this love ☼ dreamnotfound

{ 27 }

george took in a deep breath, letting it out with a sigh. "it's a long story," he warned.

"that's no problem," karl grabbed one of george's silk pillows and pulled it close to his chest. george hadn't even sat down and karl already looked like he was ready for bed. "i'm sleeping over- we have all night," he assured.

"well, um." george didn't even know where to start. he sat down on his bed and rested his back against his headboard with his knees propped up. karl was laying beside him watching in anticipation. "jace slipped his number into my pocket on vacation and i may or may not have texted it."

"ew," karl reacted with a scrunched nose-bridge.

a roll of george's eyes gave karl the memo to shut up. "anyways," he continued, "we sort of became friends? look- i know it sounds really bad but i just needed to ramble about my problems to someone and i couldn't do it with anyone in our friend group because we're all sad. that was all it was."

"okay..." karl nodded as he processed the information. "proceed," he urged.

"i told clay, obviously," george spoke. he realized after the words came out that he lied; clay found out because of that text and it was almost a disaster. "he wasn't really happy because he was worried that jace was gonna be weird but i didn't think he was so i told him not to worry."

karl interrupted, "i know you're colorblind but you're not blind blind. how did you not think he was weird?"

"that's not the point," george snapped. "the point is, i kept talking to jace because i wanted clay to trust him, and i gave him so much reassurance that everything was fine and i thought it was getting better but-," he was cut off.

"but it wasn't?" karl guessed.

george held back a scream of frustration from being stopped while telling his story once again. "wow karl, you're right! congratulations," he beamed sarcastically.

"i'm just trying to show that i'm following along," karl defended.

"i appreciate it, but my patience is at an all-time-low," george advised.

karl apologized, "sorry mr. george. i'll shut up."

"thank you," george replied as he calmed himself down. he began again, "a few days ago, clay came over unannounced and told me he wanted to go on break."

karl's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. if he had water in his mouth, he would've spat it out. "you guys are fighting? actually?" george gave him a death stare and karl cleared his throat, "sorry."

"i knew it was because of jace but he wouldn't admit it," george acknowledged, "i told jace and then he was like 'let me talk to clay, i can fix this!' and i was like 'no you can't but okay,' and i gave him clay's number because he practically begged me for it. i don't know if he ever called him because clay hasn't talked to me since we went on break."

"alex and foolish both said clay's been acting weird at their football thing," karl recalled.

"well i haven't left my bedroom since it happened, so i'm not surprised," george compared. he feared, "i just wonder if jace knows that his brother... you know."

"he has to know," karl assumed. "he obviously would know that he was arrested and know the reason. locklyn probably mentioned your name at some point."

george threw his head back against his headboard and groaned in annoyance. "i don't know which would be worse," he decided. "if he does know, than that's fucking gross and he was probably stalking me or something. if he doesn't know, than i'd have to break the news to him that his brother is the worst person ever."