Someone Like You

10

Warnings:
-Mentions physical (child) abuse

Clay's POV

I sat next to George in class while we worked on an assignment together. George was writing down the answers as I was a bit lost in my own world, drawing on the paper in front of me.

My friends would have immediately hit me and told me to listen to them and help with the assignment, but George didn't say anything and let me draw while I didn't even realise I was in class anymore.

I started drawing my own eye as I saw it in the mirror this morning. I drew eyes pretty often so I finished that quickly, looking at the eye as I remembered my own that morning. I forgot George was next to me and I started drawing a tear that came from my eye.

I was so lost in my own world that I grabbed my other pencils to colour the eye. I coloured the white of my eye reddish from my tears and I made the eye look bruised by adding purple and blueish colours around it.

I kept drawing for minutes until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I was startled since I forgot I was in class and immediately looked up at George's eyes. He smiled at me and leaned over me to see my drawing.

'You're really good,' he smiled, which caused me to get shy since no one ever liked my drawings. 'Is this based on someone?'

I shrugged and looked at it, then I looked at George. 'Myself,' I admitted.

George nodded and laid his hand down on my knee so no one could see, but so he could still give me comfort. I wanted him to know that I needed his comfort and I laid my hand down on his. He turned his hand around and intertwined our fingers together, looking at the assignment paper again.

'I'm almost finished.'

'Oh... I'm so sorry for not helping you. I sometimes get lost in my own mind and then I forget all my surroundings. I can do the rest, I'm so sorry.'

'Hey, it's all good,' he answered. 'I don't mind and I left you for a little because I know you're not feeling too great.'

'Thank you,' I mumbled as I looked at the paper. 'I'll do the rest, I'm sorry.'

'Well, good luck doing the one question left that's about all the others,' he grinned.

'Oh... uh- I can figure it out.'

'Dude, chill out,' he smiled. 'It's just one more question, I'm doing it and you can chill for a second.' He pushed my shoulder very softly to tease me and I laughed as I let go of his hand, pushing him back.

'So rude to push me after I did all of this for you!' he laughed.

I wheezed and rolled my eyes at him. He looked me in my eyes and smiled brightly as I felt the need to hug him. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer to me while he smiled and rested his head on my shoulder.

I giggled and ruffled his hair up which caused him to push me softly. 'My hair!'

We both laughed quietly as I suddenly noticed all my friends were looking at me. I slowly let my hand slip away from his shoulders which caused him to look around him too. I stared at my hands, feeling sad immediately that I couldn't just have fun with George without being judged.

'You can either ignore them and just have fun or care about what they think and let your mood get ruined again,' George told me.

I looked from my friends to George and then at my hands. 'I don't want to care anymore, but it's difficult to act like myself.'

'What's your biggest passion next to soccer?'

I shrugged softly. 'Drawing...'

'Does anyone support you with that?' George asked as he looked at my drawing again. 'Because they look amazing.'

'Not really,' I whispered, feeling my eyes fill with tears. 'Shit, I can't cry.'

I stood up immediately and ran to the door to run away before I would cry in class. I sat down on a bench that was further away from the classroom and pulled my knees up as I heard footsteps come up to me.

I didn't want to look up since tears rolled down my face and I didn't want Sapnap or any of my friends to see me cry.

'It's George,' a voice sounded. He sat down next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. 'You can let it all out, Clay. Crying is normal, I cry really often and that doesn't make me weak.'

I let myself get pulled closer to him and rested my head on his shoulders as tears rolled down my face. George lifted his hand up to my hair and then lifted my head up softly, turning it to me. He wiped my tears away with his thumbs and softly ran his fingers over my eye.

'You're hiding those bruises you drew with that makeup, aren't you?' he asked as he looked at his finger that had a slight bit of concealer on it now. He looked back up at me. 'Why are you hiding them?'

I didn't answer as I looked at my hands and he moved his hand to my cheek that was bruised too, softly running his fingers over the makeup. 'You have a lot of bruises...'

I sobbed softly and had constant tears roll down my face now. George pulled me closer and grabbed my hand.

'Clay, if someone hurts you, do you want to know what number you can call? There's this number you can talk to when you don't feel safe anymore at home for example. Here,' he smiled as he showed me it on his phone.

'Will they uh- do anything if it's not like uh- safe at home?' I asked. 'Like uh- maybe they take me away or anything? Not that that's the case, it's safe at home, don't worry.'

George smiled. 'They won't. You can decide what they do and they will not do anything that you wouldn't want them to.'

'So for example... if you know- this is just an example, okay?'

George nodded and held me tightly.

'If like- my dad would beat me every day and hurt me very much, would they not tell him?'

'They wouldn't tell him,' he answered, but his eyes were full of pity.

'It's not like this happens to me, but I'm just checking,' I mumbled.

'Clay, would you like to come to my place after school?' George asked. 'You don't have to, but I like hanging out with you and maybe we can just chill together.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, I think it would be fun.'

'Okay,' I nodded. 'I would love to.'

1141 words