carolina | dream x oc

6

lia sat slumped down against her wall. she glanced at the text from clay, and as bad as she felt, she couldn't respond to him right now. she didn't realize she had been crying until a tear landed onto the screen of her phone beneath her. all of the sudden, nimbus came lurking across the room to her, rubbing his tail across her.
"i'm sorry about all that, buddy. i should have known better," she repeated, crying into her cat's fur, "i really should have known better."

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clay woke up to his phone going off from a text that he couldn't be bothered to answer this early in the morning. the sun was barely risen, and patches was still asleep at his side. he had fallen asleep late last night, because he stayed up recording with george and sapnap. he lied in bed for few more minutes before deciding that he wasn't going to be able to fall back to sleep and grabbed his phone to read the text.

lia

hi sorry just saw this

he read the text, and frowned at the vagueness of it. usually when they texted she always seemed happier. he sighed when he realized how ridiculous he was acting over a girl he had only just began to know. the time was 7:23 a.m. and clay didn't know what to do this early in the morning. for some reason, he felt off. he couldn't place a finger on what it was or why he felt this way, but he knew he was going to have a bad day if he felt like this all day and he wanted to be in a good mood today. he decided that he had nothing better to do, so he got ready to go to the gym. might as well work out and do something productive for once, he thought. he walked out the door of his apartment, after feeding patches of course, when he caught himself staring at lia's apartment door for longer than he would like to admit. he shook his head at himself and walked away.

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lia was sitting on the couch with nimbus watching their favorite show, gilmore girls. she yawned, from pulling an all nighter. she knew that there was no way she would be able to sleep after what had happened with anthony last night. and definitely don't ask her if she sat on the couch with a baseball bat by her side all night. she hated the way that he made her feel, insecure and paranoid all the time. lia sighed, the whole reason she moved was to get away from him, and now she's back to where she started. she felt guilty for telling clay that she moved because of her mom passing away, but she never wanted him to find out about anthony. ever. she sat around all day like that before deciding she should probably get up.

lia went into the kitchen in search of food, but found literally nothing. she huffed, knowing that she needed to go shopping. she got in the shower quickly, and got dressed in her casual shorts and a sweatshirt. even though it was the end of september, it was still blazing hot in florida. she walked to the parking garage on high alert, still paranoid from anthony last night. lia got into her car and mapped out the closest target, and drove away. as taylor swift's i know places played in the background, she was lost in her thoughts. lia truly did not know what to do about anthony being in florida. there was nothing she really could do. she already tried to get a restraining order, and that had been a lost cause.

lia had been beating herself up over and over since last night. answering anthony was like opening up pandora's box. he would never leave her alone. especially now that he knew where she lived. she was so stupid. she walked into target, carelessly throwing the essentials into her cart. she picked out a small halloween themed cat toy for nimbus as well. lia considered that essential, too. her shopping was interrupted by a call on her phone, from katie.
"hey," she said flatly.
"hey, what's wrong with you?" katie said, sounding concerned.
curse katie and her abilities of reading lia too well, even through the phone.
"nothing, why?" she lied, cringing as she spoke. she was so glad katie wasn't there to see her jn person.
"are you sure? you sound... upset."
"nope, just grocery shopping."
"ohhhh. that'll do it." katie agreed.
lia laughed at her words. katie always knew how to put a smile on her face.
"so how was your date last night?"
"good. uh..yeah it was really good," she said, cringing once again.
"well that's good," katie said, simply.
damn, even katie didn't know how to keep this conversation going. and that's saying something.
"you know what, i gotta go. i'm about to check out. can i talk to you later?" lia asked.
"sure, yeah, call me when you can. love you," katie said, hanging up without waiting for a response.

lia knew katie wasn't mad at her for being short, she was probably just confused. she felt really bad, but she truly couldn't be bothered to talk on the phone any longer. she checked out at the store, and made her way home. by the time she got back into her apartment and unloaded her groceries, and also making sure to give nimbus his new toy, it was already 6 p.m. then she decided that she felt like she needed to take a shower, and that's exactly what she did.

lia put on her favorite playlist, which was a mix of harry styles and taylor swift. she carelessly undressed and got into the shower. she had grabbed her soap bottle when she nearly dropped it. she had bruises in the shapes of fingerprints all over both of her wrists. they were a deep blackish-blue color, and were extremely noticeable. she felt embarrassed that she herself hadn't noticed them before. now she had to either a. completely avoid clay until they faded, or b. only wear long sleeves near him. she knew it was dramatic, but she did not want him to find out about anthony. it was no big deal anyways, he hadn't meant to hurt her. it was just out of anger. she got out of the shower and headed to the kitchen when she received a text.

clay
hey, would you like to come
over?

speak of the devil.

lia sighed, because she did want to go over, but she knew it could go wrong. screw it, she might regret it later, but she really didn't care in this moment.

clay
hey, would you like to come
over?

yes, heading over in a few :)

before walking out the door, she grabbed her water and phone, and gave nimbus a quick pet behind the ear. she walked to his place and knocked on the door. clay opened it, smiling. his wet hair didn't go unnoticed.
"hi," he said, smiling.
lia returned the smile, and walked in to the apartment, following clay.
"sorry, i'm kind of a mess, i just got out of the shower. i hope you don't mind." he said.
"oh, no, don't worry. i don't mind at all," she said, internally laughing. she could definitely get used to it.
"do you want to bake?" he asked, out of the blue.
lia laughed at his randomness before deciding that she actually would enjoy it quite a bit. they decided on making peanut butter cookies, since both clay and lia had no chocolate chips, and then quickly got to work.

lia observed that clay was not the best baker. but what he lacked in skill, he made up for in effort, which she particularly thought was kind of cute. however, she quickly noted that he liked to mess around, after getting both flour "accidentally" thrown onto her. she laughed, then swiped peanut butter on his face in return.

clay decided that he was done trying to bake and became more interested in watching lia bake. she didn't mind at all, she thought of herself as a good baker and as funny as he was, clay did more harm than good in the kitchen. as she got to rolling the cookies into balls on the sheet, her sleeves began to fall down into the batter.

"here," clay stepped towards her, "let me roll your sleeves up."

before she could think, she immediately shot at him. "no," she said, stepping away from him. she swallowed, "i mean, it's fine, i don't care about this hoodie anyways." she covered up.
"okay," clay said concerned, drawing out the "o". he didn't seem to think to deeply of it, because he became interested again in watching the formation of the cookies. lia sighed. hiding this was going to be harder than she thought.

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hey everyone. i wanted to apologize for not updating in ages. there's no excuse but honestly it's just been personal problems so i'm sorry for that. but i'm excited to start updating this book again and i hope you guys are too. anyways, sorry again. hope everyone has been okay. <3