this love ☼ dreamnotfound

{ 54 }

that party was a blur to george. clay stayed with him that night, and when he woke up he hardly remembered anything. all he knew was that clay beat jace up and he had some girl crying on his shoulder or something.

now, it was the day before clay's birthday and george was at karl's house to plan for it. george had just gotten off the phone with the bakery that he loved to order a custom cake, but now they were trying to figure out the actual plans for tomorrow.

"we don't need to throw a huge party, george," karl told him. he had a pad of paper in his lap and a pen in his hand. they had been sitting on karl's bed for the past two hours trying to figure out what to do.

"why not?" george questioned. he hadn't thrown a good party in a while- the last one he threw was actually halloween. that was nearly a year ago.

karl rolled his eyes and pointed out, "you know those never go well."

"true," george accepted. he didn't want anything to go wrong on his boyfriend's birthday. "well, it's just going to be the four of us- if alex comes."

"what do you mean 'if?'" karl asked. he assured, "alex will be there, idiot."

george tried to believe that. he continued, "okay but still, it's only four people."

"how about we go exploring," karl suggested. it was like a lightbulb lit up above his head.

"...exploring?" george judged.

"like- the abandoned places down town. we did it basically every weekend in sophomore year," karl explained. he acknowledged, "i know you grew up in a castle or whatever, but it's fun.trust me- and clay loves it."

george settled, "if clay likes to do it, i'll do it." he really didn't know what was so cool about walking around buildings that could cave in and kill you, but whatever karl thought would make clay happy.

"okay, we have an actual plan then," karl declared as he started to write on his paper.

"i feel like it needs to be more fun," george mentioned. yes, george was extra, but he also wanted clay to have the best day ever.

"look... all i'm gonna say is i have a pretty awesome surprise for tomorrow," karl teased with a smirk. he added, "and it's not the t-shirt i got him that says 'karl jacob's favorite gay football player.'"

george opposed, "i thought sapnap was your favorite gay football player."

"sapnap is straight," karl argued, "in order to be my favorite gay football player, you have to be gay. duh."

------

it was sunday morning, clay's eighteenth birthday, and he was at football practice. of course punz had to schedule their weekend practice for today.

he walked into the locker room with his bag lazily slung over his shoulder, seeing the faces of his teammates light up when they saw him. he received happy birthdays from essentially everyone on the team, but punz was nowhere to be found.

clay was going to be pissed if punz left him alone to run practice at nine in the morning on his literal birthday. he just hoped he was already ready and talking to coach or something.

soon enough, clay was changed with his gear on and walking out of the locker room. he felt a hand on his shoulder.

clay turned around to see alex smiling at him. "happy birthday," he said in a tone that was best described as bittersweet.

for some reason, clay felt the urge to just pull him into a hug. he didn't remember the last time he hugged alex, and he had a feeling he wouldn't be able to anytime soon.