STELLAR // Clinton Cave

O N E

January 23rd, 2019

The female shoves open the door to the studio she works in and runs in without looking where she's going. Her eyes are on her keys as she's desperate to find the one she needs. She feels herself crash into someone and stumbles back.

"Oh my god I am so sorry," she apologizes, noticing how it caused the man to spill his coffee.

"All good, dude," he grins.

She grabs some paper towels from nearby. She holds them to the guy, who gives them to the man that had it spill on him. She notices that they look familiar, but she brushes it off.

"Again, I'm so sorry. I'm late for a meeting with one of my artists," she says.

The male waves her off, mentioning that she should go tend to that. He focuses on his friend, who was trying to dry off his hoodie. He is thoroughly pissed off that his jacket is drenched in ice coffee as they were going to meet with their manager.

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

Valerie walks out of the office. Her stress was rising slowly but surely. She knew what was happening. She was going out to her car and returning as quickly as possible with the one thing she was grabbing. The anxiety medication that she somehow forgot earlier in the morning.

She rushes through the building, her body automatically taking the memorized paths.

She knew people's walking patterns here. Everyone stuck to the left side of the hall, so she didn't need to watch where she was going at all. She flips through her keys when suddenly she sees feet. Before she can stop, however, she crashes into the person.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry," she looks up.

The male scoffs, "Don't you know how to watch where you're going?"

She lets out a sigh and rubs her face.

"I'm just really stressed today. I'm so-"

"I don't give a shit."

She's taken aback. Why was he being so rude? All she did was bump into him and cause some coffee to spill on him in the morning. That was hours ago too. She is just stood in shock before she realizes.

"Oh wait, Clinton?" she smiles a bit.

"You look happy for someone that was oh-so distraught after it was revealed you cheated on my fucking friend," he spits.

She blinks, just staring at him. She lets out a laugh and shakes her head.

"I'm not doing this. I didn't cheat on fucking Jack. Back then, I barely left my room cause I was so out of it from sniffing coke, dude. If anything, he wronged me. Whatever. I have shit to do, I'm not fighting with you."

Her feet start carrying her out the door. She feels that Clinton is following her as she gets to her car. She opens the car door.

"What do you want?" she asks, passive aggressively due to how he acted over something that occurred years ago.

"What do you mean he wronged you?" he stares.

She leans into the car, not answering him. She comes back out with a pill bottle in hand.

"For one, it's not your damn business. Especially considering how you just fucking acted over it despite it being over three years ago."

He goes to retort, but she holds up her hand. She pops a pill in her mouth before she leans back into the car.

"But, I will tell you because I don't want you trailing my ass. He was verbally and mentally abusive, tried to ruin my image as a mixer back then, and he spread those fucking rumors of me 'cheating' on him when I found him hooking up with another girl in my own bed," she explains, shutting her car and locking it.

"Now if you don't mind, I have work," she rushes back inside.

Clinton is left dumb founded. Why would he believe that friend anyway? The record that friend held was a long, and bad, one. He goes inside to catch back up to Valerie, but she is nowhere to be seen.

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

Now at home, Valerie listens to Lily ramble on about the plan for the podcast. She was going on about the idea of a Q&A for it, and that she had questions lined up for it. Valerie just listens to the shorter female as she pours herself tea.

"Alright, go set it up," she waves Lily off as she finishes her tea.

"Okay!" Lily grins.

Valerie leans on the counter and sips her tea. Her mind wanders to the events of the day. Her run in with those guys, who she figured out were Christian, Clinton, and Mitchel, was the main thing on her mind.

She hears her name get called and stands up. She grabs her phone from the counter and starts walking back to the office of the apartment. Pushing open the door, her eyes meet Lily's. Lily was sat on her side of the small couch. The room just looked like a second living room.

"Come on, girl!" Lily grins.

Valerie laughs and moves to the couch, setting down. She sits her tea on the coffee table and pulls her mic around. Lily starts messing with some stuff before she starts the introduction. All Valerie had to do was sit there with a smile as her friend brought them to the topics.

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

"Have you ever held a grudge?" Lily hums.

Valerie sips her tea, thinking. Has she ever held a grudge? Well, no. She hasn't. She's way too forgiving to hold an actual grudge.

"Nope."

"Do you know someone who held a grudge against you then? And why, if you don't mind answering for the listeners," Lily sets her phone down to exchange it for wine.

Valerie thinks calmly, but quickly. One pops to her mind and she knows better than to say the exact reason, or who it is.

"I do, actually. They were holding a grudge because of an old relationship gone badly. It wasn't really anything bad, but they thought I did something to their friend that I was dating."

"Oh? Interesting. In my opinion you're not someone that can make someone upset with you," Lily comments.

"Oh god. Not anymore, I changed. If there's anyone with a grudge against me, it's for something that happened years ago," Valerie waves it off.

The two girls continue chatting into the mics. It came so naturally for the girls, despite Valerie being a major introvert. They soon finish recording and Lily goes to work on the editing. Valerie just goes to get ready for bed.