𝘾𝙄𝙉𝙉𝘼𝙈𝙊𝙉 𝙎𝙏𝙄𝘾𝙆𝙎 , dreamwastaken

viii.

JADE HAD SPENT THE entire afternoon with clay, watching him play minecraft, him showing her around his coding software, and playing with patches. at around seven, clay brought up the idea of dinner, to which jade agreed with a growling stomach. jade said she didn't care where they ate, and clay said he would make it a surprise. 

the surprise just ended up being the taco bell outside of her work, but jade couldn't complain. they ate in his car parked in the parking lot, and talked about random topics that came up. clay had gone on a rant out his history teacher he had in 10th grade, making jade almost choke on her food from laughing. 

"did you wanna go home? you're welcome to come back to my place too if you want," clay had suggested. jade thought for a moment, making him anxious about her answer.

"um, sure, i don't wanna get in the way though," jade replied quietly.

"you're not, i promise. we can watch a movie or bake a cake or do whatever you wanna do," clay told her, turning to face her completely. jade just smiled and nodded in response, making clay smile as well. clay drove out of the mostly empty parking lot and back to his house. 

when they got to his complex, he repeated what he did earlier, getting out quickly and running over to the passenger door. this time, he grabbed jade's hand from her side instead of offering his to her. she smiled up at him before he lead her upstairs.

the two of them decided on watching a movie, turning on the tv in his room and finding a rom-com on netflix that neither of them had seen before. jade sat down next to clay on his bed, patches quickly finding her way to her lap. the two of them sat together, laughing at some of the bad parts, but mostly staying silent. at one point, clay reached over to pet patches without looking, and ended up finding jade's hand instead. he looked over to her in that moment, noticing her looking down in embarrassment. he could tell she was blushing, and that had amused him. a few minutes later he thought he would mess with her again, grabbing her hand that was resting by her side. this had caused her cheeks to redden again, and for her to look up at him. he simply just smiled back at her.

the two of them stayed like that until the end of the movie. clay had looked down at her, noticing her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. he carefully removed his hand from hers, making sure not to wake her up. unfortunately, patches was startled by him moving, and she launched herself off of jade's lap, waking her up. 

"i'm sorry, i didn't mean to wake you," he told her, sitting back down next to her.

"oh, it's okay, i should probably get going now anyway," she replied, running her hand through her hair and standing up.

"i know it's gonna sound weird, but you can just stay in here if you want. i can sleep in the other bedroom, or you can sleep in there, except the bed in there is super uncomfortable" jade laughed at his rambling and nodded.

"i don't wanna take up your bed and stuff so i'll sleep in the other room," she said, giving patches a final pat on the head.

"are you sure? i'm fine sleeping in there, i don't want you to be uncomfortable," he said, his words laced with concern.

"fine. just so you stop being such a simp," clay smiled at her and got up from his position on the bed. "i do have to work tomorrow at one though, so i gotta get home around eleven or so."

clay nodded, straightening out his comforter. "do you wanna change?"

jade looked down at her outfit that consisted of skinny jeans and a green sweater and shrugged her shoulders. he opened up his closet, grabbing a black hoodie with a smile on the front and joggers.

"these are probably really big but try them anyway, feel free to look through here though if you want something different" he said, handing her the clothes. 

"thank you, seriously," she said, smiling.

"of course. text me if you need anything, okay?" 

"i will. goodnight, clay."

"goodnight, jade."