Back In Your Arms // DNF \\

5

I take a deep breath as I reach the front door, trying to calm myself down. Just as I'm about to knock on the door, it flies open, and I'm suddenly engulfed in a hug. I breath out a sigh of relief and rest my head on Clays shoulder.

"It's nice to see you again." A voice says from inside the house. I look up and see- Clay? I come to the realization that I'm actually hugging Nick, and I feel a wave of embarrassment overcome me.

"You too." I say, looking up at Clay, my voice muffled from Nicks shoulder.

"Dude! You're here! You're actually here!" Nick says, I can here his smile as he hugs me tighter.

"I'm here!" I say happily, hugging him tighter as well. I can hear Clay chuckle from inside the house.

Nick let's go of the hug, but continues holding my shoulders, just staring at me before laughing again and hugging me once more. I laugh again.

"Just can't get enough of me, huh?" I joke, hugging him back again. I hear Clay chuckle.

"I'm sorry dude! Just after so long of not being able to see you and now- now you're here!" Nick says, giddily. I smile at him.

"Come on inside guys, it's hot out here." Clay says, taking a few steps back from the door. We both chuckle as Nick let's go of me, the two of us heading inside.

Clay holds the door open for us as we both walk in. Nick walks in first as I walk in behind him. As I'm walking past Clay, I look up at him. As I walk past him he's looking down at me, and I'm not sure if this was just my brain seeing things, but the sun through the doorway was hitting his face perfectly, giving him an almost angelic look.

I smile at him bashfully as he smiles back at me before looking away and closing the door. The entire ordeal only lasting a few seconds in reality.

"Hey dude, have you had anything to eat yet today? We got food if you're hungry." I hear Nick call out from down the hallway.

"Uhh, I haven't yet today, no." I respond back, making my way down the long hallway, looking at all the wall decorations. It's not much, some basic decor from Home Goods or something.

"Do you want something? I could make you something simple real quick if you want." Nick says, peeking his head around the corner.

"Oh, you don't have to make anything, I'll be fine." I call out to him, looking into their living room. Either they just put up their Christmas tree super early, or they haven't taken it down, and I'm not sure which one is worse.

"You sure dude?" Nick calls out again. I'm walking pass the staircase when he shouts at me, theirs different photos and pictures hung on the walls, I walk over to the photos before calling out to Nick.

"Yeah! It's all good dude!" I start looking at the photos on the wall. Most of them were from recent years. Twitchcon, vacations, events, things like that. Although a few of them were from years ago, like- their childhood. As I'm looking at the older photos, I see... me?

"Yeah, sorry about that." Clay says, suddenly appearing behind me. Was he walking behind me that entire time? I look behind me and glance up at him for a second, he's not looking at me, but at the photo on the wall.

"When my mom came to visit after we had just moved in she said our walls were too bare, so she brought over some framed photos to put on our walls." He explains. The two of us continue to look at the photo before I feel his eyes move to me.

"I thought it was weird just so you know, but she insisted. So don't yell at me for having a photo of you on my wall." He says, still looking at me before walking away. I smile at the photo, reminiscing on old memories of us from when we were younger.