"it's gonna be okay"

~16~

Since meeting Jacob and Mega at the Target, George couldn't help but feel like a third wheel. Well, fifth wheel.

Since Clay's apartment only had four bedrooms, George offered to sleep on the couch, but Mega and Jacob agreed to share a room instead.

But back to being the fifth wheel.

See, Jacob and Mega had their own adorable, but annoying dynamic.

Jacob had a very annoying habit of creating illusions everywhere. Like that cup you were going to pour water into? Turns out that was fake and you just spilled water everywhere.

It was so annoying, especially how he didn't even realize it half the time.

And then there was Mega.

George didn't have anything against him.

Well, except for the fact that Mega seemed to always be annoyed at him for something.

But when George was confused about why he was mad, the mute would just sign furiously, and walk away.

But it was impossible to be mad at Mega, as he was kind of adorable when he was mad.

He had two expressions- normal and annoyed. And between his long hair and since he pretty much always wore a green bandanna over his face, it was pretty hard to decipher Mega's expressions.

Most of the time, Jacob was there to translate some of what Mega signed, but half of most of the time, he was signing too fast for Jacob to see and then they got into an argument about it, which usually ended with the two calling each other idiots, then everyone going back to normal.

As for Clay and Vincent . . .

It was clear that something had gone down that night they were together, and it brought them closer.

More times than not, George would wake up early, as England was ahead of America time zone wise and he hadn't ever really fully adjusted to time. Usually, he saw Clay and Vincent sleeping together, which was adorable.

He would let out a snort and usually proceeded to get a poptart, leaving the two love birds to sleep.

But in all seriousness though, George felt more alone than he had before meeting Vincent and Clay.

Sure, he might have been with pretty shitty people.

But at least he wasn't the only one not in a probable relationship.

See, after graduating from high school, George had moved from the UK to America with a couple of guys from his school.

Eventually, they became lazy and annoying and terrible roommates and didn't always pay rent on time and overall, were kind of assholes.

In a way, George was almost glad when they vanished with the rest of the city.

He spent that first week cleaning out all of their crap and actually had a clean house for once.

But then, as George was burning one of the many piles of shit he'd cleaned out, he kinda maybe set a few things on fire.

In all fairness, George was probably losing brain cells from the stench alone.

But the fire forced him to leave and he walked down the street, for a few days, which led him to the day Vincent grabbed him off the street and they met Clay.

And then here he was.

It was around nine in the morning, and surprise surprise, no one else was awake.

He flopped down on the couch, and checked his phone, as he did every morning.

No new notifications.

George didn't really know why he checked it.

Maybe he was waiting for someone to text him, telling him they were alive.

Maybe he was just clinging to a tiny piece of hope that someone from his past life was still out there.

Or maybe he wanted to have a reason to leave, so he didn't have to feel so alone anymore.

With a sigh, George powered off the phone and slipped it back into his back pocket.

He heard footsteps from behind him, and looked over his shoulder.

It was Mega.

"Hey," said George.

Mega signed something back, which he assumed was some kind of greeting.

Mega joined him at the couch, carrying an apple, and a pad of paper.

"What's that?" George asked.

Mega set the apple on the coffee table in front of them and started to scribble something down on the paper.

"Whenever I sign something at you it gets misinterpreted and I get frustrated and we never really got introduced," it read. Mega's handwriting was loopy and slightly scrawled out, but still legible.

"What? That never happens," he said with a grin.

Mega seemed to smile and turned back to the paper, continuing to write.

"Okay, wanna try again?" it read.

"Sure. Hi, I'm George."

"Hi, I'm Mega," he wrote.

"Hey Mega, how does it work? Can you speak at all?"

"I can whisper a little, but it hurts, so I just sign."

"Ooh, teach me some basic signs so I can understand a little of what you say!"

"Ok," Mega wrote.

The two spent a few hours learning signs, and by then, George had learned how to fingerspell most of the alphabet and sign basic things like "yes" and "no" and "I know little sign" and "you're an asshole"- probably the most important thing he learned. It was basically just a backwards okay sign.

By eleven, everyone else was actually starting to wake up.

Jacob came over, running sleep out of his eyes.

"What'd I say," he said knowingly.

Mega signed something back, too fast for George to try to understand.

"See, I told you."

Mega gave him a small smile, and turned to George, picking up the pad of paper.

"Thanks for giving me a second chance," he wrote.

"Of course," George responded.

"You're not who I thought you'd be."

"You too."

a/n: guess who rushed this chapter haha totally not me

anyways, i think i might post my project that i literally had a fucking anxiety attack over. it's historical fiction and is about the roanoke colony and one of the theories as to how they disappeared. stay tuned for more details if you're interested :)))