Butterfly (Markiplier Love Story)

Chapter Five

Gwen sat in her usual corner, her headphones on with a YouTube video playing on her laptop. She was trying to pretend like everything was normal, but she knew it wasn't. Jamie was mad at her. It was clear to everyone in the café, including Clark and their boss. This is a stupid argument, she reminded herself. He's mad that I found someone to hang out with other than him. Although I could have sworn he was secretly trying to set me up with Clark. She glanced over her shoulder at her childhood friend.

Clark was very skinny. She and Jamie often joked that he reminded them of a wraith. He was quieter than Jamie and people easily forgot that he was in the room, if they even noticed that he had entered. His hair was thin and he had started dying it black in high school, always wearing it over one eye in his attempt at an emo hairstyle. Not my type. At all. He's like a brother to me anyway, she thought, rolling her eyes.

"Gwen! What are you watching?" her boss greeted her.

She paused the video and took off her headphones, frowning up at the man. "Uh...it's a..."

"Oh! Markiplier? This one's great! You've seen the original Evil Within let's plays, right?" He sat beside her at the table, sipping loudly from a nearly empty frappe cup. "Is that a black cat? That's the save point for this?"

"Yeah...it's sort of..."

"Looks like one of Salem's kittens! You want one?"

Gwen turned to him, trying to hide her excitement. "Your cat...had her kittens?"

"Five of them. I'm still looking for a good home for each one if you're interested. There's two boys and three girls. Most of them are pretty cute, too." He finished his drink and tossed it into the trash can nearby. "So? Run it by Jamie and I'll give you two if you want."

Did it just go from getting one to getting two? We already have two cats though. She absently chewed on her thumbnail and flinched when the bell above the door jingled.

"Dan! Want a kitten?"

Gwen's face turned bright red when she felt an arm go around the front of her chest, pulling her against someone. "Do you mean this cute little sex kitten?"

She jolted out of his hold, almost knocking over her laptop in her rush to get to the bathroom. Once safely in a stall, the girl tried to take deep breaths to calm herself. What was that about?! Why did he do that? Doesn't he realize how embarrassing that is? Did he do it to pick on me? Gwen sat there on the toilet lid for a long moment, thinking about how to handle this unexpected embarrassment.

When she stepped out of the restroom, her head was bowed so her long black hair hid her blush. Just get my laptop and move. That's what I'll do. To her horror, her boss and Dan were looking through her music selection. "Wh-what are you doing?! Don't just...don't look through my stuff..."

Dan saw how red her face was and laughed. "I didn't think you'd be that embarrassed."

"I was...I just...had something in my eye. I had to flush it out." Gwen elbowed her way to her computer and closed the lid. "Um...I'm going to order more supplies so...I'll be over there," she said, pointing across the café. Unfortunately, they followed her.

Her boss sat at the nearby Xbox station and started a game, Dan just observing. "She's so shy. She's like one of those cute anime characters," her boss commented.

"It's pretty cute, but it would be cuter if she didn't hide her face." There was a pause, the only sounds being the click of the controller and the tapping of Gwen's keyboard. "Blake, you should make her wear a ponytail."

"There's an idea!"

I'm just going to enter this order and I'll leave. That's it. I can't believe Jamie didn't freak out about what Dan said. Her pale blue eyes flitted to the counter and she frowned. Where's Jamie? He isn't with Clark behind the counter? Where is he?