Chapter Fifteen

"You can't sleep? Me either. Let's can't sleep together."

LUCY'S POV

Clayton was acting. . . weird, to say the least. I wasn't sure what had happened, but it's like a switch turned on inside him the past week. He's become ten times more invested in figuring out ways to stop my sleepwalking - to the point we barely talk about anything else.

"Alright, I'll talk to you at lunch tomorrow about what I find online tonight. See ya'." Clayton stood up abruptly from his seat, shutting his laptop with a far too cheesy smile. "Bye--"

"Wait, Clayton. We just got here - like, ten minutes ago." I noted, as if that would glue him back to his seat. I wanted to talk. Really talk. Not about different methods to fix me. I wanted to talk about his day and how it's going with baseball and his teammates. "You haven't even finished your shake."

I don't know what I expected him to do or say, but I needed something - anything, in return to not make me feel like I've done something wrong. When I texted J.K. about his strange behavior, she told me he might be going through something and was throwing himself into this to get his mind off of it. It sounded plausible, but why couldn't he make actual conversation with me, too?

"Oh," he finally said. His blue-green eyes shifted to his barely drunken shake, to his seat, to me. "Um. . . Sorry. I just really need to head home. My mom is, er, expecting me."

My shoulders slumped a little at this. The last time I remembered, his mom worked the E.R. and went in around eight to start her shift on Tuesdays. I knew this only because of my mom scheduling to hang out with Mrs. Hugh whenever she was free.

He was lying to me.

"Oh," I repeated him. "Okay then." With a curt smile and peace out sign, I brought my attention to my laptop. My Supernatural background made me feel a touch better.

Clayton was still standing there, but I dug in deep to not give him another glance.

Focus on the beautiful face of Dean Winchester, Lucy. You can do this.

"Actually," he spoke up, the sound of the chair sliding out making me smile slightly, "I'm sure I can stay for a little longer." My gaze flickered up to his and he was holding his own grin. It was moments like then that made my stomach tie in knots. "Jacob left a few days ago, right?"

I gulped down some of my shake and nodded. It was tough seeing him drive off into the sunset, but I knew Jacob would be back.

The damn charmer even managed to head back with Abby's number.

"I almost forgot; he said and I quote 'farewell, Clinton. Remember what we talked about - or something along those lines. He's weird, sorry," I quickly added, chuckling.

For a fleeting moment his face turned pale and fell, but he recovered soon after. No telling what Jacob told the poor boy. God forbid I have an actual guy friend - who might be my mega-crush, sure - and want to hang out with him. Imagine him if Clayton and I were an actual item.

"Lucky me." He rolled his eyes with a soft smile. Then, when he finally took a few sips of his shake, he said, "I heard Wesley asked you to the fall formal."

I somehow managed to gulp down my own shake without choking. He had stated it so casual; it made me stare at him, bug-eyed. How did he know that? Why did he know that? Why was he bringing this up?

"Sorry," he added sheepishly. "Word spreads like wildfire in the. . . locker rooms. Yeah, the locker rooms. He was pretty upset about it."

My nose crinkled at this. Wesley was anything but upset when I politely declined his offer. He had come up to me after school on my way to the parking lot with a printer paper scrawled with the words 'WILL YOU GO TO FALL FORMAL WITH ME'? As much as I was charmed by his gesture, Wesley wasn't always a good guy. I knew that only because one of my old friends dated him for two years and he ended up cheating on her. I could never break the girl code going out with an ex, yet alone date a known cheater. That's inexcusable.

He took it with a smile nonetheless. I thought he had understood where I was coming from - minus the whole cheater label.

Before I could question him, Clayton moved the subject along smoothly. "Why did you reject him? He's pretty cool - or maybe that's just the bro code embedded in me making me say that. Ha. . . ha. . ." he cleared his throat.

Weird. "Weird," I found myself saying aloud. When his brows popped up I was quick to backtrack. "I don't know, he seemed really fine with it. Last time I heard he asked Annie Bridges a couple days ago and she said yes."

Clayton's lips straightened at this, but he didn't frown. "Oh." That was becoming a habit of his. Oh, oh, oh. It was starting to annoy me.

"Have you asked a lucky girl to the dance yet?" I sat back in my seat, the question coming out easier than I had expected. I knew he hadn't - news like that would have spread like wildfire, not mine and Wesley's situation.

He was mid-sip so I had to wait a few painful milliseconds before he shook his head no. "I don't think I'm going to go." He shrugged. "Not my kind of scene."

All I could do was play it cool and nod. Hell, the dance wasn't my kind of scene either considering I hate being around people, but going with Clayton would make it all worth it. I could imagine him standing there at my doorway in a dashing black suit and white dress shirt - too cool for a tie and going with a bow tie - with his hair styled with the right amount of gel. His eyes would look me up and down, but not in that checking out sort of way. More of a taking in moment. Then he would hold out his hand and we would head off to the dance.

I sighed against myself.

"You okay?" He asked with such sincerity in his voice, it made my heart hurt a bit more.

"Yeah. Yeah," I repeated, "I'm just getting tired. That's all."

Tired of pining over a boy who will never feel the same way back.

- - - - - - - -

Right when I thought we had made progress, Clayton fell back into only focusing on my sleepwalking instead of me. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - we spent so much time together, but it felt as if we were coworkers and strictly working on a project. Every time I tried to change the conversation, he would deflect it back to being a reason for my sleepwalking, or another way to fix it.

This was not the guy who posted that Instagram photo hinting at asking a girl to fall formal; specifically asking me. I was completely convinced the message was not meant towards me anymore. He was probably going to ask Courtney or another one of those girls always trailing behind him or not go at all.

Speaking of which. . .

"Lucy, hey!" Courtney Fisher and all her glory approached me with a bright smile. She was holding her smoothie close to her, as if I were accustomed to taking things that were hers. "I'm surprised Clayton isn't here with you," her grey eyes scanned my surroundings and when there was no Clayton detected on her radar, she grimly focused back on me. "Do you know where he is by any chance? I really need to talk with him and he still hasn't gotten a new phone."

I wanted to tell her that he did have a new phone, but I hushed. Clayton obviously kept that important detail out of the conversation for a reason.

"No idea," I spoke honestly. Oh, who am I kidding? He was probably back at his house aimlessly scrolling through records of past sleepwalking patients on the internet. Either that or practicing baseball.

Courtney gave me a bleak snapshot of a grin. "Alrighty then. I'll leave you be. If you see Clayton, tell him to come over to my house please."

With a soft toss of her hair over her shoulder, Courtney slowly moved back to her course.

I hated how perfect she was. It wasn't even that kind of mean girl perfect, either. She was completely friendly and approachable but there I was scrutinizing her every move hoping to dislike her. I guess that would make me the mean girl.

I placed my hand in my pockets, continuing my course to a new boutique shop that opened in town. It was called Sew in Love and J.K. couldn't stop talking about it, so I figured I'd check it out before she buys all of their merchandise. It wasn't too far down the strip either and once I approached the shop, I couldn't help but recognize the artist's signature on the display cases.

Norie Bloom.

She went to my school's rival: Arden Dee High. It was an extremely tense situation between the schools when it came to sports, but luckily Norie was known and loved around the whole town for her art pieces.

The display case had intricate paintings of cherry blossom trees, giving the mannequins behind the glass a highlight with their matching pink and blush tones outfits.

I didn't hesitate to walk inside alongside a couple other people, and when One Direction started playing on the inside, I knew I would love this place. Plus the name of the store was puny. How could I not be sew in love with it?

To my surprise I didn't find Norie behind the counter. Instead it was the boy J.K. described to me that and I quote "was a mega-hot teddy bear from down under".

He definitely was cute with his cheery grin and warm brown eyes. When he greeted me and the other customers though, I understood completely why J.K. adored this store.

"Welcome to Sew in Love. How's everyone's night?" His voice sounded Australian but slightly different. I couldn't pin point it but I loved it nonetheless.

I mumbled out a quick good, then turned my focus on the clothes.

Even if I couldn't go to the dance with Clayton, I should go with my girls. I needed to branch out of my comfort zone. I only had one more year of high school, and what have I done remotely high school worthy? Sure, I started talking to Clayton Hugh, but not in the way I dreamed about. I haven't even gone out on a date yet.

My fingers ran along a plum color dress, the mock neck capturing my attention. It was tight at the top and sleeveless, but it fell down in a parachute kind of form. It wasn't too short from what I could tell on the hanger, but shorter than what I was used to.

Try it on, Lucy. You might like it! My inner self attempted to persuade me, but I hesitated to pick it up.

"Finding things okay over here?" A voice asked behind me.

I quickly turned around to find Norie. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, attempting to keep the hair out of her face, but wisps stuck straight out defiantly.

"Yes, thank you." I kept it short and simple. I never enjoyed small talk with employees anywhere. I was too awkward for that.

I was hoping that Norie would wander off to her next customer, but instead her eyes met where my gaze went back to. "Hmmm," she hummed quietly, "this would look great on you." She took things one step further than I ever could and picked it up off the rack, sizing it up to my body. "You should try this on!"

I shook my head sheepishly, mouth ajar but as silent as can be.

Norie insisted. "If you're looking for a dress for that dance, this is the one for you. It's even forty percent off for twenty-five! That's a steal in my opinion."

I wasn't sure if she was just trying to make a sale or actually help me out, but the more I glanced between the dress and her, the idea of me wearing that in front of Clayton made excited. So I quietly took the dress from her then headed towards the dressing rooms, where Norie gleefully unlocked a door for me.

My image in the mirror made me frown. I looked plain. Too Mary Jane. Don't get me wrong I had confidence in myself- maybe not the most, but it was there - but I wanted to look special. Maybe then Clayton would notice me. . . in a way as more than just a friend.

And once I slipped the dress on and imagined my hair curled and my makeup done, I could almost picture myself slow dancing with Clayton. . . Getting lost in his eyes. . .

"Everything okay in there?"

With one last glimpse at myself,  I sighed. Not the sort of hopeless sigh either. The kind that made me feel relaxed and at peace.

Then slowly my voice came back to me. "Yeah. Everything is perfect."

Until everything suddenly wasn't.