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Clay’s nothing less than shocked when Justin texts him two weeks after going home and asks if it’s okay to come over. Sure, they said that they’d hang out when not in school but Clay doubted it would actually happen. He can’t deny that he's a little suspicious when he gets the text but his parents are okay with it, not that he doubted they would be, and he lets Justin know he can come over.
Almost more surprising is that when Justin comes, it isn’t awkward at all. They shared the same bedroom for a week but before that he doubted Justin knew his name and he hated Justin. That week may have changed their perspectives on each other but it was only as a necessary evil and Clay doubted the friendliness would amount to anything. The following week they talked, but it was for tutoring almost exclusively and not the most personable of interactions.
Clay sort of assumes that Justin is coming over just to make good on their promise because now he has access to his other friends, or maybe just to his friends because Clay isn’t sure exactly where they stand. He expects when Justin comes over that things will be weird but instead when he answers the door, Justin greets him with a goofy grin and says something stupid and very Justin. When Mom and Dad call greetings from the kitchen, Justin replies to them easily and not long after they’re upstairs in his room trying, and failing to get through Mario 64 again.
It’s okay, Justin does most of the talking, updating Clay on literally everything that’s happened in Liberty this week. He isn’t sure if it’s more concerning that Justin knows all of this or that he knows none of it since they were in the same building for the same amount of time. Some of it is kind of funny too, he hears about how Monty got a verbal dressing down from some old lady at Rosy’s and about the antics of the basketball team and how they’re going to drive Mr. Patrick to an early grave for sure.
Still he can’t help that lingering doubt that somehow Justin is here to repay some sort of obligation he felt he owed despite him seeming to be enjoying himself. It keeps him from getting into the conversation and after about a half hour Justin seems to pick up on it.
“I can ugh leave? You don’t seem to be having a very good time. Maybe we can try again another day?” Justin looks confused, sad, and maybe a little...hurt? He can’t really be too sure about that last one though.
“No it’s fine it’s just-” He trails off cause he doesn’t really know how to say what he’s thinking. Usually he has no problem being really blunt but somehow that doesn’t seem like a great idea now.
“Just?” Unfortunately the other boy seems intent on getting an answer so he finally comes up with a way to ask that’s more tactful than he usually would.
“Wouldn’t you rather hang out with the team or Bryce or your real friends?”
Okay maybe the last part was pretty tactless and Justin looks offended by the statement.
“I didn’t realize we weren’t real friends. I guess I’ll just leave and go find mine or maybe I should question if they are too!”
He stands up and Clay realizes he’s put his foot in his mouth big time and tries to back track. “Wait! I just- I mean I thought you were here cause you felt obligated to or I was your second choice or something and I don’t know I just-”
“Clay.” The voice quiets his babbling. “If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be and if I didn’t think of you as a friend, I wouldn’t want to be here. So let’s get something straight now, are we friends or not?”
His mouth is dry and he wonders how the span of three and a half weeks caused such a shift in their relationship. He likes Justin’s company. The other boy is funny and charming but more than that, he can be shockingly thoughtful. On a particularly rotten day he opened his locker and found a note sitting on the floor where it had obviously fallen after being shoved through the vents at the top. When he opened it he found a simple message scrawled across it:
Bad days suck but they get better, and till then you have me
He had smiled and there hadn’t been a signature but after tutoring for a while the handwriting was as good as Justin name on the bottom. It wasn’t much but that day it was just enough to remind him that bad days came and went and he wasn’t alone. The note is now tucked away safely in his desk drawer.
He’s not sure if it comes down to him or Justin’s jock friends who he’ll choose though and that might be where a lot of the hesitation comes from. He’s steered clear of most of them, Monty especially even though he knows he and Justin aren’t friends but Bryce and the rest too. He doesn’t think he wants to find out who Justin’ll pick.
“We are.” His voice at least is firm and he decides he’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it. He’s sure eventually they will but maybe not and he’s willing to take that chance.
“Good, now c’mon and bring us to a new painting this fucking bunny sucks.”
Clay rolls his eyes and takes the controller. “You’re just doing it wrong.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“If you’re so smart, you do it.”
“I will.”
Five minutes later he has the star but Justin looks unimpressed. “I’m glad your strategy finally worked. I was getting bored.”
The little shit. “I got it faster than you would have.”
Justin snorts and Clay brings them to the next area.
They go back and forth for a while and it’s fun. The air between them is cleared and they fall into the routine they had before easily. One of them plays until they die and the other very unhelpfully backseat drives. In Justin’s case he also provides an almost endless stream of gossip about the school mingled with commentary on everything Clay does and it’s funny but he tries to pretend it isn’t, just to be difficult.
Towards dinner things take an interesting turn when Clay decides to mess with Justin a little more. He isn’t sure why, maybe because he thinks it’ll be funny or maybe because he’s feeling brave in a social situation for once but when he dies he jumps right back into the painting.
Justin’s holding his hand out expectantly and Clay tries to keep a straight face as he ignores it.
“Um Clay? My turn.”
“Nope.”
“C’mon you died, it’s my turn!”
“No, you’ll just mess this up.” He’s practically grinning from ear to ear now despite trying not to.
“Clay, give me the damn controller.”
“Make me.”
“I will!”
He’s suddenly got Justin pressing into his side, pushing him over and reaching for the controller. Oh shit, somehow he didn’t actually expect Justin to get physical. He wasn’t sure what he did think would happen in hindsight but he finds himself trying to push Justin off while trying to keep Mario out of the lava.
He can’t manage long though, Justin may be smaller than him but he’s both unhindered by a controller and trying to keep Mario alive and a lot more proactive in this silly game. He pushes against Clay from one side, then pulls at him, tries to pin him down and eventually, for the sake of his pride, Clay pushes the controller to the TV and turns his full attention to dealing with the pest.
Unfortunately that seems to work against him, Justin must have been holding back for the sake of the N64 and without it there to get caught up in the fight, he goes all out. The boy is practically an animal and if Clay wasn’t several inches taller and probably at least twenty pounds heavier, the fight would be much more one sided. As it is, they’re rolling around the floor and Justin nearly pins him down a few times but he’s able to squirm out. Partway through he realizes Justin is already putting in a lot more energy than him and decides to wait the boy out.
Even that isn’t easy because as it turns out, Justin has a lot of stamina and even though they’ve been at this for a while, he’s still going strong and Clay might have played himself cause he’s feeling a little winded. He decides that if he doesn’t want the little shit embarrassing him he needs to do something now. With that thought in mind he waits for Justin to come at him again and this time, rather than just struggling with him for a bit and then sending him away, he manages to just his size to wrestle the boy to the floor and sit on him.
Both are breathing a little heavy and Justin’s also laughing in between his pants. The sheer joy on the younger boy’s face is almost absurd and yet it’s so earnest he can’t help but laugh himself. In fact between both of them laughing, he doesn’t hear Dad until he taps on the door. The man has an amused look on his face as he looks over the pair and Clay’s embarrassed at being caught doing something so childish but oddly Dad doesn’t comment and instead asks what Clay assumes was the reason for him coming up here.
“Do you want to stay for dinner Justin?”
“Yeah if that’s-if that’s alright with you.”
“Of course it is, I’ll set an extra place for you.”
He steps back out the door but then leans his head back in. Clay recognizes the devilish look on his face immediately and knows something is up but he isn’t ready for the deep betrayal his father commits when he opens his mouth.
“You know Justin, when he was younger, Clay was quite ticklish. If he’s giving you a problem now you might want to try it.”
“Dad!”
“Oh my timer is going off,” it’s obviously a lie cause Clay can’t hear anything, “dinner will be ready in ten, make sure you wash up!” He sounds way to cheerful, voice sing song as he leaves the room.
Clay doesn’t have any time to prepare himself before he’s forced to laugh and roll off Justin. The next two minutes he spends rolling around the floor of his own room, being made to laugh by a little gremlin who thinks he’s hot shit. When he stops he smugly tells Clay it’s because he’s a merciful overlord. Really he should consider himself lucky Clay is a superior man here because otherwise he’d be pinned down like the little shit he is and made to know the same torture he just put someone else through. It’s an appealing idea, too bad that would be beneath him.
Still...despite that part, the night is fun, dinner is alright, Justin dazzles his parents with silly stories and pulls him into a few stupid arguments and they all laugh. Later he and Justin return to his room and hang out for another hour before Justin heads home.
As Justin’s leaving, he steps out on the front porch with the other boy and for a moment he tries to think of something perfect to say, something to memorialize this day, the day they finally became friends. Justin has other ideas and rather than even attempting to say anything perfect, he wraps his arms around Clay in a full hug. Arms wrap around Clay’s middle and a body presses against his and he tenses, but only for a second and then returns it. When Justin pulls away a moment later he offers a bright smile, not the Foley smile, a better one, bright and happy and bids him a good night. Clay does the same and the moment feels like magic, if only for a few seconds.
Justin walks down to the sidewalk and turns, a few seconds later he’s out of sight but it’s alright, they’re friends now so this isn’t goodbye forever. That thought is comforting and fills him with a warm feeling that lasts throughout the night and until he goes to bed.