Manipulation High

Chapter 31: a ride home

George POV.

I let out a sigh of relief as I put a container of waffles in the fridge at the back of the school cafeteria. The fridge was already full of other dishes made by other kids in the club, all of them putting whatever food they were planning on sharing with the group tomorrow in containers.

Since I had made quite a lot of waffles there were three plastic containers, all stacked on top of each other and I slid them onto one of the shelves. I watched as Clay slid the bottles of smoothie he had made to go along with the waffles beside our containers before turning to address the group.

“Okay so everyone we are sharing our breakfasts for the competition tomorrow, so when you get here after school make sure everything is set up and then after we’ve eaten we’ll vote on our favourites. Have a good rest of the day everyone.”

At his words a lot of the group all began chatting to each other about how they were going to win with whatever it was they had made, and a lot of the club members were also shouting playful insults at one another.

I didn’t bother to hang around though, instead heading over to the cupboard where all of the aprons are kept and taking mine off, before pulling off my hairnet and tossing it along with all the other ones that had been used today. Then I stepped out of the room and grabbed my bag which was sitting by the door before heading to the front of the school.

“Hey George, wait up!” A familiar voice called behind me, and with a glance over my shoulder I saw Clay running after me, holding his backpack too. “You are going to be here tomorrow, right?” The blond asked, before seemingly regretting the question, however he didn’t say anything to add to or change what he’d already said.

“Yeah I am going to be here,” I replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Oh you said today that you could skip school if you wanted, and that you weren’t…” his voice lowered into a mutter at this point and I couldn’t make out a single word that left his mouth so I rolled my eyes at him.

“No, I won't skip tomorrow.” I reassured him. “I don’t want you to win this cooking competition on your own. I want to be there when we win so I can see the defeat on everyone else's faces.”
“Oh my god that is ruthless George,” the blond chuckled, “but it is also funny. I too want to be there to witness everyone losing.”

I chuckled before watching as Clay began walking towards his car, however when he saw me going the opposite way so that I could start walking home he tilted his head in confusion. “Don’t you want a ride Georgie?” He asked, sounding both confused and playful at the same time.
“Oh, I figured that you were just heading straight to your home.” I responded.

“My parents won’t expect me home for another half hour or so. I can drop you off at your house if you don’t want to walk the whole way.” He offered.
“That would be nice,” I grinned as I turned to head over to his car, watching as he walked over to the drivers side and climbed in before following suit as I reached the passenger seat.

There was a weird vibe inside of the car which I couldn’t exactly name as the blond started driving, pulling out of the student parking lot and onto the road, which was quiet at this time of the day since the rush of high schoolers wanting to get home was over and done with. Though Clay’s eyes stayed focused on the road as though he were driving through a minefield.

After a while I let out a sigh, feeling annoyed over the awkwardness and wanting to end it. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly, and the blond looked over at me confused.
“You’re sorry?” He didn’t seem to know why I had said it, and he told me that too. “Why are you sorry George?”

“I just feel that I was rude to you today,” I muttered, barely loud enough for him to hear. “After all it isn’t your fault the teacher got mad at me. I guess my parents forgot to tell the school I wouldn’t be here yesterday. And I didn’t give you much of a thanks for getting me out of detention either.”

“You’re welcome for both of those things,” Clay said, and I looked over at him to see him looking right back at me with a big grin on his face. Obviously we couldn’t stay like that for very long, since neither of us felt like getting in a car crash today, but I swear that in those two or three seconds of us looking at each other I could have memorised his perfect face.

Even though we didn’t dreamily look into each other's eyes for the entire car trip I was still disappointed when it came to an end, with him pulling into my driveway which was currently empty because both of my parents were out working. “Thanks for the ride,” I said to him happily as I grabbed my stuff and stepped out of the car. “And thanks again for forgiving me.”

“Anytime Georgie,” he responded, although after I turned to walk away he didn’t drive off immediately, and I still felt guilty about avoiding him earlier.
“Do you want to come inside and watch a movie? Or play some video games? My parents won’t mind since they’re working late.” I asked, motioning towards the door.

“If you’re offering then sure.” Clay quickly smiled as he turned the car engine off before jumping out to run over to me. He seemed so excited, as though he was a small puppy and I couldn't help but chuckle. I offered my hand out to the blond and he took it before we headed inside, only stopping for me to unlock the door obviously.

The two of us went to the couch in the living room and decided we’d watch a movie, cuddling up together as we found something online that we both were interested in. Clay and I were sitting right beside each other, his arm was wrapped around my shoulders with my head resting on his shoulder. I let out a content sigh as the two of us focused on the screen.

Clay POV.

I should tell him I’m sorry. I thought to myself, before thinking about what I said and realising it might not be the best idea. Afterall what would I say, ‘sorry I have a book that can make people do anything however it doesn’t work on you so the teachers can be mean to you even when something doesn’t go wrong’ yeah right.

Today was hectic enough for the both of us without me explaining to him I have a magic book, he’d probably just think I was crazy… but that dream I had made me worry what would happen if he did find out, or if he just knew something was suspicious.

About an hour into the movie I looked over to George, planning on telling him that I was going to get snacks and asking if he wanted anything to see the brunette asleep, with his cheek pressed into my shoulder blade which certainly wasn’t comfortable.

I let out a quiet ‘aww’ as I looked at him, although he seemed wide awake before the movie started he seemed completely drained of energy. I didn’t have the heart to move him and so I just turned the movie volume down and settled down beside him.
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1365 words.

I came up with another story 😐

Clay and George are two regular people, meanwhile Sapnap and Karl work together as a pair of cupid's.  The two of them are now trying to help the two best friends end up together, while both are too dense to realise their feelings.

How would people feel about this?  Not right now obviously.