George was going to see Clays face...
Days came and went, turning weeks into a month. A month where plans were made and George and Nick where scheduled to show up at Clay's house in the next 24 hours.
It was really happening.
Clay still wasn't exactly comfortable talking with his other friend just yet. He was able to join a call every once and a while, and during these calls he was able to get a few overly anxious words out. For many it would seem weak, but to the trio, it was everything. Clay was slowly writing another name on his very short list, and Nick was ecstatic because after years of trying to get his friend to open up it finally worked.
He just hoped something wouldn't happen and make his friend shut down again like he did so many years ago.
Clay was humming to himself while setting up a couple of the guest rooms in his house. They weren't anything fancy but he enjoyed doing the mundane activity while he listened to music. He was honestly really excited. His feelings for George had evolved as they talked more and more. George was really easy to talk to, and that was one of the reasons he was able to start speaking to him in calls in the first place.
He just hoped that George felt the same way about him. He wasn't dying to confess his feelings, he was afraid they would change after meeting his friend in person. Was George even, you know? Was Clay even?
He shook off the thought and continued to make the bed, leaving plenty of pillows and blankets to suit Nicks liking. They were here for a couple weeks, he even went so far to have gaming set ups in the rooms so that they could record or stream over the vacation as not to worry the people who watched their content.
Nick was going to arrive in 3 hours or so, 3 hours to kill. He was almost finished with the rooms and he had nothing else to prepare so he mulled over different ideas of things to occupy himself. There wasn't much to do really, just watch TV or play a game on his PC. He remember that football season had started so he could just watch one of the ongoing games for a while before he had to go pick up Nick from the airport.
The minutes melted together and he had no focus on the game in front of himself. Time seemed to pass like honey pouring out of a jar. Slow and painfully boring. Even the football game couldn't keep him entertained. But eventually the time came where he had to go get his friend.
He made sure he had the keys and everything he needed. He even went so far as to get one of those cheesy poster boards and write his friends name on it. He didn't dare write Sapnap, that would be a dead giveaway as to who he was, and his face reveal would come eventually but not in the next two weeks.
He opened the driver side door to the car he rented for the occasion and started the 30 minute drive to the airport, sitting through traffic and angry drivers who shouldn't have really even been on the road.
The airport was busier than the roads, people flying in from all over to visit the theme park only 20 minutes away. It was the middle of summer and Clay always hated how crowded it got during tourist season. But he was stubborn, he liked it in Florida and probably wouldn't leave for a while.
He managed to find a spot and parked at the exit, waiting for the flights passengers to make their way out of the airport. He held the sign in one hand while looking down at his phone, texting his friend to see where he was at.
Eventually a hoard of people disbanded at the large sliding doors and Clay looked up at the excited chatter that was emitted. His eyes darted around when he spotted his friend, awkwardly stood with a suitcase in tow, his eyes lit up at the sight and he smiled. Nick caught his happy gaze and started to rush over.
He looked up.
He had to look up.
Clay smirked at the obvious height difference, having the half foot advantage.
"You're mean you know that Dream." Nick said looking at the cocky face before him. Clay just raised his eyebrows with that dumb little smile of his before silently grabbing the suitcase and stuffing it into the rentals trunk. "Georges flight gets here in another 3 hours right?" Nick asked pulling open the passenger side door. Clay peaked out from his position in the trunk and just gave a little nod.
"Nobody is listening to you except for me you know that? You'll be fine." Clay just shook his head as he closed the back of the car. It was safe in the car, his friend could wait a minute or two while he got situated.
Something felt different though, talking over call was one thing, but now he could read facial expressions and body language. This would take some getting used to.
"It's so humid over here, how do you manage?" Nick asked as they joined the long line of people trying to exit the airport. "Just used to it." Clay responded quickly, keeping his gaze on the road.
"Are you alright?" Nick asked looking over at his friend. His hands were gripped tightly around the handle and Clays free foot was tapping nervously on the base of the car. He only nodded subtly in response, obviously a little unsettled. "It's okay, you don't have to talk if you don't want to. I know its probably different seeing me in person." Nick said, obviously a little sad that their ability to talk for hours on hours didn't translate to them now.
"Sorry." Clay said quietly, barely heard by the other. "Thank you though." He sentences were quick and short, but still held a lot of meaning.
"No problem man, I know how you can get. I'll suffice with sign language for now if you really need me to." Clay smiled a little and nodded, turning back to the road. They had to navigate out of the hell hole that was the airport parking lot.
The ride was just Nick blasting his music over the blue tooth and singing along. Obviously out of tune but he was having a really good time. Clay was smiling at his friend who was having a goodtime. He felt bad they couldn't talk about things but being in each others company seemed to be enough for the two.
Finally the time came when they pulled up to Clays house. Nick was wide eyed. He didn't expect it to be that big. A little 'woah' escaped his mouth as he quickly got out of the car, he sat behind the door and stood in awe. Patches was sat in the living rooms window and he caught sight of her flicking her tail.
"Patches!" He smiled looking around the front yard. Clay was trying to keep his little giggles to himself and he watched as his friend started to go up to the front door. It was locked so he wasn't quite sure what Nicks goals were so he just walked to the trunk to grab his friends luggage.
"Dreaam! Its locked dude hurry up!" Nick whined from the front porch. He watched with his arms crossed as Clay waltzed up to the front door carrying the suitcase. He was smiling, borderline laughing, seeing his friend throw his little tantrum.
Clay pulled the keys out of his pocket and tossed them over, Nick catching them with ease. He unlocked the deadbolt and darted into the house. Eventually he could be seen through the window sneaking up behind Patches. He picked her up and cradled her like a baby. He had seen so many pictures on Clays twitter as well as in messages but never saw the cat in person. She was even cuter despite the peeved look on her face.
"Poor cat." Clay muttered as he walked into the living room seeing Nick holding Patches like a baby. "What was that Clay ?" Nick asked tilting his head.
Clay shook his head in dismissal, confused at the sudden use of his real name. He pointed at the room just down the hall and carried the suitcase to drop it off in the guest room. Nick followed, still carrying the cat. He looked at the room, it was nice and had its own bathroom. The walls were a medium gray with bedding to match. It had a nice minimalistic vibe with the ash colored accents.
"Cool. Patches can sleep with me tonight right?" Nick asked looking down at her with a little smile. He was absolutely obsessed with the cat and Clay knew that she wouldn't be able to escape him for the entire two weeks they were visiting.
"No." Clay responded dropping the bag on the foot of the bed. Nick frowned and placed Patches down on the bed. She stretched out arching her back and then hopped down and out of the room.
"So we killed an hour on the drive back because the airport was actually hell, and we have to leave in an hour and a half so what do we do?" Nick asked, starting to unpack his clothes. Mostly just basketball shorts and t-shirts. Clay just shrugged. He had issues entertaining himself before he had to pick up his friend. How the hell was he supposed entertain 2 people now.
"No ideas? We could play Minecraft or something if you want?" Clay shrugged again.
"Board game?" He offered, thinking about the stash of games he had in his basement. Just basic ones like Candy Land and Sorry!, but they could play a few rounds and maybe Clay would be able to warm up to his friend being there in person.
"Yeah! We could play Monopoly!" Nick cheered, turning excitedly from the dresser with a pair of boxers in hand. He was like a little puppy and this made Clay snicker. "What?" Nick whined pushing the underwear into the drawer so they could get a game going.
Clay shook his head and started to leave the room. He waved before slipping out of the door and heading towards the basement door. He flicked the light on and basically slid down the stairs to get to the closet that the games were kept. He scanned the logos and spotted his copy of Monopoly as well as Candy Land. Monopoly would take forever so maybe they would wait for George to play that one.
A couple of casual games of Candy Land wouldn't hurt right?
Wrong.
Nick was laughing and pointing as he made it to the end with his last card and was crowned the winner of that game. Clay was frowning as his character had been sent to the back after almost winning himself.
"What are the odds of that! Haha!" Nick was laughing at his unexpected victory. They had spent maybe 40 minutes on that game, working through it really slowly after multiple arguments about where pieces could go or if one was lying about what kind of card they picked from the pile.
They still had another 50 minutes to kill and another game of Candy Land wasn't going to cut it.
Clay sighed and kicked back in the chair thinking about how he would be seeing George in less than and hour. He silently wished that the plane would hurry up so that they could all be here in the same room. He wished they didn't have to fly to each other every time they wanted to hang out.
He just wished that George could get here faster.
He missed George despite never actually having met him in person. George hadn't even seen his face...
George was going to see Clays face.
A|N
George joins next chapter so stay tuned!
Also I did this thing were I tied the start of the chapter with the end and everything kind of came full circle and I wanted to point that out bc I think its cool.
As always feedback is appreciated and thanks for stopping by!
- wowie