Love Is Our Chance | DreamNotFound

| 21 |

Clay walked through the baseball diamond sluggishly, having gotten no sleep last night. He was too busy thinking and crying over George.

Him and George were over...and there was nothing he could do about it.

His eyes were red and puffy, posture droopy and a hat was placed on top of his blonde hair. It was the same hat he stole all those years ago to hide his bruised face.

He was walking to the place he and George had agreed to meet up. It was difficult listening to George's voice calling him from his walkie talkie but it made him feel less miserable.

"Hey."

Clay made it to the bleachers beside the baseball diamond and smiled weakly at the brunette.

He was sitting down sloppily, shoulders no longer poised. His hair was a mess, a mop of brown hair sitting on top of his head. Eyes red and droopy, showing signs of no sleep.

"Hey." He attempted to smile, standing up and opening his arms for a hug but stopped once he remembered what happened, "Uhh, sorry."

Clay felt his heart drop as George sat back down, staring at the ground awkwardly. He walked to the brunette and stood in front of him for a second before sitting down at an arm length distance.

"How did you sleep?" Clay asked although the already knew the answer.

George laughed weakly, "As you can see from these-," He said and pointed at his eyes, "Not very well."

Clay chuckled and took his hat off, "I think we're in a similar boat."

The brunette looked at Clay's face and laughed when he saw his red eyes, "Yeah, I think we are." He stopped laughing and cleared his throat, "So...,"

"So...," Clay repeated, feeling the heavy awkwardness in the air, "What did we need to talk about?"

George scratched his neck, "Umm I thought we'd talk about what we need to do to keep us from being a target."

"What do you mean?"

"Well...Aiden did say that we had to watch our backs, meaning he'd be keep an eye out for us."

"I don't really think he meant that." Clay scoffed.

"He did." George deadpanned, "I saw it in his eyes." He looked away and cleared his throat, "Anyway, I thought we could talk about what we should do so we're on the same page."

"Like what?"

"Well, first of all, no, uh...kissing or anything." George muttered, his face visible suffering as he talked, "We can't do that anymore."

Clay felt his stomach churn at his words even though it was already a given. He closed his eyes and leaned back, trying to come off as calm, but in reality he was close to breaking down again.

"O-okay." He mumbled, "What's next?"

George paused before talking, "Umm, no hugging or holding hands either, that would draw attention."

"I get what you're talking about - but we were holding hands and hugging way before we started...dating-," Clay sighed, trailing off at the end.

"I-I know." George stuttered, "But if you think about it, normal boys who are just friends don't do that." He laughed sadly, "So, um, yeah, even though we did that when we were just friends, we can't anymore."

Clay nodded slowly and chuckled to himself, "That's gonna be tough but I guess we have to do this stuff to live."

"Yeah...," George agreed quietly, "We do."