Its gay idk what else to say

Chapter 3, Lily POV

What am I even doing texting her now, I know I'm straight and I'm not interested, so why am I apologizing? I regret sending the text but its too late, she already responded. "Who is this?" She replies almost immediately. "It's me Lily, I wanted to apologize for earlier, can we call?" It takes her a whole minute to reply again to which she just says "sure." I hit the dial button and she picks up immediately. "Hey, I just wanted to apologize for lashing out earlier, I realized I could have expressed how I felt differently." I quickly blurt out before I change my mind. "It's fine". She says, her voice sounds really hoarse and makes me wince. "I'm sorry I made you feel uncomfortable, I should have made sure, you know..." She says as her voice trails off at the end. There's an uncomfortably long amount of silence as I sit in my bed covered by blankets, both of us clearly not knowing what to say. "So, uh- do you want to talk about our project?" She asks, clearly at a loss for words. "We could still do a painting if you wanted to, I did really like your drawing you know." She said, clearly picking her words carefully to not upset me again. "Oh yeah... thanks I guess." I mumble out, wanting to change the subject badly. "I think just doing a painting is a good idea." I said. "A painting it is, then!" Claire said from the other end of the phone, back to that enthusiastic voice she had in art class. "I'll see you later then." I said, wanting to end the conversation soon. "You too, take care." Said Claire. I proceeded to hang up and collapse into my bed sheets. Why had I called her back? I was mad at her and I knew it so why did I want to apologize? As I lay in bed my eyes start to get really heavy. I eventually give up trying to figure out why I did it and went to bed. I open my eyes and I'm sitting next to Claire in the art room. Fuck.

"Hey there cutie, you fell asleep there." She said with a big grin on her face. I looked around to find myself in the art room. "Whats going on?" I ask confused. "We're doing our project you silly goose." Claire said, putting her hands on mine. I brush them off quickly, startling Claire a bit. "Didn't I just tell you to stop doing that?" I hissed at her trying to not attract the teachers attention as she read some magazine at her wooden desk. "Stop.. You know!" My face turned red, was she messing with me or did she really forget about me getting mad at her? "Awww, you're so cute like that." She cooed at me. She pulls out a paintbrush from the materials in front of us and starts fidgeting with it. "Did you seriously forget how mad I got at you earlier? What's going on with you?" I stammered out. "Awww, you're so cute when you're upset." She gushed. "Stop flirting with me already!" I yelled, at my wits end. "Are you just playing dumb or what?" I continued. "I don't know about playing, seeing you makes my head go all dumb." She replied in a soft voice. Was she flirting with me to annoy me? "You sure you want me to stop calling you a cutie?" Claire looks at me with puppy dog eyes. "Yes! I've been trying to get you to stop this whole time, what's wrong with you?" I ask at my wits end. "I'm sorry..." Claire says, giving me more sad eyes. I finally relent and stop yelling. "Just please let's work on the project before I get more pissed." I say. "Whatever you say." Claire replies with a wink. I lay my head on the table, frustrated. I thought she had agreed to stop, what was going on? Just when I thought things had finally settled down, Claire starts playing with my hair. She's braiding it and humming along to some song. I should be mad and I should swat her hand out of the way, but I don't I'm too tired to argue anymore, she's beyond reason so what's the point in wasting my energy with her. So I just sit there and let her play with it. I sit there for a few minutes, not doing anything.

I wake up drenched in sweat and panting. What the hell had just happened, I remember Claire flirting with me in the art room and then her... playing with my hair, and me letting her. No, I wasn't letting her, I was just too tired to argue. Plus it was in a dream, why was I making such a big deal out of it? I look outside and see it's pitch black, my phone says its 1 am. I go downstairs to get some food. I bake some hot pockets and sit in the dark eating them wondering what the hell just happened. I just dreamed about Claire flirting with me and playing with my hair, but why? This is starting to get annoying, I'm straight, so why is a random lesbian flirting with me messing me up so much? I quickly head back to bed and turn off the lights. I lay there for a while trying to sleep but no matter how much I try I just can't stop thinking about that dream. It's making me irrationally angry and I want it to stop. After what feels like hours thinking about it, I finally give up and take some benadryl to go to sleep, it doesn't take long until I'm out cold. This time, thankfully I don't dream of Claire.