I start stuttering like an idiot. I'm already not making a good case for myself. "I- I..." suddenly all the lies I had spent preparing vanished. "Claire Hudson, I'm not going to ask you again." My mom says in the same tone she used when I was little.
"I don't- I don't know?! Me and Amir..." I shut my mouth the moment Amir's name comes out.
"Amir what ?" Her voice drops about an octave, scaring the shit out of me because I didn't even know she could do that.
"Nothing." I shrug. For a lawyer I'm doing a pretty shit job of lying.
"That doesn't look like nothing, Claire."
"It was an accident, we were play fighting." I turn away and walk back to the couch, not wanting to look her in the eye.
"Was he aiming for your eye?"
"No! It just happened like that." She purses her lips as she looks at me. "Your story isn't adding up... and since it's not, that nigga better watch his back the next time I see him."
"Momma!"
"I said what I said." My mom goes to my freezer, taking out some ice and putting it in a bag. "Put this on your eye." she commands.
I deal with my mom fussing over my eye for the next hour, and a few texts from dean pour in. I make sure to turn my ringer off so she doesn't notice. "Alright I'm going home." She says and I take my attention from the tv on to her. She grabs her purse and keys.
"Keep holding that to your eye, it should help a little." She walks to the front door and what she says next causes my heart to drop, "Oh and I'm telling your father...". My mom opens and slams the door behind her before I can object and I groan.
I look at the texts Dean sent me.
[Dean-11:07pm]: Want to come over for Netflix, cuddles and snacks?
[Dean-11:10pm]: Wait are you already asleep?
Dean-11:13pm]: Helllllooooo?
I smile and as if on cue, Dean calls me. I answer the phone, "What kind of snacks?"
"Well hello to you too beautiful," I hear him chuckle over the phone, "And any snack you want, now come over." I smile.I was just with him earlier but now he wants to see me again.
"You can't keep expecting me to come to you whenever you want me. I have a life."
"You have a life? I bet all you were doing before I called was drinking wine and watching Netflix." He says with a hint of smugness. I glance over at my coffee table where my glass of red wine is sitting in front of my tv.
"Man, fuck you."
"Watch your mouth and get up here." Dean ends the call. I grumble the entire time I gather up my bag, a change of clothes and my keys. "He doesn't know me. I could've been watching Hulu for all he knows." I say to myself, heading out the door after putting on my sunglasses.
I make it upstairs to his penthouse where Dean is waiting for me as soon as I open the door. I barely get to step out of the elevator before Dean sweeps me into a hug. He gives a kiss on the neck. "Hi baby girl. I missed you"
"I missed you too,now let go of me so I can get to the snacks." I wriggle in his arms to get free.
"You're just using me for my snacks?"
"What did you think this was?" I get free of his arms and head towards his kitchen. I hear Dean sigh deeply from behind me. "Claire, you're so lucky I love you."
I stop in my tracks and look back at him with a bewildered expression on my face. "You what?"
Dean pretends like he doesn't hear me and starts setting up Netflix on the TV. I decide not to question it further right now. I get into the kitchen and pull out my phone, texting Chelsea while searching for snacks.
[Me- 11:18pm]: BITCH
[Chelsea: 11:18pm]: WHAT HAPPENED
[Me- 11:18pm]: DEAN JUST SAID HE LOVED ME. IT WAS ON ACCIDENT THOUGH
[Chelsea:11:19pm] AKSHSHSSJSK
"Did you get the snacks?" I almost drop my phone because Dean scared the bejesus out of me. "No, I couldn't find them."
"You're standing right in front of the pantry?"
I open the pantry and quickly grab some random snacks. "So what are we watching?" I change the subject. I head to the living room with snacks in arms to see The Office loading on the television.
"The office? I thought you'd be like a Criminal Minds mind of guy." I settle into the couch and Dean joins me, sitting so we're shoulder to shoulder. His arm wraps around me and I lay my head against his shoulder.
After two hours of binge watching the office, we head to bed. We don't immediately go to sleep. Instead we stay in each other's arms and have one of those priceless late night talks. The talks in which you don't know how the conversation got there and you don't know where it's going. And at some point we ended up on the subject of our childhoods.
I told him how I watched my parents both work extremely hard to climb the ranks in their career. All the while grooming me to be able to do the same. My parents were strict on me but they did it out of love. My mother would always tell me that she didn't want me to end up on the same path she was on when she was my age. She never specified what path she was on or how she got there. Just that she didn't want the same for me.
I tell him about Chelsea. How she's been my best friend since day one and she's basically always been like my older sister. She helped mold my personality into what it is today. Without her my childhood would've been very lonely because I'm the only child. I tell Dean little anecdotes about Chelsea, hoping by the end of the stories he would feel like he knew her without even meeting her.
"She sounds like she's a really big part of your life." Dean's voice gets gravelly as we talk longer into the night. "She is, she's my cousin but really she's always played the part as my big sister."
Dean starts talking about his childhood. And it's as country as I would've expected. Tales of activities like dirt bike racing, hunting and fishing. All things I would avoid like the plague. Dean interrupts his current story about how he caught a 14- pound bass "I'm gonna take you back home one day and teach you how to fish."
"Hell no."
"Why-"
"You never told me about your family." I distract him easily since he's half awake. Dean begins to recount stories of a competitive household growing up. The brothers fighting for their father's attention and the girls fighting for their mother's. Each child wanting to be the best out of their siblings. Dean tells me about his father's infidelity, his mother's drinking problem, his sister's eating disorder. Usually this isn't what you hear when you ask someone to you about their childhood.
I glance at Dean and see he has a faraway look in his eyes. Dean continues with telling me of one brother's cocaine addiction and how his family covered up the fact that his eldest brother raped an unconscious girl at a frat party. My stomach churns a little at his stories and I cut in "Is there anything good you can tell me about your family?" Silence follows after my question.
"Goodnight, Claire." Dean turns in the bed so his back is facing me. Before I can say goodnight back he's fast asleep and I'm left wide awake to process this information.
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A/N
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