this love ☼ dreamnotfound

{ 29 }

it had officially been a week.

george had been waiting for clay to call him or text him all day, and when he finally did, he almost didn't pick up. he didn't want to be disappointed by what clay would say, but he didn't want to be a bitch either. he wasn't going to tell clay anything about jace yet; it was still a fresh wound and clay was supposed to be focusing on himself, not worrying about george.

"hey," clay's voice spoke when george picked up the call.

"hi," george greeted. "how are you doing?" he wondered.

a long sigh fell from clay's mouth. "not great," he admitted.

george didn't expect clay to be fine- hell, he was a mess too. maybe george also needed the break. "that's okay," george assured. "need to talk about anything?" he offered, keeping the focus off of himself.

"i've just been making some..." he trailed off and paused before finishing, "...bad decisions."

"be safe, please," george cautioned. "i-," he hesitated, "i miss you."

"i miss you too," clay responded without a second thought.

a thought came into george's head and he blurted, "can we like- not ghost each other at least? we don't have to see each other or anything, i just wanna be able to check in on you without feeling like i'm doing something wrong."

clay agreed, "of course." he started to apologize, "i'm sorry i left kind of suddenly last time. i really just didn't want to make things worse."

"i understand," george promised. "you don't have to feel bad about it at all, i was just really emotional and didn't expect it."

"if you want to do something together we can," clay suggested. "i don't want you to feel like we're growing apart- and i don't want to either."

"don't push yourself," george consoled, "i'll be okay. take as long as you need."

they had never felt like this during a conversation before. it was like they were standing on a bridge that could collapse at any moment.

clay spoke up again, "thank you. i'll text you everyday, and if you need me let me know."

"alright," george let out a deep breath that he didn't know he was holding. "i..." he stopped himself.

"hm?" clay hummed, catching the unfinished sentence.

george swallowed the words he wanted to say. "nothing," he claimed. "i'll check on you."

"thanks for being so patient with me," clay appreciated.

"of course."

"bye, george," clay spoke softly.

"bye."

------

"oh, george! perfect timing," george's mom piped up as she saw george walk into the kitchen. he had been forcing himself to leave his room even though he didn't want to.

"huh?" george wondered. he was just coming down for a snack.

his mom excitedly got up from where she was sitting at the kitchen island and walked towards him. george saw his dad on the couch with his laptop; probably doing something important.

she had a huge grin on her face. "guess who's coming to visit for a week?"

george thought for a moment, not knowing who his mother could be so excited to see. he asked, "who?"

"victoria and scott hayes," she dragged out with enthusiasm, placing her hands on george's shoulders and lightly shaking him. she had way more energy than he did.