never the same

2

George kept his head down while walking into school. He walked quickly, hoping to make it into school before his terrorizers got the chance to see him. He weaved in between people to try and lose any eyes that might be trained on him. He looked to the left of him and saw Clay and his friends standing in a circle laughing over something. He made eye contact by accident with one of Clay's friends in the circle, and picked up his pace towards the door, continuing to weave in and out of people. 10 feet to the door. 5 feet to the door. George went running up the stairs and into the school, where he could hide in the office and pretend to ask questions about their new scheduling system. George climbed the first step, quickly making his way up to the third, there were only 5 steps and George was two away from being safe. "Hey, Georgie." George recognized the voice behind him, and felt shadows fall on him, he went to step for the next step to get into school, but clays hand grabbed George's backpack, yanking him backward onto the ground in front of him. Clay stood over George, a toothy, sinister, grin appearing on his face. "Trying to run from me? You were so close George, so, so close." Clay started laughing, along with his friends.

One of Clay's friends, Techno, stepped forward and grabbed George's shirt, pulling him to his feet. He scoffed as George refused to look him in the eyes. He wouldn't let techno see his pain. "Take him behind the school Dream. Don't be stupid and beat him up here." Techno's words were cold and monotone, as they usually were. "Will you be joining us Techno?" Clay grinned out. "Not today. 'm tired, I want to go to the library before class starts." Clay nodded and they exchanged goodbyes as techno walked away, but not before giving George an intense glare. The group of boys in front of him dragged him behind the school laughing and joking with each other as if they weren't about to beat a kid up. Once they made it behind the school, George was quickly pinned up against the wall, by Clay. George could see one of Clay's friend's Sapnap getting antsy waiting for his turn to punch George. 

"So Georgie! How's your weekend been? Excited to be back here with your friend's?" Clay spat the words at George. By friend's Clay was talking about him and his Friends. The teachers wouldn't say anything about the boys pushing George around in the hallway, spitting comments at him, if they thought they were friend's. Friend's play around sometimes. George didn't answer clay. He never answered clay. "Alright. Stay silent. See what that does for you." Clay dropped George to the ground and backed up. A few of his friends stepped forward and got ready to do whatever they wanted with George. Clay never participated in the beating. Just watched. The boys started kicking George. Clay watched. George stayed silent, not crying, not looking at anybody. Silent. Until one specific kick landed into a specific spot on his rib cage, that had been abused by his Uncle, less than an hour before. George couldn't stay silent. He let out a loud scream. Quickly covering his mouth. The boys stepped back, and George Grabbed onto the spot that was kicked. 

The boys stood there. Shocked. They usually didn't hit him hard, not hard enough to bruise at least. The last time they did anything physical to george was a week ago. Whatever had happened to make him scream like that wasn't from them. And most of them realized that. Everyone stepped back, but not clay, he stepped forward. He looked at George. His fists balled up. He grabbed george and made him stand up. George didn't look at him, he was still holding his ribs. Clay grabbed onto Georges hoodie, surprising george as he stripped the fabric off. Clay looked at the bruises that lined George's arms. He was silent. Clay lifted off George's shirt. He looked at George's torso. There were very few spots that weren't bruised. For a second, a split second George thought he saw something in clays eyes. Pity, Anger, Sadness? It didn't make sense to George. Clay turned around and faced his friend's angrily. 

"The fuck did i say about leaving bruises?" Clay yelled. Clays friends all looked at each other. Heads down. "Who the fuck did this? By leaving bruises you do realize he has proof were doing this? We could be expelled!" Clay yelled at his friends. George thought maybe dream would have a change of heart by seeing his bruises. But no, he was just concerned about getting in trouble. Everybody in clays friend group looked at each other. Sapnap, clays best friend, opened his mouth. "Dream, none of us... None of us did that to him." Clay looked confused for a second. Then it clicked. Then it clicked for Sapnap, and then slowly, the rest of the group seemed to understand what was going on. Clay turned around to face George. The group stood there. They stared at the bruises that lined Georges pale body. Nobody said a word. George didn't know what to do. So he stood there. George stood there and broke a promise he had made to himself. He would never let Clay see him cry. Well now he was crying. He didn't know what else to do. So he cried. None of the group had ever seen George cry, not when they punched him, not when they called him nasty things, never. George never cried at school. "Go to class." Clay said to his friends bluntly. George turned to walk away before a hand stopped him. "Not you." the rest of the group walked away and left Clay and George alone.

Clay couldn't understand why, he couldn't understand how, but for the first time, he didn't want to hurt George. He wanted to comfort him. He knew what it was like, and he felt so bad knowing he made someone else, who was experiencing the same things as him, life hell. He knew George wouldn't forgive him, at least right away, but he wanted to try. 

George stood there. Silent tears running down his cheeks. He didn't know what dreams intentions were. Clay stepped forward. He ran his hand over the bruises on George's chest. He couldn't stand it. He hated himself for adding onto the pain, he still didn't fully understand why he did it. He knew George was broken. He knew that he was part of the reason George was broken, but it never felt real until he saw what he did. He pulled George into a hug. This was George's first hug since his mother died. And frankly, he could care less if it was Clay giving it to him. He needed it. George wrapped his arms around Clay and cried, he didn't hold back noise this time though. He sobbed, until he couldn't anymore. They stood there, and Clay cried too, thinking of ways to make this better. 

Fin of chapter 2. <3

Ya'll don't worry it aint gon be that easy. George has absolutely not forgiven clay yet, and clay is absolutely not COMPLETELY done bullying George yet, so like... material gworlll. 

Anyways stay safe, and remember my dms are always open!

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