out of the blue | george clarkey

6; always stressed

tw: slight mentions of sick and alcoholism and abusive behaviour

george and i had briefly messaged back and forth in the days leading up to his arrival but nothing much was said. just discussing plans of events we had coming up when he arrived. i had now met up with grace and max's group quite a few times and for the first time in a long time, finally had solidified myself a good group of friends.
george hadn't visited london in a couple weeks now, so we all planned a night out to celebrate his arrival and moving.

it was the morning of george's arrival and i decided to give the room one last clean before he arrives, as i knew alex wouldn't have cleaned it. it was now 12pm and there was a knock on the door. alex gets it, and it's george and his dad, both carrying boxes. me and alex both head to the door and grab boxes off them. i reach for the two in george's hands. "be careful you might pull your back" he says genuinely. "you trying to call me weak?" i joke. "no, they're just very heavy boxes" they land in my hands and he's not wrong. i try to act tough but truth was, the boxes were in fact very heavy.
george and his dad make a few more trips and eventually all of george's stuff is moved in. alex and i begin to help george unpack and eventually leave him to himself to finish the rest.
i head to my room and realise i had a few more hours before we were meant to be heading out with grace and max so i scroll tiktok. i'm mindlessly scrolling for a while until i'm stopped on a video of a girl, it looks like she's a drama page and she's got the words 'the dark truth about elena elmslie's ex boyfriend' titled across the screen. my heart sinks. i have never spoken about this relationship publicly before, so how did people know about this.

"elena's ex boyfriend, thomas has released a statement to the sun this morning. he states, i treated her like shit and i know i treated her like shit. i abused her physically and mentally and it will haunt me for the rest of my life. but elena, if you read this please forgive me, i miss you and i want you back. he then goes into specific details of their breakup and to be honest, this all seems a little bit messy. elena herself has yet to comment on the situation but we hope she's doing okay"

i immediately scroll away, not bringing myself to read the comments. i can't. i look at the clock and it was now just over an hour until i needed to leave. i felt sick to my stomach at his words. the fact he had gone to the press and is probably profiting off this. however, i decided i needed to put my brave face on and make sure no body suspects anything. the tiktok only had 5k likes as of right now, hopefully someone reports it or it flops so no one sees it.

i shower, get changed and do my hair and makeup. as i'm spraying myself with setting spray, there's a knock on my door. "are you ready to go?" i hear george call. "yeah one minute" it sounds silly but i kind of forgot i was going out, like yes i was getting ready but i wasn't thinking about this part and i could feel my anxiety rising up my insides. i notice the bottle of disorono on my dresser and take a swig of it to try help calm my nerves. using alcohol as my de-stresser has become a regular thing that i'm not proud of but that's a problem for my therapist.

i walk out the door, bag in hand and brave face on ready to face the night. we end up getting the tube as i've spent far too much money on taxis in the past few weeks and arrive at the restaurant. we agreed food and then club so we weren't all drinking on empty stomachs. i immediately reach for the bar and order a double. "on the bevs already girl?" grace asks and laughs. "you know it" i reply and grace also orders a drink. we both get our drinks and carry them over to the table with everyone else. grace's boyfriend billy had joined us this time and the only spare seats were next to billy and george, so i sat down next to george. "on the drinks already?" he laughed. "so is grace" i say almost defensively. george is a little taken aback. "oh yeah" he just laughs and carries on talking to max. i sit quietly trying to erase the words from that article out my head but i struggle to. however, the more i drink the quieter the voices are so i keep going. by the end of the meal, the room is spinning but we make it to the clubs somehow. i have no recollection of this. i dance with grace and andrew for a short while before heading outside for a vape break. another habit i need to break. as i sit outside, george is not far behind me. "we have to stop meeting like this" i joke. "still stressed?" he asks referring to the vape. "always stressed" i respond. "what's up?" george asks, i can see the sincerity in his eyes but it's also the same sincerity i only see when he's drunk. as always my drunken mind cannot stop my drunken lips and i end up spilling my guts to george and telling him everything about the tiktok and what thomas had done to me previously. "sounds like a cracking guy" george jokes trying to diffuse some of the tension. i laugh but also begin to cry. i hadn't cried in weeks now so this was overdue. depressed drunk was back and i began to sob. "come here" george says and pulls me into his side. we keep having these intimate moments but only when we're drunk. but i wondered how long they'd last and what they actually meant, especially now we were roommates. "i'm sorry, i shouldn't do this to you" i lift my head up, dry my eyes and turn away from george. "do what? i told you to come to me" he explains, looking up at me trying to dry my face. "i know, i'm sorry" i say, embarrassed. "stop saying sorry!" he laughs. "why are you always saying sorry?" he laughs again. "i don't know!!" i say jokingly in frustration, "it's just a habit". "do you want to stay out here a bit longer or go inside?" he asks me. "let's go back in otherwise i'll just sit here and pity myself" george ruffles my hair making me laugh before holding his hand out to help me up as he can see how drunk i am. not that he was much more sober himself.
we head back inside and i ask george to grab me another drink.

george's pov
elena had just opened up quite a bit to me, but i could tell she was very drunk and i didn't want her to overstep any personal boundaries she'd regret when she's sober. she asked me to get her a drink, so i decide to get her a water but tell it's a vodka and lemonade and just like i expected she doesn't even notice the difference, too drunk to care. i sit down at the table we seem to have claimed with billy as the girls are off dancing. i check my watch and it was now 3am and the clubs would be closing soon so billy and i decide it's probably time to go home as grace and elena were the last of the group to be on the dance floor. we rally the girls together and head off into our separate taxis. elena had told me a lot this evening, and despite the fact i was also quite drunk i know i will remember it tomorrow and i feel like she won't. it feels like a bit of an uneven power dynamic and i don't like that so i try to forget as much as i could, but i also want to help her. i wonder if alex knows the extent of what happened between her and thomas. my thoughts are broken by a panicked look on elena's face and all she can say is, "sick" i call out to the taxi driver. "excuse me mate, can you pull over?" he does just that and i open the door for elena. she leans over my lap and throws up, thankfully it misses me legs and just about makes it to the curb. i attempt to hold her hair back as she goes again and she gives me a weak thumbs up to show that she's finished. i close the door and the taxi driver carries on. "nice aim" i go to give her a high five but look down and she's immediately fell asleep. i have no idea how she's just done that so quickly but she's snoring pretty intensely so she's out. she looks really uncomfortable so i gently nudge her head to rest on my shoulder, this wasn't the first time we'd ended up like this. i've found elena has been on my mind a lot lately. not in a weird way, just in a caring way because i can see she's struggling and i don't know how to help her. but like in the way i'd want to help a friend, because that's all she is. a friend...

we get back to our apartment, that's still weird to say. i pay the taxi and try to gently wake elena up to get her out the taxi. she wakes up but her body is still limp due to the heavy amount of alcohol she's consumed and her slumber, that she's still not fully conscious from. i'd be lying if i said it wasn't a bit of a struggle helping her up the stairs but we make it eventually. i open the front door and get us both inside, putting my finger on my lip reminding elena to be quiet because i assume alex would be asleep. however, there is a note left on the side.

'staying over at my girlfriend, alice's tonight if you're wondering why i'm not here. will be back tomorrow evening. alex x'
the fact we don't have to be quiet makes trying to get elena to bed a bit easier but it's still quite the task. she gets into her room and sits on the bed and stares up at me, blank faced. "are you okay?" i ask, laughing. "i think i need to be sick again" she says. i spot her as she drags herself to the toilet and she was right, she's sick numerous times again. i realise i can't leave her to go to bed by herself and weigh up my options.
i decide i'm going to have to sleep on her bedroom floor, otherwise i think i would just be listening out all night for her being sick in her sleep. we walk back into her bedroom and i soon realise, i can't sleep on her floor as it is covered with clothes and numerous of her other belongings. at this point, elena is sat on the bed just staring into space and i'm not sure what to do. i can't exactly ask her as she not conscious enough right not to accept any decision. "hey, i think you should sleep in my room so i can make sure you're not sick again. i'll sleep on the floor" i say tapping her shoulder gently to get her attention. she just nods and stands up. "do you want to get changed and i'll wait outside the door and then we can go to my room?" i ask and she just nods again. i'm not sure she is capable of doing this on her own but there's no way i can help her get changed. i step outside and wait for her to finish. after a few moments i hear her shout my name. "george! george!" "can i come in?" i ask and there's no response so i peak my head round the door and see her stood in her underwear with her arm stuck through the sleeve of her top. "i'm stuck" she laughs, way too much for the situation but i blame the alcohol. i try my absolute hardest not to look anywhere other than her arm and face and within seconds her arm is through the sleeve and everything is covered again.

we make our way to my bedroom and i grab a few pillows from the sofa and blanket off the bottom of my bed and make camp on the floor. it's not that comfy but it will do to get a few hours sleep. i grabbed elena a bowl and some water and left it on my bedside table in case she needed it but thankfully i slept all the way through until 10am.

a/n- thank you so much for all the reads so far, i really was not expecting so many of you to want to read my book! i know the story is quite slow moving so far but i promise it's worth it for the character development in the end :)