toxic | dnf ice skating AU

the mall

"so, where do you wanna go?" clay asks after everyone had left to go shop.
"honestly, no clue. i usually don't go to the mall much,"
"we can just wander," clay offers.
"ok," george says.
the two begin walking in one direction, looking around them at the different stores. it was a considerably big mall that had a bunch of halls and even more stores.
"arcade," george points out a neon glowing sign that stood out a bit away from them.
"wanna go in?" clay asked.
"yeah," george said, making a b-line for the entrance. clay chucked at his passive enthusiasm and followed him. inside the arcade, it had the classic carpeting, with dimly lean neon lights and sounds of children running around and laughing. clay and george walk over to a machine and cash in twenty dollars worth of coins. it spits out over a hundred. george grabs a cup by the machine and puts them in the cup.
"god, i remember how much i loved this as a kid." george says, looking around, waiting for something to catch his eye.
"ooh, ddr!" clay points out.
"wanna play?" george offers.
"yeah," clay says, excitedly.
george puts in two tokens on either side of the boards. the two of them hover over eachother, looking to pick a song. as george moves the joystick to choose, something catches clay's eye. clay puts his hand on top of george's and guides it to the song "american idiot" by green day. george blushes slightly and removes his hand as the song starts.

the two try their best but it seems like george was a lot better and more graceful at dancing than clay was, which makes sense given the whole ice skater thing.
after the song ends, the two pant slightly and laugh.
"awesome," george comments, standing back and leaning against the rail towards the back of the board. clay smiles back at him and goes to put in two more tokens for another song. next up is the song "girlfriend" by avril lavinge. they dance to the beat and even start singing at some point, although neither of them can sing. a kid or two looks at george as he dances, seemingly perfect, while clay was trying to aggressively tap the buttons below him with his feet.
after they finish this song, the kids clap and walk away, george laughs, a little embarrassed that he drew up a crowd.
"how the hell are you so good at this?" clay says, out of breath and leaning against the railing.
"i dunno!" george says, somewhat out of breath as well. he puts in two tokens again for the both of them goes to pick out the next song, "california girls" by katy perry.

the two dance to a couple more songs before deciding to stop, figuring if they go any longer they'll be dripping with sweat when the reunite with the other friends. they spend some more tokens playing games like frogger, pac man, snake, dig dug, etc. they stay there for about half an hour before seeing about twenty tokens left in the cup. george pockets ten tokens and gives the other ten to some kid before they walk out.
"so. whatcha wanna do next?" george asks, putting his hands in his pockets.
"wanna go into hot topic?" clay asks, half serious and half joking.
"sure," george says, laughing a bit. they walk inside and begin browsing the dimly lit store. george looks at their chokers and knee high socks, wishing he had the confidence to wear them. something about the two items makes him feel too girly, making him uncomfortable. that was just way too close to being a straight white girl with a jeep dating a strong jock.
"whatcha looking at?" clay leans over george's shoulder while he was holding a pair of thigh high black socks.
"ah-" he jumps, startled and quickly tosses the socks back. "nothing," he says, trying to brush it off.
"right," clay says, smirking at him.
"oh for fucks sake," george says, brushing him off and walking away to go look at graphic tees.
"what bands to you listen and to?" clay asks from behind george as they admire the t-shirt wall.
"a little bit of everything," he says. george grabs a nirvana shirt and holds it over his chest.
"what do you think?" he asks, laughing a bit.
"looks nice," clay says smiling. george folds the shirt over his arm and walks to the other side of the store, looking at the piercing display.

"you pierced?" clay asks, inspecting the other mans face.
"yup," george faded him. "guess where," george said, looking towards him so he could look.
"i see your ears are piercing but that's like it," clay comments, looking around his face for more than one.
george then sticks out his tongue to reveal a piercing there, and a healed hole on his nose for a nose ring.

"damn you're more exotic that i thought, white boy!" he says jokingly.
"yuh," george says joking back, immediately regretting what he says. clay doubled over in a wheeze and holds his stomach.
"oh shut up!" george says, walking away from him to pay.

the two leave and check the time. there's around five minutes until they're supposed to meet with the rest, so they begin their walk to the food court.
when they arrive, they scan around for the others.
"let go of me!" they hear a scream coming from the right. ranboo was the one who screamed as two males clinged to each of his legs.
"george help!" he says, laughing. a male with brown hair and a male with blonde hair cling to him.
"nope, you're on your own!" he says, looking around for the others.
"i think i'm gonna head to the bathroom," clay says.
"ok, we'll be here," george replies. about ten seconds later wilbur and tech approach him.
"so what about him do you like?" tech asks bluntly.
"what? you can't just ask that," george likes.
the two taller men almost tower over him.
"well i mean he looks nice enough, but he looks stupid and not at all your type," wilbur points out, watching the other man walk in the distance.
"remember when you almost fell for minx, or like that one eboy from the hockey team-" wilbur stops himself.
"oh my god do you have something for hockey boys?" wilbur asks.
"how did you know he plays hockey?" george yells defensively.
"his jacket says 'smp highschool hockey' on it" tech adds.
"oh," george says.
"all i'm saying is that you seemed to like more edgier guys who were nice on the inside," wilbur points out.
"and then mr.golden retriever boy over here?" tech adds.

"i don't know dude! he's nice and strong and easy to talk to and considerate and can listen but i don't always have to carry the conversation, you know?" george says frantically.
"right," tech responds as the two taller men watch clay disappear in the distance.
"i still don't like him," tech says standing straight up and backing away from george.
"yeah me neither," wilbur agrees while backing up.
"hey!" nikki calls with three bags on her arms, walking by minx who had two bags, one in each hand.

"what did you guys get?" wilbur asks.
the two girls start laughing and try to explain but just start laughing again. at a loss, wilbur offers to go look at food with the others, which they comply to.

george couldn't help but wonder, why didn't anyone like clay?