AUGUST IS A FEVER

11

You changed into Clay's extra clothes behind a tree, out of the teenaged boys sight. Clay tried to stick to dark colors to hide any burn marks you might accidentally make to them in the future. They were very obviously his clothes, them being on the larger side. It was a black Arctic Monkeys T-shirt and an extra pair of dark wash jeans. You kept your boots on, they were the only shoes that fit you at the moment.

Walking out from behind the tree, you brushed your hair out of your face. "Didn't take you for an Arctic Monkeys fan, Clayton."

"Don't call me that." Clay said, scrunching his face in distaste for the name. "Come to think of it, we never got to know your name."

"It's (Y/n)." You replied.

"(Y/n)." Clay softly repeated under his breath.

"M'kay. So where we headed now, boys?" You asked as you wrapped your arms around the two.

George immediately shook your arm off of his back, you beginning to chuckling. You learned that you loved to leave him. You figured Clay would've done the same, but when he just let your arm sit there, you brought it upon yourself to let go of him. Yes, he was cute, but you didn't like him in that way. It made you feel a bit uncomfortable as a result but just a tad.

"Me and George decided on going to the mall to get you some clothes and to stay for the night. The walk is kind of long, but we should be there before the evening." Clay told you the plan. "The road is close, we could walk, but stay close. And keep your head down if cars pass, alright?"

"I think it would be better if we stayed in the forest, just out of sight of the cars. We could walk next to the road just so we don't get lost." You told your own version of the plan. "I feel like that would be safer than walking, like, directly next to the road, y'know?"

"Oh." Clay muttered, looking off in the direction of the road, the tips of his fingers brushing against his bottom lip as he was deep in thought, his mouth slightly ajar. "I guess you're right. You sure you're not a Green?"

"I'm just a natural born genius, I guess." You said, laughing softly at Clay's tease.

"No, it's just called common sense, dipshits." George cut in. "Quit your flirting and let's go. I don't want to get to the mall at night." He began to walk towards the road again, making sure to stay hidden in the trees of the forest.

"Dude, we aren't flirting." You told him, catching up so you were standing next to him as you walked next to one another. "Can't a girl and guy be friends?"

"Listen here, Johnny Storm, we all aren't friends. We're just letting you come with us so you could help up find our actual friend." George snapped as he turned to you. You huffed a laugh.

"Someone's asking to be cremated!" You joked, trying not to take his cattiness so seriously. In the process you earned a laugh from Clay.

"That's - Clay, she just threatened me! Fuckin' zap her or something." George whined.

"Alright." Clay replied, ungloving one of his hands and brushing his bare fingers against the skin of your arm.

"What?" You yelped anxiously before he did anything to you. The small moment his hand touched your arm, you could feel a rough callouses on the tips of his fingers. Then suddenly you felt a small shock, nothing too bad as he didn't want fo actually hurt you. It felt like when you touch a frizzy sweater. "Oh." You said. Clay laughed at your slight disappointment.

"You're such an idiot." Clay teased as he pushed you softly in a friendly way before he slipped his hand back into his yellow gloves.

"Oh, my god you're like Elsa from Frozen. You gotta conceal, don't feel, don't let them know." You joked, Clay huffed a light laugh.

"I never thought of it like that." He admitted. "Guess you're kinda right."

"You were in Thurmond for six years and you still remember the lyrics to Let It Go?" George scoffed.

"It was really annoying, it kind of burned into my memory." You snickered. "No pun intended."

"Oh, my God." George sighed.

Clay let one strap of his backpack slip off of his shoulder before he flipped it in front of him so he could get whatever he needed at that moment as you all walked onward, bickering amongst yourselves. He struggled a bit to open the bag's zipper with his gloves.

You reached over and opened it for him. He looked down at you and softly smiled.

"Thanks." Clay muttered before going back to searching for whatever it was he needed, or more like wanted. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes and began to fish for his lighter but then you softly gasped.

"You smoke?" You asked. "I think I found one of your cigarettes before we met earlier. I, like, had just escaped."

"What?" George exclaimed as he chimed in. "Clay, you need to stop just throwing your cigarettes on the floor! One of these days we'll get caught 'cause of you!" George chastised the teen next to you, smacking the back of his neck.

"Bro!" Clay softly whined. "Jeez, okay'll be more careful next time."

"There won't be a next time if you do it again." George murmured.

Clay placed the cigarette between his lips, holding it there as he went looking for his lighter again.

"Shit! Come on!" Clay said as his searching became more frantic. He completely stopped walking as he kept looking. "George, I think I left my lighter at the last stop. We have to go back."

"Dude, I'm literally right here." You said, half-joking. With a snap of your fingers, the tip of your thumb was lit as if it were a candle.

"Oh." Clay began. "Cool." He said, leaning down so the end of his cigarette could be lit.

"Jesus, you really are like Johnny Storm." George joked.

"Shut up." You snapped light heartedly.

The distance between you and the blonde became a lot closer. Out of surprise at the sudden intimacy, you took a step back. Clay couldn't manage to light his cigarette from you moving so he grabbed your forearm and leaned down even closer so he could actually light it. Once he finished lighting the end of his cigarette, he stood back to his full height and took a puff.

"I -" You sputtered, flustered.

"What?" Clay asked, appearing confused. There was no way he didn't do that on purpose.

"I think you just startled her." George said, laughing at your widened eyes.

"Oh, sorry." Clay said as he smirked down at you.

He definitely knew what he was doing. The blonde had to know he was pretty, he had to be doing this on purpose, right?

"S'good." You huffed stubbornly. "Let's get going. Like George said, I don't wanna get there at night." You said, trying to shift the attention from whatever Clay tried to pull to the actual matter at hand. Whatever he wanted from you, you wanted to make sure he didn't get it, out of spite.

"Yeah." George said as he grabbed your hand and began to walk you down the route. "If we keep along this path we should get there on time."