the Secret Life of Damien Carmichael

7. Oliver's Offer (part III)

On Friday, after his only class for the day, it occurred to Damien that he hadn't written a thing for his fic in the better part of a week. The looming threat of Tyler's retribution had made it particularly difficult, not to mention the fact that he had been feeling particularly uninspired in all aspects of his life as of late. He was listless and exhausted, and he longed for the year to just be over already. He wondered if any of his online friends were worried about him, he could barely remember where he'd left off in the story he'd been working on, or the last time he had reached out to Adam.

Sneaking away to the library, Damien opened up his laptop and stared at the blank document that sat before him, trying to figure out where the story should go next. Upon checking Damien had realized that it had only been a little under four days since his last post, though it was well over a week and a half since he'd actually written anything new. He had been so ahead for so long that he hadn't even worried about it, and now his story was beginning to catch up with his posting schedule. Frustrated, Damien minimized his writing program and opened up Tumblr.

There were several messages in his ask box and once more Damien felt rather guilty for having disappeared. There was a message or two from fans, and one message, slightly further down from Adam:

Hope everything is going okay. Been kind of busy over here, I'm sure you can relate. I wanted to let you know that your latest chapter was brilliant, but please update soon. (Damien had left them on a cliffhanger.) I don't mean to rush you, I know how difficult it must be, and I don't want to be that person, but I'm desperate to know what happens next. I do hope you aren't getting too much pleading for updates.

Damien laughed, the two messages above Adam's had both been requesting some sort of update on the story, which he quickly deleted. He would keep them waiting for a little while longer to build up the tension, and hopefully allow himself to catch up in the meantime. Damien typed up a reply to Adam to assure him that he had in fact been busy, though he didn't want to go into too much detail, and he assured him that he would update soon, it wasn't writer's block per se, more that he just hadn't really had the inspiration to really give the story the attention it deserved, though he would get back to work as soon as he could.

Damien sighed, closing his laptop. He didn't have the strength to stare at the blank screen any longer, perhaps if I got some rest I could figure something out in the morning, he thought.

"I should have known I'd find you in here," Carrie said.

Damien snorted, "You act like I was hiding." Carrie raised an eyebrow at that. "Did you want something?" he asked.

"I ran into Tyler earlier," she said. Damien nodded, waiting for her to continue. "He's pretty furious. I told him that everyone already knew about him and Gabe, but apparently they both lied to Principal Updike so I guess he's off the hook."

"Color me surprised."

"You didn't actually think it would change anything did you?"

"I didn't exactly tell him hoping to get Tyler in trouble, I just happened to mention it," Damien replied. "It sort of just came out and after it had, then he started asking all sorts of questions and saying there was going to be an investigation. I don't know why I thought he really meant that."

"I mean, you know he pulled Tyler into the office for like almost two hours so obviously for him that was enough of an investigation." It wasn't really a question, he just wished Principal Updike hadn't bothered with the pretense.

Damien shrugged, he really didn't want to think or talk about any of this right now. It only served to give him a headache and frankly, it wasn't helping his writing either. "Yeah well..." he sighed rubbing his temples. He didn't really know what to say anymore and he really desperately wanted the conversation to end.