Story: Pushed to the Brink
Summary: It wasn't like any of them could have possibly fathomed just how much he was bottling up, just how close he was to finally snapping. All it took was a single petty note to push him over the edge. And his actions came to surprise everybody, when he finally did snap.
Disclaimer: I don't own FOP. I wrote this for stress reasons, so it's probably not completely in character and I don't know if I'll continue this yet or not. I can't write a good Cosmo for the life of me. This is my first FOP fanfiction.
Timmy was fed up. He was tired of being wailed on by Francis, tired of being made a laughing stock by his classmates, tired of his self esteem being torn down by Crocker at every opportune moment and his harassment and obsession over proving Fairy Godparents to be real, tired of Vicky tormenting him, tired of his teeth being made fun of and tired of life in general.
His parents barely noticed he was around half the time, and his dad had made multiple remarks about of regretting having him. He was nothing but a mistake in people's eyes, including his own at this point, considering how much he messed things up even when trying to help or do a favor for those he cared for. His efforts to make a positive impression or be nice always backfired, or nobody appreciated his attempts to be nice anymore, not that they ever had.
His best friends, Chester and A.J., had long since gave up on hanging out with him as much, since he had been pushing them away and isolating himself more and more. Tootie, however, wouldn't stop trying to get close to him and it was becoming overwhelming.
Cosmo, Wanda, and those closest to him obviously knew that something was up, but none of them really pried to deeply because they didn't want to invade his privacy.
He knew that Wanda meant well, but her rational thinking and encouragement to just deal with things made it harder at times.
And it wasn't like any of them could have possibly fathomed just how much he was bottling up, just how close he was to finally snapping.
And all it took was a single note to push him over the edge, a stupid and petty note, that said 'Nobody loves you. You should just die.'
Even though he would have normally just sucked it up if he didn't have so much on his plate, at that moment, something in him just... broke.
It was quite obviously Francis' doing, and he clearly thought it was funny. Even some of the other kids seemed to snicker a bit by the extra insults that had been written on his desk. Other kids, however, like Elmer, Chester and A.J. just stood back and saw his reaction, but didn't say anything or get involved. Not that he expected them to.
After that he just felt sick to his stomach, realizing there was nobody at the school that he could count on to have his back.
Francis seemed disappointed when Timmy didn't say anything and instead started to walk out.
"Where do you think you're going, Turner? Class isn't over yet." Crocker said. Timmy knew he would regret this later, and his parents would be angry at him, but right now, he needed some time to himself.
Timmy didn't respond, walking out and slamming the door.
The whole class was silent at that point. Fortunately, school was about to let out anyway, not that he wouldn't be lowering Turner's grade for that.
"Wow, you look really down. Literally." Cosmo inquired, his head upside down. Heaven knows how it got like that in the first place.
"What's the matter, sport?" Wanda asked, using her wand to turn Cosmo back over, noticing the frustrated expression on Timmy's face. Poof was asleep in her arms.
You would have known if you had been there to look after me, Timmy wanted to say, but he bit back to keep it to himself. He knew that the world didn't revolve around him and he couldn't demand attention from them 24/7, no matter how lonely and weak he was by himself. It would be selfish.
"Francis making my life a living hell as always, nobody doing anything to stop him, everything going wrong that could. Certainly nothing worse than I'm used to." Timmy said casually, a little too casually for Wanda's comfort level, as he turned on the tv to power up his playstation. However, before he could power it up all the way, Wanda, exchanging glances with Cosmo, turned off the TV, bringing some irritation to Timmy.
"Did something in specific happen today to upset you?" Wanda pried, "You know you can always talk to us about, right?"
Timmy sighed. "It's nothing important, I think I just need some time alone right now." Timmy didn't even look at them as he spoke.
Silence filled the room.
"...Are you... sure you don't want to talk about it...?" She asked, feeling incredibly uncomfortable with his behavior.
"Yeah, I'm sure. You've probably already had so much to deal with today with Poof and all, so you might as well just take the rest of the day off."
"Aww, well, that's mighty generous of you, sweetie. If you say so, we won't refuse. Come on, Cosmo." Wanda said.
"Nooo, I'm watching-" Cosmo started to wine, but, before he could finish, he was poofed away by Wanda, who briefly turned to look at Timmy, before poofing away herself. Little did he know, Wanda had plans to talk to Cosmo about his obvious strange behavior.
As soon as they were gone, he heard his mom shout from downstairs, "Timmy, we're leaving now! Vicky's here!"
There was a party they were going to, even though they had lied and said they were going to a 'business meeting'. He understood that they didn't want him around because he ruined everything for them, but they could at least be honest about it and not lie about where they were going.
However, he didn't say anything about their deception or how it hurt. He had long since given up on them being honest with him.
"Okay!" He replied. Not even an "I love you.", not that he expected that from them either. As soon as he heard the door shut, the expected roaring voice boomed through the house, "Hey, Twerp! Get down here!"
He picked himself up, turning off the TV he had turned back on, before dragging himself out of the room.
"What do you want, Vicky?"
"Hmm, good question! First, you have my homework to do" She said, slamming a stack of books on to the table, causing him to flinch a bit at the loud sound. "and then you have chores to do, many of which I'm going to create, just for you."
As she said that, Vicky picked up several clean plates and intentionally dropped it on the floor, causing it to shatter into a bunch of pieces. The loud noise and seeing the broken and sharp glass were undoubtebly triggers for him, but he had to put temptation aside, especially in front of Vicky, at least until later after his parents got home and were in bed.
"Now get on it! That homework ain't gonna do itself." Walking off, she laughed in mockery, before going into the living room and turning on the television, her back to him. He sighed, looking at the complicated school work. Normally he would have his fairies help him with this, but he didn't want to bother them, since he had already made them a promise of having the rest of the day off.
Of course even as he slowly filled out the answers, his line of vision kept going back to the sharp shards of glass spread out on the floor. He swallowed.
Finally, he checked again to see if she was looking at him, which she wasn't, before quickly getting out of his seat, and moving over to pick up the sharpest looking piece of glass there was, but then indecisiveness hit him, and he picked up several other pieces, putting them all in his pocket and quickly making his way back to his seat.
"Cosmo, don't you think Timmy was acting a little weird?" Wanda found herself asking Cosmo, upon reflecting on Timmy's odd behavior.
"I don't know... Maybe...?" Cosmo replied, with uncertainty, wanting to console his wife. "But he's probably fine! He is Timmy, after all."
"Yeah, maybe you're right..."
"I'm always right, honey."
"Cosmo, you're actually wrong about most things, just like with the Cockroach taking over Dimmesdale incident."
"Oh, good point... And I'm getting this odd nagging feeling in my guts... Oh, that's probably the cheesy ground beef enchalada I ate earlier..."
At hearing Cosmo, Wanda sighed, "You moron.". She wasn't really in the mood for his antics, but somehow, having him around helped give her more comfort than she would have otherwise. Poof woke up at that moment, noticing the distress on her face, and "Poof"ed, in a tone that was obviously trying to console her.
She smiled softly at that.
Maybe she was just being paranoid. Timmy would come to them if he needed help, right?
"You're right, Poof!... Wanda worries too much." Cosmo said. "She should relax, like m...e... Uh oh, I feel really sick now..."
Wanda didn't know what to do, and was undoubtebly uncertain, but she would wait it out a bit.
"What's that in your pocket?" Timmy shuttered at hearing Vicky's question, afraid she was already on to him. He had finished her homework and was bringing it too her. He looked at her, nervously.
"It's um... Nothing...?" He tried to say, nervously as he patted the seemingly flat pocket that actually had the shards in it.
"I'm talking about your other pocket. Let me see that folded paper."
He felt his heart stop briefly and a wave of nausea pass over him as the folded note from earlier was ripped out of his pocket, quicker than he could prepare to stop her. "Invasion of privacy! Give that back!"
"Why?" Vicky smirked, holding it above his head. "Is it a love letter?"
"None of your business!" Timmy shouted back, glaring and trying to reach the paper that she was holding out of his reach. He wasn't usually one to result to direct physical aggression in a fight with Vicky by himself as he knew he didn't stand a chance, but, quite honestly, he was panicking and didn't know what else to do. Vicky was the last person he wanted to see that note at this time, considering how utterly unpredictable she was, even though she would most likely just mock him.
He jumped on top of her, knocking them both down to the floor. However, this, again, didn't last for long, because she overcame his short and small body, and turned the tables around so he was the one with his back to the floor, and she was sitting on top of him so he couldn't move.
"Now, let's see what this stupid letter says, shall we?" She said, pinning down his arms with her knees to keep him from reaching it. If he had been thinking rationally, he could later make Vicky forget she saw the letter, but, again, he was panicking and not thinking straight, and unfortunately, at least one of them, likely Wanda, would get suspicious over the letter and what he was trying to hide. So he had to face this situation as it was.
"Don't! It's my... uh... report card!" Timmy mentally scolded himself for such a dumb
"Oh, that makes it even better!" Vicky smirked even wider. "Let me guess, all Fs? I can show this off to mister and Mrs. Turner! I bet they'll be so...!"
Vicky trailed off into silence upon unfolding it and seeing what it really was.
Beneath the words Francis had wrote, Timmy just wrote 'Fine', clear implications he had taken his words to heart.
A long, suffocating silence settled between them, before Timmy finally filled the silence. "Are you happy now?"
Surprisingly, Vicky wasn't even smiling except one shaky, heavy smile that was slowly becoming smaller. "Who... wrote this?"
"...Some bully at school. Can you get off of me now if you aren't going to slit my throat open?" Timmy looked away, and honestly felt sick right now, unable to face her. He was afraid of what she might be thinking. He knew how to tune out her shouting, he knew how to prepare for her anger, but her silence was what scared him the most, when he was just waiting for a reaction and never got one. He felt anxious. Vicky didn't say anything for a minute or two, before getting up.
"Just sweep up those shattered pieces of glass, Twerp." Vicky said, her tone of voice ever so softer than usual, as she threw the piece of paper back to him. Timmy didn't know if that was Vicky's way of trying to regain some sense of regularity for herself, but it was much appreciated.
Timmy couldn't bring himself to speak, but got up and began to do as asked. It was so odd to hear Vicky not having been insensitive and utterly vindictive about the message or its content, and quite honestly, he didn't want to test that at the moment.
Grabbing the broom and dust pan, he could feel her eyes on him. He was sure she was testing him. Fortunately for him, she didn't know of the glass shards he had put into his pocket.
After the others shards had been swept up, Vicky hadn't said anything else. Timmy walked up to her, staring in expectancy.
"What do you want?" she looked at him, before avoiding eyecontact.
"Don't you have something else you want me to do?" He asked.
"No, I don't. Got a problem with that? Go to your bed something."
"...Well, if you say so." He replied, backing up a bit with uncertaintly. "But if you want, I could-"
"Just go to bed!" Vicky growled at having to repeat herself.
"Okay! Geez." Timmy grumbled, walking off. Of course, he had only tried to dispute with her to get a rise from her. He didn't like silent Vicky. At all.
Returing to his room, he saw that Wanda, Cosmo and Poof were either in the castle in their fishbowl or they hadn't returned yet. He wasn't surprised. It hadn't even been two hours.
He lied down on his bed, for a bit, staring up at the ceiling. At that moment his legs started itching, and he couldn't help but focus on the poking of the shards in his pants pocket. Taking one out he began to figit with it, of course cutting his hands and fingers in several spots. Once again, he looked up at the fish tank on his dresser. He wanted to wait until later, but surely, he would have some time, right?
And Vicky didn't seem to be in a mood to make his life hell tonight after the letter incident, so he might have some space to himself.
Suddenly, he scolded himself for considering it. He couldn't risk getting caught.
Of course, that resolve didn't stay with him for long. Just a few cuts for the time-being couldn't hurt anything.
He would bangage them up, as he always did, and nobody would notice it.
Unfortunately, a 'few cuts' quickly turned to dozens. He was too stressed out and anxious to just stop. He eventually lost count of the marks on his thighs and legs and control to the point he started to feel woozy, his vision starting to go black. That's when he started seeing stars, and the world around him felt much heavier than it should have. The last thing he remembered was trying to get up, but once again falling hard on his bathroom floor, the shower still running, before he finally blacked out.
A/N: Comment if you want, but no flames please.