Numb ~ Dreamnotfound

Chapter 5

I said my goodbyes to Nick's mom as I walked out the door to my car. I grabbed onto the steering wheel and leaned my head back against the seat, closing my eyes and sighing.

"He could be good for you"

I shook my head before opening my eyes and backing out of the driveway, turning the music all the way down yet again.

The only sound that could be heard was the road moving under my car as I drove. Although I didn't want to let George into my life, I knew all Nick had wanted was the best for me.

I walked into my house and set my keys down on the table. I made my way up the first three stairs before being stopped by my fathers voice.

"Clay get your ass in here." I could tell by his voice that he was drunk, no surprise there.

I sighed and spun around, walking back down the stairs and into the kitchen. My father had been stood leaning against the countertop, a bottle of alcohol to his right.

"What do you want?"

"First of all, don't speak to me in that tone. Second of all, where the hell have you been? It's 8 o'clock!" He slowly made his way over to the table, keeping his hand on the counter as he walked for support.

"I've been at Nick's." I said back, grabbing dirty dishes off of the table and placing them in the sink.

"Well you missed dinner. You need to spend more time with us."

"Yea whatever." I started to walk back towards the stairs, but stopped myself. "Where's mom?"

"Why the hell would I know?"

"Maybe because she's your wife?"

He then stood up and grabbed the bottle of alcohol, pouring another cup for himself. He lifted the cup and finished the drink inside quickly, making him wipe his lip.

"I wouldn't know where that bitch is. Probably getting drunk somewhere."

"Almost like you!" A smile creeped on to my face as my dads hand formed a tightly held fist. I walked up the stairs, knowing he wouldn't come after me since he couldn't even see straight.

I shut the door behind me and flopped onto the bed, pulling out my phone. I opened my messages and scrolled to George and I's conversation. It was still labeled "unknown number" so I clicked on the contact and changed it to a simple "George". I stared at the keyboard, pondering if I should send him a text or not. I quickly typed out "thanks for playing, it was a lot of fun :)" before hitting send quickly, regretting it instantly.

George:
Thanks for letting me play, we should do that more :)

My hand shook as I closed out the message. I set my phone down on the bed and flipped onto my side, staring at my wall. My eyes closed slowly as I drifted off to sleep.

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"Yo yo." Nick said as he sat down in the front seat. He turned the volume to the music up and plugged his phone in to the Aux cord.

"We have to go get George." I said, pulling out of the driveway. "Can you pull up directions on my phone, his address is in our messages." I handed him my phone from my pocket as he placed his thumb on the home button to unlock it.

"Thanks for playing, it was really fun, smile." Nick read aloud. "Is this your way of flirting or something?"

"What? No I was just trying to be nice since you were the one who said to be. Now pull up the directions idiot."

"Yea ok buddy." Nick typed the address into my phone and told me the directions aloud as I drove. "Why would you get me first, George lives in the direct opposite direction of school."

"I just figured i'd get you first. Is this the right one?" I asked, stopping at a stop sign. Nick gave me a nod, so I turned onto the quiet street.

"It's the 4th house on the left, so this one right here." I slowly turned into the driveway and waited.

George then ran out his front door and hopped in the back seat. He buckled himself and placed his backpack on the ground.

"Hey man." Nick said, reaching behind him to give a fist bump.

"Hey. Thank you again Clay."

"No problem man anytime."

Nick then reached for his phone, scrolling through his Spotify playlist. "Let's get some tunes going." He clicked on a song and set his phone down in his lap.

I pulled out of the driveway and drove in the direction we came from. Nick sung the song that had been playing over the radio.

"She asked me if I do this everydayyy I said often."

George and I laughed at how bad his singing was as he continued to yell the lyrics.

"George this is ironic because Nick here has never spoken to a female, and he is now singing about sex."

George laughed, making Nick's face go red from embarrassment. He gave me a mad look as he changed the song.

"Don't listen to him George, I have women surrounding me on the daily."

I laughed and shook my head, looking into my rear view mirror to see George laughing hard. I continued to drive as George and Nick sung random songs that Nick played, I didn't know any of them.

We pulled into the student parking lot and hopped out, walking into school together. I stood in the middle of Nick and George as we walked up the stairs towards the front doors.

"Oh right George, my house this weekend, you down?" Nick said, leaning forward as he walked to be able to see George.

"Yea sounds fun." Nick smiled and split off from George and I as we walked to english class.

The bell rang shortly after we arrived, and our teacher started to talk.

"Alright good morning everyone. So today we are starting our Catcher in the Rye unit!"

Sighs and groans could be heard from throughout the class. I continued to stare at the wall as she talked.

"We're going to start by answering some pre-reading questions, you may work with partners."

George spun around in his seat and looked at me. I smiled and nodded, making him stand up and grab a desk next to me.

"I've already read this book at my old school so this will be easy."

I smiled and looked over at him. This was the first time I was able to get a good look at him. His dark brown hair was neatly flipped to the side. He had light freckles surrounding his nose and his lips were a pale pink. My heart started to beat faster as his gaze met mine.

I quickly looked away and began to write on my paper. I felt George's eyes on me for a few extra seconds before his gaze moved to his paper.

My heart went back to its normal pace, making me wonder why that had happened. I shook my head and got to work with George.