Chapter Forty
A few months later and nothing has changed. Well, except for the fact that I'm in therapy now and doing exceptionally better mental wise. Also Clay was still here and my sister has officially moved in with me. I keep asking Clay when he wants me to take him home but he never gives me a solid answer. Drista has been sending him daily Patches content to keep his mind at ease. She was really enjoying her time at his parents house. They spoiled her with cat treats and sweaters.
Clay has gotten hounded every single day about 'Octavia' ever since that stream and each time, Indi and I cry of laughter over his frustration. The few times that he's streamed, Indi and I have made it our mission to somehow bring 'Octavia' into it. I think Clay's starting to get sick of the bit but it makes Indi and I laugh so hard, so I think he just deals with it to make us happy.
"I'm gonna stream today," I told Clay as we were chilling on the couch enjoying some alone time while Indi was at school. I've been driving her the twenty minutes back and forth to drop and pick her up since I didn't want her having to switch schools. It's not like I have a job to attend to at a specific time. Plus, if I'm too tired when she wakes us in the morning, Clay offers to take her without hesitation. It's great.
"That's good. The fans miss your streams. They're really worried about you."
"I know, I've been seeing it on my timeline. I feel bad. I don't really interact with them anymore either. Like I feel like you have to tweet every week that I'm doing okay and just dealing with some personal issues. I've been going to therapy, I think I'm doing better."
"You are doing very good and words can't express how insanely proud I am of both you and Indi for getting through this. I know it was really hard for you guys and you're both like my role models for how strong you are."
"Don't make me cry. No, but like I really appreciate you sticking it out here with me. You didn't leave me even when I was bed ridden and couldn't shower or eat or take care of myself. I think Indi appreciates it too. She's grown a liking to you, you know."
He smiled, "I know. I'm happy I was able to be there for you guys."
"I don't know where I'd be if you weren't. You basically took care of Indi for like a solid two months."
Clay received a text at the moment and his phone vibrating against the coffee table scared me so bad that I almost fell off the couch.
"It's from Indi," he told me when he grabbed his phone, "She's signing out early and needs us to pick her up."
"Why'd she text you?" I laughed.
"Maybe because you never answer your phone."
"I do too," I responded.
"Yeah, only when it's Karl."
I rolled my eyes and stood up, "I don't appreciate the slander."
"It's not slander, it's the truth."
"I'm going to get dressed. I'm ignoring you."
I stomped up the stairs and to my bedroom where I picked out an outfit to get dressed for the day. I decided on something casual since I was just planning on streaming and sitting in a gaming chair for most of the evening. Clay and Indi would probably go have dinner without me as well. They like to do things without me, then make fun of me and mock me for shunning them. I feel like this is how Clay feels when Drista and I do this to him. I understand his pain now.
We left the house and drove the distance to her school where she was talking with her friends outside on the lawn. When I pulled up in the Tesla, they all stopped talking and her friends just stared at me.
"Get in loser!" Clay shouted out the window, his head poking out as he flipped her off.
"Clay, can you stop?" She glared at him, then flicked her head slightly at the boy that was in their group. Clay and I caught on immediately.
"OH IS THAT THE—" I reached over and clapped my hands over his mouth to keep him from embarrassing Indi.
"Don't lick me, bitch," I slapped him on the head.
He went onto the YouTube app on the console and as soon as he typed in the letter 'r', I knew exactly what he was about to do. And I was prepared to let him. Indi continued talking to the boy and her other friend, probably explaining who we are since we've never met them before. As it looked like she was saying goodbye, Revenge, the minecraft parody, blared through the speakers and Clay turned it up to max volume.
"CREEPER? AW MAN!" He yelled at the top of his lungs as he began to lip sync and over dramatically jam out to the song. Indi was so embarrassed, she practically sprinted to the car and climbed over our laps just to turn it off.
"Clay I fucking hate you. You're literally the spawn of satan."
He wheezed as her mood changed to shout goodbye at the boy from out the window. For the next twenty minutes, they were bickering back and forth like the iconic big brother/little sister duo they seemed to be. As soon as I parked the car, I went inside to begin my stream. In all reality, I just wanted to get away from them. It's like Sapnap and George. They're fucking annoying.
"Hi stream—"
"YOU'RE GONNA LOOK AT ME AND YOU'RE GONNA TELL ME I'M WRONG?" The entire stream heard Indi shout in the background, "AM I WRONG?"
I sighed, "Sorry guys. Octavia and Clay are over right now—CAN YOU GUYS SHUT THE FUCK UP, I'M STREAMING!" I screamed back. I heard their laughs in the background, but it was relatively quiet after that.
The stream was going smoothly. I was just playing some bedwars and speaking to the fans since I haven't in so long. They tried to ask me why I was gone for so long, but I explained that I wasn't ready to open up about that part of my life right now. Maybe eventually, but I don't see a time where I would be telling my fans that my mother died. It doesn't seem right; that should forever stay private.
Near the end when I felt myself draining from constantly having to bring up things to talk about, Clay came bursting into the room. He wasn't quiet about it either. I paused the game and looked to my stream chat for a hot second.
"Can you mute please?" He asked kindly.
"Why is everything okay?" I questioned with concern.
"No, please mute."
I glanced at my chat one more time to see them spamming something along the lines of 'she's going to see the thread'. I muted my mic quickly, took off the headset, and followed him out of the room just in case I forgot to mute. Outside in the hall, his eyes looked at me as if he was about to break.
"Everything okay?"
"No, um. Here," he handed over his phone. It had Twitter opened up. I began to scroll through the thread that was pulled up.
user8: guys I found calpal's address HAHAHAHA
user4: @user8 don't be shy post it
The next tweet was the twitter account completely exposing my address. It wasn't even wrong and that's what made my heart stop. They were absolutely spot on and I wasnt sure what to do about this. A fan could easily sit outside and wait for all of us to leave. They could steal some mail from the mailbox and figure out my name. It's all over for me.
"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.