.•°¤* ꜱᴛᴏᴘ ᴀᴄᴛɪɴɢ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ *¤°•.

~4~

I was delighted and disappointed to see a new request on discord when I booted up my PC. Of course it had come from Clay patiently waiting for ten hours for my decision to decline or accept him. It had been a few days since I sent him that message on twitter and he had barely gotten back to me just recently. Odd, but fair, I needed to be humbled by a couple days of lag anyway. 

There was hope that he could be a potential friend, but there was the same amount of dread that told me he was just playing a game. I let the dread wash over me as I accepted his request, reluctantly reminding myself it was just for a stupid youtube video. 

Since that weird day when I fell from my stool, any other memories had yet to come back to me. The dog sculpture was ready to be picked up but I still had to contact the commissioner to tell her it was done. I had started Clay’s commission, but it was strange when he hadn’t shown up for the past few days. The urge to message him about it was strong, but I ignored the fact that I wanted to know why he hadn’t come to visit me. I figured he was busy or finally gave up on me which wouldn’t be surprising. 

He posted a new video on his channel about beating the world record around the same time he sent me a request on discord, so it was possible he was busy with that. I didn’t think too much about it as I changed into a pair of gym shorts and a sweater whilst waiting for my PC to turn on. My house was warm and cozy against the cold air of fall turning into winter outside. What made it even better was that my store always closed on Thursdays; no reason in particular for it really, I just wanted an off day once a week. Either way, I felt relaxed as I sipped on some leftover water from my bottle the night before.

When I returned to my seat, Clay had messaged me on discord almost immediately. I laughed lightly at how quick he was before I opened up the chat.

Im super sorry for not coming by lately :(( ive been really busy with my channel 

I smiled and tore my eyes away from the screen to think of something to say. It was stupid to think so hard about a response, I felt like an awkward high schooler talking to their crush. But I wasn’t in high school. And I don’t even like Clay. I had to remind myself of that. 

its alright lol i saw your speedrunning vid 
congrats on beating the record :)

awe thank u :D yeah thats kinda what ive been doing for the last few days 
but im taking a break from that which is why im talking to u now !! <3

Okay, that’s kinda weird. Why would he even want to talk to me after something like that? Doesn’t he have other youtuber friends?

Staring at that little heart by the end of his text had no right in making my face heat up the way it did. Due to my overanalization of his stupid use of symbols on a keyboard, I hadn’t realised I left him on read for a moment too long until he sent another message to me. I began regretting the moment I sent him that stupid text on twitter once I saw what he sent me.

vc?

My shoulders tensed at the idea of calling him. Even if he couldn’t see my face, talking to him verbally was just as bad. When I sent a plain “sure” as an answer, I expected a bubbly voice to meet my headphones that I scrambled to connect to discord. The icon indicating that I was receiving a call made my heart race even faster than it had been. I was hesitant to click accept, but when I did his groggy voice made its way through my headset. 

“Good morning..” Said Clay in the most exhausted tone I had ever heard. I laughed at his voice without realising it and slapped a hand over my mouth to muffle my amusement. “It’s like one in the afternoon, Clay,” I blatantly corrected him, shifting in my seat slightly. He seemed to scoff at my response and let out an airy chuckle. “Whatever bonehead, you didn’t spend like 40 hours trying to speedrun minecraft in 30 minutes-” he retorted jokingly.