The Dot 

Clare joined the chat 28 hours ago

Fitz joined the chat 28 hours ago

Clare was nervous as she walked into The Dot. True to what Fitz had told her the night before, the manager had called earlier in the day and left her a voicemail telling her that she had the job and she could come in that afternoon. She had went home and changed before rushing back and now here she was, nervously waiting at the counter to see what would happen. She had never had a job before and she was slightly worried about waiting tables because what if she messed up? Clare shook her head and reminded herself to just breathe, she was sure she’d do okay and that they couldn’t fire her a day in if she did mess up.

Fitz: finished wiping down the last dirty table he was working at before going into the back to ask his manager if he was supposed to train Clare and what time she’d be there. This had to be the first time he was ever really excited to do something for work. Him and Clare were getting along great, better than getting along, they were becoming friends. Which while it was unexpected, it was a welcome surprise. Once his manager told him that she’d be there within a few minutes, he headed up to the front to see her waiting at the counter. “Long time, no see,” he teased lightly, “Guess who’s training you?”

Clare laughed quietly. “I know, jeesh, it’s been so long.” She teased back and grinned when he asked the guess who question. “You are? Really?” She was excited because she knew Fitz and being trained by him would be better than a stranger. She tried not to think about the way her stomach seemed to do flips when he had walked into view and every time he talked to her. He had come over the night before and they had talked about a lot of different things, so she was enjoying his friendship but the fact that she had developed a crush worried her. She didn’t want it to mess up their new found friendship. “That is really good news.” Clare said and smiled, looking away from him for a moment as she glanced around and then back at him. “So teach me the way of a Dot employee.” She said, feeling like a dork.

Fitz: smiled at her when she teased back. Things were going so well between them, which shocked him. He had almost stabbed her ex-boyfriend, thrown their best friend into a glass door before proceding to get arrested in front of her less than a year before this, so them being friends really was shocking. To him it was at least. He hoped he wouldn’t mess it up. “Well, wouldn’t want you to go through your first shift with a total stranger.” he laughed then nodded, “Follow me.” He walked over to where the couple had sat down at a table. “Hi, I’m Fit-Mark. How are you guys doing? Can I get you anything? Don’t mind her, I’m training her.”

Clare grinned. “Well thank you.” She said and nodded before she followed Fitz and snorted quietly when he told them not mind her. She watched as he took their order, two cups of coffee and a plate of fries. He didn’t write it down but started back toward the counter and she smiled at the couple before following after him. “So… smile, take their order, make their order?” She guessed quietly although she wasn’t trying to step on his toes or anything, she was saying it out loud to mentally process it. “Sorry, I’m just slightly nervous. I really want this job to work out.”

Fitz: nodded then paused, “Well, smile, take their order, write the order on a slip, put the slip right here.” He pointed to the piece of metal he had stuck the slip on. “They’ll make them in order. Anything food, they’ll make in the back, so you’ll need to keep checking if it’s ready or not. Any drinks, you make. Have you ever made coffee before? Or tea? I mean it’s pretty straightforward, the directions are next to the coffee maker.” He smiled and then when the fries were ready, he picked them up and motioned for her to get the coffees and follow him to take the couple their coffee and fries. “Enjoy your meal.” He then turned to her, “It’s alright. I know how you feel. I was the same way my first day.”

Clare smiled, glad that he was going over it slowly. “Yeah, I’ve made plenty of coffee and tea before.” She said quietly and she was relieved to hear that she wouldn’t have to cook the orders. As much as she enjoyed working with food, she figured running back and forth while waiting tables would be stressful. Clare picked up the coffees and followed Fitz, setting them down and smiled at both of them. She snickered quietly. “Sorry, I just can’t picture you as nervous like this. Clare spotted another couple who had just walked in and took a seat. She glanced at Fitz. “Can I try?” She asked, reaching for his pad of paper to take orders on.

Fitz: nodded and smiled at her again, he was glad she did know how to do that, it had taken him some time to learn how to do that, but he had never made a cup of coffee before working at the

Fitz: Dot. He never drank it before but now he practically lived off of it. He nodded at her, “Of course, I’ll just be right here.” He smiled as she helped them and smiled to himself, she had his complete attention the majority of the time, but he also had hers. He couldn’t help but notice how adorable her smile was, how adorable she was. But he snapped out of it and jumped when she came back over to talk to him.

Clare grinned when she walked back over to Fitz. She ripped off the top paper and did as he had said, placing it on the metal thing before handing him the pad back and walking around him to get one glass of water and another of Mountain Dew. She grabbed two straws before picking the cups up and walking carefully to the table and laying everything out as she smiled and told them their food would be right there before walking to Fitz again. “Okay, so how’d I do?” She asked as she leaned against the counter with him. “What do we do when everybody is taken care of?” She glanced back to see if their food was out yet, but it wasn’t.

Fitz: smiled back at her and nodded, “You did great actually. Really, really good.” He thought about it for a minute, it was really slow and he knew he was off soon and he wondered when she would be. Maybe they could hang out or something, he really didn’t want to go home for the night so early, especially when he knew Steve would be high tonight. “Well, if there’s no tables to clean off and nothing to do, we just kinda, wait for something to do. What time are you here until?”

Clare shrugged. “He said that this was more of a training day so until I was trained. To just write the times down. Which was weird but he’s the boss, soooo.” She shrugged and smiled. “Why, when do you get out of here? Don’t leave me.” She whined quietly. She’d probably be even more nervous if he were to leave and she’d have to do this alone on her first day. Clare saw that the food was out so she smiled and walked over before taking it to the table and setting the plates down and told them to have a good meal before walking back over to Fitz.

Fitz: nodded and laughed to himself, shaking his head. His boss did that, he was pretty unconventional but that was why Fitz got along with him so well. This was the only place that agreed to hire him even though he had a record, which was saying a lot. “I’m here for another hour and a half. I thought maybe we could hang out after work, I’m not in the mood to go home too early today. If you want to, I mean,”

Clare was timed out 25 hours ago

Clare joined the chat 24 hours ago

Clare was glad to hear that he wanted to hang out. “Of course I want to,” she said, and maybe too quickly. She blushed and cleared her throat. “I just have to do some homework first. And then maybe we could go for a walk? Or watch a movie oooooor whatever you had in mind?” She asked, smiling. She glanced around to make sure that nothing needed to be done but everybody looked pleased as they ate so she glanced back at Fitz and smiled.

Fitz: smiled back at her, feeling his heart almost skip a beat when she smiled and blushed. He nodded and then said, “Yeah, I have some homework too. Obviously..you knew that already. But yeah, we could do whatever you want, you know me, I’m pretty flexible. I just like hanging out with you.”

Clare grinned and glanced away, feeling silly. “I like hanging out with you, too.” She said and ignored the butterflies in her stomach. She saw a couple leave, money on their table. “Where are the rags and stuff?” She asked, looking at Fitz. Mostly because it needed to be done but it helped as a distraction from how happy that simple sentence had made her.

Fitz: smiled a big smile and pointed to the rags to clean the table. “You get this one and I’ll get the next?” He loved the fact that his words had that kind of effect on her. She couldn’t keep the smile off of her face anymore than he could and he was actually excited to hang out with her. But he knew that was going to make their shift drag.

Clare nodded and quickly grabbed the rags and took care of the table, bringing back the check and money to Fitz because she didn’t know how to use the register and went back to make sure that the table was completely clean. It was and she stopped by to pick up a few cups and refilled them before taking those back as well and went back up to the counter. “So how do we use this thing?” She asked.

Fitz: turned the register on and typed in the amount on the recipit, “You type in the numbers. Hit enter. Type in the amount they gave you, hit total and then give them the amount on the screen. If they told you to keep the change, the remaining is tip. We can split any tips we get today since I’m training you.”

Clare nodded and paid attention to everything that Fitz was doing. When he said that they could split the tips, she blinked. “Are you sure? You don’t have to do that, Fitz.” She said and shook her head, smiling. A guy walked in and sat at the counter so since Fitz was still dealing with the register, she walked over and took his order. He wanted a hamburger, fries and a cup of coffee so she laid the paper on the metal before making a cup of coffee and setting it in front of him with a smile on her lips.

Fitz: shook his head at her, “No, I insist, you helped me so you get half the tips.” He laughed when she walked away and went to help the next customer. “It’s almost time to clock out. For me anyway. And I guess you too. Since I’m the one training you.” he laughed, “So, are you enjoying your new job then?”

Clare smiled. “Okay then.” She wrote down the hours she had been there and left it where the boss would see it and decided not to argue with Fitz. “Yeah.” She smiled at him and grabbed her bag. “I am. When do I get a uniform?” She asked, gently tugging at the bottom of Fitz’s shirt with a grin on her face

Fitz: smiled wide at her, the smile had really never left his face since she had walked in earlier that day and he clocked out. He turned around and laughed softly when she tugged on his shirt and shrugged, “Probably within the next few days. So..where are we hanging out at?”

Clare smiled as she walked toward the door. “Is my place okay? Mom’s never home and I figured you might not want to go home… so. If not we can go anywhere else you’d like.” She said and held the door open for him. When he walked out, she followed him and paused once out of the walk way to look at him as she dug her keys out of her bag.

Fitz: smirked slightly before teasing playfully, “Trying to get me alone again, are you? But that’s fine, your house would be fine. My house..I wouldn’t want Steve around you. He get a little, borderline rapist when he’s stoned, so on a regular basis.” He laughed awkwardly then started to walk with her.

Clare walked with him but realized that they had walked past her car. She gently reached out and took Fitz’s hand. “Sorry, we were walking past the car.” She hit the unlock button and walked around to the driver side. “Oh yeah, you caught me. Again.” She teased back and wondered where that had come from. She blushed and quickly got into the car.

Fitz: nodded and laughed as he got in the car, “I didn’t know you had a car. It’s nice. It’s very..you.” He laughed and studied her face and facial expressions as she drove toward her house. He was just, completely taken by her and he didn’t know what it was about her at all. It was a weird feeling. “So your mom’s never home? That must be lonely, right?”

Clare smiled when he said the car was very her. “Thank you.” The drive was quiet until he spoke up and she nodded. “It is… and I miss her, even if she’s kind of a nightmare at times. And I miss my dad, too. But it’s okay, I mean, I’m okay.” She said and glanced over at him before turning her eyes back to the road. She made it to her house and shut the engine off and put her keys in her bag as she looked back over at him and smiled before getting out of the car. “Are you hungry or anything?” She asked as they walked up to the house and she unlocked it to let him in.

Fitz: nodded and said softly, “Welcome.” When they got to her house, he followed her out of her car and into her house where he sat down again on her couch, like he had the night before. He shook his head when she asked if he was hungry. He wasn’t ever hungry after working around the food at the dot the whole day, it sort of made him lose his appetite. “No, no thanks.:

Clare nodded. “Okay, thirsty?” She called back as she walked into the kitchen after dropping her bag off at the couch and opened her fridge. She pulled out a bottle of water for herself and shut the door, waiting but stayed in the kitchen as she twisted the cap and took a sip, hitting the play button on the answering machine seeing as the light was flashing. Her mom’s voice came on, telling her that she wouldn’t be home until after Clare was in bed and that there was money in the cookie jar. “Thanks, mom.” She said and erased the message as she walked over and checked the jar. “Enough for either pizza or chinese. Hm.”

Fitz: nodded and smiled before saying, “Yeah, I’ll just have some water.” He glanced at the pictures on the fire place, smiling a little bit to himself when he saw an old picture of her. “You have a sister? I didn’t know that. You were a cute kid.” he teased lightly, laughing, “Still are..well not a kid but…”

Clare grabbed him a bottle of water and walked into the living room, sitting on the couch beside him. She set her bottle on the coffee table but handed his over to him and glanced at the pictures. “Yeah, Darcy. She’s been gone for a while now, she went to Kenya to do volunteer work. She never came back, though. She writes… sometimes.” Clare blushed at his teasing and rolled her eyes. “Thank you.” She bit the inside of her cheek before laughing. “I’m trying to picture you as a kid.” She explained as she turned her body to face him and held her hands up, like a picture frame as she shut one eye and looked at him.

Fitz: laughed when she was trying to picture him as a kid and pulled his wallet out of his pocket. “I’m pretty sure, I have a picture of me with my dad when I was about four in here.” he told her then nodded, handing her the picture, “I was a weird looking kid though. My hair was, yeah, there you go.”

Clare dropped her hands to take the picture it and studied it. Clare giggled quietly. “Aw, no. Not weird looking. You were adorable.” She said and glanced up at him. “Oh look, you still are.” She said, surprisingly without a blush as she glanced back down at the picture. “When I was four, I was still missing this tooth.” She said and used her tongue to show him as she handed his picture back over to him. “Darce used to tell me that it wouldn’t grow back if I didn’t give her my dessert every night. It took mom a week to catch on.”

Fitz: laughed and shook his head, blushing lightly when she said he was still adorable. He shrugged and joked, “I guess I’m alright. Nothing special.” He smiled at her and laughed at her story, “That’s horrible. I think that’s adorable though, I bet you were the cutest kid.”

Clare shook her head. “Don’t stay that.” she chided softly. “I think you’re pretty special and amazing.” She was speaking about how he was turning his life around and she admired that. Clare watched him for a few seconds before pulling out her folder that her homework and groaned quietly. “Stupid, who are you essay’s… can’t we just give them notecards with like, five interesting facts about ourselves? And why do we have to do this every single year?”

Fitz: frowned at the instructions for the essay. He, too, hated doing these essays, they were repetitive and it’s not like everybody in Degrassi didn’t know all about him anyway. They had all known him most of his life anyway. He read through it and sighed, “That would be a lot better, yeah. I hate these things, what am I going to write..like everybody knows all of it already.”

Clare smiled and started her introduction paragraph before glancing over at him. “You could tell them how you’re really good at explaining things and about how you’re turning your life around and how you’re really awesome and sweet.” She said, smiling. “Because you don’t show them that.” But she knew it and she was learning it with the more time that they spent together.

Fitz: smiled and shrugged before saying softly, “I don’t know if anyone would believe me if I wrote that. I mean..think about it, if you didn’t spend time with me, would you believe it? After everything? But thank you for saying that. You are sweeter and more awesome.”

Clare frowned. She didn’t like that he seemed to never take credit where it was due and also seemed to put himself down. Clare put her notebook down and nervously reached for his hand but she didn’t turn back. She took his hand and shook her head. “Don’t do that,” she said quietly again. “I mean it, you’re a good person and so what if they don’t believe it? They’re the ones missing out and they’re the ones with a problem, not you.”

Fitz: didn’t like that she frowned, seeing her upset made him upset, and he had no idea why this was happening, why he all of a sudden cared. It was simply because it was Clare, that’s why he cared. “Thank you,” he said in a whispered, gazing into her eyes, “For..being there for me and believing in me. I appreciate it.”

Clare nodded and smiled slightly before taking her hand from his and picking back up her notebook and her pen as she went back to writing quietly. After thirty minutes of homework, she was done and put her things away as she laid her head on the back of the couch. “Are you hungry yet?” She asked, slightly whiny, she was hungry but wanted to wait until he was, too. She had just assumed that he’d eat dinner with her.

Fitz: worked quickly to finish the essay, it was a pretty easy essay considering it was about himself and required not much effort. That had always been his strength, writing and working fast. He looked over at her and smiled to himself when she got whiny and nodded, “Yeah, I could eat. Why? Are you inviting me over for dinner? Because if so..you’re my best friend.” He laughed quietly and leaned his head back on the couch.

Clare laughed and nodded. “Yes, that’s me inviting you for dinner.” She said. He leaned his head back on the couch and she couldn’t stop watching him. It was sort of frustrating because she wasn’t supposed to like Fitz, not in a girly giggle smile all the time, he gives me butterflies and my heart go silly kind of like. Clare smiled. “So… is pizza okay?” She asked quietly.

Fitz: smiled and nodded before saying softly, “Pizza would be great actually.” He smiled at her and got lost looking into her eyes. What surprised him, was the fact that while he did that, she was watching him and it seemed as though she couldn’t keep her eyes off of him either. “Is there something on my face?” he joked when he caught her looking at him.

Clare blushed when he asked that and immediately looked away as her cheeks heated up. “What? No. No.” she got off of the couch and walked to get the phone as she ignored the flipping and fluttering in her stomach. This was insane. Absolutely. Clare leaned against the door way and dialed the number. “What do you like on your pizza?” She asked, still red.

Fitz: watched as she blushed and looked away from him, and he smiled to himself. He shrugged at her question, “I’ll eat anything on my pizza as long as it’s not one of those cheeseless pizzas. I hate those.” He waited for her to order and watched her on the phone with the pizza place, not feeling like this was really happening at all.

Clare shook her head and hung up as she walked over and plopped down onto the couch. “Who eats cheeseless pizza? There’s no point in even eating it.” She mumbled. “It’ll be thirty minutes.” Clare smiled and rested her head back onto the couch as she closed her eyes for a few minutes. When she opened them, she looked over at Fitz. “Want to watch tv?”

Fitz: laughed quietly to himself at her mumbling and just shrugged. He’d seen it in a store one time and nearly gagged. “I don’t know. Wrong people, very wrong people. Actually maybe lactose intolerant people but whatever.” He watched her when she shut her eyes and continued to smile to himself, she looked so adorable and peaceful with her eyes closed, he subconsciously wondered what she looked like in her sleep before shaking the thought from his head, thinking it was a creepy thing to wonder.

Clare chuckled at the bit about lactose intolerant people. She caught him looking at her and she felt her breath catch in her throat but she leaned for the remote and turned the tv on. She flipped for a few stations and settled on Inception. “Is this okay?” She asked as she looked over at him but saw that he was looking at her again. Clare breathed out and felt herself leaning in, not that she knew why or why she wasn’t stopping herself but she closed her eyes and kissed him lightly.

Fitz: continued to watch her, not really paying attention to what she put on the tv, he knew once it was on, he wouldn’t really pay attention anyway, she was too distracting. He saw her lean closer to him and his heart skipped a beat, not sure if this was really happening or not. He leaned closer to her and lightly kissed her before pausing and deepening the kiss slowly.

Clare blushed but she didn’t pull away as she deepened the kiss with him. She eventually moved her arms around him slowly, surprised that this was even happening but she liked it. She liked Fitz and he was nice, sweet and gentle. He was a good person and he was funny. He made her smile. Clare surprised herself as she moved even closer and cupped his cheek gently in her hand, brushing her tongue lightly against his as she did.

Fitz: moved his hands to her waist slowly, holding her gently as they kissed. If he had known a year ago, that this is what he’d be doing right now, he wouldn’t have believed it. This was surreal but it was good, really good. He liked her, a lot. She almost made him better, made him want to be a better person. When her tongue brushed against his, he parted his lips slowly, still in shock that this was even happening.

Clare continued to kiss him, slowly and slightly unsure of herself. It had been a while but after a few moment, she pulled back and looked up at him through half-lidded eyes. She was dizzy and smiling, her heart was racing and she wasn’t even sure how that had happened but she liked it. Clare moved her hand from his cheek and grinned but then she looked down, blushing. “Was… that okay?”

Fitz: continued to kiss her back, smiling into the kiss as he did so. Fitz had to admit, this potentially could be bad, they were friends, co workers. But he really could care less, he liked her, a lot and he’d risk all of that if he really had to. He nodded at her question and then said softly, “Yes, it was. I kissed you back, didn’t I?”

Clare nodded and giggled quietly, unsure of why she was even giggling. “I guess I was just worried… I don’t know.” The door bell rang and she jumped up quickly, glancing back at Fitz but she grabbed the money and walked to the door. After paying, she took the pizza and walked back over to him. She set the pizza down and walked off to get plates and napkins.

Fitz: couldn’t help but smile at the sound of her giggle, and though he didn’t know why she was giggling either, the sound still made him happy. When the door bell rang, he jumped slightly as well, laughing to himself when she went to go get the pizza and waited for her to get the plates and napkins. He grabbed a plate and opened the pizza box, taking two peices out and taking a few bites.

Clare sat down and put a piece of pizza on her plate as she ate quietly and paid attention to the movie. It was one of her favorites which was surprising because it wasn’t girly or romantic but she loved it anyway. After her first piece, she reached for another and took a bite off of it as she glanced at Fitz and smiled.

Fitz: continued to eat, glancing over at her every so often as he ate his pizza. He was only half paying attention to the movie that was on, his mind was going in a million different directions. What did this mean for them, if anything? Did she really like him or was that spur of the moment? After he finished his pizza, he set his plate down and sat back on the couch, before inching himself closer to her and putting his arm around her nervously.

Clare smiled and leaned against him as he wrapped his arm around her. It was weird how easy and natural it seemed but she didn’t question it as she took another bite of her pizza and continued to watch the movie. When she was done, she set her plate down and wiped her hands off on the napkin and glanced up at Fitz. She turned the movie on mute and turned to him. “I like you.” She blurted out. “What… uh, I was going to say, is… do you want to maybe… uh…” She lost her nerves and sighed, looking away. She was going to ask if she wanted to see if this would go anywhere, but she got shy and locked up.

Fitz: continued to smile to himself, his smile growing bigger when she leaned against him. This seemed right, easy and almost like it was meant to happen this way, but he still didn’t know where she was in her mind. If she wanted a relationship with her or what she wanted, if she wanted anything at all. When she said she liked him and stumbled on her words, he said to her quietly, “This feels so easy….Right, meant to be almost. This is going to sound cheesy but..I really like you and do you want to maybe try us out or something?”

Clare grinned and nodded a bit too quickly. She stopped herself and chuckled. “I mean, we should go slow, but I really want to try this out… it feels good and right.” She said, repeating his words somewhat. “And you make me smile…and happy… and I like you… and I’m rambling.” She said as she leaned back in and kissed him softly, not sure where this was coming from because she had meant to ask how he felt about them taking things slowly.

Fitz: laughed quietly when she nodded so quickly, glad that he had been wrong and she had really liked him, he hadn’t just been imagining things. It was a great feeling to know that. He nodded when she said they should take things slow, and he agreed, jumping into a serious relationship so fast probably wasn’t a smart idea for…well anybody. He opened his mouth to answer her when she kissed him again and kissed her back.

Clare pulled back after a moment and smiled at him. She was surprised at how things went but she was happy with it. Clare settled back down, laying her head on his shoulder as she turned back to the movie. She was scared but excited and was glad that they were doing this, even if they were taking it slowly. Maybe she would actually get a shot at being happy and maybe Fitz would, too. She hoped so because she really liked him.

Fitz: smiled at her, and for once in his life, he was happy. Even though they were taking things slow and this was scary, for both of them, it was a mixture of anxiety and happiness, but mostly he was happy.

Fitz joined the chat 7 hours ago