"Hey guys, I wanted to do more of a chill stream today, maybe just practice speedrunning, and chatting to you guys, because there are a lot of things we should talk about," Quinn clicked on the twitch stream as soon as she saw the notification. Dreamwastaken is live!

She was laying in her bed, watching nervously. After that day with Nick's alt stream, all Quinn could do was apologise. She apologised to Clay, she apologised to Vanessa, she apologised to the fans, it had been two weeks and she hadn't streamed. She was still embarrassed. Even just watching Clay play minecraft felt like an invasion of his privacy. Still she couldn't take her eyes off of him.

He had his facecam on, but she could tell it was a last second decision, because it wasn't where it normally sat, the angle was different, and Quinn could see more of his side profile as he focused on the game. She felt bad, watching him like this, she was guilty, and it was driving her up the wall.

Chat was exploding with messages, announcing her arrival, and she resisted the urge to groan into her pillow, she couldn't even watch Clay in private. It was kind of annoying her a little extra today, but it very well could be that she knows that she can't just join his stream anymore. Vanessa was very clear with her boundaries, and after almost shit-talking her on stream, Quinn was being especially careful not to cross them. Her career could be at stake.

"Why are you guys saying Quinn? She's not here, is she?" Clay side-eyed the chat careful to not take his eyes off his game for too long, "Quinn if you're here say something."

She clicked on the chat bar, her fingers hovering over the keyboard, as if she was tempting herself. Instead, she closed out of his stream, sighing deeply. The past two weeks, Quinn has felt, trapped, in her own room.

She rose from her bed and went into the kitchen, dialling Ellie's number. As she passed Clay's door she heard him say her name, and paused for a moment, curious.

"Guys, Quinn and I are friends. She's my best friend, and I love her very much, but not in the way that you guys think. She's taking a break from streaming, and that's all her decision, but it's not about me and Vanessa. I'm not mad, I'm not upset, okay? Like I said, Quinn is my best friend, and I love her."

Her heart sank, she didn't know what she was expecting, but she could only think about one thing, I love her.

She called Ellie, who answered almost immediately.

"Oh my gosh, you're alive?" The blond joked over the phone, "oh wait, I'm mad at you."

"What'd I do?" Quinn tucked her phone in between her ear and her shoulder, while she moved around the kitchen, debating what she wanted to make for dinner.

"You disappeared! You haven't streamed for weeks, you've been off of Twitter, and you haven't opened my Snap from five days ago, it was a cute dog video!" Ellie sounded like she was really worried, in an Ellie sort of way, Quinn started to feel a little bad, "I had to DM Sapnap, to make sure that you weren't MIA."

"I'm so sorry, Ellie, really, I just... I haven't been on social media, and I've turned all my notifications off. I've been a mess, El, it's bad," Quinn admitted into the phone.

"Oh babes, I heard. Sapnap told me, and I've been watching your hashtag, your people miss you Quinn," Ellie was smiling with her words, "And I miss you too, you have to come stay with me sometime, I need more girl time."

Quinn watched the pot of water she placed on the stove start to boil, so she dumped the spaghetti noodles into the water and put the lid on the pot, "I miss you too El, I'll come stay with you soon, I promise, there's just some stuff that I should probably deal with first."

"Just let me know the time and I'll be watching," Ellie knew all too well that Quinn missed streaming as much as her community missed her, but it's understandable to need a break, especially with everything that she had been through.

"10 p.m. tonight, I'll see if George wants to You Laugh You Lose, something light to get me back in my element," Quinn held her phone, opening George's text chat, and shot him a quick message. Instead of texting her back, he shouted a 'sure' across the house.

It took George all of twenty seconds to get to the kitchen, noticing that Quinn was cooking dinner, "Who are you on the phone with?" He asked when he saw her phone pressed to her ear.

"Ellie," Quinn answered, stirring the noodles, and checking on the sauce, she was great at multitasking.

"Hi Ellie," George said loud enough for her to hear, smiling dorkily. This brought Quinn back to the first few weeks after moving in, when she was always on the phone with Ellie, the boys had gotten used to seeing the blonde girl on Facetime, or hearing her voice on speaker. They grew quite fond of her.

"Is Clay done streaming?" George asked, and Quinn just shrugged in response.

She ended her conversation with Ellie, promising that she would come visit soon. Quinn then leaned against the counter, turning on notifications for all her social media again. She had been hiding for long enough.

"Dude, where are you going?" Quinn looked up hearing Nick's voice. She bit down on her tongue when she saw what he was talking about. Clay had walked into the kitchen, dressed up.

"Date night," Clay replied cooly, adjusting the buttons on his shirt. He was wearing a button up long-sleeve that he had rolled up to his elbows, with khaki pants and nice shoes. Quinn focused really hard on stirring the spaghetti noodles.

"And miss all the fun here? Lame." George held an L up to his forehead, aiming it at Clay.

"Oh yeah, I saw your tweet," Clay directed his words to Quinn, "I'm glad you're streaming tonight."

"I figured it was time to jump back on the horse," Quinn smiled, "I hope your stream went well."

It was... friendly, but awkward. He must've sensed this.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he eyed her and Quinn really wanted to say no, but that would mean that she was nervous to talk to him. So instead, she nodded, telling George to watch dinner for a second. She followed him into the laundry room, and watched him shut the door.

"Are we okay?" When she heard the concern in his voice, she faltered.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Quinn tried to play it cool, but she could feel herself getting overwhelmed, the smell of his cologne was bringing her back to the night she fell asleep in his arms, it made her head spin.

"This is the first time you've looked at me in weeks," Clay was staring directly into her soul, Quinn was convinced.

"I'm just, trying to balance everything," Quinn looked away, "but yes, we're okay."

Quinn wanted to run. She tried to push past Clay, trying to leave the room. His hand on her elbow froze her in place.

"I miss you." It was honest, and bare and just for her ears. Quinn felt herself sink.

"I miss you too," She turned to look him back in his eyes, he was sad.

Clay took a chance and pulled Quinn into a hug. Quinn wanted to fight it at first, it felt wrong, hugging him like this, being alone like this. But Quinn welcomed it, she had to take what she could get. In Clay's arms, she felt weak, like everything that she had been building up, toppled over. He was hugging her like they were meeting for the first time, and maybe, this was a first time for them. This new version of them, where Quinn walks on eggshells and Clay has a girlfriend.

"I'm sorry," Clay spoke when they broke apart.

"For what?" Quinn looked at him confusedly.

"Just randomly dropping this friendship stuff on you, my chat couldn't stop talking about you today, and I guess I just haven't stopped thinking about you since." Clay admitted this a little bashfully, and Quinn felt a shiver go down her spine.

"Clay..." She didn't know what to say.

Thankfully, she didn't have to, as Clay's phone started to ring. He pulled it out from his pocket, and Vanessa's picture flashed on the screen.

"I'm late," he sighed and answered the phone.

"Have fun," Quinn mouthed to him, watching him leave the laundry room, she felt defeated.

When he was gone, Quinn leaned against the wall and sank to the floor. This time, it was different, because she wasn't sad. She was beaming to herself. Clay had said it himself, he had been thinking about her all day. Even if he was going out with Vanessa, he was coming home to Quinn. That was a small victory.

George knocked on the laundry room door, "You okay in there? Or should I send Nick in?"

"I am prepared to hug you and make you feel better," Nick was standing there with George and Quinn laughed.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" She stood up, brushing herself off before leaving the laundry room, "You didn't ruin dinner, did you?"

"No, absolutely not!" George shook his head, pointing to the bowls of pasta that were sitting on the counter. George was a real sweetheart.

The three ate dinner in mostly silence, the only conversation they had was when Patches and Tiki came out into the kitchen, chasing each other, and Nick yelled at them to get off the counter. Quinn was thinking about her stream, and she was overthinking how it was gonna go.

The viewers could shit talk her in her chat, they could ask her questions she isn't prepared to answer, they could be jerks and Quinn would just have to sit and bear it. She reminded herself that George was gonna be there and that everything was gonna be okay.

Time passed quicker than Quinn expected it to, and George stood in her doorway at 8:45, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. When she saw him, Quinn laughed so hard she almost fell out of her bed.

"You look like a five year old who's coming to tell their parents that they threw up in the middle of the night," Quinn tried to stand, but she was wheezing.

"Quinn, it's not that funny," George was biting back a smile. He dragged his chair next to hers, and waited for Quinn to set up her stream.

Quinn loaded her Streamlabs and tweeted out that she was live, before clicking the magical button.

"Your mic's muted?" George asked, it wasn't a jab at her, but a serious question. Quinn checked quickly before nodding. Quinn watched her count down slowly tick away and she felt her stomach tumble up with nerves.

"It's gonna be okay," he reassured her, nodding.

When Quinn turned her face-cam on, chat exploded with sweet comments and warm welcomes. This made Quinn beam. She noticed a specific flood of people who were just commenting DREAM'S HERE over and over again.

Quinn quickly opened up her moderator tab, and sure enough Clay had clicked onto her stream.

"DREAM! You're literally on a date, go away!" Quinn rolled her eyes, and George giggled next to her, "George! You're not supposed to be laughing! That's literally the whole point."

Quinn's insides were melted, even on his date, he clicked on her stream. He really did care.

The challenge went better than Quinn had expected it to, she was holding her giggles much better than George was, he was the one who lost it for the both of them, on a video of Nick falling out of his chair, edited to the Wii music.

"I do not understand why that tickles you so much," Quinn sat watching him laugh to himself, and chat was seemingly giggling with him. Quinn took a picture of this in her brain. She was glad to be back.

Now all she had to do was convince Vanessa that she wasn't in love with her boyfriend. That would be easy enough, right?