"You look great." Clay says for the third time in the car. The first was at the door, the second was walking through the parking lot, and this is the third, halfway to the restaurant.
"Thanks I haven't been told that tonight," Adaline replies, rolling her eyes. Smiling, albeit, but rolling her eyes nevertheless.
She turned away from him to look out the window when he said it because she couldn't help but feel her face heat up. Anyone would though, right? It's not just her? She blushes at anyone complimenting her, not just Clay. And of course Clay would compliment her like that, he flirts with his friends all the time. Come on. Heatwaves exists for a reason.
"And yet, here I am. Only been complimented once on this fine evening." He leans over and nudges her shoulder to get her attention back.
"You look great, Clay." Adaline says jokingly reluctant.
The restaurant is some fancy one that she could never afford on her own. She is, above all else, a broke college student. Luckily enough Clay offered to pay for half and she's definitely not going to pass up a paid opportunity to eat at a nice restaurant for once. One nice night out with a friend isn't so bad, even if stupid Ian Brant and some girl I've never met are going to be there as well. It's doable, at the very least.
"So uh," Clay glances over at Adaline and then looks back to the road. "What are you planning on being for Halloween?"
"I don't know," Adaline answers, pausing to think. "Probably something matching with Maira, Madi and Dante like we do every year."
It then crosses her mind that this year might not be like every year. Not with Dante threatening to leave and the arguments being brought every single day. Madi and Dante fighting has caused every dynamic in their group to shift. The two of them won't even share a room anymore, Madi's been crashing on the couch since the first argument.
"Good to know, good to know." Clay nods. He pulls into the parking lot of the restaurant.
Both of them exit the car, and while walking inside, they go over what they decided on. They started dating in August, they met on a dating app, ect. Adaline feels slightly guilty lying to Ian and his girlfriend like this. Then again, Ian has done some messed up shit and certainly deserves it.
They spot Ian and a girl with long, wavy blonde hair already at their table and go through the whole shabang to sit down.
Awkward silence between Clay ("wilbur''), Adaline and the girlfriend. Ian of course, being the annoying prick he is, is all smiles. He shakes Clay's hand, expressing just how great it is to finally meet him.
"Uh...Hey." Clay mumbles awkwardly. Adaline doesn't even say anything back to his greeting, only forces a curt smile and sits down next to Clay.
She could've canceled. She could have bailed, not roped Clay into her stupid college drama. It's none of his business, in the end. It's not his problem. But in the end for her, she would have just been harassed by Ian and it's not like anyone who could do anything to help her would. Is this really the easiest solution, though?
"You said you started dating in August?" Ian asks, he looks to the girlfriend (Sarah, a tech major) and she nods so he keeps going. "Addy's never brought you up before."
"That's because we've had three entire conversations since september," Adaline says, not even bothering to look up from the menu. She's just going to order whatever Clay orders. "And I told you to stop calling me Addy."
"You're called Addy?" Clay asks, raising an eyebrow to her.
"Was, in highschool." Adaline dismisses. "What are you ordering?"
"Probably just steak and potatoes, you?" Clay sets his menu down on the table.
Adaline nods and says she'll get the same, but she hasn't even finished speaking when Ian interrupts her.
"That's a lot of calories, Adaline." Ian mumbles, causing Adaline to finally look up to see him already looking at her with a smug expression.
She grits her teeth together. He knows what he's doing, he knows exactly what he's doing. It was his fault that Adaline ended up in the hospital for not eating enough back in the tenth grade, he was constantly bringing up her weight and how much she ate. If it wasn't for her joking about her own mother bringing it up a few times, it probably would never have happened but we all make mistakes here and there.
Ian Brant brings out the worst in people, he always has and he always will. Adaline remembers the junior year biology incident and instead of recreating that beautiful memory, she breathes and counts to ten.
"What the fuck dude?" Clay slams his hand down a little too hard on the table when Adaline is at three.
"Hey, hey, easy dude," Ian says. "I'm just kidding around, right Bella?"
"Don't say that kind of stuff..." She mumbles. She's either uncomfortable or embarrassed. Adaline assumes it's a bit of both and makes a mental note to corner her in the bathroom sometime and interrogate her later.
Ian only rolls his eyes. "Come on. Addy- Adaline and I are friends. What would you two know about it?"
"She's my goddamn girlfriend, and she's obviously not cool with it, so cut it out." Clay is clearly doing his best not to speak up too loudly in fear and respect of the other customers. "I'm going to the bathroom." Without another word, Clay is out of his seat and walking towards the bathroom.
"Me too." Adaline stands up, gives Bella a look and then Bella is stood up as well. "Be right back."
She gets all the way to seven before they reach the bathroom. Judging by the look on Bella's face Adaline can only assume she's more uncomfortable than embarrassed at this point. Anyone would be with Ian as their boyfriend. She wonders how a nice looking girl like Bella could have possibly been roped into a relationship with someone like Ian.
"I'm sorry. He gets like this when he's jealous." Bella says. Neither of the two girls go into a stall. They just stand at the sinks.
"Jealous? Of what?" Adaline furrows her brow. "C- Wilbur?"
"Yeah. Kids obsessed with you." Bella huffs. Now Adaline's no body language expert but it's not an angry at her huff, more like a 'I am so sick and tired of this kid' huff.
Of course, Adaline knows Bella is telling the truth. She doesn't doubt it for a second. He was obsessed with her and highschool and he still is now. It's truly a wattpad girl moment, really. But alas, he is the only guy obsessed with her so she'll never have her dramatic love triangle. Not like she wanted one to begin with, but Dante always found it funny back then. Dante always loved reading fanfic, but Madi hated it. They still do, and Adaline wonders what else Dante loves that Madi hates, or the other way around. That's not the point.
She knew going into this that she would probably have to console the girlfriend about Ian's obsession at one point or another but now, looking at her, it doesn't seem so likely. She seems to have come to terms with it? Accepted it? Might even be conspiring against her because of it? Might help Ian kidnap her?
"Yeah...Been that way for a hot minute." Adaline laughs awkwardly. This is horribly embarrassing, not knowing what to say.
She only nods, looking at the ground, and then sighs. "You seem nice. I'm sorry that you have to put up with...Him."
"Me too." Adaline nods. The girls share a smile and head out.
When they get back, Clay is already back, so Adaline sits down and gives him a quick pat on the shoulder. Ians a horrible guy, she doesn't blame him for wanting to clock him in the face. She would too if Ian didn't take weights in senior year and never stopped going to the stupid gym. He posts on his instagram story about it entirely too much.
"What can I get for you four?" A pretty waitress approaches their table with a smile Adaline knows all too well from her own job.
"Steak and potatoes for me and my girlfriend." Clay says, giving the most appreciative smile Adaline has ever seen in her life. He does give off the vibe of someone who is boundlessly kind to food service workers. She focuses on that instead of the fact that he called her his girlfriend again and she can feel her stomach turning in a good way.
"I'll have lobster, so will she." Ian answers.
The waitress tells them that it'll be ready soon and within ten minutes food that Adaline could never afford is on the table. Bella picks at her food but doesn't eat, and Clay nudges Adaline in the shoulder to eat before he does.
"So Bella," Adaline says. "You're a tech major, right? What do you want to do after you get your degree?"
"I want to develop AI. I've always thought it was cool," Bella mumbles, once again picking at her food. "What about you? What do you major in? What do you want to be?"
"Social work. I wanna be a children's therapist." Adaline answers. Clay puts his arm around her and gives a small squeeze.
"You're gonna do great," he says, looking at her with a smile.
Butterflies. Again. Something about him encouraging her.
It's not like the thought that Clay is attractive has never crossed her mind, but the thought she might have feelings for him? Never in a million years has that been a possibility, never a thought or idea in her mind until this very moment, split second, in time.
She doesn't. Of course she doesn't. She loves him, obviously, she loves him to death, But not...Like that. Adaline doesn't believe in falling in love. She never has. Not with her the boy she thought was cute all throughout middle school, not with the boy she almost considered asking out in freshman year. Clay isn't any different.
And yet, when he puts his arm around her and tells her that she'll do great, or when he calls her his girlfriend for a stupid fake date, or when he says things in that low voice, she gets butterflies like she never has before in her life.
"I'm sure she will," Ian smiles. "Helping people out has never really been your thing, though, Adaline. Can you even work with children if you have a criminal record?"
Maybe Ian's obsession was never romantic. Maybe it's always been to get back at her. It was romantic every year leading up to the incident in junior year biology, but Adaline's never thought that this might just be a revenge thing. She never thought herself stupid but now? Maybe.
"Criminal record?" Clay asks, looking between Ian and Adaline. The girl doesn't loom up from her food, which she promptly starts eating to avoid speaking.
"Oh yeah. Couple of battery charges, breaking and entering, trespassing, right?" Ian sounds so smug, so proud of what he's doing. This is why Adaline doesn't like talking about highschool. "Oh yeah, and aggravated assault, underage drinking-"
"The aggravated assault charges were dropped." Adaline defends herself. She looks up for just the slightest second to see Clay utterly shocked and Bella more embarrassed than before. "Can you just drop it? We were teenagers when all that happened. When are you just going to drop it I-"
"When you apologize for breaking my fucking nose, Addy! And getting me suspended!" Ian talks just a little too loudly for her liking. Other customers around the four of them are starting to look over. "Maybe if you just said you were fucking sorry, I wouldn't be here embarrassing you in front of your boyfriend, would I?"
"Is this really about stupid stuff from when we were sixteen, Ian? Grow up." Adaline breathes, she gets to two. "Cl- Wilbur. Can you take me home?"
He looks back to Ian. She's expecting him to say no, to call her crazy and wonder why he ever wanted to talk to someone like her in the first place. He'll block her on all social medias and she'll be another bad story on his streams. Because of course, the second that the idea of having feelings for him comes up it all goes up in flames right before her eyes and-
"Fuck you, Ian. Piece of shit." Clay stands up, taking Adaline by the hand and leading her out the door and to the car. "If I stayed at that table-in that restaurant-for another fucking second I would have hit him, Adaline. I swear to god I would have hit him."
She doesn't respond. Not when they're walking to the car, not when they get in.
Maybe right now it hasn't hit him but it will sooner or later. Adaline is some crazy girl who's hit one too many people in her lifetime. This is why she doesn't make any friends. They always find out sooner or later that she's not right in the head.
"I'm sorry." Adaline murmurs under her breath. It's the best apology she can get out.
"For what?" Clay asks.
"That I didn't get to tell you," Adaline says. "About all the shit I've done. I know I should have told you sooner, you deserve to know."
"It's not my business."
Maybe it's not.
"You're too good of a person to want to be around someone like me. I've done shit, Clay, shit that I don't like talking about because I hate myself for it. And people like you, good people, don't deserve to be dragged down like that." Adaline spills her heart out. Clay starts driving and talking at the same time. "I'm not good for you. I don't make you a better person."
"You don't get to decide if you're good for me, Adaline. Because the truth is? If you weren't around I would probably be dead of dehydration and like, deprivation of vitamin d or something." Clay says. "I like you a lot, Adaline. You mean so much to me. One of my best friends, really, if I'm being one hundred percent honest. And so what? You beat the shit out of a couple people? So have I, we all have our issues."
In this moment, Adaline feels like she could fall in love with Clay.
Like, if she let her guard down she wouldn't be in danger and if she were to tell him that she's in love with him maybe, just maybe, there's a chance he'd lover her back.
But she's not. She's not in love with him, she's not going to let her guard down, he wouldn't love her back. There's no way in heaven, hell, or earth. Her best friend is not someone she's supposed to be in love with. She's not in love with Madi, Maira or Dante so why is Clay any different?
"Tell me about you beating the shit out of someone." Adaline requests instead of continuing on with the conversation. So, instead of continuing, Clay tells her the story.