Action (DNF)

Chapter 56: Sick-Nap

George POV.

“I hate to have to say this, but we have to leave early.” Clay said to the group as we sat around the table at breakfast. The group, my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my nephew and niece, all seemed shocked as they looked between the blond and myself.
“But you just got here. Why do you have to leave?” My niece Leah asked in a whining tone.

Last night Clay stayed with me instead of returning for his own dessert and we talked about what we should say, and what we should do. After coming up with an agreement on what to say to my family we just cuddled until we fell asleep, which was the only way we could both sleep on my bed since it was too small to sleep side-by-side.

“Well my friend Sapnap is feeling sick.” Clay explained. “And when he gets sick he gets really sick. So George and I are going to be going back to London to make sure that he is okay.”
His family seemed upset at this conclusion, but my sister was the first one to say something. “I was looking at Sapnap’s Instagram just this morning, he never said anything about being sick.”

“Sapnap doesn’t really like to talk about being sick online. His boyfriend, Karl, was the one who called me, and Sapnap is like a brother to me so I want to make sure that he’s okay.”
“So that’s why you're leaving?” Liam asked. “But I wanted to go to a theme park with you.”

I finally spoke up, addressing my nephew. “Maybe the next time we see you we could go to a theme park. But for now Clay needs to make sure his friend is alright.” Despite my words, the young boy was still pouting.
“Wouldn’t you do the same if your sister was sick?” Clay asked.

The small boy thought for a moment before nodding. “Yeah,” He admitted, causing me to smile at him.
“I’m sorry that we had to cut this trip short.” I muttered. “Maybe we could meet up another time instead.”

“That would be nice.” My mother said from her seat at the head of the table, her gaze focused on the pancakes in front of her that she had cooked for our breakfast. “We haven’t seen you in forever George. Your father and I miss you.”

Her tone was one that I may have been misinterpreting, but it sounded as though she blamed me for us leaving early, even though she and the rest of the group had been told that Sapnap was sick. My mother was sounding extremely patronising, and it caused me to ball my hands into fists from where they were resting on my lap and give her a harsh look.

None of us said much while we were eating, although I didn’t actually eat too much off of my own plate. I don’t know why, but her words, her tone, and her expression were all getting to me, making me feel as though I did something wrong, but I didn’t. At least I think I didn’t. I hoped I didn’t.

Clay noticed my expression and his hand slipped under the table so he could hold one of mine, an action that calmed me, although only slightly. I leaned into his touch, even going as far as scooting my chair closer to him, and thankfully my parents didn’t notice. Well, they did notice something, but it wasn’t that.

“Are you not going to finish your breakfast George?” My father questioned. “You two have a long drive back home, and you’ve barely touched your pancakes.” I didn’t say anything, just keeping my gaze on Clay’s hand in mine, so it was the blond who spoke up to respond to my father in my place.

“George is just feeling worried for Sapnap.” He explained, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze as he mentioned my name. “Probably too worried to eat. But thank you for making breakfast either way, it tasted amazing.”
“Yeah. Thanks for breakfast.” I silently murmured in agreement, not shifting my gaze.

We went back to no talking after that, and a minute or so after our small conversation the blond pulled his hand away so that he could finish his breakfast. I moved as well, but only to get my glass of water and take a couple sips of it, enjoying the cool liquid as it trickled down my throat.

Once he’d finished his own food, Clay asked if he could finish off mine, which I nodded in answer too. Then I watched as the blond moved around our plates so my food was sitting in front of him and he ate that as well. “If you aren’t going to be eating breakfast now I could put some of the extra pancakes in a container for you to eat later.” My brother-in-law Mike offered.

“That’s nice of you.” I smiled at the brunette man sitting across the table from me. “But no thank you. You guys can have all the extra pancakes that you made.” Although Mike looked as though he wanted to offer me some more food, he kept quiet, and in the presence of the silence, Liam spoke up.

“Can we please come with you Uncle George?” Liam asked from his spot sitting beside Clay, leaning forward so that I could make eye contact. “Me and Leah haven’t ever been to London. It seems so cool though.”
“Uncle George, it looks so pretty in London.” Leah added. “I want to ride on the London Eye.”

“I want to ride on the London eye too.” Clay added. “We could go on it together.” His words caused the two kids to brighten up further, excited at the idea of going to London with both of us.
“Maybe at some point.” I responded before they got too many ideas, and felt exhausted and over-socialised but still attempting to be nice to the small children. “But not today.”

“Maybe if you two ask really nicely, Uncle George and Uncle Clay will allow you to come and stay during the school holidays.” My sister suggested, and my eyes widened at the name ‘Uncle Clay’. The way that she was talking about him as if we were in fact married, which we were not, and would most likely not ever be.

It seemed that Clay noticed how I seemingly froze after hearing what she said, and before anybody could say anything else he stood up. “Well this has been amazing.” He smiled thankfully at the group. “But it would probably be best for us to get going, since we want to be back in London as soon as possible.”

At the blond’s words I nodded, wanting to get out of the repetitive awkward situations I seemed to find myself in with my family in the past eighteen hours. “Yeah.” I nodded in agreement. “It will take a few hours to get there, and we’ll want to see Sapnap as soon as possible.”
“Oh, of course.” My mother nodded, standing up and beginning to collect everyone’s plates.

I moved away from her so she could move without bumping into me. A few long moments passed with me watching her move, her stance seeming hostile towards me once again. “I’m going to go get my stuff from my room.” I reluctantly said after watching her, walking out of the room with Clay following after me.
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1347 words

I would like to apologise for referring to George's father as 'Richard' two or three chapters ago. I had originally intended for these parents to be different to the parents that I use in all of my other stories (with the exception of Shot in Love and Crime). I forgot to change out the name Richard, but just pretend it's another person's name like 'Brian'.

Also, George's parents, and sister, and sister's partner are not homophobic. They are just strict and harsh (especially the parents).

Just wanted to say that ❤️