An Aromatic Dream (Dream)

29: "SURPRISINGLY GOOD LIAR" | JULY 28

Clay pulled into the driveway, put the car in park and turned it off, letting out a long breath and putting his forehead against the steering wheel.

"I can't even begin to explain how much I hate airport traffic," He mumbled, and Sap chuckled.

"I offered to drive," He reminded his friend, but Clay just huffed in response.

"You drive slow."

"As if that would matter, we were crawling through the airport at, like, six miles an hour," Sap shot back. "And that is not true."

"It is," George replied from the back seat.

"Shut up, you can't even drive," Sap shot back, casting an amused glance into the backseat. George shrugged, not seeing how that kept him from commenting on Sap's driving.

"I can't control not being able to see yellow or green," George replied. "You can control driving a little faster now and then."

"Alright, we're getting out of the car," Clay decided, opening his door. Sap agreed, hopping out of the passenger side door and turning to open George's door. George clambered half out of the car before looking to pull his belongings out of the backseat. George handed Sap his backpack first, which Sap slung over his shoulder. As he was doing that, Sap looked through the other passenger side window and saw someone walking toward their car. Sap squinted, quietly voicing his concerns.

"Is that Cel?" Sap asked. Clay (who had his face pressed against the driver's side window to make George laugh) whipped around at Sap's words, peering up the street to see his favorite girl walking toward them. For once, he wished that she weren't coming over.

"It is." Without a second thought, Sap pushed George back into the car and shut the door, nearly crushing George's fingers in the process. From in the car, George shouted in surprise, trying to open the door as Sap held it closed. As Cel's footsteps became audible, Sap looked into the car at Clay with a do something! look. Clay turned around and opened the car door, calling inside to George.

"George, you're supposed to be a surprise and Cel is literally a few seconds away, just shut up and stay down and we'll get you out in a second." That was a concise enough reason for George to listen, and he ducked down right as Cel rounded the corner of the car and Clay shut the door. Sap came around to Clay's side and leaned against the window, entirely hiding George from view. Both boys were thanking God that Clay's car had tinted windows.

"Hey guys," Cel said, sounding so casual that Clay almost didn't buy it. But then, it was always hard for him to believe everyone else's casual tone was real when he was hiding something. "Is everything okay? You look all flustered." Clay replied without thinking,

"There was a bee in the car! But we got it out." Sap internally rolled his eyes, but let it go since Cel didn't seem to think twice about it.

"Oof. Remind me to call you if that ever happens to me. I'm not a fan," Was all she said. Clay, Sap, and George inside the car breathed a sigh of relief. The secret was safe for now.

"Where were you going, anyway?" Cel asked, looking confused all over again.

"Out getting groceries." Clay responded with the first thing that came to mind, a mundane activity that would have been totally believable in theory. In practice, the boys had taken to going grocery shopping with Cel almost all the time, so it was questionable at best for Clay to have said that, and both Cel and Sap knew it. A confused look crossed Cel's face.

"Oh, I thought we just went a couple days ago," She replied. "Let me help you bring stuff in!"

"Nah, don't worry about it," Sap cut in smoothly before Cel could move toward the car, and before Clay could say anything that would put them any further into an unbelievable lie. "We just forgot a few things on our list yesterday, so it's only one bag." Sap took the opportunity to silently explain why he had a bag over one shoulder, gesturing to it like the groceries were in there. Cel bought it without question, Sap's confident tone giving her no reason to doubt him.