The morning of the first day of the year was a blurry memory. As much as I tried to stay positive, seeing George cry made me tear up a bit. Looking back at it, I blame myself for crying with a drunk man.

In the evening when we were in the airport, all of us were feeling better mentally. Physically George and Nick were feeling like shit, and it wasn't a surprise. We said our goodbyes without any tears and separated our ways.

The first three days without them was exhausting in many levels. Emotionally, mentally, physically and whatever else exists there. I feel ashamed that I missed them enough to watch their videos at night.

Going back to doing homeworks was another huge stress. And I wasn't the only one struggling, as Nick had to somehow manage to keep up with homeworks and livestreams. And I had to keep up with homeworks and watching his livestreams.

When it came to George, we all missed him alot cause he was back to his sleeping habits and barely got in calls with us.

Clay was the one I talked with the most. And ironically also the one I missed the most. We were all together 5 days ago, yet it felt like I haven't seen him in ages. And I turned down his offers to stay at his place for a few days, cause I knew that it'd just make me fail all my classes.

come over?

me and patches miss you :(

I miss her too :(

I smiled seeing him write and delete something repeatedly. It's not often that he's out of words, he must be feeling really down.

please?

So that's what he came up with after a minute of rewriting.

maybe friday

that's 5 days from today

well I have school

it's online

I sighed, knowing that he had a point. I spent most of the day texting him or being on the phone with him instead of doing homework anyway. And I was very close to dropping everything and going. One more text was all I needed.

I'll write your english essay?

And how could I say no to that. Maybe he can help me be productive.

I mean if you want to🙄

I'll be there at 6 :))

Great, I have 2 hours to shower and pack. And let's be honest, he's gonna get here earlier than that.

I made sure to grab every single book I needed, promising myself to not miss any classes and homeworks even though I was going to spend the week by his very distracting side.

As I suspected, he got here 10 minutes early. But I'm proud of myself for being ready, even though I didn't dry my hair properly. The roots were still damp. And it was January.

Oh well, too late. Nothing a beanie can't fix.

When I got outside he was already there, out of the car. I was collected enough to not run and jump on him, even though I felt like it. Instead we exchanged a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Your hair's wet." I probably thought I dried it more than I did in reality if he felt the dampness from the hug.

"Who cares." I laughed, pushing his hand away that was trying to sneak under my beanie.

"Do you know what meningitis is?" He asked.

"No, and I've been living just fine without knowing." I shrugged.

"Me neither. But get in the car before you get it." He opened the door for me with his words, and I entered, secretly enjoying the warmness inside. My head did infact freeze, but I wasn't going to admit it.

I asked him nicely to drive normally. But the effect lasted for 5 minutes. I think he has an issue.

"Can't you just press the gas pedal a bit lighter? Is it that hard?" I complained.

"I don't know, it gets on my nerves," he sighed, "seeing that someone's ahead of me."

Yeah, he has issues.

"Must suck looking at the chess leaderboard then." I probably shouldn't trigger him further.

"You're literally the only one ahead of me," he laughed, "and I don't mind it."

"You mind losing to George and Nick but not to me?" I raised a brow and undid the seatbelt, as he was parking the car.

"Yeah." He pulled the keys out.

My lips crooked into a smirk.

"So you like being my bitch."

I'm so glad I didn't say that while he was driving, cause the speed with which he reacted would most definitely make us crash.

"Excuse me?" His mouth stayed open after he was done with the sentence, brows lifted all the way up.

"Did I lie tho?" I opened the car door, feeling proud of myself.

He took a few moments to process my words before getting out of the car himself. Taking the bag that had my stuff inside from my hands, he proceeded to take out the keys from his pocket.

I didn't think he was being serious about the part when he said Patches missed me, but as we entered she came right to me, purring and rubbing against my feet. I got on my knees to pet her and realized that she's climbing on my shoulders. So I lifted her up.

"Haha, your cat loves me more." I think I'm being kinda mean today.

"I think my friends love you more." He shrugged and chuckled in defeat.

"And you love me more than them." I smiled.

"How is that supposed to make me feel better?"

I honestly expected him to come up with something or just deny my words. But he didn't, and now I don't know what to say.

"Uhm.." I really didn't.

Fortunately he just changed the topic, taking my bag to his room and complaining about the weight of it.

"What did you put in here?" He put it on the bed and waited for me to open it.

And I started taking out my books. One by one. All 13 of them.

"I thought it was full of clothes and got confused at why it was so heavy." He laughed, realizing that more than half of the bag were my books.

"Bold of you to assume that I brought clothes," well I did. Everything except shirts, "I'm stealing yours."

"Yeah, stealing my everything." He half-laughed.

"Your cat, your friends, your number one spot in the chess leaderboard.." I started counting on my fingers.

"My heart." He added.

"Pft, okay.." I rolled my eyes, trying to seem like I wasn't flustered. But who am I kidding. Even his stupid jokes have way stronger effect on me than they should.