the other version

burnt out

ᴛᴡ ɪɴ ᴏᴘᴇɴɪɴɢ ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛᴇ

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he pulls up outside bad's house, looking back at the last two boys in his car. "this is your stop."

"thanks for the lift," skeppy smiles appreciatively in response, pushing open the door.

"it's no worries," george shrugs like always, offering both of the boys a playful grin as he says, "sometimes i'm worried i'll catch your gay disease, but you know it doesn't make my journey any longer to drop you off."

"yeah yeah," skeppy responds with an eye roll as he climbs out of the car, looking through the window to raise an eyebrow at the brunette as he quips, "maybe we got the disease from you."

bad laughs at their jokes as he also climbs out of the car, taking a hand from skeppy to help him up. it took a lot for george to come out to skeppy's boyfriend, since he'd only ever told his closest friends, but he was glad that he found the confidence to so they didn't have to keep being secretive about it.

plus, neither of them would admit it because they joked about not liking one another so often, but bad is definitely one of george's closest friends and, even without his connection to skeppy, george would've trusted the kind boy with his secret.

"don't forget to eat," george says, pointing an accusatory finger at skeppy. he shifts his attention to bad, "make sure he eats."

"he always eats when he's with me," bad assures, the pair of them earning an eye roll from the ravenette boy. he might complain that they baby him, but he'd be grateful in the long run, and george would rather have a stroppy friend than a dead one.

"have a nice evening," george shouts through the open window as they shut the back door, offering them both a wave as they say goodbye and head off towards the brunette's house.

bad isn't a fan of smoking, so george always holds off until the brunette is out of the car before lighting up a cigarette, so it was sort of routine for him to light one right outside the other's house. none of his group cared, but sam and ponk were always the first out and skeppy always left with bad, so he was left to smoke alone.

he pulls back onto the road once the cigarette is lit, keeping his right hand on the wheel as he leans his left against door, holding his cigarette in that hand so he could tap any ash out the window.

it can take george upwards of forty minutes to drive home sometimes, so it's not unusual for him to get through multiple cigarettes on the journey just to keep himself occupied. sometimes he puts music on too, but he doesn't feel like it today.

he thought he could just have a relaxing drive, smoking and enjoying the scenery as he heads out of town, but it doesn't take long until he starts his second cigarette and his brain flips.

he realises how burnt out he is, how tired he feels from doing just about anything, and being alone with his thoughts just emphasises it.

he understands being alive and doing things for other people, he's always had the usual 'don't do it, for me?', 'quit smoking, for me?' but it always gave him a frustrated buzz. it's his life, why does everything he does feel like it's for someone else's gain?