I'm With You

15

TW's:
-Mentions bullying

George's POV

Clay and I both went home just a bit before dinner. I was coming to his place either tomorrow or the day after, but it depended on how everything went with changing schools and the appointments I would have.

I sat next to my mother in the car, not even realising I was next to her. I was constantly thinking about what happened between Clay and I. That he held his hands on my waist and both our faces turned bright red.

After Clay came back, he didn't do many more exercises. He was walking slowly and his face was a little bit pale again. I decided to leave it and he helped me with my exercises. I got pretty flustered each time he got close to me or when he had to touch me.

'So, and now you're going to tell me on what planet you are on,' my mother's voice suddenly sounded. I got startled and looked at her as I rolled my eyes.

'I was just thinking.'

'About a boy with the name Clay?'

I sighed. 'That's none of your business.'

'That's a yes to me,' she laughed as she started the car to drive. 'You really like him.'

'Ugh fine, I do kind of like him. You won't stop teasing me otherwise.'

'I'm so curious about how he looks.'

'He asked for my number when I went back home. If he texts me, I might be able to show his profile picture.'

My mother nodded and I turned on my data to see if I got a text. I smiled as I saw I did and added him to my contacts.

Clay
hi, it's clay :D

You
hi :D

I clicked on his profile picture. He was smiling at the camera as he was standing on the top of a mountain. I got startled as I remembered him in front of me now. He lost a lot of weight and his face was way paler than it was in this picture.

I let my mum drive home and when we stepped out, I showed her the profile picture of Clay. 'He's a handsome guy, I get why you fell in love with him.'

'I'm not in love,' I said as I rolled my eyes.

I went back to our chat and saw he sent me another message.

Clay
I like your profile picture :)

I remembered my profile picture being me with my parents and I smiled as he said he liked it.

You
they are my parents :)

Clay
they look sweet, I hope they are as well

You
they are, yours?

It was quiet for a long time which worried me. I ended up typing another message before I made him really uncomfortable.

You
sorry, stupid question. im gonna ask my mum when I can come to your place :)

Clay
okay :D

I closed my phone and looked at my mother. 'Clay asked me to come to his swimming pool soon, do you know when I'm free?'

'I would say Friday. I'm not sure yet how everything is going to work with your new school, but I'm almost sure Friday would be fine. So that's in three days.'

'Okay, I'll text him,' I said with a smile.

My mum ran her hand through my hair and sat down on the couch after walking into the living room. My dad greeted me as I texted Clay when I was free and I heard my parents talk about school.

I wasn't distracting myself so I got some tics again, realising I hadn't had any tics for ten minutes while texting Clay.

'I don't want him to go to this school again,' my mother said to my dad. 'He got beaten up today and we've already let this come way too far. I want him to switch schools as fast as possible and let someone tell his class that he has Tourette's so people are understanding.'

My dad nodded. 'That's a good idea, I'll immediately call the school. They should be open for another hour. If you look at the other school nearby, I'll call them after if this conversation is positive.'

My dad walked to the kitchen to call the number he had typed in before and my mother looked at me having the same tic over and  over again. I was constantly clicking my tongue and I blinked a lot as I started to yell out random words.

My mother scooted closer to me and wrapped her arm around me. 'Can you tell me more about Clay?'

I smiled and told her a bit about him, noticing my vocal tic calmed down. I got really happy when I thought about Clay, he made me feel loved and comfortable.

After ten minutes my dad came back with a smile. 'That's solved, they fully understood that we can't let him go to this school again. They are going to expel the student who beat him, but since there's too many students bullying George, he thought it was a good idea to start over at a different school.'

I smiled brightly and got excited so I started screeching and I constantly punched the air so I wouldn't hit anyone.

My dad immediately left to call the other school and my mother started singing to me as I had my eyes closed and had my head rested on her shoulder.

My dad came back again after twenty minutes this time and had an even brighter smile than he did when he came back last time. He sat down in front of me on a chair and smiled at my mother.

'They invited him to come to their school on Thursday so they can just talk a bit about his Tourette's, his past grades and everything they need. Then Friday he can go to school for the first time, they will look for someone who can guide him. If no student is able to, then the principal will stay with him.'

'So I don't have to go to this school anymore?' I asked with a happy face.

'No, you're going to start over. Hopefully this will be the start of something great.'

1032 words