Contentions | dreamnotfound

Chapter Four

💙

"I just don't think you guys understand how much I hate him!" George complained to his friends. He, Karl, and Bad were eating lunch in the cafeteria.

"No, I think we do," Bad said, eyeing his friend judgmentally.

"He's such a dick!" George clenched his fists in anger, wanting nothing more than to punch Clay in the face. He wasn't sure he'd be able to restrain himself if he saw the blonde again. "Can't we just kick him out of the club or something?"

Karl looked at his friend with half-sympathy and half-concern. "Not unless we have a legitimate reason. And before you claim it is, your hatred for him is not a legitimate reason."

George groaned, laying his head on the lunch table dejectedly. He was supposed to be enjoying his last year of this hellhole, not being tortured by one of its demons. He had enough to worry about with maintaining his grades, debate and his crush on a certain someone...

Karl attempted to cheer George up, "Listen, if he's really the douchebag you claim he is, then he probably won't even come to the next practice."

"Or he will, with the sole intention of fucking with us," George said, his words laced with venom.

"Language!" Bad exclaimed.

"Sorry, I forgot you were here," George said, bluntly. His head still lay on the table and he refused to look at anyone.

Bad scoffed, "And that's my cue to leave." He picked up his backpack and made his way towards the auditorium.

"Where's he going?" Karl asked George, as if he would know.

"Probably to go flirt with Skeppy," George said, voice muffled.

"Oh yeah," Karl said. "Are they a thing yet?"

"Nope. They're both way too dense to realize they're head over heels for each other."

"Why am I not surprised?"

Karl stared at George, who looked like he was sleeping. "You know, if you two just talked it out, you'd probably realize you have more in common than you think."

George scoffed, "Yeah right. If anything, I should get him back for what he did last year," he said absentmindedly, before jumping up and startling Karl. "Oh my god. I should get him back for what he did last year."

Karl looked at his friend and raised an eyebrow. "I don't know if that's a good idea," he said.

"You're right, it's an amazing idea!" George grabbed his backpack and made his way to the library to plan his revenge.

💜

Karl sat alone at his lunch table in confusion. What was George up to? Did he even want to know?

He spotted Clay with a few of his friends at a table across the cafeteria. He didn't want to rat his friend out, but he figured he should at least warn one of Clay's friends before things got ugly. He recognized his raven haired friend. Karl had never made an attempt to speak to the sophomore but he definitely knew who he was. The two shared a coding class and the boy was very loud. His name was... Sapnap, if he was remembering correctly.

Karl stood up and walked over to the group. The group consisted of Clay, Sapnap, a boy with dark hair and a beanie, and a boy with reddish-orange hair with white streaks. They certainly were an eclectic group.

When he reached the table, he tapped on Sapnap's shoulder. "Hey," he said once he got the boy's attention, "can I talk to you for a second?"

Sapnap eyed Karl for a second. "Sure," he said casually and followed the fluffy haired boy away from the group.

Karl took a deep breath, wondering how he should word this. "So my friend George kind of really hates Clay and I'm worried he's going to do something bad about it," he said, feeling extremely awkward. "So if you could just make sure Clay doesn't fall for any stupid tricks or whatever my friend is planning, that would be awesome."

Sapnap was silent for a few seconds before responding, "why don't we just let them fight it out a bit?"

Karl looked at the boy. Sapnap couldn't be serious. How could he think that the two '"fighting it out" would be a good idea? He had a bad feeling about this. George had been bothered by people before, but never enough to do anything about it.

Sapnap must have seen Karl's confused look because he began to clarify, "I mean he can't do anything too bad, right? Unless your friend has a history of murdering people?"

Karl immediately shook his head.

"Cool. So your friend does whatever he needs to do to get his anger out and the worst Clay gets is a couple of bruises. Honestly, sometimes I think he needs someone to beat the shit out of him every now and then," Sapnap chuckled.

Karl was very confused about the state of Sapnap and Clay's friendship, but decided it'd be best to not question it. And he knew Clay wouldn't be getting any bruises out of the altercation. George didn't get into fights, that much he knew to be true.

"And it'd probably be best if we didn't interfere, because that might make things worse. So let's stay out of it unless things get really bad," Sapnap suggested.

Karl was surprised. His idea actually made some sense. Of course, that's not how he would go about the situation if it were up to him, but this is Sapnap's friend they're talking about. So he would go with Sapnap's plan.

He nodded, "Okay, I'll stay out of it,"

"Cool," the boy smiled, putting a hand on Karl's shoulder, "You can call me Sap by the way. I expect we're going to be seeing a lot of each other soon."

Karl felt a little nervous at his touch. Even though he was shorter, Karl guessed that Sap was probably stronger than he was. He awkwardly nodded his head, waiting for Sap to make the next move.

"Cool," Sap said, nonchalantly. "I'll see you in coding then." He walked back to his friend group, sliding back into the conversation as if he had never left.

Karl was surprised that Sap actually recognized him from their coding class. He wasn't a particularly vocal person. "Odd," he muttered to himself before making his way to his next class.

🧡

Sap hoped that he looked calm on the outside because on the inside he felt like he was about to explode. The boy that he's had a crush on since middle school just had a conversation with him. Was he blushing? His face sure felt hot.

Clay looked at Sap, confused about the conversation that just occurred. "Why did someone from the debate team wanna talk with you?"

Sap felt his heart sink, "He's on the debate team?"

"Yeah?" Clay answered, confused about the relevance of Sap's question and still waiting for his to be answered. "I saw him at practice yesterday. I guess he's George's friend or something."

Sap regretted agreeing to go with Clay to debate. But he couldn't cancel now or his friend would know something was up. Sure, he could handle a minute of conversation with Karl. But being in the same room as him? For an hour? After the two were on a first name basis? Sapnap might just have a heart attack.

A wave of guilt came over Sapnap. He didn't mind messing with the debate team when it was people he didn't know. But now that he knew Karl was on it? Maybe he and Clay should back off.

[A/N]

[happy pride month everyone! this month is particularly special to me because its my first pride being out! so im very excited? what are your plans for pride?]