My eyes glaze over the contents of the refrigerator. I'm not hungry, maybe bored, but I've been staring into the fridge like it'll give me exactly what I need.
"Would you quit it?" George grumbles to Nick.
"I'm literally chewing gum," Nick defends, "What do you want me to do?"
I ignore them, deciding to grab a water bottle and shut the door.
"y/n," Nick says once I turn around.
I choose to ignore him, opening the bottle instead. I've been in this situation before. They'll ask me to pick aside and then I'll always choose wrong. Not this time, nope.
"y/n," George follows.
"Answer us, y/n."
"y/n. y/n. y/n."
"Stop saying my name," I say calmly.
"Oh, so you can hear us," Nick inquires.
"You're just choosing not to answer," George adds on.
I roll my eyes. Of course, now is when they finally team up.
"What can I do for you?" I ask, taking a long sip of water.
"Are you busy tomorrow night?" Nick asks, "We want to watch a movie."
I swallow my sip of water. "Sorry, I have plans tomorrow night."
George laughs. He has the audacity to laugh. Nick's brows furrow. "What do you mean 'you have plans'?" he asks using air quotes.
"Meaning I won't be able to watch the movie?" I say, phrasing it as a question. Why is this so surprising?
"Like coding?"
I huff. "No, like a date, Nick."
George laughs even harder, and Nick has a smile now. "No you don't."
My jaw drops. "Yes, I do. It's with an old friend that I ran into at the grocery store."
The front door opens. Nick ignores it and continues to talk. "When have you ever been interested in like anyone?"
I'm about to defend myself before realizing that I never told him I've had feelings for someone for forever. My mouth opens to speak when the person walks into the kitchen.
Clay's looking down at his feet when he walks by. I think he wants to just walk by and go to his room, but Nick has other plans.
"Dream, you have to hear this." Nick's laughing with George now.
He looks up from his feet, and I can tell something's wrong.
"y/n-" Nick gasps for air "-y/n has.."
"A date!" George bursts out before keeling over with laughter.
Clay smiles now too, turning to me. "Oh really?"
My stomach drops, but I don't let that show. "Yes, really. Why is this so surprising to everyone?"
"You've never been on a date in the year we've known you," Clay explains for the other boys. His voice is monotone, and it worries me what happened before he walked in.
"It's just a date," I defend.
George and Nick are finally settling down now. "Clay, can you do a movie night tomorrow night?"
"Um, no, I'm supposed to have a date as well," he says a little more quiet than before.
"What do you mean supposed?" George questions, "Trouble in paradise?"
Clay shakes his head slightly in a way that I know something's wrong. "No, Natalie and I-" he stops himself.
There's tension in the room now. I feel myself holding my breath, scared to blow air in the wrong direction. George is the one who breaks the silence when he turns to Nick. "Are we the losers for not having a date tomorrow?"
"Pfft." Nick jokingly waves it off, thankful for the change in conversation. "We have each other, George. That's all we'll ever need."
George rolls his eyes. "So yes we are?"
Clay snorts, and I feel my shoulders relax a little. He gives us a half-hearted wave. "I'm heading to bed. Night."
George, Nick and I watch him leave, waiting for the door to shut at the end of the hall.
"Is he okay?" George asks quietly.
I shake my head. "I think something happened."
"With Natalie?"
"It had to be," Nick says, "That's where he was tonight, right?"
"Think so." George shifts in his chair. "I feel bad for him."
Nick nods. "He really likes her." My chest pangs, but I listen to what the boys have to say.
George clears his throat. "Well, they'll probably work through it."
I swallow once. I feel awful that hope sprung from my chest in these past few minutes. I try to reset my thought process, to get excited about tomorrow night, but I just can't.
"I'm going to head to bed," I say softly.
"That's right." Nick smiles. "You get some beauty rest for that date of yours."
I roll my eyes. "It's just a date, Nick. No big deal."
"Or a very big deal," George points out.
I shake my head as I head towards the hallway. "Goodnight boys."
"Night," the call in unison. I hear Nick call out "Jinx!" right after.
I walk to my room but hesitate right outside of it. I glance two doors down at Clay's room, seeing that the light's still on.
We talked a couple nights ago, so it wouldn't be weird to reach out, right? I take a deep breath, putting one foot in front of the other.
The door's cracked open instead of all the way shut. I decide to knock and walk in at the same time. "Clay?" I say softly.
He's staring straight ahead at his black monitor. He snaps out of his trance and glances at me. "Hey."
"Everything okay?" I ask, not leaving the doorway to give him some space.
"She got a job offer," Clay explains, "In Georgia."
"Oh," I say at first, then pause knowing I need to be supportive. "I mean that's not too far. We share a border with Georgia, and it's only a couple hour flight, probably. It could work."
"That's what I said." He sighs. "She said she doesn't want to do long distance."
"She wants you to move there?" My eyes widen.
He meets my eyes now. "She said it's all or nothing for her."
I take a deep breath in, wanting to word everything just right, but I find nothing to say. "Wow," was all I could breath out.
"I know." He chuckles, looking back at his empty desk. "I didn't like the idea, and she didn't like that I didn't like the idea."
I risk the question. The one that fills my heart with hope. "Did you guys break up?"
He shakes his head. "We're going to talk about it tomorrow, I guess."
"I'm sure there's a middle ground," I try to explain, "You can work it out."
He sighs, tapping his hand on his desk one time. "Yeah."
I stand in his doorway for a second. He meets my eyes once more. "Listen, I should go to bed. Big day tomorrow and all."
I give him a weak smile. "Okay, night Clay."
"Night."
I shut the door and walk into my room. I sit on the edge of my bed, feeling awful for Clay. Maybe I should be happy for this to happen, but instead I feel his sadness.
My phone ringing causes me to jump. I'm surprised to see it was Magnolia Kennedy.
"Hello?" I say as I answer, hoping everything's okay.
"y/n! Just the person I wanted to talk to." She sounds very happy. "You got a minute to talk?"
I glance around my empty room. Nick and George are quiet in the kitchen. Clay's going to sleep.
"Yes I do."
"Good, I have a proposition." I can imagine her smiling. "The company's going to be doing a one-year Start Up, and I'm going to be heading it."
Okay, I say to myself, Where's this going?
"We have a spot for a developer," she continues, "and I want to offer the spot to you first."
All the air is knock out of me. "Me?"
"Yes, you," she says, "I like you and your dedication."
"Well, I-" I take a deep breath, remembering to have business composure. "I'm honored for the opportunity."
"Hold on, I got other things to say," she interrupts me, "I want you to be the head of the developing branch, and we need all our heads to be in office."
"In office?" I ask for clarity. I have a feeling I'm not going to like this.
"Yes, in New York."
Once again, I've lost all air, followed by a pit in my stomach. I know I can't accept her offer.
"It would only be a year to test the Start Up," Magnolia continues without my response, "If it fails, then you'll still have a job just like you do right now." She pauses for a second, and I think she can tell she's losing me a little bit. "And if it succeeds, there will be a four month interim of the company's CEO's deciding if I myself will become a CEO, and you, y/n, will have yourself a permaneant spot in New York."
I release the breath I didn't realize I was holding. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I can move to New York," I explain quickly, "My life's here, and I can't leave it."
My mind flashes to Clay in the next room; how well he didn't take to Natalie's move. He can't lose two people to a job relocation.
"And I think that you could change your mind," Magnolia Kennedy says, "Write this down."
She pauses, and I scramble for the first piece of paper I can find. She recites a phone number, and I scribble the words down.
"That's my personal phone number," she says, "Let me know whether or not you accept by the first."
I write the date down for a good measure too, but I know it's only to tell her I won't be going to New York. I can't go to New York.
"Magnolia, thank you again for this opportunity," I begin, " but I just want you to know it is very unlikely I'll be accepting your offer."
"You have till the first," she says, "And if you decline, then there's no hard feelings."
"Thank you."
"But if you ever are in New York, hit me up, okay?"
I roll my eyes even though she can't see me. "Okay."
She says goodbye, and I glance around at my room. Nick and George are upstairs; I can hear the talking loudly to their computers. Clay's turned music on at some point during my phone conversation; the bass vibrates the walls just a bit.
I smile a little; I never realized how happy I am with the life I've settled here. Everything is perfectly tailored to decisions I've made to be here.
I can't uproot my life to start over. If you had asked me two years ago, when Gemma was my only friend, I would've already been on a plane, but now...
Now I love my life, and I don't want to do anything to change it.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
two jobs offers, one chapter... what do you guys think is going to happen?
have an amazing day :)