Best Friend's Brother But It's My Brother's Best Friend

2: Would you like to be famous? In what way?

No. Never. Not in my current situation.

George ended up staying for my whole class and more, grabbing a few of his ciders and the massive bag of pistachios I demanded Clay buy and camping out in my room with me. Once my paper was finished and turned in, I joined him in drinking, pulling twisted tea out of the mini fridge under my desk and cracking pistachios for him to try and catch in his mouth. Eventually, we settled from the laughing and being drunk, buzzes beginning to fade as we laid on our backs on the floor. Pi blinked down at us from my bed, and I reached up to scratch absently at him. I heard my phone buzz on my desk and pulled myself up rather reluctantly. Snapchats, a few instagram notifications, and a text... from Clay. I climb onto my bed and lay down, then open it.

Clay Block
Hanging out with Georgie without me
I see how it is
sent 11:38 pm

It's only from a few minutes ago, so I text him back.

Me
u and nicky were busy clayton
😩 if ur rlly so desperate for minecraft bfs
attention i guess you can join is
*us
😳
bring nick if hes not sleepin
sent 11:43 pm

Three dots pop up to show he's typing, and then

Clay Block
Attachment: 2 images
Def sleeping.
sent 11:43 pm

Two pictures of my brother passed out on the couch, drool pooling around his open mouth. I laugh and show them to George, who hiccups and giggles, maybe he's more drunk than I thought. I start typing out a response to Clay, stopping when he opens the door, three water bottles gripped in one massive hand. I'm not surprised he's not drinking with us. Clay has always been more of a smoker than a drinker. George calls out to him from the floor, sitting up quickly and then paling. Clay tosses him a water, flops down on my bed, and passes me one as well. We talk, mainly about George's stream and a video Clay edited. I'm not really paying the best attention. Instead, I'm sneaking in throwing pistachio shells at the two of them, giggling at the fact that George definitely is not sober enough to realize it's me doing it. He goes to bed around 1 am, leaving just me and Clay.

The moment the door shuts behind George, I am hyperaware that I am alone. With Clay. In my room. My bed, nonetheless. He's stretched the length of the bed and then some, ankles and feet hanging off at the end. Both arms are tucked behind his head, sleeves of an old t shirt clinging to his muscle. I might be staring, and he notices, dropping one of those strong arms, those massive hands, and pulling me up to lay right next to him. He is touching me, his body an almost oppressive heat next to me. His arm maneuvers to dip down and play with the ends of my hair. I'm panicking internally. I won't lie and say I don't like him, I do. I just, this is Nick's best friend, his coworker, his roommate. I couldn't put Nick in that place, especially if it doesn't work and he feels like he has to choose his best friend or his sister.

"I can hear you thinking." Clay says. "What's up?"

"We should play a game." I'm deflecting, but he doesn't catch on.

"You want me to go get one?" I shake my head.

"Like 20 questions."

"Nah, my brain can't work to come up with good ones." He pauses and thinks for a second. "You ever done the Arthur Aron questions?" He sits up just barely for a second, pulling his phone from his back pocket and searching something up with the arm not under my head. "It's some psychological study. You're supposed to do it when you first meet, so we could probably modify the first meeting questions a bit, but they're cool. Cassie showed them to me." I don't see the harm in doing them, so I ask him what the first question is, and we start.