Coder Girl 2 /Dreamwastaken/

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The front door swung open just before I could touch the handle, and Clay's tall frame stood there, blocking my way like a stone statue. His face was as cold as a stone too.

"Hey," he said, his voice carrying an odd note that I couldn't quite identify.

"Hi," I replied, matching his dry tone. I ducked under the small gap between his arm, the door frame, and his body to slip past him.

Clay closed the door behind me with a quiet click. There was no aggression in it, yet I could hear the tension in that click alone.

I looked around and realized that we were alone. George must have left before I came back.

Clay trailed after me through the empty house and the way each of our steps echoed in the silence added more tension to the air. It felt as if he was waiting for something to happen, something initiated by me. And his silence was almost deafening. Maybe it was the fact that he was mirroring my own.

As we walked through the dim hallway and into our bedroom, I felt his hand gently close around my wrist. It wasn't aggressive or rough, but the suddenness and the firmness of his grip were enough to make me stop. A strong wave of goosebumps raised all over my skin as I turned to face him.

"What?" I asked, not hesitating to maintain eye contact.

"Don't," he murmured softly, his hand inching up my wrist until it came to rest on the side of my arm.

Confused, I furrowed my brows. "Don't what?"

"Don't go to the room. Don't leave," he pleaded softly.

I almost thought he was losing his mind, because I wasn't leaving; I was just heading to our room. But then I remembered that we kind of broke up. Well, I broke up with him. I don't know why, but I did. I'd be pissed if he didn't acknowledge the fact that we did, but now I was pissed that he did.

He probably thought I had only returned to pack my things and go. And the fact that he thought that made me doubt my initial thought of staying.

It was one of those moments when I felt the weight of my past actions. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay. The look he was giving me with those stupid green eyes that could be so gentle sometimes was making me rethink everything.

Maybe one more chance. One more try to talk this through.

"You really hurt me," I sighed, letting my guard down and showing a hint of vulnerability, which made him slide his hand up my arm and to the side of my neck, resiting it there gently.

Instead of the apology and comforting forehead kiss I expected, his response caught me off guard.

"But you overreacted."

I froze in my spot.

My lips parted immediately, but no sound escaped. I stared up at him, trying to read his expression. Every attempt of me trying to process if he really said what I thought I heard and meant what he just said failed.

He wouldn't be dumb enough to say something like that, right? Not when both of us were being so open and vulnerable.

"I... what?" I said, taking a step to the side to get rid of the touch of his hand on my neck. A surge of anger and frustration was starting to form inside of me.

"You overreacted. You broke up with me," he stated so calmly that I momentarily questioned my own sanity.

He's here, explaining in the most relaxed manner how I supposedly overreacted, after I laid bare my feelings and told him how deeply he hurt me.

"I overreacted?" I couldn't hide the disbelief and sarcasm in my voice, though I doubted he even noticed. "You know what? Don't even bother answering. I overreacted and am overreacting now."

He simply sighed seeing me try to move away from him and placed his hands on either side of me, trapping me between him and the wall, a gesture I found anything but welcome. His face, irritatingly slappable, only made mine contort with anger.

"Can't you just relax for a second? Do you need to make everything so complicated?" His tone remained strangely calm.

Taking a deep breath, I waited for the oxygen to reach my brain, hoping that it might help my neurons spark some ideas for how to respond. But if anything, I think it wiped the existing options. Or there were simply no brain cells left.

"I really don't want to have another fight, Clay," I said, closing my eyes and taking a steady breath to stay calm, "just let me go."

"Neither do I," he replied, exhaling deeply. His hands dropped to my face, gently brushing my hair away as he cupped my cheeks. "We can just close the topic and forget about this. This whole thing is fucking stupid and it's getting on my nerves already."

I wanted to believe him, to trust him, to forget and move on. But he had already promised once to put this aside and didn't. The memory of that broken promise stung. I pushed his hands away from my face.

"You don't understand how hard I am trying to stay calm. You may think that I'm overreacting, but in reality I am barely reacting compared to what I'm feeling."

"Let's just talk about it, yeah? Clearly we both have different perceptions and perspectives of the situation."

"I don't want to talk right now," I was struggling to keep my voice steady. "I'm sorry, but right now anything you say triggers me. I just need some time alone. I'm sorry."

The way I avoided his gaze, and the weight of the moment pressing down on both of us made us both give up. I pushed him away slightly, and he didn't protest, moving aside and letting me walk away. I heard him let go of a small groan, a sound that perfectly matched my own exhaustion. He didn't stop me or try to argue, which I appreciated.

I grabbed a few things I thought I might need for the night, hoping that a single day away from Clay and spent with Nick would reset my emotions and help me look at all of this more rationally. The thought was just an empty hope, but it was all I had.

The moment I stepped out of my room, Clay eyed me up and down, taking in everything without saying a word. I don't know why I expected anything from him when I wanted to hear nothing, but his silence was unnerving. Loud. Frustrating.

His words got on my nerves, but his silence was worse.

The worst part was that despite my frustration his face still looked temptingly kissable. I couldn't decide if I wanted to kiss him, slap him, or maybe do both and more. My emotions were a tangled mess, but my judgment was clear enough to know that acting on any of those impulses wasn't healthy. I needed to leave.

And it wasn't like I was going far. The houses were only a few feet apart. Still, I couldn't shake the growing unease and emotion inside me.

"Will you be back soon?" His voice broke my heart even more.

I didn't know how to answer him. My first instinct was to say yes, and I hope so was another choice, yet what came out was none of my planned options.

"I don't know."

I watched as he looked down, disappointment clear on his face. Not a nod, not a word. Just another deep, dramatic inhale followed by an exhale.