[REDACTED]

XV

chapter name: 14

George woke up, and god he didn't expect to be woken up how he was. He heard his door creak open and then someone jumped on his bed, he quickly sat up, startled and a bit panicked. Then he realized Nick was laying splayed out on his bed. He didn't want to say anything because last time he talked to Nick he got slapped. He just looked at his brother laying on his bed smiling.

"Hiya George." George was very confused, and was almost generally surprised Nick knew his name, most of the time he acted like George didn't exist so this was wierd. "Hi Nick." His brother smiled when he responded, "Ok what the hell what do you want?" Nick sat up and turned to face his brother who was very confused right now. "Wanna hang out with me and my friends since it's the first day of summer?" I just sat there.

This man, who has hated me for SIXTEEN YEARS, wanted to spend the first day of summer with me. What the hell? "Uhm sure Nick." He seemed to be very happy when I said yes, "Ok, well me and two of my friends are gonna be going to the arcade in about an hour so be ready by then ok? I'm driving." I slowly nodded and then he got up and left, shutting the door behind him. I'm still very confused, maybe I'm still dreaming. I decided that theres one way to test it, I quickly got a pencil off my nightstand and poked my leg, yep, I was awake.

I slowly got up and decided that I should just get ready to go to the arcade. I slid on a blue shirt, black jeans, and a white hoodie that had the numbers 404 on the back, I got it once in a thrift store. I also put on some white airforces and then grabbed my glasses and phone, along with my airpods. I quickly went and brushed my teeth and fixed my hair. Somehow I had taken an hour to get ready because when I walked downstairs Nick was waiting by the garage door. He smiled when he saw me and the common feeling of anxiety started to crawl up in my stomach.

I hesitantly walked over to him and he grabbed his keys off the wall hanger. Then another very unexpected thing happened, mom walked over to us. "Ok boys just please be careful allright? I love you both." Then she kissed me and Nick on the forehead, I actually flinched in response. My mom had never shown me affection, especially not a kiss on the forehead. I was actually almost scared now. Once I calmed down Nick opened the garage door, "Ok, go ahead and get in the truck I'll be there in a moment." I just slowly nodded and walked over to it.

I opened the back seat door and climbed in, at least that hand't changed, I was always stuck with the backseat. Instead of trying to think about what had just happened I got my phone and airpods out and found some music to listen to. I ended up settling on Stressed Out by TOP. It was a good song and fit my mood pretty well. A minute through the song Nick got in the driver's seat. I took out one of the airpods incase he was gonna talk to me, and he did. "You could've sat in the passengers seat y'know." I just shrugged. "Are you ok George? You seem distant..." I just looked at him, bewildered.

That was until I decided to be appreciative of what was happening. "No, I'm just tired that's all." Nick nodded, "Yeah sorry about waking you up so early." Nick had never apologized, and those few words made the anxiety triple. Nick started to pull out of the garage and out into the road, then he told me where we were going, "We're gonna go pickup my friends, Karl stayed at Clay's house last night so that's where they are." I nodded and he kept driving, no music, no words, just silence and the motor.