Spring had come early this year, and along with that came the baseball season. Things were already warming up in Arizona as students often spent their free time at a pool, lake, or doing anything to keep cool in this warmer weather. When Clay wasn't busy with baseball practice, games on Fridays, or school work, he and some college friends usually met up on Saturdays in their usual spot at Bartlett Lake, which was just a drive that was a little over an hour away from campus. With Clay now being "legal," as most people call it, the 21-year-old would have a couple of alcoholic drinks here and there, but he made sure to be responsible with his occasional drinking.
Currently, celebrating last night's win against the visiting team, the Oregon Ducks, Clay, Christopher, Justin, Tyler, and a few of their friends were all taking advantage of the spring weather and hanging out at Bartlett Lake together. With some of their friends being of the drinking age, a cooler of various alcoholic drinks had been brought along for the day, as well as a cooler of water or other non-alcoholic drinks for anyone who didn't want or simply wasn't a fan of alcohol. Feeling as relaxed as ever, the blue-eyed male was lounging on a vanilla-frosted donut-themed inner tube. The baseball player was wearing a pair of navy blue swim trunks that were almost knee length, and he was also sporting his usual go-to sunglasses along with a maroon red baseball cap with "FORKS UP" written in big, gold lettering across the front of the hat.
While everyone hung out together, upbeat music played through a speaker that a fellow baseball teammate, Darell, had brought along with him. While Clay was floating in the refreshing water with his donut-themed inner tube, the young man also held an ice cold tall, thin can of a Rasberry-flavored White Claw drink that Darell had offered him. Justin was hanging out on the small beach area as he was conversing with Emma, a girl that he and Clay had befriended the day they moved into their apartment. Justin and Emma had hit it off really well when they first met, and she also got along with Clay as well, which was a good sign to Justin if, in fact, a relationship formed and things got more serious between Emma and himself.
At one point while he was talking to his friend, Justin glanced over, and a smile instantly came to his face once he saw his brother. Clay remained floating in the water with a White Claw in his hand as he lounged in his donut-themed inner tube. The boy's hat was now tilted downward slightly, causing the bill of the hat to produce a small amount of shade to help keep the sun out of his eyes. But, looking closer, it appeared that the Jensen male had fallen asleep. Chuckling to himself, the football player briefly excused himself from his conversation with Emma before grabbing his phone and snapping a picture of his sleeping brother. The Foley teen then proceeded to post the photo on social media, tagging Skye Miller in the caption as he recalled the time she had mentioned Clay being able to fall asleep anywhere on one of her posts.
After posting the photo and putting his phone back with his things, Justin glanced over and caught Darell's eye. The two smirked at one another, clearly reading each other's minds. The two athletes quickly took off running towards the water and jumped near Clay to splash him and either wake him up or just startle him enough to make him fall out of his float and into the water. As Justin secretly hoped, the sudden commotion was enough to startle his brother, causing the baseball player to tip over and fall into the awaiting water.
"Guys, what the fuck?" Clay questioned once he resurfaced, sounding angry yet trying and failing to fight back a smile. Darell flashed a playful grin to his soaked teammate while Justin couldn't help but laugh. Beginning to laugh himself, the 21-year-old quickly moved his right arm just below the water's surface in Justin's direction, creating a miniature tsunami-like wave that hit its target dead on, leaving Justin dripping wet now. "Ok, that was uncalled for." The Foley teen deadpanned. "Was it though?" Clay questioned. "You did interupt my nap, after all." The Jensen male added with a smirk coming across his face.
"He's got a point there, man. Never interupted someone's nap." Darell chimed in as he stood near his teammate. "You fucking traitor, you had a part in this, too, you know!" Justin exclaimed as he held back a smile. At this, Darell and Clay glanced at each other before turning back to the football player with slightly evil grins. "Oh, good lord." Justin said to himself as he rolled his eyes. Seconds later, a splash fight broke out between the three college students, though it was obvious that it was all fun and games as the three were clearly just playing around with each other.
After eventually ending the fun-filled splash fight, Justin retreated and grabbed himself a bottle of water before going back to hanging out with Emma and picking up a conversation with her again. Clay and Darell remained in the cool water while striking up a conversation between themselves and Tyler and Christopher, who had been nearby. Pretty soon, being out on the lake had made time go by in a flash. After spending a couple of hours at Bartlett Lake with their group of friends, everyone packed up their things and made the drive back to their college campus.
Clay, Justin, Tyler, and Christopher all got back to their shared apartment around roughly 7:15pm. The boys had stopped to grab a bite to eat on their way back home from the fun outing, so everyone went their seperate ways to change and put their belongings away before doing whatever they pleased. Clay just had a small amount of homework he needed to finish up over the weekend, so, after getting showered and changed, the baseball player said goodbye to his roommates and left the apartment building to head back out.
As it was still really nice and not rainy or cloudy out, the blue-eyed man decided to drive his scooter to the library since it wasn't too far of a drive. After putting on his motorcycle helmet and putting his backpack over his shoulder with both straps holding the item secure, the baseball player mounted his scooter before leaving the apartment complex. Clay made the drive over to the campus library, Hayden Library, to finish up his remaining homework for the weekend.
After an hour and a half or so, Clay had knocked out his homework, freeing up his Sunday for whatever he felt like doing. Once he made it back to the apartment complex, he heard laughter and some low music coming from one of the balconies on the third floor. After parking his scooter and removing his helmet, the baseball player glanced up to see Christopher, Justin, Tyler, and Darell all hanging out around the round outdoor table on their balcony. Shaking his head to himself, the Jensen male proceeded to make his way up to the third floor before entering the apartment. After putting his things in his room, Clay stopped by the fridge and grabbed himself a White Claw before venturing out to the balcony to see what his friends were up to.
"Hey, Clay! Come on out and join the fun!" Justin exclaimed once he saw his brother come outside. "What are you guys up to?" The 21-year-old asked curiously as he saw two decks of cards on the table. "We were just getting ready to play another round of this fun card game that Darell told us about." Christopher said. "Alright, I'll bite." Clay said as he took a seat between Darell and Tyler. "What's the game?" He asked, genuinly sounding interested. "It's called Shit Head." Darell said, causing Justin to chuckle to himself at the name of the game. "How do you play the game?" The blue-eyed male asked. Darell proceeded to explain the rules of the game, as well as the details of the game, like what cards were wild and what their purposes were, and so on and so forth.
Becoming invested in their game of Shit Head, the five boys lost track of time. When the group saw that it was half an hour past midnight, they decided to migrate back inside. Justin wasn't drunk or anything as he had been drinking a bottle of water while the group played rounds of Shit Head, 3 to 13, and other fun card games. Out of the blue, after coming inside, the football player had suggested playing another game that he had seen a few of his other college friends participate in. Justin proceeded to explain the game, and it honestly sounded so stupid to the point that it could potentially be really funny. The game was basically a try not to laugh challenge. The object of the game was to try to get your opponent to laugh by simply acting like a cow and saying "moo" to them.
Deciding to play along, Darell and Justin kicked the game off by getting down on all fours and positioning themselves in front of each other so they were facing one another. The Foley teen took his turn first, loudly saying "moo" and instantly getting Darell to crack at how he had made the animal sound. "Ok, that was actually a lot funnier than I was expecting it to be." Darell commented as he was smiling and still laughing to himself. "See? I told you it was a funny game!" Justin exclaimed as he fought off his own laughter as well. Showing his agreement, Clay couldn't help but laugh along with the two boys as he shook his head and smiled at them. This was certainly going to be a fun - and funny - game indeed.
After last night's fun and stupidly hilarious antics, the boys had ended up crashing for the night around nearly 2:40am. Clay and Tyler had been the smart ones of the group since they had already finished their respective homework. But Justin, Christopher, and Darell were relying on coffee, caffeine, or sugary sweets to help them stay awake long enough to complete their assignments. Since they didn't have any plans at the moment, Clay and Tyler had decided to walk around campus a bit and enjoy the nice, breezy weather that was being provided by the early spring season.
"Clay?" A voice called out almost inaudibly. Turning his head towards the source of the sound, Clay's small smile left his face instantly once he saw who the voice belonged to. The girl slowly approach the two friends. Tyler watched as the baseball player stayed in his place. "You stay the fuck away from me." The young man said after a second, being surprisingly calm at the moment. The young woman stopped in her place at his words. "Look, I'm sorry." She began. "I don't give a shit about your fucking apology." Clay interupted, taking a step forward. Seeing anger take the man over, Tyler stepped in front of his now-angered friend, standing between him and Chloe Rice.
Chloe sighed to herself. She genuinly felt bad about what she had done to Clay Jensen. In all actuality, she didn't want to be a part of any of it, but she was too scared to back out and stand up against her ex boyfriend's father. Chloe knew that apologizing probably wouldn't do anything or even come close to making up for what she had done. The girl had been in Arizona visiting some friends for the weekend, and she had abandoned her friends when she spotted Clay and Tyler walking together. She knew it probably wouldn't do anything, but Chloe at least wanted to try to apologize for what she had done to the innocent Jensen male in the past.
"You ruined my fucking life. But that wasn't enough for you, huh? What do you want from me now?" The angered man questioned accusingly. "Trust me, I don't want anything from you." Chloe started, but was cut off again. "Trust you? You really expect me to trust you after what you did to me? And after you lied through your teeth about it too?" He questioned, and the young woman instantly regretted her word choice, because it only seemed to make things worse. "If you really want to make it up to me or whatever, you can start by leaving me the fuck alone. I don't care if you want to apologize or not. Your stupid fucking apology won't begin to make up for what you did." Clay said, talking at a normal volume with anger still lacing his tone.
Chloe glanced around the open field that had college students lingering here and there as they appeared to be focused on their friends, a leisure activity, or completing some kind of assignment for a class. Knowing there wasn't much more she could do, the young woman let out a small sigh before turning and walking away defeated. "You alright, Clay?" Tyler asked after Chloe had walked a good distance away. Taking breaths to calm himself down, the baseball player sat down on a nearby bench. Watching his friend, Tyler slowly sat down beside him. "I guess so. It's just a lot, seeing her again." The young man said. The Down boy nodded his head in understanding.
As the two close friends sat alone on the bench together, Clay thought about his interaction with Chloe Rice. He hadn't expected to ever see her again, and the unexpected run-in had taken him back to a time in his life that he never wanted to revisit ever again. A silence came over the two as the only sounds around them were produced my nature and other college students lingering around in their own worlds. The two boys simply sat there in that silece for a little while. After a few seconds, Clay felt an arm being placed over his shoulders, and it was instantly comforting knowing that Tyler Down was there and wanted to be there to comfort him.
"Hey, what do you say we go get some ice cream?" The Down boy suggested after a few minutes. "Ice cream?" Clay asked. Tyler only shrugged. "Yeah. I mean, ice cream never fails to cheer me up, no matter what situation I'm in." He reasoned. Hearing his explanation, Clay smiled. "Alright." He agreed with a small smile before standing up. Tyler smiled up at his friend before getting up as well. "Let's not tell Justin about this - for now, at least. Because I think we both know that he would lose it and go ballistic." Clay said as the two boys began walking side-by-side. "Agreed." Tyler said, chuckling at the thought of Justin Foley going ballistic. The two friends casually wrapped their arms around each other's shoulders as they walked away from the small open field and towards an ice cream parlor.