I'm With You

27

TW's:
-Fight parents (divorce)
-Eating disorder

George's POV

It was a week later and Clay was allowed to leave the hospital. They wanted him to stay there for as long as it needed for his blood results to be stable enough that he could go home and when they were sure that Clay was going to eat again.

Clay had a really hard time, but he did start eating. He still didn't eat half of what he needed, but he was trying really hard to not only eat healthy foods.

I was at the hospital as I waited for Clay to pack the stuff he needed. He was holding a box with a salad I prepared for him and took a small bite as he stuffed the last things in his bag.

Once he was done, he walked to me and gave me a hug, eating the rest of his lunch. 'I'm happy to be gone from the hospital, but I don't want to go home either.'

'You have to go home for just a few hours to get stuff to go to my place.'

Clay nodded. 'I don't want to see my mother.'

'I'm with you, Clay. Let's go to your dad's car.'

'I don't want to go, George.'

'Clay, it's just for a really short while. Then you won't be at home for a long time.'

Clay sighed and nodded. 'Fine.'

I grabbed his hand and we walked away from the hospital to step into his dad's car. He greeted us and I sat next to Clay in the back of the car, cuddled up with him.

Clay took deep breaths to stay calm, but didn't talk at all the rest of the car ride. Once we arrived at his place, Clay stepped out slowly and wiped his hands off on his trousers.

We walked into his house together next to Clay's dad. He opened the door to the house and we immediately got "greeted" by his drunk mother.

She stood in the hallway as she looked at Clay with a mad look in her eyes. 'You're such a disappointment, you've gotten so fat, Clay.'

'Shut up, leave him alone for once,' Clay's dad yelled. 'He's not fat at all and you don't even know what happened to him.'

His mother struggled to walk to the living room and Clay wanted to run upstairs as his mother grabbed his wrist tightly, pushing him down on the ground.

'Get away from him,' his dad screamed, but everything escalated.

His mother grabbed a bottle of alcohol and threw it at Clay's dad. He couldn't jump away anymore and it shattered on his chest. With shock in his eyes, he stared down at the ground and Clay ran to him.

'Are you okay?'

'I'm fine, go upstairs. I don't want you to be involved in this.'

Clay immediately gave up the fight and we both ran upstairs. Clay seemed to be paralysed and he sat down on his bed, having his hands shake a lot while his parents were screaming at each other very loudly.

'This happens every day,' Clay whispered. 'It's making me upset and scared. Normally I run away to go to school or to the gym, but I can't run away now.'

I looked around me and saw his headphones lay down on his desk. I grabbed them and grabbed his phone, looking up his favourite song. When I was sure he couldn't hear the screaming downstairs anymore, we started packing his bags and what he needed for it.

Just as he wanted to stand up to run away from his house, his dad walked in with a sad look in his eyes. Clay turned off the music and looked at his dad who grabbed his hand.

'I know I've done this way too late, but I'm going to ask for a divorce. I want you to be happy and this is escalating. I'm going to fill in a lawsuit against your mother too since she has abused me multiple times.'

Clay's expression went from sad to happy and he stood up. 'Really? And our house?'

'I paid for the house, so I have ownership over it. I'm going to look for a job again, Clay. Everything will be different from now on. For as long as the divorce is going to take, I want you to go to George to focus on your recovery.'

'But are you going to be safe?' Clay asked with a scared look in his eyes.

'I will, I'm going to be fine.'

'Call me when you need me and I'll be here in a few minutes,' Clay muttered as he grabbed my hand and his bags. 'I'm going.'

His dad gave him a tight hug and kissed his cheek. 'I love you, Clay. I hope you can forgive me for all my mistakes in the past.'

'I can, dad. I've forgiven you.'

They just smiled and then we walked downstairs to quickly run away. We started walking home as I got a tic attack from all the stress again.

I was repeatedly screaming and hitting myself as I yelled out Clay's name and random things I saw. Clay stopped walking and made me sit down on the grass. He grabbed my hands, didn't care that I hit him a few times and leaned in to kiss my lips.

He shortly kissed me and I started calming down a little. Clay smiled through the kiss and broke it so he could look at me.

'Are you calmer? Do you need more kisses?'

I shrugged and smiled shyly as I hid my red face behind my hands. 'You're so cute,' Clay giggled.

I giggled softly and Clay kissed me another time, hugging me tightly after that.

'Did I hurt-.'

'No, you didn't hurt me and I wouldn't care either. You really have to stop apologising for things you can't do anything about, okay? You don't purposely hit me and that's why I don't care either.'

I nodded slowly and we stood up again to walk back to my house as we held hands tightly.

'I love you for always being so sweet to me,' I whispered.

'I love you even more.'

1031 words