CalPal

-40-

"It's over. I'm done for. They're going to find out my name, what I look like. My privacy is gone," I handed the phone back to them, "God I can't get a fucking break!" I shouted, raising my fist to punch the wall out of anger. Clay grabbed my fist in his hand and lowered my arm back to my side.

"Why don't you go end the stream? We need to talk."

God, he was probably going to break up with me or something too. It's only a matter of time they're exposing him too just for being a close association with me. I nodded my head lightly and walked back into the room.

"I'm ending the stream," I said quietly into the mic once I unmuted, "I'm sure most of you know what's going on, um. Please, if you can, report the tweet or the account. Um, please respect my privacy, please. I-I've got to go. Thank you for spending time with me today. I love you guys, bye."

I didn't even raid anyone. I ended the stream right then and there. Clay came into the room seconds later to see me laying face down into my pillow. I felt the bed dip and his hands lightly massaging my back.

"This isn't how I wanted to bring this up," he started. I raised my head and turned my body to look at him, "But I wanted to ask you something."

"Okay."

"I-I've been thinking, um, I've been thinking about this for a-awhile now. Like at least a few months but I never knew how to bring it up because of what was going on. But, um, I was like wondering if well, you know—"

"Clay you're prolonging the question. This is just like back when you asked me when I was gonna reveal my face to you," I lightly chuckled through the tears.

"Right. Um, now don't think I'm just asking this because of that stupid twitter thread because I've been trying to figure out how to ask this for months now," I nodded, "I was gonna ask, and you can definitely say no if you want. Like don't be afraid to hurt my feelings because I can assure you I won't—"

"Clay," I deadpanned. He'll do this for hours if I don't interrupt him.

"Would you and Indi want to move in with me?"

My face probably resembled the shocked pikachu meme right now. That's definitely not what I was expecting to come from his mouth.

"Again, it's totally okay if you want to say no."

"I—um, I—" I looked to him, "I'd, um, have to talk to Indi about it."

"I've already bought it up to her. Actually, she's the one that started that conversation and proposed that idea to me in the first place. I mean, I was already kind of thinking it, but then she brought it up and I was like oh."

"Well, I—I'm just confused. I don't, there's so many things, I just."

"No I understand. I'm sorry to bring this up so suddenly. Like I said, I've been trying to figure out how to ask it for so long. I've even talked to my mom about it and the boys and Drista believe it or not."

"I'd love to move in with you. We've been basically living together for almost half a year now. The only thing I'd be worried about is Indi. She's so close to graduating and I'd hate to pick her up and move her when she only has like two years left. She's barely gonna know her graduating class if she moves and I don't know. I mean, I could pick up and move right now if I wanted to. School's online and I graduate in like two months anyway. I don't have any ties here. I guess what I'm saying is, it's up to Indi if she wants to move or not. This is a really big step in our relationship, are you sure you're ready to take it?"

He nodded his head eagerly, no hesitation, "I'm ready if you're ready. We've been together for almost a year, known each other for longer than that. I think—I think it'd be a good step to take."

"Okay, we can go talk to Indi."

We spent the next hour discussing scenarios with Indi. It shocked me quite a bit when she immediately agreed to move to Florida. Apparently after Mum died, everyone in the school started treating her differently and she doesn't like it. She claims she doesn't have anything tying her to North Carolina either and she's ready for a new start. Now it was my time to panic about the commitment since I expected Indi to completely shut down the idea.

Indi even went as far as to start packing her things regardless of having absolutely nothing to pack them in. She even FaceTimed her friends and told her that she was moving to Florida like right now. So I guess she made the decision for all three of us.

That night, instead of cuddling and watching some kind of show on the TV while we laid in bed, we actually sat up talking until two in the morning about how moving in would work. We laid out plans for paying bills, how streaming/filming would work, food shopping, etc. I didn't know we were capable of being actual adults.