the material also looked weak and worn out. Jeff threw the bag onto the bed, not trying to be careful with it at all. As it dropped onto the covers, a clinking sound could be heard. Like the bag he dropped, the pale man jumped into the bed next to Toby.
“Slept in, huh?” The brunette repeated doubtfully, looking away as he felt his cheeks heat up lightly. At the corner of his eye, he could see Jeff’s dishevelled figure slouched over.
Breathing in softly, Toby turned his focus to his alarm clock that occupied his side table. “Slept in till 9 PM?” He questioned, looking back at Jeff with a slight pout on his bottom lip, very unimpressed and doubtful.
“Oh, never mind that. I got you a fucking amazing gift.” Jeff began to dig his hand around inside the bag, sounds of metal clanging against eachother was heard before he groaned under his breath, “Oh, fuck it.” before lifting the bag upside down and watching all the items inside tumble out.
Toby’s head snapped towards the item as his eyes widened. “Where the hell did you get that?”
Now, sitting between the two men was a grinder, a crack can that hadn’t been used yet, and two baggies that had a gram of weed inside each baggy; the baggies were doing their job at least, as the smell of the drug was very faint.
The grinder was a plain black design; some of the cheap jet-black paint on the metal had scratched off already. The crack can used to be a soda can. Toby’s eyes skimmed over the design, which was a Pepsi can with its signature logo and blue background. Lastly, the grams of weed that sat in front of the brunette were pretty chunky and almost a perfect shade of forest green.
“Don’t ask questions.” Jeff quickly dismissed Toby’s question, he looked up at Toby with that same big grin on his face from before. His grin was so large and extended, it didn’t help that the smile carved into his cheeks made it look more uncannily larger than it was.
“Happy 19th Birthday, Tobias.” He boomed, grabbing one of the baggies and shaking it excitedly between his pointer finger and thumb. Jeff rocked in his spot, clearly more excited than Toby about this. On the other hand, the brunette was too surprised to speak, his mouth agape as he gazed upon the objects.
“Holy shit, Jeff.. This is my present?” Toby quiered, a smile slowly forming on his pale face. He couldn’t believe that he could get a gift like this, he didn’t know how expensive it was or what Jeff had to do to inquire it, but damn he was lucky.
“Obviously, fuckface! Who else’s dope is it going to be?” Jeff smirked, hopping off the bed to saunter to the window on their right-hand side before opening it up, lifting its sides. “We’re doing this shit right now. Give me your hoodie real quick.” He continued, walking over to the door and taking off his white, bloodstained hoodie.
He was wearing a Slipknot band tee underneath, the main colour being grey, the logo was a mix of reds. He slipped his hoodie off and placed it against the space underneath the door, nudging it closer to the space with his foot.
“Wait, we’re smoking it in here? Slender’s gonna catch us and fucking kill us!” Toby cautioned while standing up and walking up to the raven-haired man. “Also! That damn hoodie isn’t going to do jack shit, Jeff” He shouted with his voice full of doubt.
His neck suddenly whipped to the side, creating a booming ‘Crack!’ sound; he was starting to twitch more from his emotions. The problem was, he didn’t know if it was from being frustrated or from being flustered, but he decided to keep that a secret.
“It will, just give me yours so it keeps the smell locked in here better.” Jeff’s voice got a little lower, as if he was demanding the hoodie. Toby scowled and took a deep breath before reaching down to remove his hoodie, blushing softly, but he had hoped Jeff thought his face was red from frustration and nervousness. “If Slendy finds out, you take all the blame. I’m not getting punished for your idea.” He nagged as he lifted the hoodie off his torso.
“You’re taking too damn long to take that thing off” Jeff ridugled with a teasing tone, charging himself towards Toby and yanking the top of his hoodie that had already been half taken off of his scrawny body.
Jeff swung Toby around as he tried to basically rip the thing off of the poor guy. “What the fuck, Jeff!” Toby yelled before he fell on the ground, his hoodie was in the paler man’s hands. “I don’t appreciate being fuckin’ manhandled on my birthday!”
He continued to stare down at the ground, his face heated up more, even creating a bead of sweat that ran down his face. He knew his cheeks were too red to be mistaken for a bashful blush; at least, he just looked extremely angry or physically exhausted. He painfully looked like a tomato.
“See, not that hard, is it?” Jeff teased as he threw the hoodie on the ground next to the door, walking up and nudging it with his foot as he had before with his hoodie. Toby huffed and sat up, his neck twitching and popping once more as he straightened his posture.
“You didn’t need to be an ass about it,” Toby grumbled as he brushed his hair back into place with his hand, trying to recover after being thrown around and made dizzy..
The raven-haired man skipped to the window, grabbing the weed, grinder and can along the way. “I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. I know how to get away with this kind of shit.” He bragged as he took one gram out of its baggie, snapping it in two pieces before placing it inside the grinder.
“Mhm, you’ve still been caught smoking with Ben in your room multiple times by Slender.” The brunette sassed as he walked over to Jeff. Cocking his head to the side, he observed how Jeff’s hand held a tight grip onto the underneath of the grinder, his other hand rested on the top of it, twisting the lid to grind up the herbs.
Turning his head to look out the window, he can see the tip of the trees illuminated by the pale moon, the line of pine trees and forest has formed into a silhouette. There was a light breeze that swooshed in the night, lightly hitting both of the men’s faces.
It felt odd; nobody else in Toby’s life could remember his special day besides his crush/best friend. He didn’t know if he was truly nervous about being caught by Slenderman right now; he wondered if the lingering fear was from trying to seem chill or cool for Jeff, to seem like he was cautious but also not anxious about the drug.
The thought of him actually liking Jeff that much made him even more nervous. A continuation of worries and fears about the entire crush flooded his mind. Would it destroy their friendship? Would he do something dumb and accidentally slip up? He wished his mind would stay focused on something else.
But how could he? He was standing by a window, across from a man he had admired painfully so. It was almost strangely romantic how the moon would shine its glowing rays into the dim room, creating a streak of moonlight that resembled a fence between them.
“I’m done~!” Jeff exclaimed with a sing-song voice, snapping Toby out of his overwhelming thoughts. The pale man presented the ground-up herb to the brunette. His eyes roamed all over it, processing that he and Jeff were about to get high for his birthday. He fidgeted with his skinny hands, nervous about getting caught. He couldn’t feel pain, but it was still stressful, and he didn’t enjoy the punishments at all.
He was, of course, also nervous about getting high in front of the man across from him.
Jeff places his hand on Toby’s shoulder, bringing him back to reality once more. He pats his shoulder lightly, “Loosen up, man. It’s your birthday, you don’t need to be bossed and shoved around by Slendy right now.” He soothed before extending his arm back to sprinkle the weed into the small dent made on the can.
“Do you need one of my lighters, or did you bring your own?” Toby asked, smiling as Jeff tightened his lip, creating an awkward half-smile. That was all the raven-haired man needed to do for the brunette to know that he didn’t have a lighter on him. He dug into his jean pocket to fetch out a lighter and tossed it to Jeff.
Jeff caught it, but he tosses the lighter back to Toby, “No, you go first, Birthday boy.” he smirks and brings the can up to Toby’s lips, “Here, I’ll help light it for you, pass the fucking thing back…”
Toby’s heart raced, almost pounding out of his chest, thumping and creating a rhythmic, speedy beat inside his body. Toby inhaled sharply as he nodded, allowing Jeff to help him, placing the small light in the other man’s hand.
They both lay on the cold floor, stoned out of their minds.
“I wanna close the window, it's getting cold,” Jeff told Toby, rolling onto his side to look into the hazel eyes of the brunette. “Guessing you still want the smell to air out.” Toby nodded, a dumb smile stuck on his face. Jeff could already tell that the younger man had rarely smoked pot, or at least not in a while. He was more sensitive to the drug than Jeff.
“Yeah.. Yeahh..” Toby’s neck cocked to the side as he spoke, making another popping sound as he slurred his words. He looked back at Jeff, giggling, “Stop fuckin’ looking at me so much.” he smiled before snorting and continuing to laugh to himself.
“Shit, you’re stoned-stoned,” Jeff slurred as he watched the other man giggle and laugh to himself. “Yeah.. I am,” Toby replied with a dumb grin on his face. He opened in mouth to say more, but his neck cocked to the side once again, more rough this time, creating a louder ‘Crack!’ than the last ones. The sudden movement had caused Toby to accidentally bite down on his lip.
“Oh shit, you good?” Jeff sat up, looking down at Toby as his lips began to swell and turn inflamed and red where his teeth bit down. There was a dent that was the shape of his two top front teeth engraved in his bottom lip, but it didn’t seem like it was bleeding or split open. That was good at least.
“I don’t feel pain, Jeff,” Toby reminded him, his eyelashes fluttering closed as he tilted his head back, relaxing. The older man envied how Toby never felt pain, even though it meant not realizing how injured you are. He sighed, still a little worried for his friend.
“It’s still annoying… And distressing you.” The raven-haired noted as he began to stand up and hold his hand out, “Don’t want your ass falling asleep on the floor or twitching more down there..” He mumbled as he bent down to hold Toby’s wrist and pull him up. He was acting way softer than usual. “The bed will be more comfortable than the floor, maybe your damn twitching will calm the hell down.”
“Yeah… The bed sounds nicer,” The brunette agreed with a relaxed sigh as he stumbled to the bed, falling face first into it. As he suffocated himself inside the blankets, Jeff climbed into the bed and began to lightly nudge him with his body, “Scoot, I’m cold and want the blanket.”
“What if I am cold, Jeff?” Toby’s voice was muffled, a sly grin on his face that Jeff couldn’t see anyway, his face was buried in the blankets he lay on. He stayed put where he was, despite Jeff trying to scoot more on the bed and under the covers.
“I know damn well you can’t feel the cold, give me that thing” Jeff rolled his eyes before yanking the blanket from underneath Toby, making the brunette roll over like a goat, stiff. He didn’t fall off the bed, but instead rolled onto his side.
“But, I am cold!” Toby lied with a smile before giggling to himself. Jeff couldn’t get annoyed or mad at him, the brunette has been under alot of stress lately and he’s now high off of his ass. Jeff scooted next to him, pulling the blanket over himself.
“No, you aren’t, lemme warm up before I purposely get us caught by Slender,” He joked before making himself more comfortable in the blanket. Toby jerked his head up with widened eyes, looking like a scared small animal face-to-face with its predator. Toby began to panic.
“Wait, wait, wait, Jeff, don’t. I don’t wanna be forced to feed rake alone or pick up Smile Dog’s shit. Please no!” He begged, grabbing Jeff’s arm dramatically with his teeth clenched.
“Goddamnit..” Jeff thought out loud to himself, mumbling. He shouldn’t have made a joke like that when Toby was paranoid before he got high; now he was going to be more paranoid while intoxicated. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb before trying to reassure Toby. “I was joking, I’m not gonna do that.”
That didn’t convince the brunette, as he still whined and begged not to be told on, he was comparable to a toddler, he clung onto Jeff’s arm and shook it. As he kept on begging and whining, Jeff groaned and threw his head back like the angsty guy he was, trying to reassure Toby once more, his voice was more gruff this time.
“Oh my god. Toby! You’re being fuckin’ paranoid! I’m not going to tell on you, that would get me into shit too.”
That still didn’t convince the paranoid over-sized toddler.
“That would inconvenience me! Are you fuckin’ dumb!”
…
“Let go of my arm, Slender isn’t going to punish you, he won't know!”
…
And after continuous, not-so-reassuring sentences. Jeff groaned once more and wrapped Toby in the blanket he had originally wrapped himself in, having the fabric hang off each of their shoulders. “Calm down, you’re tripping. Slender doesn’t know and he isn’t gonna shove a tentacle up your ass or some shit.”
Even though Jeff just said the most heinous shit he would ever say in awhile, Toby nuzzled up to Jeff and got comfortable, calming down almost right away. Glaring at the wall, Jeff tightened his lip and uttered, “Don’t get too comfy,” in a sarcastic tone.
With a soft sigh, Toby nodded as he rested his cheek against Jeff’s shoulder. “You’re really nice.” It caught the other man by surprise; he was about to make a rude comment or joke, but Toby decided to keep talking.
“Like, you’re an asshole, but you’re the most loyal guy I know.” He slurred, “Never leaves me behind… Strong… Strangely attractive…” He kept going on, his voice slurred as he got more tired.
“You’re starting to sound fuckin’ gay,” Jeff grunted, avoiding eye contact with Toby.
“I love you, Jeff,” The brunette sluggishly confessed.
“Wait, what the fuck–?” Jeff jerked his head towards Toby to look at him in shock, but Toby had already fallen asleep on his shoulder. His lips were slightly parted as he breathed softly. The room was finally silent, but at what cost?
“Goddamnit..” Jeff whispered to himself before reaching over to glide his hand over Toby’s hair as he slept. he began playing with it and running his hand through the soft, thick strands. He slowly lay down, holding the younger man in his arms as they both sank into the mattress.
Sighing, Jeff continued to play with Toby’s hair, allowing him to comfortably stay asleep in his arms. “ At least he got to cuddle the person he loves for his birthday. ” Jeff thought to himself as his cheeks began to grow rosy.