Someone Like You

24

Warnings:
-Mentions physical (child) abuse
-Mentions sexual assault/rape
-Mentions self harm (wounds)

George's POV

Clay and I sat together for a while. Clay was crying softly, but calmed down more and more as I lifted him up slowly. 'I'm going to take you to my place and then I'm going to cool your bruises and you're going to lay down and maybe sleep, okay?'

He nodded softly as we stood up. 'I texted my sister, she might be waiting already.'

I helped Clay walk to the car and his sister stepped out. 'My goodness, what happened to you? Did dad do anything?'

'Please stop talking about it,' Clay whispered. 'It hurts me and it wasn't dad, but my "friends".'

She didn't say anything about it and let us step inside of the back of the car. I let Clay rest his head on my shoulder as I held my arm around his shoulders. He closed his eyes as he pulled up his knees.

I let him lay down like this to rest and calm down more, but I noticed he fell asleep a few minutes later from absolute exhaustion. I smiled and looked at his sister who glanced at us in her mirror.

'He's asleep,' I smiled. 'He really needs it.'

His sister nodded with a smile. 'Where do I go now?'

I told her the way she had to go and she drove to my house, parking the car on the side of the road as I softly shook Clay's body.

'Sleepy head,' I giggled. 'We are at my house, you can sleep in my bed! I'll make sure you're warm enough and have a soft and nice enough space to sleep very long, okay?'

He whined softly and held my waist as he opened his eyes. 'Sleep, tired.'

'Come, I'm bringing you inside. Say goodbye to your sister!'

'Bye,' he mumbled, still half asleep.

'Thank you for picking us up,' I smiled. Clay looked up very slowly.

'Thank you,' he whispered with an unclear and sleepy voice.

I giggled softly and lifted him up as he leaned against my shoulder while we walked inside of my house. He was so tired that he was constantly just mumbling as I went to the freezer to get some ice for him.

After that, I helped him get upstairs to go to my room and laid him down, pulling the sheets up to his chin. He smiled softly as I laid next to him and lifted his hoodie up so I could cool his chest.

'Where does it hurt the most?'

He grabbed my hand with the ice and held it on the place that hurt the most, whining softly as he pointed to his face.

'Don't be sad, I'm going to hold something on your face too,' I comforted him, leaning in to kiss his cheek very softly. He smiled and I held some ice on his bruises as he closed his eyes again, falling asleep.

~~~

Clay woke up when it was hours later and just a few minutes before lunch time. He was less sleepy this time and sighed softly as he sat up, smiling at me.

'I think I dreamt about us,' he said as he lifted himself up more. 'We went to get ice cream together. It wasn't an interesting dream, but we had a lot of fun. We had ice cream and then I asked you if you wanted to go to the zoo with me one day. You got very happy and then I woke up.'

'Aww,' I answered with a soft giggle. I hugged him shortly and pulled the sheets away to lift his hoodie a tiny bit. 'Dang, they got you good...'

He sighed softly. 'You're the only one I feel safe around,' he whispered. 'And the only one who I'm actually safe around. I feel bad about relapsing... I broke our promise, I used to bully you. I'm just such a dick...'

'I don't mind, I promise you. I forgave you for anything that happened in the past and I'm already proud that you've told me that you cut yourself again. You could have lied about it too.'

He nodded slowly. 'I don't want to lie to you, but I didn't want to break the promise either...'

'It's okay, we are going to try again. I believe in you,' I smiled as he reached out to grab his hand. 'I want to clean your wounds if that's okay.'

He smiled shortly. 'Okay.'

I gently unwrapped the bandages from his arm and looked at a few deep cuts with a lot of dried blood next to it.

'Clay, I don't want you to cut this deeply on your wrists again. I'd obviously not want you to ever cut, but I know how difficult that is. Please, it's making me really anxious to see these deep cuts on your wrists. It could have easily been over.'

'I'm sorry, I don't want to make you anxious or sad,' he mumbled.

'No, it's okay. If you might relapse again, please don't cut your wrist again, okay?'

He nodded. 'That's a promise I'm sure I can keep. I'm also really going to try to not cut again.'

I smiled and reached out to grab the towel next to my bed. I stood up and held it under the tap, going back to Clay to clean the dried blood from his wrist as carefully as I could.

'This bandage is covered in blood so I'll get new ones,' I told him, standing him again.

I got new bandages for him and wrapped them around his wrist, letting him cuddle up with me again.

'I'm a bit scared to go to school and for what my girlfriend might say.'

'You know, now is your chance to break up with her. She's saying this shit anyway, you can break up with her and then tell everyone what actually happened.'

'They won't believe me.'

'I mean... I have a plan, but it's uh- a bit stupid. It can save you, though.'

'What's it?'

'Go to her place and record what she says and does to you,' I mumbled. 'If she actually accuses you of rape, you can show the police what's actually going on if it goes so far that she goes there.'

Clay sighed and nodded. 'I'd just have to risk my dad beating the shit out of me, but I guess that happens every day anyway.'

'I'm here for you,' I smiled, hugging him.

1073 words