Rich Romance (DNF)

Chapter 5: protection

George POV.

After Clay left I went to my room and had a long warm shower, trying to wash away the thoughts of last night. Darryl arrived at the dorms just after lunch and he seemed dizzy and tired, with a lidded (yet satisfied) look in his eyes. I didn't talk to him and just spent the rest of the weekend in my dorm room, messing around trying to forget everything that happened.

Monday.

Apparently everyone popular was at the party on Friday, which begs the question, why did Clay invite me?
The answer seemed obvious, he wanted to embarrass me, try and convince me to sleep with him before he humiliated me in front of the whole school. But somehow I had gained slight popularity by being seen there, some girls were standing in the hall looking me up and down. To them I was mysterious, a British man with barely anything known about him going to a high class American school like Saint Richard's always is intriguing for people like them. It felt weird to get some attention from girls, but I also was anxious as some boys were giving me death glares for who knows what.

I rolled my eyes at the thought and began down the hall to my locker (since I lived on site I didn't keep much in here, only some workbooks for science and maths and stuff), however as I approached it Clay was standing there with his friends, seemingly waiting for me.

I let out a small sigh, was this when he was going to embarrass me, first thing in the morning. I was not going to let that happen, without bothering to grab my books I turned and started walking towards my homeroom, hoping they wouldn't spot me, and thankfully they didn't.

Annoyingly enough though, Alex, one of  Clay's friends, was in most of my classes. I arrived in the class just as the bell rang and sat in my regular seat at the back by the window. Alex entered soon after, he noticed me and sat two spots away from me, with Darryl acting as a wall between the two of us. Throughout the class he kept looking over to me trying not to get me to notice, why was he acting weird, well weirder than normal.

I shrugged it off, I didn't really know him well so maybe this was normal. But my mind kept thinking about it up until the bell rang. He followed me out of the classroom and tailed me down the hall. This strange behaviour continued all the way until lunch.

Clay POV.
(Before school started).

I stepped out of the car and waved off my driver, who sped back in the direction of home. It was a beautiful Monday morning and I could already tell all the gossip in the hall would be about my party. And... I was right. To my left and right people who hadn't attended were crowded in small groups chatting to one another about what they thought had happened there, those who had been kept recounting the night with sloppy details.

One conversation from a trio of cheerleaders caught my ear. A blond started the conversation, "the party on Friday was so wild. Still think I might have a bit of a hangover"
Her friends both laughed before the shortest, a redhead, spoke up. "Some of the basketball team apparently challenged the footballer's too a huge game of beer pong"
"Who one?" The blond asked curiously.
"Basketballers of course!"
Finally the 3rd spoke up, "did you see that cute boy at the party though? The one with the British accent?"
"Yes I did, he's in my class and is so cute."
"I have spoken to him the other day, not for very long but he seems really polite."
The other two cheerleaders agreed.

I felt slightly annoyed as they continued their conversation about how cute George was. I mean, he was cute but only I should be thinking that, right?

There were 15 minutes till class started so I headed towards my locker, there were quite a few other guys in my year hanging around, also talking about the party. And also talking about George. But unlike the cheerleaders they didn't seem to like him.
"Guy's my girlfriend Stacey dumped me after the party. Totally out of nowhere, she claims she likes someone else though."
"Seriously? Who does she like, did she say?"
"Yeah, she did. The new British student."
"Really, George that British boy? Stacey's not in the same class as him, has he even spoken to her once?"

The one who was Stacey's ex looked around before lowering his voice. "Not yet. But I'm not gonna let her have the chance."
"The hell are you gonna do? Kidnap him?"
"Course not you dumbass! Just gonna rearrange his ribcage and possibly break some bones while I'm at it."

Without listening to any more I ran off, those boys were gonna hurt George, and my instinct told me too protect him. I ran in the direction of his locker and passed my friend group who were hanging out along the wall. "Guy's, I need your help." I said, panting softly from the run.
"What now Clay?" Nick asked somewhat suspiciously, "are you gonna force another one of us to fuck one of George's friends?"
"No of course not... Wait what?"
"Didn't you know? Zak and Darryl slept together." Karl said as Alex and Wilbur laughed hysterically behind him and Zak hung his head in shame.

"Oh. I knew about that but that wasn't what I was talking about." I took a breath before explaining. "Heaps of guys are planning to beat up George fore something he didn't do. We need to protect him."
"Why do we need to protect him. Sound's like a you problem." Alex said boredly, earning glares from Karl, Nick, Zak and myself.

Alex stood his ground for a minute before giving in. "Fine, what do you want us to do?"
I explained the plan to the group as we headed to George's locker, so we could meet him and tell him about what was going on.

We waited around George's locker for ages, but the brunette didn't turn up. When the first bell rang, signalling to head to class, I sighed as the rest of my group began to leave, but managed to stop Alex before he could get too far. "What now man?" He asked sounding clearly annoyed, "I need to get to class. Mr Jones said if I'm late one more time he'll give me detention!"
"Look Alex, you're the only one in George's class. Please keep an eye on him until lunch."
"Why?" He brought out a tone reminding me of a toddler's.
"Cause...... Please."

Alex shrugged and turned down the hall, "fair enough. But you owe me blondie!" He began sprinting down towards his homeroom.

Lunch.

It had been near impossible to focus, I was thinking about George throughout all my classes and even got in trouble once or twice. Finally I had an hour, where I could talk to him. I wanted to talk to him and eat with him and protect him from those bullies and any others that might threaten him.

Is this what love felt like? I don't remember feeling this way for anyone before. Maybe I should ask Zak about it, he seems like he also is experiencing love.

I glanced up and brushed away my thoughts as I saw Alex coming over, while still watching George who was now sitting at the other side of the room.
Now I could move on to the second faze of my plan which I had dubbed PGFTB (protect George From The Bullies) shit name, I know but cool-ish acronym.

I swear nobody is going to lay a hand on Georgie.
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1311 words.