sing me to sleep [wilbur soot]

11. EXTEND AN OLIVE BRANCH

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chapter eleven:
third-person POV
clay's parents house,
orlando, florida
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TW: SMALL MENTIONS OF BAD COPING MECHANISMS

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Despite how Gemma hadn't wanted to do anything in the past week, she'd forced herself to at least go on a run every morning. Even if she didn't want to. Every time she wore something, ate something, drank something, or laughed with her friends, she was reminded of her months stuck with Aurelia. It still affected her, it still hurt her, she no longer tried to hide it though. Everyone knew what had happened, and people had been reaching out to share encouragement and love with her. But she hadn't been reaching back much, just trying to force herself through each day. Fiore and her mother had called her multiple times, trying to get her out of bed, but they were both thousands of miles away. They couldn't do much from Italy, but attempts could be made in Florida.

"Bambi..." Clay called, popping open his door to see her still curled in bed. He sighed softly and walked closer, sitting down on her bed. Therapy had been helping her, even if she only had one or two sessions during the holidays. He pulled her sheets back and brushed her hair out of her face, giving her a gentle smile to try and show her it was okay. It seemed to kinda work.

"Mhm?" Gemma hummed, slowly moving her eyes to glance at him. She could hear Drista come into the room as Clay pulled the blankets off of Gemma and shot her a look. Gemma groaned and sat up, pushing herself back against her blankets.

"Hi, Gem." Drista smiled, taking a seat on the floor.

Gemma smiled, wiping away the sleep on her face before sighing, "hey Dris."

"George, Nick, and I are going to go out to eat tonight after I drop Drista off at her friend's house. Gemma, you're always open to join us. Even if you just tag along and sit silently, I know getting out always makes you feel better." Clay offers before Drista sends him a look and he holds a hand up to her.

"Maybe I will... it would be nice to actually get out and talk with people." Gemma swings her legs over the side of the bed and sighs softly and Clay smiles but before he can say what he wants, Drista bumps in,

"Wilbur keeps asking Clay if you've gotten any better."

"He does..?" Gemma glanced over at Clay as she murmured and he nods.

"He messages me twice a day, eight in the morning and six at night. On the dot. He never misses. Gemma... I think you should call him. Even if it's just to talk for like... five minutes. He cares about you, Bambi." Clay gets up, gently nudging her phone towards her and Drista giggled and left the room, "Nick, George, and I are playing Jackbox in my room, okay? Please, shout if you need us, we're all here for you."

Gemma looked at the clock, noting it was about 2 pm. Wilbur would still be awake, right..? She looked down at her phone and sighed. Clay stood with a kiss to the side of her head, just to solidify that he was truly there for her before he made his way into the hall.

'Just for five minutes' Clay's voice rang in her head and she gently grabbed the edge of her phone and flipped it over. She opened up her phone and glanced down, she had almost 500 missed messages, and her Twitter Direct Message notifications were well in the thousands. She sighed and tapped over to her phone app and sat there, hovering her thumb over Wilbur's name. Did she really want to do this? Was she willing to unload this burden onto him? Should she even talk to him?