green. dreamnotfound

stranger

time skip: 3 months to graduation

"okay, but how the hell do you get the variable there?" george huffed.

he'd never been good at math, the only thing he could do without a calculator was simple addition and subtraction. okay, that was a bit of a stretch. concepts just never came easily to him.

clay, on the other hand, somehow absorbed anything and everything the teachers threw at him. and george could only take so much of the younger's explanations. everything he said seemed condescending, and the way he spoke made george feel like a child.

"you just subtract it from this side, and add it to this one," clay stated, growing tired of explaining the same thing to george every five minutes. beside him, the older groaned and slumped down onto the table, burying his forehead into the pile of work he had yet to complete. he mumbled something into the paper that the younger had a hard time understanding.

"you gotta speak up, dude. i can't hear you when you're making out with your worksheet." he chuckled, pressing his cheek into the palm of his hand as he leaned against the table.

george turned so he was facing clay, his cheek now pressed to the paper. "i give up. we've been here for so long that if i haven't gotten it by now, i doubt i ever will."

the younger frowned at this, sitting up and resting his palm on the older's knee to comfort him. "you'll get it eventually, maybe just not today,"

george's eyes were squeezed shut. not because he was in any pain, but because he knew he wouldn't be able to handle the sight of clay gazing down at him with that warm smile. not to mention the hand that was still resting on his knee. he'd been trying to forget; trying to bury the feelings he had for the younger. but clay was making him so painfully aware that those feelings were still there.

so naturally, george thanked whatever god out there when someone miraculously showed up in the small corner of the library they'd called their own since the year before.

"hi," the boy muttered and waved to clay before focusing on george, who felt the younger's hand slip back into his own personal bubble.

"hey,"

"do you by chance have time to come look at something for the yearbook? i think your judgement would be better than literally anyone else in that damned class." the boy, whose name clay was still unaware of, asked. he looked over to george, who was already stuffing the worksheets back into his backpack.

"sure, is it okay if we try this again tomorrow, clay?" said boy was so taken aback by the situation that he failed to come up with a verbal response, only nodding.

"i- uh, i guess i'll text you, then? whenever we can work on this again, i mean." george was stumbling over his words. george never stumbled over his words.

"um, yeah-"

"great, i'll see you later clay!" clay barely got his sentence out before being interrupted by the seemingly nervous(?) george. the pair left the secluded room just as fast as the boy had come in.

it all happened so fast. one moment he was talking to george, the normal george, his george, and the next he was sitting alone, watching his best friend's figure slowly disappear from view as he walked away with a literal stranger.

the boy didn't sit right with him. maybe it was his attitude, or maybe the way george reacted to his presence. either way, clay didn't like him. he wasn't usually one to get jealous, but he was his only remaining friend, and clay george's. they were inseparable, because who would they go to if the were to seperate?

slow down, clay. you're overreacting.

george wasn't gone forever. he'd only be gone for a few minutes. well, a little longer than that. he'd see the older after school. there was no reason to get so worked up about him having other friends.

the realization that george was all he had was a hard pill to swallow, however. they'd hung out with each other every day before school, at breaks and lunch hour, and after school. they practically lived at each other's houses.

maybe it was a good thing that he was making friends with other people. but then again, nick had left not long after finding karl and alex.

he wouldn't do that.

but you didn't think nick would do that either, right?