Is This True Love? (DNF)

Chapter 44: In the Car

Clay POV.

"Hey Sapnap." I grinned at the ravenette. "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?”

I shrugged. “I’m a bit bored… y’know?” Was all that I responded with. I refused to look over at him, not out of disrespect, but instead just hoping that if I watched the cars travelling past then I’d find some motivation for something to spend the day doing.
“Bored?” He questioned, with me barely watching his reflection in the glass.

With my gaze away from him I nodded, continuing. “Like the entire reason I am here is to hang out around George. When he is not around then I don’t have anything to do other than sit around Niki’s house.” I liked the opportunity being here, don’t get me wrong. It was just a bit disheartening and emotionally draining. My life is basically pointless until George finishes work.

“You do know we have other stuff around town, right?” Sapnap pointed out as though I was an idiot. It somewhat annoyed me that he said that, but I nodded. “There are 24 hour clubs, buffets, bowling alleys, and all sorts of stuff.”

“Most of those are group activities.” I reasoned. “Usually it’s just me and George and Niki. Niki has put up with George and I more than enough.” Sapnap muttered something which I couldn’t hear, and without me knowing what it was for I decided to ignore it.
“Well you can join me doing something, if you want.” The ravenette shrugged.

He talked about it as though it was something he wasn’t really interested in, as though he was just making the offer to be polite and not actually out of care. I sighed, feeling slightly upset about the fact that he was clearly not interested in spending any time with me. “You don’t have to do that.” I responded.

“Okay then.” He was quite quick to respond, and seemed ready to leave immediately, but before he had the chance to move he looked back at me again. “How about we go to the mall downtown? Jimmy organised a Shok-nin or however it’s pronounced.”

“No thank you.” I kept my voice low and under control. This time though he leaned in close to me. I was unsure what it was that he was doing but his voice was harsh.
“Just agree for fucks sake.” He told me. “Jimmy wants some footage of you because the viewers like you. He’d tell you that right now but you’ve lost your damn headpiece.”

My own gaze narrowed as he said this. I had thought that perhaps Sapnap would actually check on me out of politeness of respect, however it wasn’t even of his own will. Jimmy wanted him to check on me, and it was clear that he did not care about the fact that I did not want to spend time with any of them.

“Fine.” I grumbled quietly, before being told by Sapnap to repeat it louder and be more happy this time. I sighed, bitter and annoyed with the way that I was being treated, I was a well respected actor after all. “I would really enjoy hanging out with you Sapnap.” I smiled, the fakeness only appearing natural .

He grinned, another surprisingly wide smile standing up as he did. It looked just as natural and was scary to watch him do, yet I knew it was just as fake however I would not make any comments about it. Sapnap muttered about me driving immediately from where we were to another location further away from downtown.

My brows furrowed. It didn’t take a genius to realise this was where he wanted me to go so after waiting for a break in the traffic and indicating for a few seconds I merged back onto the road. I didn’t say anything, just glancing over at the ravenette with annoyance. He had already stopped paying attention and was looking at his phone.

I signed, earning a glance over. Other than that there was still nothing other than when he barked off instructions such as ‘turn left up ahead’ or ‘turn right after you pass by the school’. It really didn’t help out for the most part, just making me feel annoyed as I focused on the road.

“So… why exactly have you agreed to this?” I asked, honestly feeling curious about it. “You clearly don’t want to be here, so why are you hanging around me?” It was clear that he had listened to this and I was unsure as to why it took him so long to answer me afterwards. After a moment he gazed back down at his phone, with it seeming as though he’d ignore my questions.

“Because Jimmy said that the audience enjoys watching you.” Sapnap explained blatantly. “The more audience tuning in to watch, the more sponsors and the more all of us get paid, especially when it isn’t just revolving around George’s day-to-day.”
“So when I’m not around George I’m just being used as a cash cow?”

The question was quiet, more a complaint to myself than to anyone else. Perhaps it was a dickhead thing for me to complain about. George, my sweet George, was being used in a similar way, it was what he was born and raised to do.

I continued following his directions, listening to what the ravenette said until we got to the place where he directed me. I was feeling pissed as we pulled into an empty parking spot at the mall, unsure as to whether I actually wanted to go in or if I wanted to pull a sicky instead. “Oh, and Jimmy wanted to give you this back.” Sapnap added, pulling a small box from his pocket.

With a brow cocked I took the box, opening it. Much to my annoyance it was another earpiece, just like the one I had thrown away or lost weeks ago. I couldn’t exactly remember where I lost the first one or even when I had lost it, yet I knew that I did not want it back, however it seemed like that wasn’t much of an option.

Sapnap watched me with annoyance and impatience in his gaze. It was clear that he was waiting for me to put it in, and so reluctantly I tilted my head to the left and pressed the earpiece into my right ear. I took a moment to adjust to the plastic in my ear. It wasn’t uncomfortable, yet it wasn’t pleasant either, especially when I’ll need to wear it about fifteen hours a day.

Jimmy’s voice appeared after I had a second to adjust. “Welcome back Clay.” He said with a certain smugness in his tone. “I hope our communication will be much easier now, it should make us talking about George so much easier. Plus it means we won’t have any more slip ups, such as having sex with George.”

I sighed and shuddered without being noticed before giving a nod in agreement with what he was saying.
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