I'm With You

25

TW's:
-Eating disorder

George's POV

'Oh my goodness, Clay. What happened to you?' Sapnap yelled as he ran in and looked at Clay's IV and his tube.

Clay sighed. 'I passed out and stayed unconscious for a few minutes.'

He sat down on a chair and took a deep breath. 'I was so worried, my goodness. Are you okay?'

'I'm better now, I'm getting fed through this thing,' Clay said as he pointed to his tube. 'I hate it, but I guess it's the best since my body is really malnourished.'

'Clay, do you have an eating disorder?' Sapnap asked.

Clay shrugged. 'I guess so. I don't have anorexia or bulimia, but orthorexia which is an unknown eating disorder.'

I shortly explained to Sapnap what I had looked up about the eating disorder and he nodded. 'That does sound familiar.'

'But I guess I'll try to recover, but I have to be gone at home first. As long as those endless fights keep continuing, I can't focus on my recovery.'

'I'm going to ask my mother if you can stay with us for as long as you need,' I said as I held his hand.

Clay forgot Sapnap didn't know we were together yet and kissed my hand, receiving a high pitched scream from Sapnap. 'OH MY GOSH, WHAT'S THIS?'

Clay wheezed and rolled his eyes after that. 'We are just FRIENDS.'

'Oh sure, if you're friends then I'm a girl,' Sapnap said, rolling his eyes.

'Fine, we might be boyfriends since this morning,' I giggled.

'DID YOU KISS?'

'Shut up, we're in the hospital,' Clay grinned. 'And yes, we did.'

'And you don't think about spilling the tea to your best friend?'

'I did,' Clay giggled.

'Please tell me you made out.'

Clay wheezed and his face heated up. 'Stop, idiot. We haven't made out.'

'Pfft, I give it a week. I need the details if it happens.'

'I'm not giving you details of us making out, dumbass.'

'You admitted that it's going to happen!' Sapnap yelled.

'You're embarrassing me,' Clay muttered with a really red face.

I giggled and held his hand against my chest. Sapnap stopped talking about it and Clay cuddled up with me, looking at me with a sad face.

'I don't want tube feeding anymore,' he whispered, playing a bit with the bandage on his cheek.

'If you promise to eat again, they will remove the tube,' I said and Clay nodded slowly.

'I'll tell them once they are here.'

We waited for half an hour and a nurse walked in. She checked Clay's heartbeat and his blood pressure, asking for his dad's number after. 'I need to call your parents.'

'I only want my dad to be called, if you have to,' Clay muttered.

'We will,' the nurse said and Clay wrote his dad's number down, sighing softly.

'I wanted to ask if I can get my tube out.'

'I'm sorry, but you can't as long as you're not going to eat.'

'But I want to try to eat,' Clay muttered. 'I really don't want tube feeding.'

'We will keep the tube in, in case you end up not eating again, but we won't feed you through it if you start eating. Once we are sure you're going to eat again, we will take it out. We got your blood results and you have anaemia and a dangerously low blood sugar level, along with multiple other too low blood values.'

'It's not that bad, right?' Clay whispered.

'If you would have continued like this for a week longer, you could have ended up in a coma.'

'But I ate a lot of fruits and vegetables,' Clay muttered awkwardly.

'Yeah, but no sugar, fats and protein. You're also showing signs of dehydration.'

Clay looked at me with a sad face. 'I'm sorry that I'm so messed up. I hope you still love me the same way as you did before.'

'I do, Clay. You're not messed up and I love you just as much as before.'

'Thank you,' Clay mumbled. 'George, I'm going to sound really mean, but when my dad comes, can we not cuddle? I don't want him to know that I'm gay. Not now.'

'That's not mean, I fully understand. I might have some more tics, so I hope he doesn't mind.'

'If he minds, I'll kick him out of this room immediately.'

We waited as I sat down on a chair again, holding Clay's hand for as long as it took for his dad to come here. After a while the door opened and his dad ran in, running to Clay as he held his cheeks.

'Oh my goodness, Clay. Are you alright, honey?'

Clay avoided eye contact with him and stared at his hands awkwardly.

'What happened to you?'

Clay didn't answer his dad and pulled away from his touch.

'He passed out due to malnutrition,' Sapnap answered for Clay. 'He's feeling better now, he's just tired.'

'I'm sorry for everything, Clay.'

'Dad, stop. Not now.'

'But I messed up. If I wouldn't have had a fight with your mother, you would have eaten something.'

'Stop, it's not your fault. I'm just sick of it sometimes and that caused me to leave. Can we discuss this another time when my friends aren't here.'

Clay's dad nodded slowly and looked at me as I had a few bad tics. 'Hi, who are you?'

'I'm George,' I said as I shook his hand. I then hit his hand away and screamed, having Clay grab my hand.

His dad looked a bit shocked.

'I'm so sorry, I have Tourette's. I didn't mean to hit you, forgive me.'

'Oh, I didn't know. I thought you just hit me out of nowhere, but it's totally fine.'

I took a relieved breath. 'Okay, thank you.'

'Wait, aren't you the boy Clay kissed with?'

'Uh-,' I muttered as I heard Clay choke on his own saliva. He started coughing loudly as his face turned really red. He stared at me with big eyes.

'Uh-,' he also said now.

His dad started laughing. 'Clay, that's totally fine. I just want you to know that I always support you.'

1028 words