this love ☼ dreamnotfound

{ 38 }

( cw // drinking + mentions of addiction )

george should've known that clay would leave. clay never did well in situations like this, and george knew that. he was never the one to put him in that place, but tonight he did. he was beyond mad at himself.

clay's words replayed in george's head; so you didn't want to talk yet? you're not ready to work things out? of course george wanted clay back, he was stupid to say no. at the same time, he didn't want to jump back into their relationship while neither of them were stable.

they couldn't love each other if they didn't love themselves.

george didn't even speak a word to his parents before he was walking out of the courthouse and to his car. luckily he had driven himself there inside of riding with his parents; he figured he would want to leave before them anyways.

he felt his eyes starting to sting as he entered his car, but he refused to cry. he refused to let himself feel like this. in fact, he didn't want to feel anything at all.

the second that george walked into his house, he was on his way down to his basement. that was where the wine cellar was, but it wasn't just wine. there was plenty of hard liquor for george to use to stop his thoughts. he knew this was wrong, especially because he was worrying that clay was drinking again, but what else was he supposed to do? it wasn't like he could talk to any of his friends about this.

there were plenty of other things that george could do, but he would rather just drink and forget. it's not like his parents would notice anyways; there was so much alcohol in the cellar that george could probably drink ten bottles and they wouldn't know.

so there he was, drinking on the floor of his wine cellar alone because he was too scared to make up with his own boyfriend. he felt fucking pathetic.

he hoped clay wasn't doing anything as stupid as he was.

clay didn't go home, he went to brodie's house. he knew he couldn't be trusted alone when he felt like this, and brodie said he was welcome to come over anytime. brodie wasn't exactly expecting clay to come by late at night in dressy clothes with tears streaming down his face.

"clay?" brodie questioned. only the dim porch-light illuminated the blond's face, but brodie could tell he was a mess. "didn't go well, huh?" he figured.

weakly, clay shook his head to signal a 'no' and brought his hands up to cup his own face. he hated feeling so vulnerable.

"hey, it's okay," brodie shushed as he watched clay hold back his sobs. he gently grabbed clay's forearms, guiding him inside. "here, come in."

clay lifted his head to ask, "your parents won't mind if i stay?"

"they're not home," brodie told him, "they're actually at that courthouse party thing."

"oh," clay expressed.

brodie brought clay inside and the two settled on the living room couch. from the looks of brodies pajama pants and baggy t-shirt, he was probably about to go to sleep when clay knocked on the door. all of the lights in the house were off, but brodie turned on the tv to try to get clay's mind off of everything. brodie had learned that distractions were good for clay when he was too overwhelmed to properly explain his feelings.

still, clay was letting out occasional muffled cries and brodie could see the tears in his eyes. he couldn't just ignore that. brodie reached a hand out to rub clay's shoulder. he was hesitant, but he knew clay liked physical touch when he was upset.

"you wanna tell me what happened?" brodie offered, rubbing his thumb in circles against clay's shoulder.

clay let out a long, heavy sigh. he sniffled before briefly explaining, "he wasn't ready to work things out- or even talk to me at all. he basically just invited me so he could keep up his flawless family image."