flowers in your hair

Mendacious

Mendacious / Men•da•cious
not telling the truth; lying

August 11th // Florida - 2:52am

George woke up to the sound of a door closing. It sounded like the front door was slammed shut or someone failed at being silent.

George got out of bed and started to search the house. No one was there. When he found no one, he chose to check Clay's room before going back to bed. He knocked twice. No answer. His hand rested on the doorknob has he opened it slowly.

"Clay?"

No answer. He peaked threw the opening and found nothing. Clay wasn't there. George was caught off guard by it. Where would Clay go at this time of night?

George headed back to his room and grabbed his phone. He planned on texting Clay to ask where he was, but at the same time he didn't want to seem intruding or come off like he was constantly stalking where he was. Instead, he sat his phone back down and stared at the ceiling. He couldn't fall asleep, and decided to stay there until Clay returned.

It wasn't until he heard the front door open around seven when he moved an inch in that bed. Four hours. Clay was gone for four hours. George assumed something happened, but didn't want to ask directly. He would go to the bathroom as he heard Clay coming down the hall, and naturally start a conversation.

That's what he did. As he headed towards the bathroom door, Clay was turning into the hallway.

"Oh- h-hey George. Good morning."

"Hey Clay- where were you?"

"Oh- I woke up like an hour ago and decided to go for a walk until you woke up. I didn't want to bother you."

He lied. Why would he lie? What was he hiding?

"Oh, yeah, I just woke up haha."

Anyone could tell there was a major awkwardness between them right there. Clay didn't enjoy lying to George, and George was scared what it was about.

"Hey George, you wanna go for some coffee or something?"

"Sure, give me ten minutes."

"Okay, I'll be downstairs."

Clay sat on the couch and patiently waited for George. His leg was shaking up and down uncontrollably until he took a deep breath and eased his anxiety. George knew, didn't he? Clay had a feeling, but he concluded it as paranoia as karma for lying to the one person he cared about over all else.

George got ready, with his thoughts wondering more than ever. So many things had happened this week, he was already overwhelmed, and now this? It couldn't  be anything bad, right? Maybe he had a family issue or something he didn't think George could help with.

Clay sat up as George came downstairs. The car ride to the cafe was completely silent with the occasional, "What do you want to do today or tomorrow?" It was painfully awkward and only gave George more reasons to be suspicious.

When they arrived at the cafe, Clay ordered an iced coffee and George ordered his usual iced mocha. They sat down in a booth, and discussed new video ideas. After putting out a couple of ideas, Clay's phone went off. He looked at it and sighed.

"George- I'll be right back. A friend that lives down the street needs me to come over and- uh- try and figure out what's wrong with their computer. I'll be five minutes at most, it's usually the same problem and it's an easy fix."

"Oh, I- Okay, I'll just be here, I guess."

"Thank you, be right back."

George knew something was off. He was watching out the cafe window when instead of going down the street like he said, he went across the street and into an alley. George really didn't want to go see why he was going in there, but his temptation drew him into the trap.