I'm With You

8

TW's:
-Overexercising

Clay's POV

I was sitting down to rest for a bit since I almost passed out again as I heard the boy, who I just gave his water bottle to, make high pitched noises, shook his body and made a "brr" sound five times in a row, yelling out some random words.

I figured he had Tourette's Syndrome and I watched him struggling to exercise a bit. I wasn't that confident in speaking with others, but I stood up and walked closer to him.

'Do you need help?' I asked him with a shy smile on my face. 'My name is Clay, if you were wondering.'

'I'm- Clay, Clay, Clay, I'm George.'

I smiled and shook his hand, but he hit my hand away, having his face grow red. 'I'm so sorry, I-.'

'It's totally fine,' I said as I held my hand in front of him again. He shook it this time and hit his face after.

'I'm so sorry for hitting you, I have Tourette's.'

'No worries,' I said with a smile. 'I wanted to see if you needed any help?'

'I have no idea what I'm doing,' George giggled as he hit his own leg and yelled. 'Wall, floor, gym, Clay, George, wall, brr, brr, brr.' He clicked his tongue, shook his head and coughed. 'Anyway.'

I just patiently waited for his tics to be a bit less and he smiled. 'Thank you for not laughing at me.'

'Of course not, why would I laugh at someone with Tourette's?'

George shrugged and looked away as he sighed. 'I want to get some more muscles, I'm pretty weak and thin.'

'You look good,' I said with a smile. My face heated up as I complimented him and I quickly turned around. 'Anyway, you can start with this one.'

George walked with me and I showed him the leg press I had just been on.

'Basically, you have to sit down and push the weight away with your legs. You can add extra weight once you can control this.'

George sat down, but got bad tics again. He hit the metal of the leg press and winced as he kicked his leg up, hitting it against the metal too. He got a lot of vocal tics as he kept hitting himself and the equipment.

Then I did something I would never expect myself to do. I knelt down next to him and grabbed his hand. 'Calm down, it's okay. Do you usually have a way to calm down?'

'My mum-.' He had a few bad tics again and continued talking. 'Or dad hugs me.'

'Can I?' I asked him as I pulled him closer to me.

George nodded, but looked a bit scared. 'I sometimes hit people who hug me.'

'I don't mind,' I replied as I pulled him close against my body.

He did indeed hit me a few times, himself after that and had a lot of vocal tics, but he started calming down after three minutes. For some reason my face was fully red, my whole body felt weak and my heart beat fast as I felt his body against mine.

I let go of him again, acting like none of that had just happened and I pointed at the leg press again.

'So, you need to sit down on that,' I said as I pointed.

George nodded and sat down, making a bird sound by whistling as he shook his head.

'Okay, put your feet on here and push yourself away. Tell me if it's too heavy or not heavy enough.'

George tried his best to push it away, but shook his head and gave up. 'It's too heavy, I'm really weak.'

I smiled. 'Don't call yourself weak, you just started. To be fair, I can't push that away either, I just act like I can.'

George giggled and hit himself again as clicked his tongue a few times.

'Are you hurt?' I asked as he winced and rubbed his chest.

George nodded slowly. 'It hurts quite a lot.'

'I'm sorry, do you have a way to control your tics?'

'Not really,' George muttered. 'I just started therapy and they are figuring out what helps me. When I'm relaxed, I have less tics.'

'What makes you relaxed?' I asked as I sat down on the ground next to him. I was lightheaded again so had to sit down so I wouldn't fall.

'I really like swimming and hugs. I have a stuffed animals, it's a bunny and it's really soft. I calm down a lot when I hold it close to me.'

'Do you have it with you now?'

George shook his head. 'It's in the car with my mum, she will take it with her when I go home again.'

'You should bring it here next time. If you want to come back of course.'

'Should I? I think people will laugh at me when I bring a stuffed bunny as a boy from sixteen.'

I smiled. 'I'm seventeen and I have a small stuffed pig sitting on my chair. Sometimes when I'm sad, I hold it and cuddle with it. It's not weird to have a stuffed animal, I think a lot of people do without having the courage to tell anyone.'

George smiled, had a few tics and started the exercise again as I removed some of the weight.

'You're doing great,' I said with a smile. 'Oh and you said you like swimming, right?'

George nodded. 'For some reason I get pretty calm when I swim.'

'My dad has a public swimming pool. We let one get built, but it ended up being more in the park than our garden. Now it's a public swimming pool where people pay a low price to get into.'

'Really?' George asked. 'That's so cool.'

I smiled and nodded. 'You can come over once.'

'Okay,' George answered with a small nod. 'That sounds like fun. Do you ever go swimming?'

I shrugged. 'Not really, I like being at the gym more.'

I didn't have the courage to tell him that I got extremely restless when I didn't do the usual exercises I did. I would sound like some weirdo, I didn't want that.

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