[REDACTED]

XVI

chapter name: 15

George stayed silent for the entire ride to Nick's friends house. He didn't get out when they got there either, that was until Nick asked him to, normally George had never talked to Nick's friends, but if they were anything like Nick then they weren't gonna be to open to George being there, so as he followed Nick to the door George kept his head down and looked at his shoes.

Nick knocked on the door and George heard a distant, 'come in', then Nick opened the door and stepped inside, closing it after George stepped inside to. Nick nudged George's shoulder, "You should chill out they're cool." I just nodded my head but didn't take my eyes off my shoes and clothes, which were starting to look like horrible choices the more I stared, the anxiety was just getting worse.

I was opening my mouth to as Nick if I could go wait in the car when I noticed someone walking down the stairs, the person in question was short, light brown fluffy hair and grey eyes. He smiled at Nick and then looked at me, "Oh so this is George?" I slowly nodded my head and he came to stand in front of us, "Cool, Nick talks about you a lot, you seem pretty swag." I didn't smile at the compliment, it only brought more confusion and anxiety to me, Nick never talked about me, and when he did it was about how much he hated me. "I don't think he's ever told me about you."

The boy smiled, "Well I'm Karl, Clay will be down here in a second, he couldn't find his phone or something." Nick smiled at him, "Karl let's go and get in the truck ok? George can you stay here and wait for Clay?" I hesitantly nodded and he smiled then left with Karl. When the door shut I heard another voice from the direction of the stairs. "Is he gone?" I stood there confused for a moment, "Is Nick gone?" I realized he was asking me, "yeah he's gone it's just George." Then the voice revealed it's body and someone walked down the stairs.

The person in question was blonde, had green eyes and freckles on his face, he also had a scar through his upper lip. "Hi I'm Clay." I nodded my head, "You already know who I am apparently. Why did you ask if Nick is gone?" He glanced at the door and then walked over to me. "Ok well uhm, this whole 'nice' thing with Nick. I'm guessing you're not used to it right? That's because of last summer, on one of the first days of summer me and Karl were with Nick, we heard you and your mom screaming and everything and then Nick started to make a plan for this summer. He decided he would fake being nice to you and then after a week or so of it go back to hating you."

I stood there a bit shocked, but not surprised. "Why are you telling me this?" I was looking at the ground now, I didn't want to look at Clay's face. "Because it's wrong of someone to do that, especially to family." I continued to stand there, "I'm going home, thankyou for telling me." He hummed, "Oh, also I think he had your parents in on it to." Now that hurt. "Uhm, o-ok th-thanks for telling me." He wasn't finished yet, "I'm sorry. If you ever need someone to talk to or anything you can have my number." I jotted down the number on my notes and then opened the door, "Nick is still gonna want to hang out with you guys so let's go."

Clay walked out with me and got into the back seat with me, Nick turned around and smiled at me but at this point I was done. "Take me home Nick." His smiled feel and he frowned, "why? Are you ok?" I shook my head, "No, take me home and I'll tell you there." He turned around and started up the truck.