The One You Love || Dreamnotfound

Chapter 19

After receiving his affection he so desperately craved from George, Clay just happily watched him cook. George was clearly struggling to find any decent food in this stranger's apartment, go figure, but he ended up starting to boil water for noodles and cutting up some meat and vegetables to make good ramen by the time Nick was out of the shower.

Clay sighed and headed back to Techno's room to grab some clothes for himself, opening up his closet. He was dead, might as well put his clothes to good use, right? He ended up with an oversized hoodie and some shorts, just deciding to be comfy, and headed into the bathroom to shower.

As he pulled his shirt off, he couldn't help but glance back into the mirror at his scars once more. He ran his fingers over what was the newest addition to the no longer growing collection; the carving of Techno's name in his stomach.

The would was still sore to the touch. It made him cringe a small bit and quickly draw his hand back before holding his breath and tracing his finger over the writing once more. He was genuinely conflicted on how he felt about it at that point- on the one hand, he knew he had been proud of the mark mere days ago. Was he even allowed to change his feelings that fast? On the other hand, seeing it just made him feel... bad. He felt like he knew he should be angry about it, but it made him feel more empty than anything else. Maybe it was the lack of that lovey feeling he once had for any and all of techno's actions that felt off.

He shook his head and finished undressing, ignoring the scars as he hopped into the shower. As he glanced down at his feet, he could see that there were still traces of blood on the shower floor that wouldn't come off with the water. He couldn't help but chuckle softly to himself, shaking his head and just showering.

Once he finished, he got dressed and messily dried his hair. It was still slightly wet and entirely unstyled, but he didn't care. He smelled food and, for once, he was hungry.

Well, he wasn't hungry per say, but he was excited to eat! George was cooking, after all, and that alone was enough to convince him to eat whatever was in front of him.

So, naturally, when he came out, headed over to the kitchen, and actually smelled good food, he was even more excited.

"Oh, Clay, good, you're here!" George smiled, "I was about to go knock on the door and tell you dinner was done."

He hummed and handed Clay a bowl, picking up the other two and walking to the dining table. He called for Sapnap, setting his down in front of a chair, then sat down. Clay smiled and sat next to him.

"Clay, I gave you chopsticks. Actually use them this time?"

Clay rolled his eyes and huffed, but he smiled  still. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say."

And so, the three finished their meals in relative silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, they just didn't have anything to talk about. None of them really minded.

George set their bowls in the sink, and the three ended up on the couch again. Nick had the TV remote in his hand, absently scrolling through channels, as the three talked about random things.

"So... where are we sleeping, then?" Nick questioned.

"Oh, Te-" Clay started, cutting himself off. "The bed or on the couch, doesn't matter. I'm sleeping in the bed though."

"Well we can't both sleep in the bed."

"Why not? It's a big bed."

Nick rolled his eyes.

. George laughed at that a bit. "Well, I'm not sleeping on this couch."

"Great, you two can cuddle or some shit," Nick huffed, laughing.

"Well maybe we will," Clay said, half-jokingly. George laughed in agreement.

The three continued to scroll despite already deciding on their sleeping arrangements, none of them really tired enough to want to sleep. George was still a little anxious from what happened before, and Clay and Nick just had bad sleep schedules.

That was all fun and games until Nick paused on a news channel.

"...the school caught on fire at around 4 pm, and continued to burn until around 4:30. Investigators aren't sure who or what caused the fire, but reports say it may be linked to a high-scale insurance fraud."

Nick laughed at that, setting the remote down to listen. Clay and George were both actually paying attention now, though George was terrified of getting in trouble with the police and Clay was just happy to be on the news- even if it wasn't really his doings that got them there.

"...others report that it may be linked to the various missing person cases all traced back to this school. Due to restrictions on filming and investigations on the private school grounds, updates are slow..."

George blinked and looked over at Clay, who was still watching. Missing person cases? Clay wouldn't... no.

"Huh... did you guys know about that? Missing person cases?" George asked his friends.

"I didn't- not surprised though, probably some creepy staff in the upper class wings or something. Seems like the kind of shit they'd cover up," Nick shrugged.

George looked over at Clay for his response.

Clay looked back at him and blinked a bit before shaking his head and shrugging. "Oh- I heard about one case on the news. Some teacher went missing like a week back- Vincent something-or-another."

George blinked at that casual reply before shaking his head and looking at the tv. Clay wouldn't lie to him, right? No... he trusted Clay.

"Yeah, okay."