𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 • 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦

ten

a lil bit of violence oopsies just a warning

"can you drive me to work?" claire asks clay, peeking her head through the doorway, awaiting the answer. "yeah, give me a second" he says, lifting his headset off and placing it gently on his desk, standing up and walking to put shoes on. the girl waits by the doorway until clay starts walking towards her, causing her to turn around and walk towards the front door with the boy following closely behind her.

"we should talk about last night" clay says, interrupting the silence that had enveloped the car as the two drove to claire's workplace. "theres nothing to talk about, clay. it was a mistake" she says, not daring to look at him and watching the scenery bolt past. "what do you mean it was a mistake?" he asks, his grip tightening on the steering wheel as he glances at the girl. "i have a boyfriend, i shouldn't have started anything" she explains, fidgeting with her fingernails.

"you've gotta be kidding me" he scoffs, rolling his eyes with an unamused smirk on his face, before he speaks again. "you're still dating him? cj he ditched you at your own anniversary dinner" his voice slightly raises. "don't call me that" she whispers, ignoring anything else clay had said. there was a brief moment of silence before clay broke it, seemingly becoming a habit of his. "he ditched you, claire. dump him." he says (i accidentally typed slays out of pure muscle memory) and claire throws her head back and groans. "are you kidding me? you're seriously back on this?" she raises her voice, finally looking at clay to her left.

"what do you mean?" he retorts, his volume matching claire's. "i thought you were over your stupid goal to get me to break up with him" she yells. "im not just going to be over it because im right!" his grip on the staring wheel tightens and he angrily brushes his hand through his hair. "you're not! your fucking ego is getting in the way of you acknowledging that, if anything, i'm in the wrong in the relationship!" her voice was as loud as it could go, and she became self conscious of how loud she was being, but the worries faded when clays voice was equally as loud and furious.

"you've done nothing wrong! he. ditched. you." he yelled, pausing after each word for emphasis. the two had reached the destination and clay started parking. "i cheated on him clay!" she says, waiting for the car to come to a halt. "oh my god, you gave me one handy. im sure he's done worse." his voice was slightly calmer and laced with sarcasm as the car is put into park. "fuck you clay" claire mutters before getting out of the car and slamming the door behind her.

the girl walks into the store, wiping a tear away. she makes her way to the back and clocks in, putting her belongings in her locker and walking back out to the store floor, where she immediately begins working.

it doesn't take long before a familiar face enters the store, claire watching as the girl wanders around, browsing, for a while before she sees claire, and immediately starts walking over with an excruciatingly sweet smile on her face. "hey, cierra, right? you work at that bar i was at a while ago" claire says, smiling back at the girl, the memories of that night not being too fond. "yeah! how are you, chloe?" she asked. claire flashed a tight-lipped smile and spoke "actually, its claire. i'm good, how are you?" she said politely.

cierra giggled and shook her head lightly, waving a hand dismissively. "oh, bugger. sorry, i've never been good with names. im going great! been working a lot at the bar, and my fiancé brings his friends around all the time so im basically always meeting new people!" she says perkily, basically bouncing around with each word. "oh your fiancé! whats his name? maybe i know him?" claire says, seeing cierras face flash with confusion before awkwardly smiling, claire becoming confused herself. "mark. your friend that brought you? oh gosh, did he not tell you? yeah he proposed to me about a month ago, we've been together for, gosh it must be 3 years now."