𝘿𝙐𝙈𝘽 & 𝙋𝙊𝙀𝙏𝙄𝘾 ━━━ 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐉𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧 x 𝘧𝘦𝘮!ᴏ/ᴄ ✓

5. 𝐂𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

"𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆
 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆
(𝑶𝒉, 𝒏𝒂-𝒏𝒂, 𝒏𝒂-𝒏𝒂-𝒏𝒂-𝒏𝒂
    𝑶𝒉, 𝒏𝒂-𝒏𝒂, 𝒏𝒂-𝒏𝒂-𝒏𝒂-𝒏𝒂)"

General POV:

TIMESKIP - Five days later:

It had been a few days since Winston and Maria had started dating and they were inseparable. Every chance they got, they would hold each other's hands, kiss one another or just put an arm around the other casually. Clay and the gang would look at them in disgust. Well, some of them - like Charlie, Tyler and Alex - would just smile at them, happy that Maria was happy. Others, like Clay, Zach and Justin would absolutely gag at the sight of them.

"Dude, what are you dying for? It's not like you and Jess don't do that shit too. You're just as nasty." Clay said, his hand covering his mouth, clenched into a fist - a motion done to represent throwing up.

"With me, it's different 'cause I'm Justin Foley but these two are like, nerds. Nerds kissing each other is just nah. Not happening for me." Justin said, walking beside Clay, Jessica on his other side holding onto his hand.

"Well whatever they have, it's cute. But it kind of looks forced-" Jessica whispered, looking around to see if Maria and Winston were near them, acting as if she had said something forbidden and illegal or something. "And don't get me wrong, I love Maria and all, and I wanna support her in whatever she wants but is this what she really wants? I'm just gonna say it right now, he's bad news." 

"Yeah, no kidding. That's literally what I was thinking, you know-" Clay started, eventually noticing how he was starting to come off as a little jealous and possessive over Maria as Justin and Jessica looked at him, their brows raised. "You guys know what I mean right? I don't like her. I don't even care about her. I just don't want there to be another Bryce and Chloe situation. You know how those fuckers are over at Hillcrest."

"True, he's got a point." Justin said.

"Well, my class is over here so I've gotta go but we can talk about this later at break and then lunch okay? Bye, Justin." Jessica said, waving at Justin and Clay before planting a soft kiss on Justin's cheek. She then entered her class and that was the end of her.

Clay turned around involuntarily and started to quicken his pace. Justin was kind of a slow walker and Clay knew that, so why all of a sudden was he speeding up? Something wasn't right and Justin could feel it.

"Bro, what's wrong with you? Why are we walking so fast? It's History for fuck's sake." Justin laughed, catching up to where Clay was which was practically six feet apart to where Justin was stood behind.

"Uh, I don't take History, I do Geography and we're late so-" Clay started to say, almost running away from the scene but he couldn't. Justin wouldn't let that happen.

"Clay, talk to me. What's bothering you?" Justin said, stepping infront of Clay to hold him at a halt. There was no way Clay was going to get past Justin now so he just decided to tell him.

"God, fine. It's just that the first day they got together, I saw them kiss and it fucking broke my heart!" He practically cried out, his voice breaking towards the end. "I swore down that after Hannah and Ani, I wouldn't fall in love again but here I am, infatuated with Maria. I'm literally ruining my own life because of this. I just, I couldn't handle them being together and I-I don't love her but I do like her. It's, it's complicated." Clay confessed, practically pouring his heart's contents out for Justin to pick up the pieces that remain. Justin dropped his backpack to the floor and hugged Clay tightly. No matter how much Clay pissed off Justin, he was still his brother and there was no denial of that fact. So hugging was the right thing to do at this point, in this situation.

"Hey, hey. Clay, it's gonna be fine buddy. Don't worry about it. Love is hard and whatever but fuck whatever anyone else says to you." Justin stared at the ground wide eyed as he held onto Clay still, his face burrowed in his shoulder. He was stuck on what to say next. "Falling in love is hard but it's for the strongest people and all that bullshit."

"Wow, really? I'm feeling really inspired right now." Clay joked, removing his face from Justin's shoulder before they began walking off into the empty corridors. Everyone was already in lesson, meaning they were super late and they were going to get done if there were teachers lurking around the corridors.

"No, listen. She's just lost all of her common sense and Winston and his fake ass probably put a love potion on her and did some Harry Potter ass magic on her. She wouldn't say yes to a guy that quickly, no girl would." Justin explained.

"Huh, what a coincidence. He looks like a fucking wizard." Clay joked, to which Justin snorted a laugh. No because why does Winston genuinely look like he would be apart of that franchise. Don't you think it's strange?

"Well let's get to lesson now. I've got geography what about you?" Clay asked.

"History, like I said before." Justin said, wrapping his arm around Clay's shoulder lovingly. They were being the type of brothers that genuinely had nothing but love for each other which was thought to be a rarity.

"Oh shit, my bad. What class are you? I'm C25." Clay said, grabbing his timetable and looking down at it before looking back up at Justin.

"I'm C30 so we'll be pretty close. You'll be right around the corner, so if anything happens come to my class alright? Just ask to go to the bathroom."

Clay and Justin made their way around the corridors when all of a sudden, a teacher walked by and asked them where they were meant to be. They just said that one of them had an accident and helped the other get to the first aid so the teacher let them off but told them to hurry otherwise they'd be getting a late mark and then it was off to detention. Clay dropped Justin off to his lesson, giving him one last smile before he walked into his class. Clay walked around the corner and entered his own classroom, seeing how everyone had already started working, their heads down and their eyes focused on the work on the board.

"Mr. Jensen. You are late. Any reason why?" Mrs. Hart said, lifting up the glasses on her nose bridge to get a closer look at Clay.

"Uh, uh I-" Clay stuttered, lost for words. He didn't know how he could explain his lateness to lesson. "I got held up because my brother fell over so I had to take him to the first aid."

"Oh, alright then. Well quickly, settle in. Get all your equipment out and do the starter on your whiteboard." Mrs. Hart said. "Now, who can tell me what percentage of people have no access to clean, running water in Rio de Janeiro?"

Maria raised her hand before saying the answer as the teacher allowed her to, "Miss is it 12%?"

"Yes, that is the correct answer Maria. You are really settling in very quickly into this class. You have all the facts memorised already which is fantastic." Mrs. Hart said, a proud and bright smile shining on her face. "Now, I'd just like to let you know that for this homework, you need to create a power point or presentation about the social/economical/environmental challenges in Rio but you'll need a partner. This means that you will have to go to each other's houses or do it during your free time. Not during lessons please and thank you. Oh, and don't worry, I have already assigned you all a partner to work with to create a sense of belonging for everyone here."

"Oh great." Clay muttered under his breath, sitting himself down at his usual seat. "Oh, hey. Didn't know you were in my class." Maria was also there. He then dropped his bag on to the table and rested his head on his hands. 

"Hey! Yeah, they put me here thinking that I knew you well. And about the homework, it'll be fine, at least you know everyone in this class. You've been in this class for ages now. Unlike me, I had a different class last year." Maria explained, mimicking Clay as she also rested her chin on her hands, looking over at him as she spoke.

Mrs. Hart cleared her throat before she read out the list of names.  "Luke and Emma. Charlie and Alex." The list went on and on until finally Clay heard the very names that almost gave him a heart attack. "Clay and Maria."

Clay's heart and face visibly dropped and Maria could see it. She turned her head to look at him, expecting him to be happy but he didn't look it. He could literally feel his heart in his stomach hearing those words come out of Mrs. Hart's mouth. He couldn't believe that he had to be partnered up with Maria? Like seriously? Could his luck be any worse. Oh fuck, this wasn't going to be good...