tom felt himself being shaken awake, a small groan escaping his lips. he shut his eyes tighter, wrinkled his nose, and tilted his head back. "five more minutes, matt." he muttered.

"tom, i'm so fucking sorry." came a voice that wasn't matt's.

confusion was what prompted tom to open his eyes, gasping when he saw tord's guilty expression and bright sunlight peeking through the windows.

"wait- what!?" tom's eyes shot open wide and he sat up, looking around frantically. "i- i'm.. you were supposed to wake me up at 7:30!" he punched tord's arm, hard.

"i fell asleep, i'm sorry!" tord exclaimed while rubbing where tom had punched him. "i feel so bad, i-"

"shut up, goddamn!" tom snapped, stress already building up inside of him. he searched for his phone but realized it was in his pocket and fished it out, looking at the notification screen.

6 missed calls: matt

1 new voicemail: matt

3 missed calls: edd

18 new messages: matt

4 new messages: edd

tom's heart sank to his stomach as the familiar buzzing sensation of anxiety began in his head. his face paled as he scrolled through the messages matt had left him, which mostly began with:

open your door

its 5:30 why arent you awake? we have work

tom???????

you okay? hellooo

they slowly turned to:

are you even in there?

tom its getting late. are you still asleep?

im gonna tell edd to pick lock your door

tom's heart rate ramped up. tord's pleads for him to listen and calm down seemed distant. he swallowed hard and clicked on matt's voice message.

"tom, you're not in your room, i'm freaking out. please pick up, i know you have your phone with you. i'm hoping you're okay. was it eric? holy fucking shit, did eric do something? oh my god. edd, i told-!"

the message ended there. tom breathed hard and stood up, about to run for the door. that was when tord grabbed his wrist and forcefully pulled him into a hug. the norski's tight grip was as firm as steel; impossible to get out of. tom frantically tried to flail his arms and legs, tears welling in his eyes.

"let go of me!!" tom yelled out in protest.

tord buried his face in the back of tom's neck. "i need you to calm down. stop squirming, you'll be okay, everything is fine."

tom continued to gasp for breath but his attempts at escaping died off. he instead began to hiccup and cry, slowly shaking his head.

"th- they're gonna find out about y- you.." he sobbed.

"relax." tord loosened his grip and sighed. he shut his eyes. "i'm really sorry i forgot to wake you up. i fell asleep, too. but right now, you need to call matt back and we have to figure out a lie, unless you want to tell him the truth, which... is fine." he opened his eyes again and wiped tom's tears using the back of his hand.

tom tried his best to calm his breathing. "we have to lie." he hiccuped.

"if that's what you want, but i don't have any ideas."

sniffling, tom nodded and escaped tord's grip. he stood up and started to pace the room, shakily typing ell's number into the keypad. she instantly picked up.

"why is the cafe closed!? i've been waiting out here for the past hour with a bunch of customers waiting to get in, and i don't have the key!" she snapped.

"h- hang on, please listen." he whimpered.

at the sound of tom's broken voice, ell's tone softened. "are you good?"

"no, i... i spent the night at tord's house by accident and m- matt is freaking out looking for me. he's probably about to call the police." tom explained, noticing the way tord's eyebrows furrowed when he seemed to casually tell ell that he was there.

"oh, crap. how could you be so careless?"

"i-"

"it's okay. we can say you stayed over at my place, yeah? i'll go pick you up." in the background were several cries of complaint from the customers. "text me his address."

"okay. please hurry." tom hung up and sent her tord's address, fingers flying across the screen.

"wait, what? she-" tord began, but tom cut him off by putting a hand up.

next, tom called matt, who also picked up after one ring. "oh my god, tom! what the hell!? where have you been!? edd and i are in the car right now driving like crazy looking for you!" matt practically screamed into his phone.

tom flinched and bit his lip. "i'm really sorry. i spent the night at ell's house." he forced himself to sound fine. "i should've told you, i know, but i..." he searched for an excuse. "i don't know. i had a really bad nightmare about- um, you-know-who, and my first instinct was to run." he felt tord's hurt look.

"out your window!? oh my god, i'm-"

"i don't know why. sorry, matt. nothing bad happened." he heard the ginger take a deep breath.

"edd and i are gonna go home. tell ell to bring you home, too, and we can talk. god, i was so damn worried." matt sighed.

"i know, i won't do it again, ever. tell edd i'm sorry."

"you better not," he 'tsked' disappointedly. "i'll see you at home, then. bye."

"bye." tom murmured and clicked the red hang-up button, sighing after. he placed a hand on his chest. his heart pounded underneath it. "i almost had a damn anxiety attack, tord." he growled and turned to the norwegian man.

"i said i'm really sorry." tord flinched at tom's harsh look. "everything is fine, isn't it?"

"except for the fact that matt and edd totally hate me now!"

"they don't hate you.. but, hold on. ell knows?" he stood up.

tom chewed the inside of his cheek and stuffed his phone away again. "yeah, she sorta found out. she promised she wouldn't tell anyone."

tord warily eyed him and only nodded. "anyway," he looked away. "we've gotta find a safer way to hang out."

"i know. tord, i-" but he was interrupted by a car honking multiple times outside. "that's ell."

"okay." tord led him to the door and opened it. "stay safe, okay?" he frowned.

"i will." tom nodded with a worried smile. "sorry for getting mad. i know it wasn't entirely your fault."

"it's okay. i understand." tord shrugged.

"guess i'll catch you later, then." hesitantly, tom stood up on his tiptoes and pecked tord's cheek. he then quickly ran down the driveway and got into the car.

"was that necessary?" ell scowled, only flipping tord off through the window and driving away.

tom panted and buckled his seatbelt. "yes. i called matt and told him i had a nightmare about tord, so i ran to your house. believable?"

"i guess so." she raised her eyebrows.

"guess we'll just have to find out." tom brought his gaze to the scenery whipping past the window.