Muffled words

3

George's POV

"Guyss, wanna go to the beach?"

Clay wandered into the room as he spoke, smiling at me sat on the sofa. I tried to do the same back, but he had already turned to Nick and didn't see or notice.

"Yesss we can FINALLY go swimming" Sap jumped up, grinning. "I'm gonna drown you." Clay rolled his eyes and turned to me, raising an eyebrow and half smiling. "George? Beach? What do you think?"
Oh. My heart dropped slightly, eyes not quite meeting Clay's as the reality of what he was asking started to sink in. They both seemed enthusiastic about the idea, grinning and waiting for my answer with a look that made it clear they thought I was going to feel the same way. I didn't want to ruin that, I told myself, trying to ignore the way my brain screamed at me. I was unprepared for something like this to happen so quickly; neither of them knew. No one did. So I took a deep breath, met Dream's eyes, and nodded, because what else was I going to do?

It's fine. I'll be fine.

"We should probably change if we wanna leave anytime soon. You alright, Georgie?" I rolled my eyes at the last word, forcing myself to put on a smile and nod slightly. Clay just responded with a grin, turning away and going up the stairs because he had no idea what I had just agreed to doing.

Once in my room I stared down at the swimming costume with anger in my eyes. They were just-above-the-knee trunks, with black material and blue drawstrings.

I hated them with a passion.

Not because they were necessarily ugly or anything, more just because I knew exactly how I was going to feel about myself when I put them on. When I'd have to take my shirt off in front of however many people were there and then go in the sea.

Regardless of this I changed, pulling a black t-shirt on over my bare chest. Insecurity was trying to push its way into my mind and all of my energy was focused on shoving it away, so I was fairly surprised when Clay called to ask why I'd been in my room for 20 minutes. He knocked just before he walked in, seeing me sat on the edge of my bed with a focused expression on my face. Clearly I'd zoned out in my own head, unaware of time passing around me.

"Hey, you good? Did something happen?" I looked up at him and blinked, taking a second to be fully brought back into reality. His hand was reaching toward me, waiting to pull me up. Blushing I took it, embarrassed that he'd seen me spaced out and thinking about how my eyebrows were probably furrowed in a really dumb way. "Let's go, yeah?" he was so close to me after tugging me from a sitting position that I felt the warmth of his breath on my face, the backs on my knees knocking against the bed. My stomach fluttered when I realised one of his hands were on my waist where he had essentially caught me, the other still holding my hand. "George?" I still didn't react, staring into Clay's eyes confusedly.

A puzzled expression crossed his face and he frowned, unsure what to do with my lack of response. He took a couple of steps back, squeezing my hand before letting go and staring at me for a couple of seconds. "Are you sure you're okay?" his voice came, his green eyes staying latched on to mine and his tone gentle with a slight worry.
Finally I forced myself out of the weird haze I was in, bringing a hand up to tug on some of my hair as I nodded. He grinned, and I saw a shine of humour in his eyes a second too late before he twisted a leg around mine and tripped me, sending me stumbling before he caught me around the waist and pulled me back up, laughing. I was doing the same, caught off guard by his actions and now fully alert of everything going on around me.

Gasping slightly I pulled back, face bright red and butterflies raging in my stomach as I glared at him with mock anger and raised my hands as if to say 'what and why?'
"I had to snap you out of it!!" The boy in front of me wheezed, and though I wanted to pretend to be annoyed I couldn't escape his insanely contagious laugh. To my great annoyance a badly suppressed giggle escaped my lips and he, of course, noticed. And then teased me about it the entire time as we walked downstairs, where Nick was sat on the sofa looking very irritated.