( cw // mentions of drinking )
clay had caved. he had hit absolute rock bottom and he couldn't get out by himself. he invited brodie over, but now he was stuck and not sure about how he was supposed to explain his situation.
"i really fucking hate myself," clay complained, pulling on his own hair as he laid on his back in his bed.
brodie sat on edge of the bed while clay's cat patches came and sat next to him. patches had always loved brodie. "i had no idea you developed a drinking problem," brodie expressed. when he had dated clay, he was a youthful, innocent sophomore boy who was just confused about his sexuality. now, he had some serious issues. it was all a very sudden realization for brodie; they went to different schools so he hadn't seen any of this happening.
"i was doing good until i fucked everything up with george," he told, continuing to blame himself per usual. "now he's telling me that something happened with him and this guy that's apparently really bad, but he won't tell me what it is so i'm just freaking out."
petting patches and staying calm, brodie assured him, "i'm sure he has a good reason to not tell you. you are supposed to be on a break, so you can't expect him to want to tell you everything." brodie added, "you're allowed to be scared- i would be too. just don't push it, i'm sure he doesn't need that right now."
"brodie i'm literally losing my mind," clay warned him. "i don't know what to do- being on break with george is the worst thing i could've possibly done, but when i tried to fix things george wasn't ready and now he's mad at me and i literally can't do anything about it. if he's not ready he's not ready, but if something really bad happened i want to know. he's still my boyfriend... at least i think he is. he was asking me if were even together anymore and that's what started this whole crazy argument."
"clay," brodie cut off his rambling. he instructed, "breathe. you're talking really fast and i can see your face getting red."
after taking in a deep breath and slowly letting it out, clay spoke again, "how do i help him?"
brodie sighed, telling him the truth, "i really don't think you can. i know that's not what you wanna hear, but if he isn't ready to talk about it then all you can do is wait."
"i guess," clay admitted. he watched as brodie directed patches over to him; she understood and went to sit on clay's chest, purring and rubbing her head against his chin.
"how about we take a break from talking about this, okay? you seem really overwhelmed and you're basically just repeating the same things over and over again," brodie suggested, giggling towards the end of his sentence.
clay cracked a smile. even though brodie was technically his ex, he was still an amazing person. if it weren't for brodie, clay never would've had the confidence to be with george. "okay- tell me about the drama at your school."
"hmmm," he hummed. "where do i start?" brodie thought for a moment, watching clay finally relaxing and running his fingers through patches' fur. brodie's mom was a therapist, so he was always great at calming people down. "oh- this one guy got arrested last year, and he has this younger brother who has this hot girlfriend who's like super popular, but she apparently just broke up with him because she found out what his brother did. i used to be closer with her, but now we just kind of wave at each other sometimes and talk in boring classes. she was way too good for him anyways."
"what did the guy do?" clay wondered. he hadn't put the pieces together yet that he knew exactly who brodie was talking about.
brodie lowered the volume of his voice even though him and clay were the only two people in the room- and patches. "he sexually assaulted a guy at a party. everyone thought he was super straight too. i didn't know until his brother's girlfriend told me."
clay's expression started to twist with fear. he stuttered as he asked, "did... did you know his name? the one who was arrested?"
"locklyn, i think," brodie revealed. "who names their kid locklyn? no wonder he was such a bitch."
that was already enough of a shock for clay; he completely forgot that brodie went to locklyn's school. now he asked the question that had been burning him with curiosity, "what's his brother's name?"
"his brother?" brodie asked, obviously unsure on his answer.
clay nodded.
"hold on a second," brodie told him as he pulled out his phone. he was looking for something, probably the name of the guy.
clay was sure that he already knew what the name would be.
brodie looked up from his phone and spoke, "jace. his name was jace."
the expression on clay's face went blank as his heart dropped, then shattered. that was what george didn't want to tell him.
"clay?" brodie worried when he saw clay's face completely change. "what's wrong?"
"that's-," clay stopped. he wasn't going to tell brodie anything about locklyn; he didn't want to go and expose george's personal experiences, but he obviously needed to say something. "jace is the guy george was talking to, and locklyn is..." he trailed off.
brodie questioned, "he's what?"
"we have some issues," clay briefly explained. "i don't wanna get into that, though."
"so do you think that's what george didn't want to talk to you about?" brodie asked. he apologized, "i had no idea you knew jace and locklyn. please tell george that i'm sorry for telling you that."
"it's not your fault," clay reassured him. he decided, "i need to text george."
"are you sure?" brodie interrupted. he explained, "maybe you should wait until he tells you."
clay was conflicted now. "i think i should text him. i'm a really bad liar and i don't want to have to act like i never knew when he does eventually tell me," he reasoned.
"you're right, you shouldn't lie to him," brodie agreed. he insulted himself, "that was a stupid thing for me to suggest."
"don't worry about it," clay told him, "you've helped a lot, actually."
------
clay had sent numerous texts to george asking him to talk, and when they all went unanswered, he became blunt and just sent him a text telling the truth; i know jace is locklyn's brother.
still no responses.
it had been a few days, and clay couldn't be mad. he really made george upset the last time they talked. clay was drunk and emotional and was just letting words spill out of his mouth with no thought. he hadn't had a single sip of alcohol in the past week. brodie had been spending a lot of time with him to make sure he didn't do anything stupid, and when he wasn't with brodie, he was at football or with some of his other friends. him and punz being football co-captains had made them a lot closer as well. brodie had also secretly told caylee to keep an eye on clay, which she agreed to do.
although clay was frustrated with george not answering him, he was doing okay.
he was packing his bag for football when he heard a knock at his door. it was late at night, so he figured it was one of his sisters and not his mom. "come in," he allowed.
the door opened to reveal caylee. she walked in and shut the door behind her before sitting on the floor next to clay, who was kneeling in front of his football duffel bag. he was packing it the night before because he was always in a rush in the morning and ended up forgetting things.
"mom is worried about you," caylee revealed to him.
clay stopped rummaging in his bag and looked at her with confusion. "why?" he asked. he hadn't been showing any signs to his mom that he wasn't doing well.
"i talked to her a little," she told honestly. "your friend has been telling me to check on you which is weird, and also you just seem sad or something."
"who told you to check on me?" clay wondered, not knowing which of his friends would do that.
"that kid with like- light brown hair and teal eyes. the only person you've had over recently," caylee described.
"oh," clay reacted. he should've figured it was brodie. "what did you tell mom?"
caylee explained, "i just asked her if she thought you were acting different, and she said yeah. she barely sees you anymore because she's always at work and you're always at football, in your room, or sleeping. i have a more interesting life than you at this point."
clay smiled at caylee's words as if they were a joke, but they weren't. she was right. "i'll talk to her," clay planned. he promised her, "i'm okay, though. don't worry about me."
"no you're not," caylee argued, "you haven't gone to any parties, you haven't had any of your friends over, you haven't been going anywhere, and i haven't walked in on you and george making out. are you guys even together anymore? i liked george." she frowned as she finished talking.
"we are," clay said with uncertainty. "football is just wearing me out."
"you're a really bad liar," caylee pointed out. she tried, "i know i probably won't understand, but you can talk to me if you need to. i hate you but i kind of care about you or whatever."
clay gave her a light, playful punch to the shoulder in response to the insult. "thanks," he appreciated. neither of them looked at each other for a few moments; clay turned his attention back to his bag and caylee looked at all of the bruises on her legs from cheerleading. she was the main flyer on the team this year so she had taken a bit of a beating from being constantly tossed around.
"i'll leave you alone," caylee announced as she started to stand up. "don't do anything dumb," she advised, knowing that clay wasn't great at coping with his feelings.
"i won't," clay told. he really wanted to keep himself together; for caylee, for his mom, for brodie, for sapnap, for karl, for alex, for his football team...
...for george.
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george's parents threw this obnoxiously fancy party at the courthouse every summer to celebrate the town and come together as a community- or something like that. this year, they decided to only give george a one-week's notice for the summer celebration. george had a week.
"it's in a week?" he questioned, seeming a bit too scared.
"is that a problem?" his mom asked.
george responded, "no, it's not. i just would've appreciated to know a little earlier." how was he supposed to get himself together to be the perfect son of the mayor in only a week?
"we planned a little last minute this year since your father and i have been so busy," she apologized.
his dad spoke up, "also because your mother just wants to get it over with."
"what are you talking about?" his mom defended, "i love the summer celebration. it's my favorite part of summer."
"oh please," his dad rolled his eyes, "you hate that thing. it's annoying to plan and people ask us
too many damn questions."
his mom let out a giggle, "okay, okay. it's not my favorite thing. i don't hate it though."
"i hate it," george protested, "it's boring and there's never anybody my age there. it's all sophisticated adults."
"you could invite someone this year," his mom suggested. george was intrigued by the idea; he'd probably invite karl to keep himself entertained.
"bring your awesome boyfriend," his dad requested. "i haven't seen him in a while. i miss him."
"yeah, i'll invite him," george spat out in a panic. why did he say that? now he had to not only respond to clay's texts that he had been ignoring, but he had to ask him to go to a fancy ass party with him, and spend at least three hours with him at said party. he couldn't just lie and say clay was busy; he had used basically every excuse he could think of when his parents asked why he hadn't been over. there was no way they would believe that clay was busy again; especially on a sunday night for three whole hours when george had a whole week to ask him and plan it out.
he had no choice.
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authors note // wow dnf have to interact ! that's crazy !
i already have the next chapter written 💪💪
i rlly hope you guys trust brodie because i swear on my left boob that he doesn't do anything wrong in this story he's just a silly little guy
i have 3 weeks of school left and i am on the verge of death i stg ,, we're studying for exams this week and we take them next week and i am absolutely going to fail my bio exam AND i already have a bad grade in that class 😁😁
i literally want to do my own analysis on the summer skin playlist because i think 97% of the songs on there are absolutely perfect
if you liked this chapter, vote :]