marionette | DreamNotFound

- 4 -

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Nick was nervously waiting for his best friend to arrive. All of them were, actually. Besides Clay but that's mainly because he didn't know him. They spend about ten minutes waiting for George until he finally arrived. He smiled and looked down at his phone. Will was even more confused. He looked like he had been crying for the past few days during class and now he's smiling down at his phone, his eyes barely noticeable red? It didn't make sense to him. Nick looked as confused as Will.

"Hey guys," George greeted his friends and sat down at the table. "Why the fuck where you at the principal's?" Nick asked right away. "Oh I made a joke about taking drugs to the wrong person, nothing to worry about," George joked. Technically, he didn't lie about the reason he was there. It actually was the reason, he thought, he didn't lie. The others went back to the conversations they had before Nick was aggressively waiting for George to arrive. Will greeted Niki and introducing her to Clay, Tommy came by a bit later. Nick was starring at his best friend that zoned out as soon as the others went back to their conversations. Nick studied his facial expression, he saw George's red eyes and dried tears on his cheeks, the empty look on his face, the fake smile plastered onto his lips. "George, can we go talk, please?" he asked his best friend but he didn't seem to notice. "George," he said again. "Hey, I'm talking to you," he said. "George Davidson!" Nick said. Finally, he decided to poke him. George flinches and looked at him. "Was that necessary? Don't scare me like that!" George complaint. "Oh my god," Nick said and shook his head. "Come on, let's go," he said. "Why?" George asked but Nick ignored him. He pulled him out of the cafeteria.

Clay looked confused to Nick and the guy he'd seen early in the morning. He had the same facial expression, the only difference was that he now had red eyes. What happened in those three hours? "What happened to George?" a girl asked. "I don't know, he showed up with red, swollen eyes, then the principal called for him," Will explained. "That's so weird, nothing like George," the girls said. "I don't know, Niki, I don't know"

"What the fuck, George?" Nick asked furiously. "What," George replied confused. "Where were you? Why weren't you telling me that you weren't okay?" Nick asked concerned. "I didn't think you'd care," George mumbled, Nick barely understood anything he said. George was looking at the floor, not being able to look into his best friend's eyes. Nick shook his head. "Please say that again," he asked calmly. "You understood everything, don't be like that," George said. "Don't make me say it again, please" Nick was speechless. What did he say? After a moment of not saying anything, he decided to let it slide. He didn't want to make him uncomfortable or put him in a worse mood. "You know what? We'll talk about it later," Nick said and left George alone.

George didn't really process what was happening, he didn't really listen to his best friend. He was deep in thoughts again, nothing new. The next thing he noticed is standing in the corner Nick dragged him to, alone, looking like an idiot. George looked at the floor and started walking towards the cafeteria again, hoping Will got his stuff. He just wants to leave this place.

As he came to the table his friends were sitting on, he saw that someone has bought him food; spaghetti. He gulped, turned to Will and asked him were his stuff was. He pointed next to Nick. "Who bought me these?" George asked. Nick raised his hand and smiled at him, you could clearly see pity. "Thanks, I'm not hungry though," George said and pushed the plate to the middle. Nick frowned. "Alright then. Does anyone else want to eat them?" he asked. "Clay, perhaps you?" Only now George noticed the new student sitting at his and his friend's table, stealing all of them from him. Clay shrugged, said thanks and grabbed the plate. George sighed and left without saying a word. He didn't have enough energy for dealing with anything.

"That was weird," Tommy said. "Urgh," Nick said. Will looked confused at him and asked, "Don't you wanna follow him?" Nick shook his head. "Nope. He isn't listening and he won't talk," Nick replied.

George went to the same staircase he was sitting on in the morning. As it seemed, it's a perfect hiding spot. He just stayed there for the rest of the lunch break and got ready for class with Toby. He always kinda made George smiled, it was the highlight of the day. He stood up and walked there slowly. As he entered the room, he saw Tubbo already sitting there, next to him the new student. He rolled his eyes. The new guy was sitting on his chair. It was were he sat all the time. George just kinda stopped moving and the new guy noticed him, tapping Toby's shoulder and pointed to him.

Toby looked up. "Oh, I didn't know if you were gonna join us, you seemed like you wanna go home. We can move a table so you can sit next to me," Toby explained. "Don't bother," George hissed and walked past them, sitting in the last row, pulling the hood of his hoodie over his head and resting his head on his arms. "Uh," Toby started talking and George looked up, "that's Clay by the way" George suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. It'd be too obvious. "Hey!" Clay said, "Thanks for giving me your lunch, by the way" "oh come on," George said and tried to smile. It wasn't like he tried to be nice to the new guy. He probably wouldn't even have given him his food if he didn't try to stay skinny. Toby turned around again, he figured it'd better if he just left George alone. He didn't knew that's what crushed George even more.