Love You Regardless

8

CW's:
-Muscle disease
TW's:
-Emotional abuse
-Mentions panic attack

George's POV

I looked at Clay holding Wolly and smiled. 'What does he struggle the most with?'

'He often doesn't really know how to act in some situations and finds it hard to talk about something he doesn't know a lot about. And he finds change very hard, just as eye contact. He's a little bit younger in his head and finds it hard to understand people really well. Learning was too difficult for him, so he likes going to the farm as his special interest is animals.'

'What animals do you like?' I asked Clay.

Clay held his llama up and smiled. 'And I like sheep, fish, birds and farm animals.'

Clay put his thumb back in his mouth and I smiled at him. 'I like to watch videos of fish swimming,' he mumbled.

I smiled. 'That sounds good.'

Clay nodded and sat down in front of the oven with Wolly and his thumb in his mouth. I found it pretty cute and smiled at his brother. 'I haven't been really nice to Clay, I'm sorry. I hope that I didn't hurt him.'

'He's okay, don't worry. He's just a little bit different, but he's an amazing boy. You can all take a seat, dinner is almost ready.'

My dad sat down on the chair Clay just sat on and Clay looked very sad as he stood up. 'That's my chair.'

I saw my dad looking madly at him, but he stood up and sat somewhere different. Clay sat down on his chair and I sat down between him and my dad. I was very tired and my muscles hurt a lot so I looked at Clay's brother who sat down in front of me.

'Do you have some painkillers here?'

'Yes, of course,' he said as he stood up, but my dad started speaking immediately.

'George complains often, he doesn't need medication. Don't bother standing up.'

'If he wants some medication, I will give him some. I don't mind if he complains or not, he asked for it,' Clay's brother smiled.

He walked off and I heard him speak to his parents, although, I couldn't make out their words. Clay's brother came back a few minutes later with some pills in his hand and a glass of water in his other one. He smiled at me and handed me the pills and the water so I could swallow them.

'Thank you.'

My dad's hand went down the table and started squeezing my leg strongly. He looked at me with a really mad look in his eyes and I quickly swallowed the pills, looking away after that.

However, my dad didn't want to leave it like this. He grabbed my hand and lifted me up. 'I have to talk to George for a second,' he said with a fake smile.

Clay's brother seemed to find it a bit weird, but he said nothing and left it like this so he wouldn't get involved. I got pulled with my dad, he pushed me to the first room he saw and I fell down since I couldn't stand on my legs anymore.

He looked at me furiously. 'Don't you dare make such a fool of yourself, you're embarrassing for all of us, George. You're complaining about things that don't exist and you let his brother stand up for your bullshit.'

'I'm sorry, I'm actually hurt.'

'You're not, you only want attention and I'm so sick of you. I will let you know what you did when we are home again.'

I gave him a small nod and crawled up again, walking back to the table. Clay's parents were also sitting at the table now and they were waiting for us two. I saw Clay's family look weirdly at my dad and me and I smiled as I looked at the food on the table. 'Dinner looks good!' I quickly said.

Clay was completely distracted, he was playing with Wolly as he watched a video of fish on his phone.

'Clay, we are going to have dinner,' his mother smiled.

Clay didn't looked up. 'I'm watching fish swim.'

'I know you like to watch animals, but we are going to eat now. You can watch the video after dinner.'

'But I can always watch videos of fish during dinner,' Clay muttered with tears in his eyes.

'But there are people here, Clay,' his dad smiled.

Clay looked at his phone while pouting out of sadness. 'Fish,' he whispered as a tear rolled down his face.

'It might not be up to me to decide, but I don't mind him watching a video during dinner,' I smiled. 'If that makes him happy, then that's fine right?'

Clay smiled at me shortly. 'I like fish.'

'Are you okay with him watching videos during dinner?'

'Of course,' my mother smiled and Clay's smile got brighter.

He turned the video back on and ate a bite of his dinner as he watched the video while rocking softly. He made some stimming noises every now and then and I must admit that I found him pretty cute.

We ate dinner as our parents talked with each other, but when my dad invited the other family for a campfire, Clay looked up with panic in his eyes.

I noticed him breathing faster and his brother stood up and grabbed his hand. 'We are going to play with Wolly in his room for a little,' his brother said as they walked away.

I awkwardly looked at his parents and they just smiled. 'Clay doesn't like fire for personal reasons.'

Everyone nodded quietly and I poked my fork in my food as I got sad about the pain I was having. As tears stung in my eyes, I ate the rest of my meal and waited for everyone else to finish. Clay and his brother came back twenty minutes later.

Clay's eyes were puffy and red, he had obviously cried and he was holding his brother's hand and Wolly as he walked back to the table to eat his meal. I ignored it, but I was pretty worried about him.

1020 words