Chapter 43: Side of the Road

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Clay POV.

“Do you want me to pick you up after work?” I asked, giving him a smile as he climbed out of the car. George hadn’t said much this morning, except for polite ‘thank yous’ when Niki had made him breakfast and I had given him a ride. He gave me a mere shake of the head, muttering about how he’d walk home and although the brunette was unsure about this he shook his head.

I didn’t say anything. The two of us studied each other for a few moments before he turned and walked into the building. A couple of other people were walking in for the beginning of the work day, some smiling at George and welcoming him back after a few days off of work.

None of them mentioned Fundy breaking up with the brunette, despite the fact that I knew it was huge news on the island. When he had disappeared inside I saw the way everyone began murmuring to one another. Some were murmuring about the break up, others about what was going on between me and the brunette.

Some of them noticed me sitting there, glancing at me or turning to add my presence into the conversation. I didn’t bother to hang around for too long, instead just beginning to drive back to our house, lost in thought the entire time.

I was unsure as to what it was that I wanted to do today, since within this world everything revolved around George for me and everyone else. So without George it meant that I had nothing to do. The town did definitely have entertainment, but most of it was stuff to do with friends and I didn’t really have any friends here.

In a fit of annoyance and wariness I pulled over to the side of the road. Watching as the other cars passed by I took a few deep breaths. I just was feeling surprisingly down at the moment. Eventually my gaze drifted away from the road and down to my phone, not the one that I had been given when entering the show but my personal phone.

Aside from watching George I hadn’t really been using my own phone, deciding to use this time when I was within the show as a detox from the outside world. Yes I counted being in a more limited world with more restricted technology as a detox. It might be dumb or hypocritical but who gives a shit, it was my choice.

After sitting there for a while I was shocked as I heard the sound of someone knocking on my passenger window. I looked over and my eyes widened as I saw Sapnap standing there. I had not had much of an interaction with him earlier today. The only time I had talked to him was at George’s party about a month ago.

I rolled down the window. "Hey Sapnap." I grinned at him. "What are you doing here?" He shrugged, opening the door without invitation and settling himself in the passenger seat.
“I was just going for a walk and spotted you.” The ravenette then hesitated. “You seem upset about something, are you okay?”

Sapnap POV.
A few hours earlier

“It’s good that we got some alone time.” Karl smiled, cuddling into me. We were both shirtless in bed, his head resting on my chest and occasionally kissing at my bare skin.
“I don’t see why you were so desperate to follow Jimmy’s rules and bring George back here.” I responded, face near the brunette’s hair as I nuzzled against him.

My voice was quiet, I attempted so that Jimmy couldn’t hear us. Although that was unlikely. There were no audio devices in our bedroom so the only way Jimmy could hear us is if we talked to him through a phone. Otherwise we would have to be in a room with microphones to pick up our audio.

“If you had gotten him here then we would have to wake up and get ready for work, then we’d need to spend all day out of the house to not ‘break the illusion’.” I chuckled. “But now we get to lay together doing whatever the hell we want.” Karl chuckled in agreement as he moved to kiss me on the lips, letting out a moan.

Suddenly my phone began ringing, as did Karl’s. Without a word we exchanged a glance, knowing exactly who it was calling us. Karl picked up the phone on behalf of both of us, answering and putting it on speaker. “Hello Jimmy.” He greeted. “What can we do for you?”
“Is it something George related?” I asked quietly, since that was usually what it was about.

“Actually no.” He said, shocking the both of us. Thankfully though he didn't have a camera in our room so he couldn't see our reactions. "I actually want one of you to visit Clay.”
“Clay?” Karl responded, seeming confused as to why one of us needed to be around Clay. “Why us? Why not Niki or something?”

“She is fed up with having him and George around all the time.” The brunette on the other end of the phone sighed, as though her being fed up was no bigger than a small inconvenience. “He’s miserable, and the viewers don’t like him miserable. Turns out when he is happy, just like when George is happy, they’ll buy more of our sponsor's shit.”

Both Karl and I rolled our eyes at this, neither of us in the mood to drag ourselves out of bed to go looking for Clay to comfort him. When neither of us spoke to him it seems that Jimmy realised this and grumbled. “I’ll do something for you if you agree.” He quickly stated, before trying to offer something. “Pay for a vacation, I know you guys hate hanging around town.”

Karl nodded, accepting the offer without saying anything. His eyes narrowed as he examined me, wanting to know what I thought of it before verbally confirming with Jimmy. I rolled my own eyes. I wanted to just lay around all day, since because Clay was here we had been able to spend a lot longer relaxing without dealing with our on screen ‘best friend’.

“I don’t want to be the one to deal with him though.” The brunette continued, looking expectantly at me. “The last few times we’ve talked he’s pissed me off.”
“Fair enough.” I sighed. I would have probably expected that he’d ask me to do this, but honestly I would have agreed to do it either way.

I took a moment to embarrass Karl with a sloppy, open mouthed kiss. “You owe me though.” I spoke softly so only he would be able to hear. A smirk grew on his face and he nodded.
“You’ll have something waiting for you when you get home.” He purred seductively before lightly nudging me off of the bed to get moving.

As I began getting changed I carried Karl’s phone. “So where is Clay?” I asked Jimmy as I pulled a shirt on.
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