Sometimes Tommy wondered if anyone would miss him. For months he had watched his 'friends' lives ease into perfection, while his was still stuck in the same black hole. He had seen Billy and Teddy solidify themselves, Billy's life ironing itself out to the point that Tommy had had to abandon the house.
Tommy's teammates were moving toward the future and he was still stuck in the past. Every night, memories of the experiments and scientists haunted him. The others thought he had moved past it, he made jokes about it constantly. But that was what they didn't understand. Tommy had to make jokes about it. It was either laugh it off like it didn't hurt or burst into tears because it did. He made jokes because that was the only way he knew how to deal with it and it was the only thing that kept him from going insane. He didn't know how to talk about his feelings the way Billy did; he had no one to talk about them to.
Tommy moved at thousands of miles an hour, and yet somehow he was always the one left behind. When Billy's powers caused Teddy's mom to come back, they had enlisted Loki before they talked to him. While he was still missing, they had held a party. Kate and Billy and Teddy, Eli, David, all the others thought he could get on by himself. That he could run away from his problems.
But when you moved at a thousand miles an hour, your problems moved at a million. Tommy couldn't shake the feeling that they didn't need him. Why would you need a speedster when his brother had power over the multiverse? They only kept him around because he was Billy's brother. Maybe none of them had said it aloud, but Tommy knew it was true.
He wasn't really a friend to any of them. He was more like their pet speedster, someone they liked fine, but kept hidden. They didn't attempt to connect themselves to him, form a proper relationship, and who would? He was a broken kid from a broken family. He practically lived in juvie and he had blown up his school.
Tommy stared out of his bedroom window, the rainy night staring back. The wind screamed at him, and Tommy imagined it was only confirming what he already knew. It was nights like this Tommy wondered if anyone would miss him.