Under the Water

“Hey Toby.”

The text had been sitting on Chelsea's phone for nearly half an hour. After the torment she had gone through from their date, going back and forth between feeling like cheating and grieving over Caleb, she still wanted to at least talk with Toby. She had ignored him the day after the date when he had text her, and since then he hadn't tried contacting her, he hadn't even been at the patio. Three days had passed now, and Chelsea had nearly come back from the guilt trip she put herself through. And now she was trying to muster up courage to finally get back to Toby. She didn't know how or if he would respond.

“More coffee?” she heard her waitress ask. Chelsea nodded, running her hand through her long hair before looking up to the waitress, who had probably wasted at least two pots of coffee on Chelsea.

“You okay over here?” the waitress asked, filling up the coffee mug.

Chelsea nodded again before saying, “Yeah.”

“Can I ask you a question? I've been trying to figure it out but I'm not too sure,” the waitress said, placing her free hand upon her hip.

“Sure,” Chelsea said, slowly stirring cream and sugar into her coffee.

“Are you Chelbuscus?”

Chelsea's expression immediately changed from somber as she smiled, looking back to the waitress. “Yes, I am,” she answered and the waitress sat down, setting the coffee pot on the table.

“You and Gryphon are adorable,” the waitress complimented Chelsea, only causing the smile to grow. “I have another question though, are you and Toby actually dating?”

“Um,” Chelsea said, the smile she had found instantly fading. “Not really, no.”

“Oh,” the waitress said, the “o” shape staying on her lips for a few seconds. “I just figured 'cause that lazy vlog after your date. You two would make an awesome couple though.”

“Actually, I'm trying to get courage to text him. I accidentally ignored him for a few days after that video,” Chelsea admitted.

“Oh, you don't have to text him,” the waitress said, confusing Chelsea now. “He walked in with Gabe and Sean a few minutes ago, that's why I asked if you were Chelsea or not.”

“He's here?” Chelsea clarified and the waitress nodded.

“Yup. I was gonna ask if you'd like to sit with them? I made sure that they were in a big enough table for four people,” the waitress said.

“Where?” Chelsea asked and then followed the waitress' finger to a table across the outside seating area to where Toby and two other guys were sat, not having ordered yet. “Can I buy them coffee?”

“Sure thing,” the waitress winked before standing up. She walked inside, only to walk outside with a fresh pot of coffee and three mugs, surprising the guys with coffee before they had even ordered.

Chelsea looked back to her phone then, deleting the message she was going to send to Toby. Instead, she replaced it with a simple, “You're welcome.”

She turned back to where Toby was seated, watching as a moment later he received her message, reading it and then immediately asking the waitress, “Where is she?” The waitress only nodded in Chelsea's direction, leaving Toby's friends confused while he immediately spotted her. Chelsea waved at Toby meekly before he set his phone down and got up to make his way over to her.

“Hey,” he said before he sat down across from her. Chelsea looked down into her cup, suddenly shy.

“Sorry I disappeared for a while,” she mumbled at her coffee before looking up to see Toby wearing a small smile.

“Did you get sick?” he asked, and at first Chelsea thought that it was an odd question, but realized that it was the perfect coverup.

“Do I look sick?” Chelsea asked, deciding to not directly lie to Toby. Toby laughed insecurely, rubbing the back of his neck. “I do, don't I?” Chelsea laughed at him.

“I don't want to get bitch slapped,” Toby admitted laughing as well.

“So I look like shit,”Chelsea laughed at what Toby had admitted.

“No, no,” Toby corrected her immediately, “Just a bit... thin,” he said, becoming slightly more serious with each word.

“I haven't had much of an appetite recently,” Chelsea admitted, and Toby took that as she had gotten food poisoning.

“It wasn't that restaurant, was it?” He asked, completely serious now.

“No,” Chelsea told him quickly. “No, it wasn't.”

“Then it was the yellow skittles,” Toby suggested, smiling deviously now. “I warned you about those things and their fulvous plans for genocide.”

Chelsea rolled her eyes, testing the temperature of her coffee, “Whatever Toby. Yellow skittles are bomb.”

“Until they make you sick and you die,” Toby stated as if yellow skittles were the equivalent of anthrax, and made Chelsea laugh and nearly choke on her coffee. “Anyways, wanna eat breakfast with me?” he suggested before she could settle again.

“What about, uh... Gabe and Sean?” Chelsea asked, looking back to Toby's table and trying to remember the names the waitress had said.

“Well... I guess they'd be having breakfast with us too,” Toby said, looking over to them, noticing that they were watching. “Do you wanna have breakfast with me and them? -Them and I?” he asked, then corrected his grammar, making Chelsea smile.

“I haven't been very hungry though,” she admitted.

“Are you still sick?” Toby countered, standing up from his chair.

“...No,” Chelsea said still not lying directly to him.

“Then come on,” Toby said, extending his hand to help Chelsea out of her chair, and with a sigh she took it. Toby kept her hand in his as he walked her back to his table, only letting go to pull her chair out for her to sit down next to him. The next few seconds that followed were consumed by an awkward silence for Chelsea, but an amusing silence for Toby as he witnessed his friends and Chelsea just staring at each other.

“Well, thank you for coffee,” the guy directly across from Chelsea broke the silence and she only smiled at his appreciation.

“Are you the same one he took out last Friday?” The other guy, across from Toby, asked.

“Yes-” Toby began before Chelsea cut him off.

“Good to know there's more than just me,” she said as a joke but the sudden mood change from Toby was felt around the table. She smiled over at him trying to let him know that she was only joking and wasn't a jealous psycho.

“Of course there's not more,” the guy recovered for Toby, who still looked a bit shocked or worried. “I'm Sean by the way,” he reached across the table with a smile and Chelsea shook his hand.

“Chelsea,” she responded.

“Gabe,” the other guy said, mimicking Sean's actions and Chelsea shook his hand as well with a singular nod.



Not even two hours after breakfast, and a lengthy conversation between the three guys trying to get Chelsea to go out with them and some more friends later that night, Chelsea had buckled, despite not adequately sleeping in the past forty eight hours. Toby had effectively countered all her excuses to the extent of offering to let her crash at his place until they went out. Chelsea couldn't find the correct words to decline his offer and quickly found herself outside her motel room, after eating a hearty breakfast (thanks to Toby and his friends).

“Sorry it's gross in here,” Chelsea said as she walked into her motel room, Toby right behind her.

“It's not gross,” Toby said, valiantly defending the unmade bed, various garbage and dirty clothes strewn about the small room.

“Yes it is,” Chelsea looked back to him from setting her suitcase on her bed and rummaging through whatever she had that was still clean.

“You can do laundry at my place, if you want?” Toby then offered, folding his arms over his blue Tobuscus shirt as he watched Chelsea.

“What?” she asked, looking up from her suitcase, unsatisfied with the contents that didn't seem very worthy of going out later that night. “No, it's okay-”

“You're the one complaining,” Toby laughed, before tilting his head to the side. “You're already crashing there for the afternoon, what more is laundry gonna do?”

“Toby, it's really too much-”

“Bullshit,” he said, still smiling at her before bending down to pick up some of her clothes from the floor. “Throw them all in there and I'll wash them at my place.” He tossed whatever he had picked up into Chelsea's suitcase, not letting her decline his generous offer. The only thing she could do was help him pick up all of her dirty clothes, making sure to grab any of her underwear and bras before Toby did.

“You sure about this?” she asked him as they finished scouting out her dirty laundry.

“Yeah, it's no biggie,” Toby said, zipping up her suitcase. “I'll take this to the car, grab whatever else you need and meet me down there, 'kay?”

“Okay...” Chelsea said shyly, watching Toby wink at her before walking out of the room with her suitcase. She took a deep breath before turning around and walking into her bathroom, grabbing only the essential makeup, her scar ointments and skin creams, deodorant, and even her toothbrush, since she didn't want to nap and then wake up with bad breath and be stuck with it all night. She stuffed everything in her nearly empty toiletry bag and then turned off the lights to her motel room, locking the door behind her, before making her way down to Toby's car.