Waking up early in the morning was something new to me. Despite the fact that I actually studied for a bit for once in a month, I was feeling extremely tired. My grades had already dropped from that small period of my life that I refused to even attend to my classes, and now getting back up was harder than I thought.

"You call that a 5?" Nick was sitting beside me as I scribbled some things on a sheet of paper.

"I think everyone calls that a 5." I shrugged, not getting why he was so judgemental of my handwriting.

"Looks like the letter S, but make it ugly." Nick could be so picky and serious sometimes, that I just had trouble recognizing him.

Looking at the number I wrote, I started to slowly accept the criticism. I got unlucky and the ink leaked a bit right at the top of the symbol, making it look like a deformed balloon.

"If you look at it enough," I tilted my head and Nick brought his body closer to match the angle I was looking at, "it kind of looks like a sperm cell."

I thought my joke was at least chuckle-worthy, but presumably Nick didn't get it. He just had no idea what a sperm cell looked like, or maybe even what it was.

"Cum doesn't look like this.." Nick tilted his head towards my face, and I realized that I don't like being this close to him while we're talking about things like this.

Clay was on the phone with his mom for a few minutes now, making me wonder if he told her about this whole thing or not. My best guess was a negative answer to that question, as soon enough we heard him laugh and tell his mom to have fun - probably already hanging up.

"Liz?" Nick's voice snapped me back to reality. Did I just spend a few seconds inches away from Nick's face, completely frozen - thinking about Clay.

And surely, before I could apologize for that weird behavior, he had to say something that made me almost not want to apologize.

"Are we supposed to kiss right now?"

"Ew no, go away." I laughed, trying to push him away, but the idiot started to make fun of my previous actions - staring at my face and not moving an inch.

I lost it when he narrowed his eyes and proceeded to lick and bite his lips in such a disgustingly exaggerated way, that almost made me scream.

And as he started to pucker up his lips and wiggle his brows, I almost threw up from both laughing and being grossed out.

"I'm developing arousal disorders just from witnessing this-"

I didn't get the chance to finish my sentence in between the laughs, when I heard Clay clear his throat dramatically. Both me and Nick jumped, just now realizing how awkwardly close our bodies were and how inappropriate the whole thing looked from Clay's perspective.

"Are you done?" Clay's voice matched with the image of him standing there with crossed arms. And it kind of terrified me.

"Am I done?" Nick repeated his question with the same intonation.

"You're done," Clay smiled, but there was something creepy in it, "but not quite literally."

Me and Nick fake laughed even though there was nothing particularly funny about what Clay said, neither it had the intentions to be funny. But the only way to relieve the tension without further explanation which we didn't have, was by trying to find a distraction.

"Your bandage! We need to change it." Was the best change of topic I could come up with.

Clay nodded, still looking kind of intimidating while being generous with his eye contacts. And those were mostly directed to Nick.

"I'll go.. wash my hair.. and body. And yeah, do shower things." Nick was so nervous that he couldn't even come up with a proper sentence. Clay's glare followed him until he disappeared from the range of our vision.

I took my time while getting everything I needed from the medicine box. I could've took way less time while doing this, but I chose to spend a few more extra seconds.

Clay was already on the couch waiting for me. From what I could see he was calm but still tensed in a type of way - leaning back to the sofa and keeping himself busy with the phone.

"Alright," I cleared my throat and took a deep breath, while carrying the items to the table, "let's see if we got it infected yet or not."

He showed the smallest smile, more of a smirk, while putting his phone away and changing his sitting position in a way that made his body way more leaned towards me than the couch.

"You can keep yourself busy with the phone, I'll try to be quick." I realized that my heart was beating in my throat from the tension in the air.

"I'm good. Take your time." Clay's words were simple as he kept his gaze on me.

And it got so quiet in the room that I could hear the adhesive substance from the bandage peeling from his forehead. Yet again, his eyes were on me.

I learned a trick on how to peel the cotton ball from the stitches without pulling on them by using lukewarm water to dampen it. And it worked, falling right off without hurting him this time.

"I think they look okay." I haven't seen too many stitches in my life, but from the ones I had on me I developed a bit of experience.

"Mhm." His answers were so minimalistic, while the way he was focused on me screamed every type of emotion.

As I finished every step, sticking a new bandage back on, it felt like a lifetime had passed. And also it looked like his face was way closer to mine than it was at the start.

"All done." My voice was low.

"Thank you."

I was about to move away from him when he swiftly came forward and captured my lips with his. I let got of a relieved sigh, feeling like the unbearable tension finally disappeared in a heated kiss.

It dared to get even deeper, but Nick's voice made us jump apart.

"So when I do it, it's not okay-"

"Don't even try to finish that-" Clay interrupted him with a warning, sounding both annoyed and angry, as I quickly got up and turned my burning face away from Nick's judgmental glare.