Day Dreaming (DreamNotFound)

17. Together

I was woken up by rummaging in my room. Slowly, I opened my eyes. I was still pressed against Clay's naked back with my arms wrapped around his pecs. I leaned up over his broad shoulder to see what was going on and saw my dad placing two laundry baskets of folded clothes by my closet.

He turned around, noticing I was awake behind Clay. "Oh. Morning, George."

I yawned. "Morning. What's up?"

"Just bringing up some of his clothes. Sorry I woke you up."

"It's fine."

My dad picked something up from inside the laundry baskets. "Could you have Clay read this letter when he wakes up?"

"Huh? Someone say my name?" Clay grumbled.

I giggled, pressing my nose into his hair. "Morning, sleepyhead."

"Morning, Gogy." He placed his hand on my waist and hummed.

"Aw, jeez, now you're both up. Sorry about that. I can go if you want-"

"Nah, I'm awake now. What about you, babe?" I pat Clay's chest softly.

"Me too," he said, yawning loudly.

My dad put his hands together. "Well, that works out nicely. The mattress is arriving at around noon, so we should start the new bed today."

Clay leaned up to sit against the headboard of my bed, letting the blanket fall to his waist. "Nice."

"But first, you should probably read this letter." He held out the sealed letter.
"I'll have George help with breakfast-"

"Actually, um... I-Is it okay if he reads it with me?"

"Wait- You sure about this?" I asked, sitting up next to him.

"I'd feel better if you were reading it with me."

My dad shrugged. "Alright. I'll go make breakfast." With that, he went back downstairs, closing my door. 

Clay looked at me, letter in hand. Silently, he opened it and pulled out a paper that had been folded in thirds to fit in the envelope. The writing on it was small yet neat. It reminded me of Clay's handwriting if it were tidier.

Clay -

I first want to start with an apology. I'm sorry for everything you had to go through and me not being there for you when things went wrong. I'm sorry I never noticed how horrible your mother was to you and Cassie. I'm sorry I tried to fix it by just buying you gifts and hoping for the best. I'm sorry I wasn't a real father to you.

Expecting you to accept my apology would be way too much to ask for, at least right now. After all, I don't have any valid excuse for it. Right now, I'm happy that you're in the company of people who care for you better than I ever did. As your father, what I want is for you to be happy and safe. Therefore, I have worked out with George's parents that you will be staying with his family for the foreseeable future. If you ever want to come back, you are more than welcome to let me know - but I'm not expecting anything, and that's okay.

I feel I should let you know that your mother and I are getting a divorce - or, more accurately, I'm divorcing her to get her out of your lives for good. Since I've shut it out for so long - that is, how she's treating you - it's the least I can do. If it comes to it, I'm ready to file a restraining order, too, since I wouldn't put it past her to continue to hurt our family.

Clay, know this - no matter who you love or what you identify yourself as, you're valid. One more apology: I'm sorry if I made it seem like I was against those things in my feeble attempts to keep the peace in our household. To be honest, I might have truly believe those things because of it. No matter what I thought in the past, though, I 100% support you now.