Manipulation High

Chapter 43: Questions

After yesterday I am considering banning Ezra from smut because that was kinda 😬.
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George POV.

There was a lot of noise coming from beside me when I woke up, plus there was a low light coming from behind me. I warily rolled over, looking over to see that Clay was sitting up and writing something. The blond didn’t notice as I sat up and I looked over his shoulder.

Much to my surprise, there wasn’t any writing in Clay's book, and he wasn’t adding any more either as he scribbled stuff down. I raised an eyebrow, feeling extremely confused. My mind thought that it had to be a pen that could write with invisible ink, but when I glanced down at his hands he was using a normal pen.

Trying not to get his attention, I leaned closer to the blond to see if his writing might be really, really, small, but still nothing. My confusion was clear, and as I was about to get his attention when Clay turned around. He closed his book and smiled at me, “morning George,” he spoke quietly to me, putting his book down to move closer to me.

“Morning Clay,” I responded drowsily, trying to keep from staring at the book which was now beside me. “How did you sleep?”
“I slept well. You were amazing to cuddle with.” Clay hummed, and I smiled and blushed lightly at his comment.

“You were nice to cuddle with as well,” I told him, resting my head on his shoulder since we’d moved close enough to each other. The blond had his arm wrapped snugly around my waist, but noticed me staring off into the distance. Well actually I was looking at his book but Clay couldn’t tell.

“Is something wrong?” He questioned, still not noticing I was staring at the small notebook he had sitting beside him. I contemplated whether I should ask him about it. I mean if he decided to tell me it would probably make sense as to why I didn’t see any writing.

Yes, I decided I would ask him, the worst he could do was tell me that he didn’t want me to know and then I’d just move past it. “Hey Clay,” I spoke quietly, and he let out a hum to let me know he was listening. “I was just wondering, what is in that book that you always write in? Is it like a journal or something?”

Clear hesitation was in the blond’s face, and I was about to backtrack, telling him that he didn’t need to tell me if he didn’t want to, but he answered. “It’s a pocketbook. I was given it by my grandfather a couple of years ago when he passed.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t know.” Guilt flooded me as I looked at his saddened expression, but before I could figure out what else to say he shook his head.
“It’s fine. You didn’t know.” He told me. “Why were you wondering about my pocketbook? I could probably answer any questions you had about it.”

‘Why are you so protective of it?’ ‘Why have people like Schlatt and Sapnap warned me about it?’ ‘How come I can never see any writing in it?’ Those questions and more flooded my mind but I decided to ask them later, instead starting simply with a ‘what kind of stuff do you write in it?’ before adding ‘if you don’t mind me asking.’

“Probably nothing overly interesting,” the taller male shrugged. “Just some things that I wished could happen. Like that my team would win in football, or that my sister would pass one of her tests. Those sorts of things.”

“So it’s a wish journal?” I questioned, letting out a giggle at the thought of a big, smart, muscly, football player like Clay to have a small book he wrote his hopes and dreams in.
“I guess you could call it that,” was his response. “But it isn’t something that you just write your hopes and dreams and whatever in, it’s…”

He cut himself off, leaving me annoyed because I was curious. But then he quietly asked me. “How will you act if I tell you?” Which left me feeling even more confused.
“If you tell me what?” I asked. “I’m fine with learning about anything Clay, you are my friend and so you can tell me the truth.”

“Well okay. The book, almost anything I write in it becomes true.” He explained, and before I had the chance to figure out what that meant he continued. “Almost anything I write will come true besides some specific rules of course. And one of those rules is that it doesn’t affect people as close as blood to the person writing it, meaning family or close friends or… lovers…”

Clay glanced over at me as he said the word ‘lovers’ before continuing his ramble. “And the thing that I thought was weird is that the day you and I first met, you weren’t affected by it at all, and we’d never met before, and that made me kinda worried because it works on everyone I use it on. Unless this is some weird way of the universe saying you're my soulmate or something. But people have no memory of me writing it in as well, none of our other friends…”

“Wait a minute,” I cut off his rant. “You have a book that you can write in and everything you write becomes true?” I asked.
“Well yeah.” Was his response. “And it does make most things come true. Sapnap and I have been using it for years.”

“Sapnap knows about this?” I continued on, and Clay nodded. “So what else can this pocketbook do?” With everything I asked I felt more cautious.
“Well pretty much anything I write becomes true, and only people who know about the book and witness me writing in it will realise what the book is effecting and when.”

“So nobody at school knows?” I asked, “Besides me and Sapnap, does anybody else know?”
There was a shake of his head, followed by him stating, “you, Sapnap and I are the only ones who know what the book does. Anybody else affected has no idea what’s happening.”

My expression fell, and I immediately felt a mixture of emotions. I was feeling guilt, worry, anger, and several other things that I couldn’t name. I had promised Clay that I wouldn’t get mad, but this had to be an exception, I mean he was manipulating other people. Clay noticed my expression had fallen, and asked me if I was okay.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I responded, sitting up straighter and grabbing my phone. “But it is almost 10am. You might want to get going. My parents are having family over and I’ll have to help them clean the house.” I lied, but I didn’t want him to feel bad after I promised him that I wouldn’t hate him for it.

Clay didn’t seem to notice I was faking it and gave a nod. He stood up and I passed him the hoodie he had given me last night. His sweaty football uniform was pulled back on since those were the only clothes he had, although he was only going to be driving home. The hoodie I had passed him was pulled over his head and I stood up to lead him out.

I wrapped one of my blankets around myself so I wasn’t walking around naked, and the two of us headed into the hallway. Luckily since it was a weekend my parents slept in late and were still asleep. I walked Clay to the door and gave him a reluctant smile as he kissed me on the forehead as a goodbye.

The two of us parted ways as he walked down to where his car had been parked. I watched as he got in his car and drove off before walking back inside. My first plan was to have a shower, since at the thought of last night I began feeling dirty and disgusted with myself, but before I did I called Sapnap and asked him if I could come over later.
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1498 words.

I have another story idea.
It'll make 8.
Here are the names of all the options and when I am finished writing Manipulation High (close to writing the ending right now.
1. Safety in the Seafoam (DNF + Karlnap Mermaid AU)
2. A Howl in the Night ( DNF werewolf AU)
3. King of the Cell (DNF Prison AU)
4. My Modern Day Prince (Karlnap Time Travel AU)
5. Cupid (DNF + Karlnap)
6. Experiment (DNF lab AU)
7. Action (rewrite) (DNF celebrity/actor AU)
8. Demons (alternate story) (DNF + Karlnap + [some] Skephalo Demon AU)

It is a lot, so tomorrow I will post 2 chapters, one being a normal chapter and the other being the vote, just to narrow down the options from 8 to 3 or 4.