It was 8:30 in the morning when Clay's mom called him, asking if his family could come over for dinner. His natural response had been to agree, before remembering the current situation that he was in. The tension in the house was a little awkward, to say the least.

It had been two weeks since Quinn shared the night with him, and ever since then, the pair had been trying to figure out a way to find balance, which caused a little more individual streams, and a little less group hang outs. Nick and George knew something was up, but they didn't know why.

"Hey guys," Clay said at breakfast, poking at the pancake on his plate, "my parents are coming over for dinner tonight."

"What?" Quinn's response was immediate, "Why would you tell us this now?"

Her way of trying to get over Clay was to be snappy with him, and it left her frustrated and upset most of the time, but she couldn't stop. And of course, he was never one to back down from a fight, so they argued more than they used to.

"Considering that I found out this morning, this was the earliest I could," he fired back, which stirred something in Quinn, were they really about to argue this early?

"So what're we gonna do about dinner?" George quickly cut in, he could feel the tension rising.

"Also the house is kind of... messy," Nick pointed out. The house wasn't actually that bad, but having guests inside probably wasn't ideal unless they cleaned.

"Why don't we split it up, and each take a different thing to make for dinner?" Quinn suggested, "Like I know we have stuff here to make brownies, so I can do that, and then someone can make a side or two, and someone can get like chicken or something at the store for an entree, and we can do something just to snack on?"

"I'll go to the store," Clay offered, "Just text me a list of stuff I need to get."

"Quinn, I need you to know, you're my favorite," Nick looked to her, "Your brownies are absolutely fire."

"While Clay goes to the store, we can clean up a bit," George suggested.

Quinn was feeling the anger in her stomach settle, and although she was doing her best not to let it show, she was feeling guilty. It obviously wasn't Clay's fault that his mom made dinner plans for tonight this morning.

After breakfast, Quinn wrote up a list of what Clay should get at the store, deciding that they were gonna do chicken wings, because it was something he knew how to make, and they were easy. Other things on the list, mac and cheese, a vegetable tray, two liters of soda, fries, and paper plates.

"Thanks," he said with a small head nod to Quinn, keeping as much distance between them as he could. She returned the head nod, feeling like an idiot.

As soon as he was out the door, George and Nick started asking questions.

"So what the hell is going on?" Nick was leaning against the counter, his arms crossed.

"You and Clay have been so weird to each other this past week, did something happen?" George's words seem to set something off in Nick's head, because his composure changed.

"Did you tell him?" Nick asked.

Quinn felt a little cornered, but she knew that it was only right for her to tell them, "Kinda?"

"Tell him what? You guys always keep secrets from me!" George complained, "What happened?"

"Remember like two weeks ago, when you were sick George?" Quinn started moving to the living room and sitting on the couch, beckoning George and Nick to do the same.

"Yeah," George nodded.

"Clay wanted to stream that night, but he was tired so him and I hung out a little bit that night, and we were supposed to take a power nap and then stream, but instead we fell asleep on top of each other. I woke up feeling a little awkward, because yknow, and so i left." Quinn explained, George sat there looking a little confused, "George, I have- had feelings for Clay."

"Why did you use past tense?" George questioned, and Nick smacked his arm.

"Because the other night when we were gonna drink and play wii games, he asked me about it, and I kinda told him that I didn't want him to feel awkward if we woke up in the morning together, and it kinda just escalated and we kissed."

"Wait what?" Nick burst out, "Were you the one who gave him the hickey?"

Quinn started laughing a little bit.

"Why didn't you TELL ME?" He continued.

"Nick, she's not done... " George pointed out, "I don't think it ends well."

"We decided that it was smarter for us not to be together. With most of our lives being public, it would be too hard not to let our fans into a relationship," Quinn said this with a heavy heart, willing herself not to get upset.

"That's bullshit," Nick met Quinn's eyes, "If you guys want to be together, you should."

"And what if we did, get together?" Quinn asked, "and then we broke up? I would have to move out, and it would be weird. Plus if we were together the dynamic of the house would change."

"I mean, she does have a point," George nodded, "Is that what you were crying about the other day?"

Quinn nodded. George seemed to put the pieces together.

"Even if we could be together, I've closed off my brain to the possibility," Quinn swallowed hard, looking at her hands, "I don't wanna think about it again."

Nick moved on the couch next to Quinn pulling her into a side hug. He was probably the best at reading her, and he knew that this had to suck, "Thank you, for telling us."

Quinn nodded, before remembering what they were supposed to be doing, "Guys, we gotta clean."

And then she delegated tasks for them to start doing before Clay got home. There wasn't anymore talk about Clay and Quinn, and there was much more internal thinking on Quinn's part. Clay had called his mom, she knows. She was coming over. Oh no.

"I'm back," Clay called out, walking in carrying bags of groceries in his arms. The rest of the house made their way to the kitchen to greet him and then help unpack. Quinn put stuff in the fridge and then got everything out to start making brownies. The boys left her alone for a bit.

As she was baking, she couldn't help overthinking the fact that Clay's mom probably knew everything that happened between them. Tonight was gonna be so awkward. Quinn was getting herself so worked up that she had to text Clay.

It took him two seconds to walk into the kitchen.

"Why would she hate you?" He wasn't wearing a shirt. Quinn tried to tell herself to ignore it, however it was painfully obvious that her brain was a little elsewhere.

"Just cause... uh the thing... with us, you and me, not us," She was hoping to play it off as anxious. Averting her eyes, Quinn began pouring the brownie batter into a pan that she could put into the oven.

"Quinn... Do you really think my mom could hate you?" There was a lot of reason in his tone, and so Quinn knew that she was safe, but part of her still worried, "She knows how much I care about you- all of you guys." He got silent quickly.

Quinn nodded, so it seems she wasn't the only one still struggling to get over the other. It was quiet for a second before Clay seemed to just disappear, going back to wherever he came from. Quinn put her brownies in the oven and leaned against the counter going through twitter on her phone. A message from Clay popped up at the top of her screen.

My mom loves you :)

That was the most comforting thing she had heard in a while. She swiped up, ignoring the message for now and checked trending. She was trending. #Quinn6months was trending with the description, fans show support for Twitch streamer Quinn in celebration of living with her best friends for six months today.

She smiled and clicked on the hashtag, investigating what people were saying. A lot of it was girls talking about how jealous they were that Quinn was living the dream. Some of it was talking about how much her content has meant to them in the past six months. Most of it, however, were pictures and video clips from when she first moved in. One that touched her the most was a mirror selfie of her and Clay holding Patches and Rose together. It made her smile. She wanted to respond to all the positivity that was coming from her followers.

She attached a picture that she took a week and a half ago from a movie night that they had. It was a selfie of the four roommates on the couch, Quinn, George, Nick, and then Clay on the opposite end. She tweeted it without second thought.

Quinn then put her phone down on the counter, and took the brownies out of the oven to cool. It made the whole house smell sweet. She retreated back to her room as they cooled on the counter and plopped on her bed scrolling again. She noticed something weird, #DreamGF? was trending. Out of curiosity, she clicked on the hashtag, and her mouth dropped.

It was the picture she just posted, except zoomed in a bunch, exposing a dark spot that was peaking out of the t-shirt Clay was wearing. It was captioned, "IS THAT A HICKEY SIR????"

"Oh, shit." Quinn breathed out. She kept looking at the tag, seeing that people were speculating. A lot of people assumed it was from Quinn, pointing out how awkward they were when they streamed together now. Their fans had clocked them. She held back laughter at a particular tweet which read "caught in 4K, but is DNF? Or Dinn?" Dinn was the stupid ship name the the fans had given Clay and Quinn.

"CLAY COME HERE REAL QUICK," Quinn shouted, it was probably smart of her to warn him. Nick was the one who yelled back.

"SO IT WAS YOU!" Nick accused, as all three boys stood in Quinn's doorway.

"You actual idiot," George teased, "Now people are gonna think Clay and I are sleeping together again."

"If only they knew," Clay winked at George, but Quinn knew the comment was really to her. If only he knew that they knew already, "It's fine, I'll just tweet it was a bruise and the whole thing will blow over. Give it a week."

"Did you see that people think it was Quinn?" Nick was doing his best to play wingman, "a bunch of them seemed really excited at the idea of you two being together."

Quinn bit the inside of her cheek really hard, to keep from turning red.

"Yeah, but we're just friends, right Quinn?" Clay didn't know that this was what stung the most, he was still so lovable, even as he twisted the knife.

"Mhmm," Quinn hummed, feeling completely still, "I can also tweet something? Maybe diffuse the tension a bit?"

"On twitter?" George didn't finish the other half of the question, which was or in the house?

After everything was sorted on twitter everyone went their separate ways again, waiting for the text from Clay's mom, signifying they were at the house. In that time of waiting, Quinn put on a nice sundress and did her hair and makeup a little bit. She convinced the boys to also dress for the occasion, which took more convincing on George's part, because "I want to be comfortable."

When the doorbell rang, Quinn watched as Tiki sprinted out of her room, and most likely into Clay's where she normally hid. Quinn heard his family come in before she saw them, hearing happy greetings going around the room, of course she wasn't there with them, the night was off to a great start.

As she walked into the kitchen, Clay's mom greeted her warmly with a hug.

"There's the pretty girl," She looked to her son, "I was wondering if you were keeping her from me."

Quinn was beaming, since her own mom lived so far, she hardly got to see her anymore, so Clay's mom was like a second mom to her.

"Quinn!" Clay's sister also greeted her with a big hug, she was very sweet, but incredibly intimidating.

"It smells so good in here," His mom commented, "I see you baked."

"I did, yeah, we had the stuff for it, so I figured why not?" Quinn laughed light heartedly.

"Well, let's get dinner ready then, I'm starving," Clay's mom began helping make the mac and cheese as Quinn got the vegetable stuff set up. As they were cooking and setting up, they were chatting, and the conversation flowed pretty easily.

What Quinn didn't see, but nobody else could miss, was the look in Clay's eyes as he watched her interact with his family. It made everything hurt a little bit sweeter, knowing that his family loved Quinn already. Maybe they would be able to make it work, their fans had already guessed about their status, so what was the point in fighting it. He smiled at her, he wanted to make it work. He was going to try.

"Hey Quinn, can I borrow you?" Clay called to her, who looked at him with a small smile. But before anything could go down Clay's sister stepped in, with Clay's phone in hand.

"Hey who's Vanessa?" She was unaware of the severity of what she just said.

"Give me my phone," Clay snatched it back, remembering that there was now another reason that he couldn't be with Quinn. He had taken his mom's advice.

He hadn't said anything about it yet, but it seemed as if his sister was gonna do that for him. He looked up and met Quinn's eyes from across the kitchen. She was doing her best to keep her composure, but Clay saw the way that her eyes changed. She swallowed and then turned away from him, focusing on anything else.

Quinn didn't know what she was expecting, Clay wasn't gonna just stay single forever, of course he was gonna talk to other girls.

Was she jealous?

Yes.

Was it her place to be jealous?

No.

She reminded herself that they were just friends, they didn't kiss, they didn't spend the night together, and she certainly wasn't the one who gave him the hickey that Twitter raved about.

"Quinn, Quinn, Quinn!" Nick grabbed her hand, directing her attention to the look of concern on his face, "Careful, before you cut your finger off, please."

He took the knife away from her, and started chopping the rest of the vegetables, "Why don't you go take a breather, you look a little pale," he whispered. And Quinn could only nod at him. She didn't look at anyone as she made her way out the back door, very focused on getting outside.

Clay noticed, of course, but it wasn't the time for him to play hero. He nudged his sister, a motion to follow Quinn, to make sure she was okay.

"Hey," Clay's sister said, closing the door behind her.

"Oh, hey," Quinn took a quick breath, putting a smile on her face, "Sorry, I didn't know anyone followed me."

"You don't have to act," his sister nodded, "I came to see if you were okay."

"Oh, yeah, I'm alright just a little dizzy..." Quinn lied.

"Quinn." His sister put a hand on Quinn's shoulder, "I know how you feel about him."

"Oh." Quinn looked at the grass, if his mom and his sister knew about them, then there was no point in hiding her disappointment. Quinn felt the silence surround the two girls.

"If it means anything to you," she smiled, "he really liked you. Likes. There's no way he's moved on."

"Thanks," Quinn nodded, "But it doesn't mean we can be together, your brother and I, we talked about it, so I knew it was impossible, I just wasn't expecting him to move on so fast. Sorry, this must be weird for you."

"No, no, it's actually kind of nice, just to be able to talk to another girl who isn't my mom. Having Clay as a brother makes the people at school a lot more... fake."

"I'm so sorry. I know it can't be easy," Quinn comforted Clay's sister for a moment.

"I know this isn't easy for you either, but he does really like you. So maybe not now, but someday you guys can be public. That'd be cool."

Quinn smiled at the thought of being around Clay's family more. She was right, it would be fun. Maybe someday.

"Hey guys, dinner's ready." George stepped outside, "You okay Quinn?"

Quinn just nodded to George and motioned for Clay's sister to start heading inside, Quinn followed. Everyone made plates and sat around the table, which Nick added the leaf to, so it would fit everyone. Quinn wanted to get the question off her chest, and she had to settle her thoughts.

"So... Vanessa?" She wasn't looking at him as she asked, but she could feel his eyes on her.

"Quinn, now? You wanna do this-" Clay started.

"Is she nice?" Quinn cut him off, she wasn't looking to start an argument, she just wanted to know.

"Very nice," Clay answered shortly, his face turning pink, Nick and George were looking at each other, with an oh shit look on their faces.

"You should invite her over sometime," Quinn stated casually and Clay was shocked his jaw didn't hit the floor, "It would be nice to have another girl around here, all boys all the time can be a little tiring."

Clay was fighting an internal battle at the moment. He wanted to shut Quinn up, tell her that he didn't mean what he said two weeks ago, and that they could make it work, but he also was afraid of losing her if they didn't work out. Quinn was just too important to him. So he nodded and stayed silent.

The rest of dinner went by smoothly. The conversation was light, the mood returned to fun, and everyone was enjoying themselves. After Clay's family left, it shifted a little bit. Quinn had done such a good job holding herself together, that the second she was alone, she felt herself crumble.

She sank onto her bed, sitting staring at the carpet, she wanted to zone out and pretend that she didn't know Vanessa existed. There couldn't be another girl, there just couldn't. The knock at her door made her jump a little.

"Come in," She called out quietly. It was Clay, "Never mind, Get out."

"Can we talk?" He sounded a little wounded, Quinn tried to ignore him as she shut herself down.

"Go ahead, talk," She crossed her arms.

"I was gonna tell you. I swear," Clay was staring at her, hoping she would soften under his gaze, "Quinn, I'm so sorry, but I have to-"

"Why are you sorry?" Quinn met his eyes, "We're just friends, Clay. You can talk to whoever you want."

That stung him a little bit. She seemed like she just didn't care. He didn't expect this type of response from her, "You seem upset."

"I'm fine, Clay," it was clear that this was a lie.

"So you don't care if I go out with Vanessa?" He was doing his best to read the situation, but it was harder than it seemed. His words seemed to impact Quinn, because her shoulders dropped, and her voice cracked when she spoke.

"Did you have to say it like that?" Her voice was quieter, but began to increase in volume and anger, "you know what? No, Clay, I don't care if you go out with Vanessa. Or Rachel. Or Cara. Or any other girl that you meet. I thought we agreed on not being together because of our jobs, but you seem so adamant about wanting to introduce someone into your career. So Go ahead. I'm not gonna post on twitter about it, or stream on twitch about being broken hearted if that's why you're asking, but I just don't get why you couldn't make it work for me, one of your best friends, yet you can for a stranger. Whatever Clay. What-fucking-ever."