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Recap

"Fine" she says "But I'm still on you, don't fuck up big time"

Don't worry, I wasn't planning to

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"Clayyyy" I groan

"Come on, just for an hour" he pleads

It's been a while since I finally agreed to be friends with Clay. Angel heavily advised against it but I just... missed him a bit

I just enjoy his company. Finally hanging out with him after not seeing a trace of this dude helped me realize how much I liked being around him.

I've been staying at his for a while again, sleeping in Nick's room since he has been crashing at the sorority, Angie still doesn't want to be around Clay

"Still Clay, I have finals coming up, the semester is ending" I say

It's almost December and college is being a bitch

"Fine" he huffs

"Why don't you stream then" I say "You haven't in a while now... since the MCC no mic practice was it?"

He clearly knew what I meant

"Ha ha so funny Char" he says "Maybe you should break my heart again, it seemed to

get my schedule working" Clay jokes

"Alright then, uhm... you're trash at minecraft" I say

"No I'm not, try again" he smugly says

"Uhhh..." I stall for a bit

"You're trash in bed then?" I laugh

I'm probably exceeding my limits, but Clay and I were never really friends, I don't know how to interact with him other than slight flirting

"Is that a question or an affirmation?" he raises an eyebrow "Anyhow, it didn't seem like it when I had you scr-" he begins but thankfully my phone rings interrupting Clay

I grab my phone from my back pocket to check who's calling... weird

Jake?

"Hi Jakey what's up?" I say very confused. He never calls me, not unless it's urgent

"Charlie I spoke to mom" he casually says

"About?" I push him

"The christmas ball, I asked if you could skip it like last time" he tells me.

Please let me skip it, please let me skip it, please let me skip it, plea-

"I don't think you'll be able to get out of this one"

My expression drops

"God no" I say

Clay awkwardly stands in front of me, probably trying to guess what the heck I'm talking about

"Yeah... I kind of mentioned it and mom got pretty upset" he says "If I were you I'd book a ticket"

"You have to be kidding me" I say grabbing my head

"She mentioned something about bringing a plus one too" he says

"A plus one???? Please expand on that" I ask

"Charlie you should probably call her, I'm done being the pigeon post, talk to her yourself"

"Fuck no I'm not calling her, she's gonna pick a fight I know it" I let out a heavy sigh

"Well it was something about showing to her friends how us moving to Florida wasn't entirely bad" he explains "You know the drill"

I huff in response "I'll see if Angel is willing to come"

"What happened?" Clay asks

"Wait Clay i'll explain in a bit" I say

"Clay?" my brother asks through the phone "Did I hear that right?"

"No... I meant hay... like for bread?"

"That doesn't even make any sense"

"Yeah it does... anyways bye Jakey I love you see you in New York" I quickly say and then hang up the phone

"Are you ok?" Clay cautions

"Yeah just family stuff" I say

"How so?"

"Do you really want to know" I turn around

"That's why I'm asking" I hear him sit down on his chair behind me

"My family hosts this ball every Christmas, and I usually get to avoid it but my mom's been very insistent I go this year" I explain

"And you don't wanna go" Clay sats

"Exactly, she even wants me to take a plus one, to like show her friends that Florida isn't trash" I continue " I'd tell Angel but her parents probably want to see her for the holidays, so I'm not sure what I'll do about that either"

"Call her and ask her then" Clay answers, "Better to do it now so you have time to figure everything else out if she declines"

"Good idea" I say

That wasn't a good idea.

Angel told me she couldn't go because her mom was having all of her family over and she wanted to introduce them to Nick.

Just great.

However, as I'm about to fully panic, Clay comes in saving my ass

"I could go" Clay offers "If you want me to, obviously"

That's a great idea actually.

"Won't your family be upset about you missing christmas and possibly new years?" I ask "You always mentioned how important those holidays were to them"

"Considering I stayed in Florida my entire life, I don't think they'd really mind if I skip a single Christmas after 22 years" he laughs

I turn to look at him. He genuinely looks like he wants to go to New York

"My brother isn't your biggest fan" I say speaking my thoughts.

Having Clay and Jake in the same room will be an issue

"True" he laughs "He recognized my voice the first time I met him though, just tell him I'm Dream" he smugly says

"Oh so he's a Dream fan now" I laugh too

"Dream stan actually" he corrects me "I don't know every single one of them, but they are labeled with a number so I can identify them"

"And where's said number" I say

"I'm not telling" Clay stands up, walking towards me "You are a fake stan, you don't get the privilege to know"

"Fake?" I choke out "Come on"

"You haven't watched a single video of mine, mistake number one" he points at me

"You said we would watch it together, but never touched on the subject again" I say

"Well, I have some time now... we could wa-" he begins, but my phone goes off yet again

This time, it's Troy calling me

I see Clay noticed who was calling me, his expression turning into a sad one.

I bet he wants to say something, yell at me, get mad... But he doesn't. For the first time he stays quiet, waiting to see what I'll do.

I enjoyed spending time with Troy, he was fun and very nice... I'm just not looking for anything serious right now

Plus I don't think it will be good for Clay and I's new friendship

So I put Troy on speaker

"Hi Troy" I say. Clay looks at me in confusion

"Hey Char, how are ya?" Trot answers, I look down at my phone. "Just calling to check in"

I look up at Clay to see him intensely looking at my phone

"I'm fine... sorry I didn't call" I say

"No, it's fine, I should've been the one to call you... I didn't mean to ghost you I had a lot of studying to do for college" he tells me

I look at Clay and mouth 'That's what you should have done'

He flips me off and I lightly chuckle

"Charlotte?"

Shit Charlotte, you are talking to Troy, focus on him

"Oh sorry, it's fine don't worry" I answer

"Cool, I called cause maybe you wanted to go on another date" Troy very kindly offers

Clay shakes his head side to side, and I raise my eyebrows in response.

He chuckles and puts both of his shoulders up. Funny how he's so calm about this

"That's so lovely of you Troy" I say and Clay lets out a small laugh, for which I kick his leg "But I'm really not into dating right now, I wanna take some time for myself, you know what I mean?"

"Oh yeah... no it's fine" Troy says disappointed "I get it"

Now I feel bad

"Still, if you need anything you can always call me" I smile, and Clay kicks my side

"Yeah you too Char"

"Bye"

I quickly hang up the phone and give Clay a funny look "Why did you kick me"

"'If you need anything you can always call me'" Clay mocks me

"What's wrong with that" I say

"Why would you want him calling you for anything? The dude's a tool" he says

"I know, I wasn't trying to be mean, he didn't do anything wrong... I used him as a rebound for you" I confess

"Right..." Clay looks out the window

It's getting late and the sun is setting. The light coming from the window perfectly hits his perfect green eyes. I can notice those tiny freckles on his face that I so adore, and his blond-ish hair shows its highlights under the sunlight.

I can't help but stare at him, his features so mesmerizing. Being his friend is the worst and best thing to ever happen to me.

But I can't be with him... It'll get too toxic and I can't deal with another heartbreak.

What am I even talking about, the real heartbreak is having him in front of me and not being able to fully have him

"Take a picture, it'll last longer" he says looking back at me

"Ok then, stand still" I say pulling out my phone, taking a picture of him

"Don't do anything with that" he points at me

"What if I want to post it all over social media" I joke "Dream's face reveal: plot twist he is actually hot"

"As if you had the balls to do it" he teases me

"Wanna bet?" I smugly answer

Holding up my phone so that he's able to see what I'm doing too, I get on twitter and go over to 'new post'.

I click on media and as I'm about to tap on 'post' Clay jumps on top of me knocking my phone out of my hands

"Get off of me you freak" I laugh

So now, I'm laying on the floor, with a six foot three man sprawled on top of me

"Not until you apologize" he tells me

"WHAT FOR" I shout

He then pulls back a bit so that we are face to face once again

"Trying to post my face on the internet" he tells me.

Our proximity is getting to me, and I can feel my face heat up

"I'm sorry, you know I wasn't going to do it though" I say looking into his eyes

We remain like this. Clay is completely crushing me but I don't mind.

Both of us get lost in each other's eyes, not daring to speak up. Our silence is too comforting.

When we don't speak, nothing can go wrong, none of out emotions get on our way and none of the things we say can get misinterpreted

Maybe silence will always be our best option, our safe place.

"Remember when you said he was my rebound?" Clay asks and I nod

"Well... Could I maybe be my own rebound?" he nervously says

I look at him confused, what does he mean about that

Clay then closes the gap between us and lightly pecks my lips

We move in sync, warmth fills me and for the first time in a while, I feel complete.

But I can't do this, I can't. He broke me into pieces and I can't just look past that, I need to heal better first

I can sense the kiss is about to get heated so I push him back

"I can't-" I say "I'm sorry Clay, I just need a bit-" he gets off me "It's been a short time since I agreed to be friends again and I just-"

He doesn't look at me

"Hey, look at me" I whisper, grabbing his face "I care about you, so much, I- I love you" his face lights up a bit "That's why I want to do things right, if we can't function as friends then there's nothing left for us"

"So we have to be friends first then" he tells me

"Yes... But I can't intend for you to wait for me, that's too selfish I won't keep you all for my-" I begin but he cuts me off

"No it's fine, I'll wait for you" Clay tells me, bringing himself closer and closer, until he embraces me in a warm hug

"However long it takes"

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YES that klaroline quote lmaoo

hope u enjoyed.. kind of a fillee chapter but I needed to introduce new york👍🏼