family friends

9 - bloody nose

tw: blood

Around 8 o'clock I pull open the last box and sort through its contents. Clay has been on his computer the entire evening, coding something far more complicated than I've ever seen. He tells me it's a plug in or something but the words he uses to describe it mean absolutely nothing to me. Reading the numbers and letters that cross his screen at a rapid pace just makes me feel useless and unintelligent.

When he notices that I've finished with the boxes, he glances at his watch briefly then types something quickly on his computer and turns to face me. 

"How was that?" he asks, examining the various items I found in the fan packages. 

"Really fun. Some of them were kind of weird though." He laughs then smiles to himself as if remembering something. Probably a weird package he received in the past.

"I'm absolutely starving. I totally forgot about dinner, sorry. What do you wanna eat?"

"Oh, I'm not really hungry. I'll probably just eat a snack whenever I go home."

"What? You haven't eaten for hours. Come on. I'll just order something." I think about this for a moment, but it doesn't seem like he's willing to take no for an answer, so I finally just give up and roll my eyes. "Lovely. Where should we order? I'd cook, but that'd just be embarrassing."

"You choose. You're lucky if I can even choose what to order," I say, getting up from the ground and exploring the room a little bit. There are several awards hung on the walls, most of which have a YouTube logo in the center. 

After scrolling on his phone for a bit he suggests Panera and I agree. He reads me the entire menu, but in the end, I just choose a grilled cheese sandwich. "Vanilla ice cream and now a grilled cheese from Panera... you disappoint me."

"Hey, you liked the ice cream!" I say, watching him enter our order for delivery. He laughs under his breath and submits the order. 

"We have a while before it gets here," he says, setting his phone down and standing from his chair. "Let's go bother Nick." I smile and follow him into the hallway where he leads the way to Nick's room. After a singular knock, he opens the door and walks in. Nick barely looks up from his phone, clearly unsurprised by his housemate's manners. 

"What do you want?" he asks, sitting up against his headboard, still staring at his phone screen. A computer monitor glows in the opposite corner of the room, providing the only source of light. Clay flips a light switch next to him, earning a glare from Nick who finally sets his phone down and examines us. "Did you finish the plug in?"

"Yeah and I don't wanna work anymore so we're here to bother you." Nick starts to respond, but Clay launches himself onto the bed, knocking Nick's phone onto the floor. I can tell that this is a common occurrence by the way the Nick just rolls his eyes and scoots over to make room. 

"You wanna join, Y/n?" Nick asks, wiggling his eyebrows at me and motioning dramatically to the few inches of space left next to him.

"In your dreams Nick. I don't want your cooties." Clay bursts out laughing and Nick uses it as an opportunity to shove him off the bed. He hits the floor hard, but doesn't seem to have any reaction other than laughter. I've never seen this side of Clay, but it's absolutely fantastic.

Finally, Nick crawls out of bed and sits on the floor next to his hysterical friend, rolling his eyes dramatically the entire way. I sit on the ground where I am, near the door, so that I can lean against the wall. 

"I wanna go on Twitter," Clay's muffled voice comes from behind the pillow that Nick has shoved in his face to stop the laughter. 

"Where's your phone?" Nick asks, releasing his grip on the pillow and allowing it to fall into Clay's lap. Clay immediately picks it up and slams it into Nick's face, not waiting for a reaction before darting out of the room. "DREEEEAAAMMM," Nick shouts, barreling into the hallway with a look of determination on his face. I step into the hallway just in time to see Clay slide full force into a wall, rendering his nose bloody.