ᴀʀᴛʜᴜʀ ғʟᴇᴄᴋ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ | ɪᴛ's ᴛɪᴍᴇ ғᴏʀ ᴀ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ

Chapter 3

Hello everyone, if you are enjoying this story please don't forget to like and comment! It will give me motivation to keep on writing, thank you!

You glugged down a glass of water along with pain killers to ease your throbbing head. You looked at Arthur from across the table, it was clear you both didn't exactly know why you were together right now, it just happened and you were still wondering why you asked him to come have a drink with you and why you didn't go straight home, the night had been horrific and at the time all you wanted was to die but seeing Arthur completely took your mind away from it, you were really just biding time away from being alone.
Arthur cleared his throat before talking, "How are you?"
"I'm okay." You replied. You shook your head, "No uh, I mean, I think I'm okay. I had a pretty shitty night I guess."
"Oh, what happened?" Arthur asked, seeming genuinely interested.
"Some asshole stole my Walkman." you grimaced.
"Oh I'm sorry, Gotham is terrible for muggers and thieves-" You cut him off, "Yeah no he wasn't a mugger, he was one of those fucking wall street assholes, he has more than enough money but he still took mine." Your fists were tightly curled into a ball under the table, you could feel your nails cutting your palm, "Those guys think they can do anything they want just because they have money and power. Its sickening."
Arthur was clearly becoming uncomfortable with how angry you were becoming and before you knew it he was sniggering, you almost forgot he had a condition. He began laughing and coughing into his hands, it was as if he couldn't breath and watching him like that hurt you for some reason, you felt bad you had brought on this fit. "I-I am so sorry Arthur." You apologised, sliding a glass of water over to him, it seemed to work the last time. Although Arthur didn't take a drink, he tried to calm down on his own and just let it pass and eventually it did, you apologised once more, "I'm sorry if I brought that on." You remembered how the woman on the bus made Arthur feel nervous.
He completely ignored what you said and spoke, "You know I do stand up comedy, you should come to a show, it might make you feel better." Arthur smiled at you.
You nodded, "Really? Yeah I could do that. It's a date." You felt strange inside, butterflies? You grabbed your bag and took a notepad out and wrote your land line number down on a piece of paper then slid it across the table. "This is my number, call me and let me know. I'm normally not home during the day so you're better to call in the evening. Arthur took the piece of paper and put it in his pocket, he seemed thankful you gave him your number. "I will do that." Arthur then looked at his watch, "I'm sorry to cut this short but I do have to go now, my mother will be wondering where I am."
"Oh sure, um, I'm sorry to ask but could you walk me home?" This was out of character for you, you normally weren't scared to walk the streets alone, in fact you would rather that than to walk with someone else. You liked to be alone but after the horror of tonight you didn't dare to walk alone.
"Of course, I wouldnt want you to be walking alone, especially after what you just told me."
Arthur's smile was sweet, almost innocent. He seemed very genuine and you were glad to have company right now, even if he was somewhat of a stranger, maybe you were too trusting. Or you just hadn't put your trust in the right person in a long time.
You and Arthur linked arms all the way to your apartment, you both didn't talk, it was nice to enjoy eachothers company. As you aproached your apartment building your arms unlinked and you stared at him, "Thank you for that."
Arthur nodded, "I'll give you a call about my show okay?" You both said goodbye to eachother and you walked inside, you thought about him all the way up the stairs and into your apartment but as soon as you closed the door you felt yourself break down. You tried to make sense of the events that unfolded tonight. Everything hurt, your head, your arms, legs. You leaned against your door and slid down, tears streamed down your cheeks and you lifted your dress to reveal cuts on your knees and shins, glass and dirt was embedded. You decided to go for a shower, it was the only thing that could help right now. You fell asleep quickly that night.

The next day you found yourself calling in sick to work, you didn't normally do this but you had to take a break after last night, sitting on the sofa watching day time television and eating snacks were all that was on your agenda for today and you were glad. You just needed to catch a breath. It was then that you heard a knock at the door, Mae greeted you with her usual warm smile as she entered, "Hey how are you? I thought id come by since I didnt get to say goodbye last night." She sat down making herself comfortable.
You followed her back into the livingroom, "Oh yeah uh I had a little too much to drink so I headed home." You tensed up as you tried not to think about last night. "Well anyways, I saw you talking to Michael and wondered if you'd like to head out to town with all of us on Friday night?" She asked, whilst twirling a strand of hair in her fingers.
You felt shivers run down your spine, "No, no thank you."
"What? Oh please I thought maybe you'd want to see him again? You both seemed to be hitting it off-" You didn't let Mae finish her sentence, "I said NO! I don't want to fucking go, I will never go out with your fucking friends again, they're all obnoxious dick heads!" You yelled right in her face, she seemed extremely taken aback with your performance, "What the hell why are you saying that?"
You couldn't take it anymore, you couldn't sit here and pretend like that guy didn't violate you. "He fucking raped me! That is why! And I will never go near him or any of his friends again."
Mae began to stutter, she stood up and distanced herself from you, "(Y/N) you cant just say things like that! That could really hurt someones reputation..."
You couldn't believe what she had just said, she didnt believe you, you felt so upset and hurt by this, she was supposed to be your best friend, "Mae... I'm not lying."
"Maybe you aren't remembering things right... you did say you were drunk."
Your face flushed red with anger, "Do you hear yourself right now?!"
"Look im sick and tired of you being jealous of me and the people I work for! I try my best to stay patient with you but I just can't anymore especially if you're going to start making things up! Were you going to blackmail him for money or something!?" Mae fought back.
"Get the fuck out of here!" You yelled, practically pushing her out of your apartment. You slammed the door shut and began to cry and you screamed into a pillow. How could she not believe you? If your best friend thought you were lying then there was no hope of anybody else believing you. Just as you were calming down you heard your phone ringing so you stood up and brushed yourself off, wiping your eyes you headed over to the land line and picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Uh hello, its Arthur Fleck, (Y/N)?"
You managed to crack a smile, "Hey Arthur, yeah it's me." You were happy to be hearing his voice right now. Arthur continued to talk, "Oh great, so uh, I was wondering if you would like to go for some dinner tonight?" A silly grin appeared on your face and your cheeks went red, "I would like that yeah, I thought you'd be calling to invite me to a show not dinner.
Arthur laughed, " I'm still working on some new material right now and not sure when I'll be at the club, I wanted to see you before then."
"That sounds great to me, why don't you come to my place and we can cook dinner? Sounds more fun than going to some boring restaurant."

It was settled that Arthur would be coming to your apartment for dinner tonight and you quickly became excited. You began to rummage the fridge and cupboards for ideas on what you could make. You were running a little low on ingredients. "I guess you can't really go wrong with pasta." You shrugged. Pasta it was with a side of garlic bread and red wine. The evening proceeded on, Arthur arrived at 8pm and you both began to make dinner. The energy in the room was amazing and you coudknt believe how much you changed around him, you both just kept bouncing off of eachother it was great. Arthur really did make you feel better about everything, it was like nothing bad was going on when he was around and right now, he was your only friend. You both leisurely sipped on wine throughout the night and ate dinner together whilst watching the Murray Franklin show. You were in awe with him, the way he laughed, smiled, everything about him seemed perfect to you and you couldn't believe how comfortable and safe you felt with him, no one would believe you if you had said you both only met a couple of days ago, it was like you had known eachother for years. You learned a lot about Arthur tonight, he lived with his mother who he cared for when he wasnt working as a party clown, his father wasn't in the picture.
"I'm having a really good time tonight." You spoke truthfully whilst pouring another glass of wine. Arthur nodded and smiled, "I am too, I didn't think this would happen, I'm normally not very good at socialising but I feel comfortable with you." He took the words right out of your mouth. "You really are amazing Arthur Fleck, cheers." You grinned as you raised your glass, bouncing it off of Arthur's.
You had almost completely forgot about your fight with Mae this morning, you wondered what Arthur would think if you told him the truth. You wouldn't have dared to tell him but you were curious, was he really as caring and sensitive as you thought?
The room went silent for a moment before you finally spoke, "Could I tell you something?"