The only notable highlight of the rest of the evening was George ending up going back to the supermarket to buy toilet paper for Nick.

And no, we refused to give him the dusting cloth in spite of his protests.

We went back after that, finding out that the group working on the power finished the job and left. The neighborhood was finally brighter with the street lights.

"We need to go back again tomorrow and finish cleaning up." None of them were happy to hear my words except for Clay.

George and Nick looked at each other with faces that had different types of morse codes engraved on them. I could feel that they were trying to communicate without words, and I could also guess the reasoning behind it. They just didn't want to come.

"Uh, we're actually very busy tomorrow.. like, no chance we'll be able to come.." George's lying skills had been improving recently, but he still had to work on them more.

"Busy with what?" Even Clay got pissed from the obvious lie.

George was still looking at Nick. And knowing his abilities, I was surprised that George even thought about relying on him.

"We need new setups," Nick spoke, "like cameras, computers, mics.. everything."

That one wasn't a lie. They mentioned it before.

...and I feel like a lie detector all of a sudden.

"So? You can order those in like less than an hour." Clay shrugged.

That's when Nick's attempts failed. I knew that they were going to put up a fight, but I didn't think they'd go as far as continuing the chain of fake excuses.

"Yeah, but we also need to go to the pet store. We want a pet.. for when we move to our new house." George cleared his throat at the end of that sentence.

That's when both me and Clay stopped pushing on them. If they're willing to sacrifice that much, then they really don't wanna come.

Even though something inside me kept making me believe that getting a pet was too big of thing to lie about and maybe it was planned beforehand, I still had almost no doubt that George came up with that on the spot when I saw Nick's reaction.

"Wait.. We are!?" He was way too excited.

We were mean enough to not confront George, which would probably make him admit that what he said wasn't in their plans. Instead it's better to act like we believe him and then see him suffer from the consequences of lying.

"Sooo... what are you gonna get?" I smirked. I was feeling evil for no reason.

"Let's get a turtle and save the ocean!" I'm not sure about the backstory of Nick's words, but they sounded way too weird to be left unaddressed.

"We're not saving the ocean from turtles, Nick," George decided to explain, as if that would change anything, "we're saving the turtles in the ocean from plastic."

"Then you should rescue a turtle. Go to the beach, catch one." Clay was just adding fuel to the fire.

That made Nick way more emotionally attached to the idea of getting a turtle. And at that point adopting an animal was unavoidable for George. The real problem was whether they'd get a turtle or something else.

I hope they end up getting a dog, naming it Cleo and it ends up loving me more than it loves them.

Anyways, we went to bed that night pretty tired. And remembering that me and Clay had to go back to the dusty house and do the cleaning all by ourselves while George and Nick went to the pet store, made me jealous.

However, those thoughts didn't bother me for that long, cause we fell asleep almost momentarily. At least I did. Clay was pretty motionless throughout the night though, which made me think that he was asleep as well.

And in the morning after we showered - separately - we were ready to complete our cleaning duty in the houses. Nick and George were still asleep when we left, which made our surrounding seem ridiculously quiet. Is this what living without them is gonna feel like?

Nice.

"Slow down a bit, we're gonna crash into a lamppost again." The streets weren't busy, but Clay's past was a proof that there's always something to drive into.

"Oh yeah, sorry." And this was the first time he actually listened to me while driving.

After a few more minutes, I realized something.

"Why did we get up this early anyway?"

Clay checked the time, seeing that it was 9 a.m. and we were already almost at our destination. Usually we wake up past midday, so seeing the city at this time was a fresh new feeling.

"Don't know about you, but I had a morning wood."

Uhm..

That was way too honest of him. And unnecessary. In two words - unnecessarily honest.

"That's so gross." I cringed, undoing my seatbelt as he finally stopped the car.

"Really? But you like it when it's down your throat."

My eyes went wide. I parted my mouth to say something, but there simply wasn't anything I could say. When I think about it now, at least I could've made a disgusted remark or disagree with what he said. Yet my unresponsiveness fed his ego even more. And his next words were a proof of it.

"That's what I thought."

He used the opportunity of my parted mouth to lightly pull my bottom lip down with his thumb and let it bounce back into its place in a matter of seconds - during the time those words left his mouth.

And I was still unresponsive.

Before I knew, he was out of the car, opening the door for me.

"I.." shaking myself back to reality, I spoke, "I hate you."

I hoped that would break the tension, but the way he offered me his hand with a smirk to help me get out of the car made the situation even worse.

And when I took his hand and stood on my feet, he closed and locked the car doors without a single remark, guiding us towards one of the houses.

We were still both quiet as he took out the key, pushed it into the lock ever so slowly and twisted it in a painfully slow rhythm which I think was on purpose. I just didn't know what he was trying to achieve by annoying me further.

"Are you trying to take out your sexual frustration on that door?" I finally spoke, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Who said I'm sexually frustrated?" He chuckled, opening the door finally, "We can't always have the same feelings, babe."

"Oh fuck you, Clay." I was so annoyed that I couldn't even come up with a creative response.

He chuckled at my words, leading us inside and leaning on the door as he closed it. And when he put his hands on both sides of my hips, softly pulling my body towards him, I already knew that my remark wasn't going to stay without an answer.

"Or Clay can fuck you instead.."