I burn you? You melt me // Dreamnotfound //

Chapter 5

Clay was awakened early by the sound of chirping birds. He slowly opened his eyes. The sun peeked through an opening in between his curtains and lit up the empty space next to him in bed.

"No, George loves Maia. He's just my best friend and that's fine. He does care about me, right?" he thought to himself.

The tall guy got up and picked an outfit. He walked downstairs in silence. Surprisingly his mom was already awake and his dad hadn't left for work yet. "Good morning, Clay." said his mom with a smile on her face.

"Morning, son." his father said.

"Good morning." yawned the tall boy.

He rubbed his eyes and made himself a sandwich. When he finished his breakfast, he drank a cup of tea and greeted his dad who was about to leave. He went to the bathroom to get ready for school. His phone hadn't pinged a single time, no new messages. It didn't matter to Clay, he was feeling good.

He put his jacket on and greeted his mom and Drista who was now also awake. "You're going to be early, Clay." his mom said. "I know!" said the tall boy careless and shut the door behind him.

He took a detour on his way to school but still arrived very early. He looked around, there was barely anyone. The blonde sat down at a table in the yard and opened Instagram. He scrolled for about 3 minutes until he got rudely interrupted by a guy that pushed his phone down. He looked up, startled. It was Johnathan Schlatter, obviously.

Clay looked around again. None of his friends had arrived yet. It was quiet, there was no one else in the schoolyard, except for Schlatter and the tall guy. "Here we go again" thought the blonde to himself.

"You are early, Clay." John's face was close to the tall guy's.

"Yeah.., I woke up early.."

Schlatter looked around, he then sat down next to Clay, facing him. "So, what are you up to, man?"

The blonde gave him a confused look "Eeh.. nothing, really." Before John could even ask another question Clay already interrupted him "What do you want?"

Schlatter looked around again and laughed nervously. His head was facing his feet but his eyes were focused on Clays face. The tall guy got chills and wanted to get up. Before he even moved his arm Schlatter pulled him by his shirt. Their faces were even closer to each other now. Clay arms were on Johns chest as a reflect to push him away but he couldn't. He couldn't push him away, he froze.

The blonde turned red and breathed heavily. He started feeling nauseous, the world started spinning. They felt each other's breath on their face. Schlatter's smelled like mint. His lips moved "Listen here you fucker." he said and pressed his lips against Clays. A shock went through the tall guy's body and he finally pushed John away.

Schlatter laughed "C'mon man, it's just a joke, nothing serious." Clay couldn't think straight. He backed up, grabbed his bag and walked off.

The blonde saw familiar faces in the distance. "Alex? Karl?"

"Oh, hey Clay. You good?" asked the shortest.

"Oh, yeah." lied the tall boy "Why?"

"You look like you were being hunted down, man" Karl said. "Why are you so.. red?"

Clay's eyes opened widely "What..." he then walked toward the bathroom without saying anything. "Clay?" he heard from behind him, but he didn't look over. He pushed the bathroom door open and dropped his bag on the dirty floor.

He leaned over the sinks as he looked in the mirror. His eyes were red too, everything was red. The boy splashed cold water on his face and caught his breath. "What the fuck. What the actual fuck..." he couldn't understand what had just happened. He looked in the mirror again. He was completely lost.

He heard strange voices on the other side of the door. He grabbed his bag and hid in one of the bathroom stalls. He sat there for at least 15 minutes, not moving. He sat with his legs on the toilet so that no one would recognize his shoes. His arms held his legs tightly together. His head faced down, his eyes were closed.

He tried not thinking about it. He tried to forget what Schlatter did. He was a bad guy, Clay didn't like him at all. But that kiss or whatever it was, that felt good. That was the problem.

The bell rang and Clay scared up. He gathered courage and ran out of the restroom. He looked around for his friends but it didn't matter. He walked quickly to his classroom, hoping he wouldn't pass John. He looked around warily.

When he entered the classroom, his friends were already there. Nick looked at him "Hey dude, Alex and Karl told us you seemed kind of lost this morning." Clay sighed "It's nothing." He sat down and hoped the school day would distract him. He decided not to tell anyone, not even George.

The blonde stayed close to his friends that entire day. "You good?" asked Darryl. Clay lied again and said he was fine. He luckily didn't see John the rest of that day. He wouldn't know how to act. What were they even? Was Schlatter bullying him or was he just.. teasing?

John had always acted weird. According to Darryl he was a bully. Clay thought again, he was rude and that's why he didn't have any friends. But John never threatened him. He never said he was going to beat him up or anything like that. He just.. insulted Clay. Boys usually insult to impress, don't they. Well, Clay was a boy but he would never insult someone to impress them. He had no idea what was going on.

During recess, Clay joined George and Maia. Her friend Richard was there too. However the blonde mostly looked at the brunet, he noticed Richard did so too. It wasn't the same, Rich's look was different. It was rather negative.

Neither Maia or George noticed it, they were too busy talking about her birthday party that was planned a week from now. Clay kept Richard's weird stare to himself. He didn't want to cause any drama.