I'm With You

19

TW's:
-Eating disorder behaviour
(passing out, eating way too little)
-Overexercising

George's POV

It was Thursday the next week and I was sitting next to Clay at break time as I saw him roll an egg around in his lunchbox. I didn't comment on it, but I had been noticing a lot of weird behaviour with his eating and exercising. He exercised way too much while he ate way too little and it was pretty worrying.

'You can eat the egg, Clay,' Sapnap said who had also been paying attention to it.

'I'm not sure if it's healthy enough, I might get sick from it. I think it's best to eat my grapes.' He ate a few of his grapes as I suddenly saw his face turn really pale.

He started breathing a little bit faster and his hands started shaking as suddenly his head fell onto his chest.

'Clay?' I asked as I shook him softly. 'Clay?'

He didn't reply and I lifted his head up, seeing his eyes roll away. I softly hit him against his cheek. 'Clay, wake up.'

'Did he just faint?' Sapnap yelled as he jumped up and sat next to Clay. His body was really weak and he was falling to the side, luckily Sapnap could lift him back on his chair and Clay opened his eyes slowly. He looked at us with a confused face.

'Dude, you just passed out,' Sapnap said. 'Are you okay?'

Clay nodded slowly. 'I don't remember what happened.'

'We don't either, you just fainted out of nowhere,' I muttered.

'I feel better,' Clay mumbled, but it was obvious he wasn't feeling better.

'Clay, I want you to eat this,' Sapnap said as he held up a piece of chocolate. 'You really need to eat something.'

Clay shook his head. 'That's unhealthy, I might get sick.'

'Clay, I'm going to stand here just as long as it takes you to eat this. You better eat it now or we're standing here all day,' Sapnap said, holding the chocolate in front of Clay. 'You pass out all the time and it's obvious that you're not okay.'

'I don't want it.'

'Too bad for you, you're going to eat it. I know forcing someone to eat isn't the right way, but I don't want to lose you, Clay. Your blood sugar is dangerously low and you need to eat something.'

Clay rolled his eyes. 'I'm fine, idiot.'

'Okay, I guess we will be here all day then.'

'Fine, but I never want any of this unhealthy and sick making food of yours ever again.'

Sapnap didn't reply and Clay ate the piece of chocolate, standing up after. He immediately fell back down on his chair and looked around him with a disorientated look. He took a deep breath, stood up again and started walking to the class he had to be at.

I followed him. 'Clay, can you be honest with me? Do you have an eating disorder?'

Clay shook his head. 'I don't, I'm just trying to eat healthy.'

'You're eating everything but healthy.'

Clay looked away and I figured I had to leave it for now. We didn't talk about it anymore and then went to the gym after school. I wanted to tell Clay not to exercise, but he didn't listen and just started before I even realised he did.

He finished his exercise and walked to me with a smile. 'What do you want to do? I'll help you.'

'Can I try to do pull-ups again? I've done a lot of push-ups so maybe I can manage to get a few now.'

Clay nodded and we walked to the bar. He let me try it first, but I didn't get too far, causing him to grab my waist and help me a tiny bit.

After I did three of them, I let go and looked at him holding me. His face flushed red and he quickly let go. 'I'm not trying to hit on you,' he muttered.

After he got called gay at school around fifty times, I was almost sure something happened before I went there. Clay didn't really want to talk about it and always got really uncomfortable when someone said anything about it. Sapnap mostly stood up for him and otherwise Clay quickly switched the subject.

'I just feel like everything is pretty awkward after everyone calls me gay at school. I'm not- even if I would be, I won't just uh- hit on a straight guy. I'm sorry, I'm making it even more uncomfortable.'

I smiled at him. 'Who said I'm straight?'

I had a few tics, causing me to scream and yell out Clay's name. Clay's face was really red. 'I didn't mean to assume your sexuality, I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable.'

'Stop, you're the one making it uncomfortable for yourself. I would be totally fine with you being gay since I'm gay myself.'

Clay's eyes got big and he turned around as he quickly walked away. I giggled and went after him, seeing his cheeks get so red that it was really cute.

'Clay, it's fine. Don't worry,' I said with a smile as I grabbed his hands. I pulled him a bit closer to me, had a tic again and ended up hitting his hand. 'I'm so sorry.'

'Don't say sorry,' Clay muttered. 'It's fine.'

'Clay, I feel like you'd rather have me ask you this than tell me yourself. If you don't want me to ask this, walk away and go do something else, okay?'

'Y-yes,' Clay mumbled, holding my hand tightly so I would feel relaxed.

'Are you gay?'

Clay hitched a breath and bit his lip as he looked down at the ground. He sighed, looked back up and gave me a really small nod.

I smiled and pulled him in for a hug. 'That's fine, Clay. I'll always support you and I'm gay too. It's nothing weird.'

Clay let out a relieved sigh and smiled. 'Thank you for asking me, I wouldn't have been able to tell you otherwise. It's really new to me since I only figured it out around two weeks ago. And you?'

I shrugged. 'I know it for years, I'm also out to my parents. They support me.'

'That's great,' Clay said. 'Does anyone else know?'

'No, only you now. And for you?'

'I've only told Sapnap, but the whole school knows I'm gay for some reason.'

'Don't listen to them, I'm here to support you.'

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