chemical bonds / 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥

ᶜʰᵃᵖᵗᵉʳ ¹

                                                                                      Dreams Pov:

           I stretched as I stood to finally disembark the plane after a 9 hour flight. I turned around to finally face the person who had spent the entire time kicking my seat. A small child glared up at me, "he's lucky there are witnesses" I thought as it was my turn to take my luggage from the compartment above me.

        Once out of the gate I scrambled to find my way out of the crowded Heathrow airport. I looked down at my phone to see three missed calls from George. "Fuck" I should probably have told him I landed. 

        Before I could respond another call came through, I picked up. "I'm here, I'm here, calm down" I said before he could respond. "Took you long enough," George mumbled "I'm waiting outside the baggage claim- tell me you know where you're going?" "See you in five!" I said hanging up.

      White arrows guided me towards the baggage claim leaving me time to contemplate my stay. I had decided last minute to fly out and see George, Tommy and Wilbur as it had been practically a year since we last met up. We were renting out an airbnb in London for the week as it was school vacation for Tommy and everyone else had a flexible schedule.

     I was considering not going but George had convinced me, I guess he was reason enough to fly halfway across the globe. 

    I reached the baggage claim and grabbed my second duffle bag from the carousel before walking out the automatic door to try and find my ride. After a quick scan I noticed him frantically waving from a car window. After narrowly missing being hit I made it to him. He opened the car door and ran to embrace me, giving me a face full of hair as the height difference put him in an awkward position. I couldn't help but sniff his brunette mop catching a floral hint as he pulled away. Did we use the same shampoo? 

     Before we could speak George got a call from Tommy, which he unenthusiastically answered. "Can this wait Tommy, we're in a bit of an awkward spot here" George said as an inaudible Tommy replied to him. The two went on for a moment before finally hanging up. George turned to me, "do you mind if we pick up some milk? Something about his bones I don't know, I block most of it out." I furrowed my brow as I sank into the passenger seat, "yeah um, I'm in no rush."

   I watched as George maneuvered our way out of the pick-up lane, I recognized his focused expression from our streaming. Finally on our way he turned to me briefly making eye contact before looking back to the road, "So Clay, were you going to tell me how you're doing or was I supposed to beg?" I chuckled at the thought, "I don't know what you think has changed in my life since we last spoke like two days ago but, uhm, I'm pretty alright," "I'm afraid we're about to ruin your mood," he said as we pulled into the Tesco parking lot. 

   Inside the store I let him lead me through the aisles to the back. He squat down, examining the different brands of milk. "How hard is it to pick cow juice?" I joked as he aggressively scanned the expiration dates. "Shush, I want my money's worth," George said as he finally picked a carton. 

    "Do you want anything else?" "No no," I shrugged and we made our way to the cashier. As George fumbled for change I looked down at the newspaper stand. "Acid attack in Notting Hill? Tell me we aren't in Notting Hill," I said locking eyes with the cashier. "Not even close" she said giggling and returned to counting the change. 

    We wandered back out to the car and plugged the airbnb address into the gps. We drove mostly in silence. Multiple times I caught myself zoning out watching George tap his fingers on the steering wheel. The abrupt stop as we pulled into the driveway halted me out of my sleepy state.

     "Ta da" George sang, rushing to the trunk to help me with my bags. I looked up at the townhouse. It stood out as the only modern build on a relatively old block. As my eyes made their way up the building I spotted the back of a certain blond's head. I stepped to the trunk but realized George had taken all my bags. 

     Across the lawn he struggled to climb the steps to the front door. I rushed ahead of him and opened it, "Was it worth looking dumb?" I asked. He rolled his eyes back, "Sucks you've never had a good host before," he said as he tossed the bags in the front entrance. "THEY'RE HERE!" a high voice squealed followed by aggressive pounding down the stairs.