𝘽𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙚 || dream x oc

10

-- 𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗼𝘃 --

"Hey," I whispered, poking Clay's face, "dude, wake up." He didn't respond, so I shook him awake. I had to stifle my laugh as he finally lifted his head to look at me. I could tell he was barely even conscious, and it was taking everything in him to even engage with me right now. "I have to run to work, I'll be back by like noon or so."

"I'll bring you coffee later. Be safe, Midge. Please," he mumbled, then shoved his head back into his pillow. He looked like he might suffocate like that, but I figured he could handle himself, so I didn't say anything. I was glad Clay had taken me to get my car last night just in case. I knew I could take his if I needed to, but then he wouldn't be able to bring me coffee or take the boys out if they wanted to go somewhere.

It was only about 4:30 am and I had a fairly quick drive, at least if no one else was on the road and I could speed a little. I hadn't planned on going in today -- or this week at all, really -- but a text around twenty minutes earlier had woken me up. It was from the owner of the horse I was currently working with and he was asking if we could talk this morning. I knew that could really only mean two things: the horse was dying, or Paul was selling him. Neither of those two scenarios were good outcomes by any stretch, but I hoped it wasn't the former. I felt like I'd regret it if I didn't go, so I forced myself out of bed even though all I really wanted to do was go back to sleep. I was really thankful I always kept extra clothes and a pair of boots in my car so I didn't have to go home before heading in, because that would've been way too many steps and I probably wouldn't have gone if that was the case.

I got dressed when I got there so I could stay in my pajamas as long as possible. I knew Paul probably wouldn't arrive until around 7, so I took my time doing some chores around the barn. Lyla and I pulled in at the same time, so we hung out as we worked. She was in her pajamas when she arrived too, which cracked both of us up. We had a habit of doing that because we were almost always the first people here on any given day. As we got dressed, I told her about Clay's friends coming into town, and that I wanted to try to set her up with Nick. She pretended to resist but I knew she'd change her tune once she saw some pictures and I told her more about him.

Lyla and I had been friends since we were ten and I knew her almost as well as I knew Clay. The three of us hung out often once they'd finally been introduced, even though Lyla had always gone to a different school than Clay and me. Even though Lyla and Clay grew to be quite close, she disliked him a lot the first few times she met him. She thought we were obnoxious together, which I honestly couldn't even fault her for -- we were kind of annoying. She also couldn't understand why I would even want to be friends with a boy, and I had to explain that while he was indeed a boy, he was cooler than most boys.

Both Clay and I thought that Nick and Lyla would get along really well, and if Nick was moving here then I wanted to set him up with someone I knew he could trust. They liked similar music and they had the same sense of humor, and I also knew that they had a shared affinity for Pokémon. She was a little bit more intense and bold than he was, but I got the feeling he'd like her even more because of that. I knew he was pretty much exactly her type too, so there was very little chance of this not going to plan.

"They met online when we were like twelve or something, I think," I said, handing her my phone so she could scroll through his Instagram. "He's honestly super cool and funny, I love the guy. You guys would get along really well, even Clay said so. He said it was 'genius', which... it honestly kind of is."

"I'm not sure if I trust your match-making skills, babe. Or Clay's either, for that matter," she scoffed. "You two have some of the shittiest relationship track records I've ever seen, and that's coming from me."