Chasing Snowflakes

1

George had really done it now.

He had a day to find himself a boyfriend before he flew off to England and had to show his family the 'mysterious guy' he was dating. Except, there was no mysterious guy. Hell, George wasn't even talking to anyone. So how was he supposed to conjure up a guy, that could pass for a boyfriend, but had enough in common with George so it wasn't obvious he had no idea who the guy was?

Easy answer. Bring his best friend and slap a fake label on him.

It was a genius plan, in George's opinion. One of his best plans and he just came up with it after ten minutes of pacing his apartment back and forth, and fifteen minutes after his family begged him to bring his 'boyfriend' over for Christmas. However, the surprising, shocking, twisting part of the plan was that Clay was already down to act the part.

"I- what?" George starts with confusion all over his face. Clay was leaned back in a chair and he shrugged gently.

"What's the worst that can happen? I've always wanted to go to England, I had nothing else planned for Christmas, and it's not like we have to make out in front of them," he says. George nods and his face breaks out into a relieved grin.

"Yeah, no making out involved. Promise," George laughs. "But you're right, it's only for four weeks and then we can put this behind us."

"Nothing is gonna happen, yeah," Clay says. The two boys sit in silence that was neither comfortable or awkward before George coughs and takes his leave. Saying something about leaving Clay to pack and he'll be here in the morning to pick him up.

George couldn't believe it. He was managing to pull off a ridiculous plan to con his family into thinking he's been seeing someone, when in fact, it's his friend. The whole thing seemed stupid, really. He got tired of hearing about his aunt's husband and how great her love life is, so he just blurted out he had someone too and now he's dragging his best friend to another country to pose as a boyfriend. He owes Clay big time after all of this.

George opens his apartment door and makes his way to his room, flopping down on his back on his bed. He had really hoped Clay wouldn't have taken it weirdly and ruined their friendship, but he took it surprisingly well. Weird, since George was convinced Clay didn't have a single go with the flow bone in his body-let alone a romantic one- so he had fully expected resistance and a lot of "What the fuck"s. But hey, whatever made the plan go smoothly and George didn't have to bring out the laundry washing compromise. Double win.

Rolling over with a yawn, George begins to drift off with a feeling he can't shake as he watches his filled suitcase disappear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I can not believe we're doing this," George says as he stares up at his parent's home. After around seven and a half hours of traveling, the two have finally made it and are now confronted with the sudden realization that they are now 'boyfriends'.

It's not like they haven't already discussed things though, they have a list of do's and don'ts followed by emergency code words to let the other person know when things are getting weird. The two agreed that hand-holding and hugging were okay but cuddling, and obviously kissing, were don'ts. Apple meant it's time to go, bear means bring it down a few notches, and purple meant they need to talk about something. But even with all of these codes and lists, something felt off to George.

"Don't sweat it, dude. We got it, I'm sure as long as we don't say anything we'll be in the-"

"GEORGE!" A voice screams out and the front door swings open. A short woman with a blonde pixie cut runs over and wraps him in a tight hug. "George, my love, how are you?"