Under the Water

“Hi Gryphon!”

Chelsea's eyes fluttered open to reveal a dark room. Almost immediately they closed again as she exhaled before deeply yawning and rolling onto her stomach. She relaxed into the pillows, burying her face in their softness before kicking away the blankets on Toby's bed. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep but her mid-day nap had left her feeling hot and even slightly sweaty.

Somewhere in the limbo of sleep and consciousness she had forgotten that she had plans to go out later that night with Toby and his friends. She had already forgotten what had woken her up and was well on her way back to sleep before she felt something crawl over her.

She picked up her head, feeling some of her messy blonde hair sticking to one side of her face as she looked around to find Gryphon standing on the edge of the bed, staring at the slightly cracked bedroom door. She rolled over again, to face the dog before reaching out to pet him along his back. Gryphon simply looked back, panting from the heat from under the covers (where he had also been napping) that he and Chelsea had managed to generate, before sitting down.

“Oh no! Gimme some victory time!” Chelsea suddenly heard Toby's voice echoing from the next room. “Gimme some victory-” he continued before cutting himself off with laughter, his voice lowering to a decent level again.

“What's he doing?” Chelsea asked Gryphon, who simply wagged his tail twice in response. Chelsea yawned again, sitting up in Toby's bed and stretched.

“No-no, I'm just a man. Just a guy who teaches History. We love you now,” Toby continued switching off between a deeper voice and a feminine voice. While listening, Chelsea stood from the bed, unsticking her clothes from her body before trying to untangle her long hair with her fingers.
As she left Toby's bedroom, heading for the room where Toby was seemingly talking to himself, she heard him begin to hum the Mission Impossible theme before he stated such. Chelsea quietly peered into the room where she found Toby sitting in front of a couple of monitors and a web cam, wearing a white headset. “Oh no! Oh, I'm dead now! Oh Jeez...” she heard him continue his commentary and Chelsea quietly laughed at him. He didn't even notice Chelsea standing in the doorway and watching him.

Chelsea didn't recognize the game he was playing, she didn't even know that Toby had a gaming channel, she was only familiar with TobyTurner and Tobuscus. After playing for a few more minutes, and a victory popping up on his screen, Toby finally noticed Chelsea watching from the corner of his eyes. He motioned for her to wait a second discretely while he complained about wanting “the skull thing”, before blessing the Audience's faces.

“Good... evening? Maybe? What constitutes evening?” Toby asked her, taking off his headset.

“Um...the time of day that neither belongs to afternoon nor night,” Chelsea said, folding her arms and shaking her head.

“Good answer,” Toby smiled at her, before actually taking in her disheveled appearance. “You look like you had a bucket of water dumped over you,” he joked.

“Your bed gets hot a fuck,” Chelsea laughed at his observation, before messing with her hair again.

“Oh yeah, those covers aren't meant for summer, even with the AC. That and Gryphon is like a sun when he's sleeping with you,” Toby admitted and made Chelsea laugh. “Did you wanna shower? It's barely six and we aren't going out for a while.”

“Toby, no-” Chelsea began to protest. She was nearly uncomfortable with how inviting and hospitable Toby was being. She feared that next he would want to make her dinner and rub her feet.

“It's fine, I'm gonna shower before we leave anyways. Happy Wheels gets me all worked up,” Toby joked, finally standing from his chair after stretching his back.

“It's fine, really. I don't even have my stuff to shower,” Chelsea told him as he walked over to her.

“I got shower stuff you can use.”

“So we can smell identical and have the same hair?” Chelsea joked.

“No, I got chick stuff here,” Toby told her though he found her joke amusing.

“Why?” Chelsea asked after a moment, suddenly realizing that Toby lived alone. She wasn't sure if he was secretly into the whole metro-sexual scene, or if he constantly had girls showering at his house.

“I um... It's... my niece's,” Toby said, obviously making up his lie on the spot before walking past Chelsea and into his bedroom. She followed him, noting that Gryphon was already asleep on the bed again, and watched Toby dig around his closet.

“You have a niece?” Chelsea asked, her arms still folded over her chest.

“Yeah, Ciara. She's pretty flippin' awesome actually,” Toby said from inside his closet. “I think you'd like her.”

“Yeah? How old is she?”

“...Sixteen,” Toby answered pulling a smaller box out of his closet and setting it down on his bed. Chelsea watched as he did, and saw “Olga's Shit” literally scrawled across the side of the box in black sharpie.

“I thought her name was Ciara?” Chelsea asked, her eyebrow raising at the box's label.

“Um, yeah-” Toby said, also noticing before spinning the box around so the label was facing away from Chelsea and quickly opening it up, revealing a large amount of not only shower products but beauty and makeup products as well, all of them haphazardly jumbled together in the box. So there's like... that stuff. And lotion. I think this is a body wash,” Toby said, pulling things out at random, not completely sure what the products were. To Chelsea it was obvious that he was trying to distract her. She wanted to push the subject, but at the same time didn't want Toby to be any more uncomfortable than he seemed.

Chelsea looked through the products with him, trying to pick out anything that seemed semi normal for a shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. After that, Toby showed her the shower and then left her alone to continue playing Happy Wheels (stating that he needed to catch up on gaming, and that he'd shower after Chelsea). She showered fast, surprised at the high quality of products that Toby, or Olga (whoever she was), had. After she redressed in her old clothes, not wanting to walk around in just a towel, let alone see herself in only a towel.

She let Toby know, trying not to interrupt the episode he was filming, before making her way to his washer and dryer, which was in his kitchen oddly enough. Finding all her clothes already washed and folded, and put neatly back into her suitcase, Chelsea grabbed it and walked back to Toby's room. While walking back through the house, she noticed that Toby had already jumped into the shower. Gryphon was still asleep on the bed, Chelsea setting down her heavy suitcase onto Toby's bed not affecting him in the least.

After five minutes of sorting through her clothes, ruining any order Toby had them in, and wondering how long he would take in the shower, Chelsea finally decided on an outfit. Her dress was black with a coral pink high-low skirt, the front of the chiffon skirt barely long enough to cover her old scars on her thighs, while the back fell just past her knees. The straps criss-crossed in the front, ending in a thin racer-back with a zipper. As an extra precaution, Chelsea wore a pair of black floral lace footless tights under the dress, and paired them with the plain black flats she had been wearing all day. And for the scars on her arms, Chelsea wore a simple, black, open front cardigan.

By the time she was fully dressed Toby was still in the shower, so Chelsea took it upon herself to look through the “Olga's Shit” box further, and found a multitude of hair products, perfumes, and lotions that she could potentially use. However, since she had never actually been to a club before, she just decided to skip the products and braided her long hair into low pigtails before it would dry and become unruly, only using some hair balm on her bangs and her shorter layers to keep them in place. When she finally grabbed out her own makeup, Chelsea was debating whether to use the mirror on his closet or just go and use the other bathroom Toby had, before she heard Toby walking out of his bathroom.

“Damn girl,” he said jokingly, eying Chelsea's apparel.

“What?” Chelsea said, immediately realizing that he was doing what she had earlier avoided and was only wearing a towel, sitting low on his waist.

“You look good,” Toby said seriously.

“I haven't even put on makeup yet,” Chelsea pointed out, looking down at the eye makeup in her hands.

“Pfft,” Toby shook his head, “You don't need it. Hell, I'm going out in this,” he added, pointing down at the towel.

“Right. Bet your fans would love that,” Chelsea joked, raising her eyebrows at him.

“Good point, I'll put some clothes on,” Toby said, pretending like he wasn't already planning on doing such. Chelsea laughed at him as he opened his closet again and shuffled through his clothes.

“Are you done with the bathroom?” She asked him as he just stared at his unimpressive wardrobe.

“No, why?”

“Makeup, remember?”

“Go ahead, we can share.”

“Toby you can't share a bathroom with a girl,” Chelsea told him, laughing again as she stated that fact.

“I have a sister,” Toby said, turning back to face Chelsea, one of his hands on his hip while the other was running through his hair. “Am I lame if I wear the same outfit that I wore on our date?” Toby then asked.

“No, why?”

“Because that's the only thing I feel can own up to your outfit,” he teased and Chelsea shook her head, her hand covering her face as she laughed at him.

“Whatever Toby,” Chelsea responded, standing from his bed and walking past him, as he pulled out the same dress shirt and jeans, and into the bathroom. She shut the door behind her to give Toby privacy as he got dressed and then had to use a towel to wipe the mirror clean from the condensation caused from the showers. She had barely began applying her makeup when she heard Toby knock on the bathroom door.

“Yeah?” she called out, carefully brushing her eyeshadow onto her eyelids, too concentrated to turn and look as he entered. He moved to stand next to her, staring at himself in the mirror, and Chelsea stole a glance before continuing her makeup.

“We look damn sexy,” Toby stated confidently with a nod, before observing Chelsea. “Except you look like you have a black eye.”

“I've only done one eye,” Chelsea smiled at his teasing, still focusing on her makeup.

“Then it'll look like you have two black eyes,” Toby giggled, grabbing his hair gel and squeezing some into his hand.

“Would you rather do my makeup?”

“Naw, I don't quite have that 'fish face' down yet,” he told her in a serious voice, messing with his hair as he spoke.

“It's not a fish face, it's more of a surprised 'O-mouth' face. Maybe it'll help you fix your hair better,” Chelsea teased him right back, finally looking over at Toby in the mirror, only to watch him open his mouth and eyes as wide as he could while styling his hair.

Chelsea choked from laughing so hard, doubling over as her body shook from the sight. Toby's laughter laced with hers and they both laughed at his slight stupidity. As they still laughed Toby's phone began to ring from his bedroom.

“Can you go grab that?” Toby asked, trying to stop laughing, showing her the sticky mess the gel had caused; “My hands are fucked.”

“Sure,” Chelsea breathed, setting her makeup down as she composed herself and went to find Toby's phone. She walked back to the bathroom with it, reading the caller id. “It's Jack...” she said, watching Toby now serious about his hair again.

“Can you answer and put it on speaker?” he asked and she did as he asked, putting the phone down on the counter in front of him before continuing her makeup.

“Yo,” Toby said simply as an answer for his phone call.

“Hey man, what's up?” an unfamiliar voice for Chelsea came out of his phone in reply.

“Just gettin' ready, you?”

“I was gonna drive over right now. Got shitty news.” Toby made an incoherent disapproval noise before his friend continued. “Sean and his wife bailed on us last minute. It's just gonna be you, me and Gabe.”

Chelsea looked over to Toby with her eyebrow raised, suddenly wondering if he mentioned Chelsea coming along to anyone except his friends at breakfast. “No, I got a girl coming too,” Toby told him, looking over to see Chelsea's expression.

“Dude, no-”

“Not who you think,” Toby cut his friend off quickly before he could say whatever he was.

“...Okay. Is she hot?” Chelsea burst out laughing again, almost messing up her eyeliner in the process.

“Jack,” Toby laughed as well, “You're on speaker dude.”

“Why?!” Jack laughed on the other line.

“I'm fixing my hair,” Toby explained.

“Whatever, what's her name?”

“Chelsea.”

“Hey Chelsea,” Jack called out, raising his voice although she could already hear him fine.

“'Sup?” she asked, capping her eyeliner, before grabbing for her mascara.

“Are you hot?”

Chelsea laughed again as the sheer bluntness before replying, “Define hot.”

“I don't fucking know,” Jack laughed and Toby shook his head, feeling slightly embarrassed by his friend.

“She's hot, don't worry,” Toby answered for her, and Chelsea felt her cheeks slightly warm with a blush.

“Good, good. So what's up with Gabe? Is he driving to your place or am I picking him up?” Jack asked, changing the subject and becoming serious again. That gave Chelsea a chance to finally finish her makeup.

“I don't know, I've been playing video games and doing laundry all day. I didn't think to ask,” Toby admitted, finally settling on a peculiar hair style and then washing his hands of the excess gel. Chelsea, having nothing else to do, backed up and sat in Toby's blue bathtub, her legs hanging over the side with her back against the wall.

“Okay, I'll call him right now. I should be at your place regardless in twenty,” Jack told Toby and quickly they said their goodbyes. Toby ended the call, before turning to find Chelsea gone from his side. He turned completely around, finding her sitting in the tub and smiled at her while leaning against the counter.

“So,” he said, looking down at her.

“So?” she replied equally looking up at him.

“What do you wanna do for twenty minutes?” Toby asked, his hands sliding into his jean pockets. Chelsea simply shrugged, giving Toby no help.

They ended up staring at each other for a few moments, Chelsea slowly becoming uncomfortable with the silence. “I was wrong,” Toby said suddenly.

“About what?” Chelsea asked, finally looking away from him.

“You don't look like you have two black eyes. I like your makeup,” Toby complimented her seriously and Chelsea couldn't help not to smile.

“Thank you,” she replied, almost meekly. She took a deep breath and looked back to Toby again.

“Do you want me to make a quick dinner?” He suggested and Chelsea nearly smacked her forehead, remembering what she had thought earlier.

“No,” she answered instead.

“Why not?” He asked back, his eyebrows knitting together while accompanied by a slight frown.

“Because you did my laundry, let me nap in your bed, and let me use your shower,” Chelsea counted on her fingers. “You can't make me food, especially since I know you're going to insist on paying for whatever expenses I'll have tonight,” Chelsea clarified for him and Toby smiled again.

“Damn straight I am,” he told her confidently and she shook her head.

“You're too nice to me.”

“I'm a nice guy. Now, please, let me make you dinner. Honestly I don't think I have much anyways,” Toby said, extending his hands to help her out of the tub.

“Fine,” she said, giving into him.