Day Dreaming (DreamNotFound)

11. Aftermath

Credit to @xxMaskedShadow for the art, it's really amazing and you should go follow them on Instagram: instagram.com/xxmaskedshadow/

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I woke up late, my eyes firmly closed. I didn't want to get up. Last night was painful. It hurt to think about what I was called or what Clay did. I wanted to check my phone, but I was too tired to do that, too.

After many minutes of stressful lazing, I finally opened my eyes and looked around. Clay was missing from his bed, which was now neatly made with no trace of him or his bag. I leaned to the side of my bed to look up, and sure enough, Nick's bed was also empty. I didn't worry too much about what happened to them since I'd probably see them on the bus anyway.

I tugged my phone from its place in my pocket and saw that I had a lot of texts from Clay's, Nick's, and my group chat. Opening it, I saw that they were trying to fill me in on what happened. I started from my most recent text and scrolled down a bit until I saw some relevant words.

Nick: george ur asleep rn so we'll tell u abt it now and u can read when u wake up
Nick: so basically theyre suspending us for a whole w e e k 🙃
Clay: mhmmmm
Clay: cant believe ill be stuck at my house the whole time 😔
Nick: wym
Nick: we can use that time to hang out
Clay: haha no
Clay: i am SO grounded 👊😔
Nick: oof
Nick: well im tired af gn
Clay: gn

While those texts were obviously from last night, the next texts were labelled as being from this morning, pretty much from right now.

Clay: oml george
Clay: theyre making us eat breakfast early bc they dont want us being with everyone else for some reason
Clay: ffs theyre also gonna make us sit with the teachers on the bus
Clay: need to wake nick up see ya

My heart dropped. So we would be separated for the rest of the trip, and in Clay's case, I might be able to see him for a week.

The rest of my roommates were getting up, so I put my phone away and stood up, stretching. I still had day clothes on from yesterday, so I didn't bother changing. Instead, I made sure everything I brought was secured in my bag before heading to breakfast early. Maybe I could catch a glimpse of Clay and Nick.

I was disappointed to find out that they were not there. Still, there weren't many people, so I grabbed my usual seat but didn't get food. I tossed my bag to my feet, sighing. I sat down with my hand propping up my head sloppily. I thought about texting Clay and Nick, but I didn't want to inconvenience them, so I instead focused my thoughts on yesterday.

First, I tried remembering all of the positive things about yesterday. Clay picked me up and we had a water fight; that was fun. Then there was the bonfire, where we sat together under the stars. What was it he wanted to say?

"George, I need to tell you something."

My heart stopped. What did he need to tell me?

"George, I'm-"

I returned my focus to the table in front of me. What was he? Was he gay? No, right? I mean, It's unlikely he's even bi or pan. As much as I wanted to believe that he was, I shouldn't give myself false hope...

"Hi, George!" Bad said, startling me. I saw his trio behind him, holding various breakfast foods and generally looking tired but happy.

"Hi," I said, smiling weakly.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting down next to me.

"It's... Clay and Nick are just being separated from me, and they're both getting suspended."