Dream a Little Dream of Me

Chapter 31: Just the way you are

I felt my eyes flutter open, the sunlight peeking through my lashes. My hand was interlaced with Clay's under the white sheets. I rolled over to face the dirty blond who hadn't woken up yet. I didn't blame him. I was pretty exhausted too.

The way the sun hit his hair made it look like gold, and I ran my fingers through his hair and then moved it back, deciding I would get out of bed and let him sleep when his hand grabbed mine. My hand was sandwiched between his cheek and his hand.

"Stay hereeee" He said, his eyes still closed.

I rolled my eyes and snuggled up to him. "Good morning blondie."

"Good morning Y/N." He said, his eyes slowly opening. "You still look as gorgeous as ever."

I blushed. "Mhm. Kiss ass."

"What?" He said. "I think you look beautiful today. I think you look beautiful all the time. I think you looked especially beautiful underneath me wearing half of your red bikini."

"Clay!" I said, softly slapping his arm.

"What? You looked irresistibly sexy in that bikini." He brought his mouth closer to my ear and whispered. "You looked even better with it off." Even though I saw the cocky little smirk on his face, his words still sent chills down my spine.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm glad you like the Bikini," I said pausing. "I don't really."

"Why?" He said. "It looks so good on you!"

"It just shows stuff I don't really like?" I said. "It almost pretends to hide the scar running down my chest."

"Wow. That was blunt."

"I'm trying this new honesty thing."

"I like it," Clay said with a chuckle. "I think that you look good, regardless of the scar."

"I know, It's just a scary thing, you know."

"How did you even get it?" He asked.

"That's a long story," I said, not really wanting to talk about it.

"I've got a lot of time." He tucked a piece of my loose hair behind my ear. "I want to know things about you. I'm here to listen."

"Well." I took a deep breath. He was right. I wanted to tell him things. I wanted him to know me like an open book. I wanted to feel as close to him all the time as I did right now. This felt scary, but it felt right.

"I think when I was maybe 10 or 11, it was a block party I think, and I was hanging with Karl and a bunch of other kids from our neighborhood. I remember it was the first time my mom let me stay out later than my bedtime. I think she was chatting with some of our neighbors and we were playing truth or dare. And it was my turn. I was the youngest one there, so I wanted to look cooler in front of everyone, so I chose dare. One of the older girls dared me to climb this massive tree."

"Now, me being the avid rock-climbing 10-year old I was, I said yes. I was confident in my abilities, so I climbed the tree. I got to the top successfully and I showed off when I saw this massive spider. It was probably like the size of my hand."

"Was it really?" Clay asked. "You have a bad fear of spiders. I have a feeling you may have overreacted." He rubbed my hand again.

"Do you want the story or not?"

"Continue, Continue."

"Well I started to climb down, but the spider followed me, and I took one wrong step and I slipped. Now keep in mind this was a massive tree, probably at least 100 years old, and so my simple slip led to bad things."