warmth [dreamnotfound] | ✓

chapter eighteen. shelter.

6:10 PM.

Dream realized very quickly why George did nothing but sleep on the road. Being in the passenger seat with a phone that had no apps on it was a very boring pastime, but it wasn't like he could sleep. George would catch onto what was happening eventually and the surprise would be ruined. So he stayed awake.

George, on the other hand, didn't seem too bothered. He hummed along to the radio and bounced his foot on the beats, watching the traffic around him as the sun started to sink lower into the sky. He was following the GPS perfectly under Dream's watchful eye.

The two didn't talk much, but there also wasn't much to say. The quiet wasn't exactly peaceful, but it wasn't quite tense yet. There was an awkward between stage and it was where the black car landed, leaving the two boys inside with a strange awareness of one another.

Dream watched George. He didn't touch him but noticed his smaller hand laying across the center console. Didn't rest his head on his shoulder like before, as much as he'd like to. His eyes scanned over milky skin and dark hair and he tried to avoid the wandering of his thoughts. Now was not the time. He had to stay focused... but then he thought about what it would be like to run his fingers through George's hair and kiss those pink lips and hold those slender hands above his head and-

The blond forced himself to look out the window instead. He needed to talk or sleep or something. Anything to keep his mind from wandering like that again.

"So George... what have you been up to?" It was an awkward question and Dream cringed the second it left his lips, but it did get the brunet to look at him so it was effective.

"Huh?"

"Like, outside of school. What have you been doing?"

George thought for a moment. "Nothing too interesting. Watching movies. Playing Minecraft. Everything we used to do, I guess."

We. Dream couldn't describe how much he missed doing that stuff together. They would go to George's house on the weekends and play video games for hours on end. He hated to admit it, but he hadn't touched Minecraft since those days. "Oh, that's nice..." He felt the awkward air resume and floundered to stop it. "Have you done anything interesting with Minecraft? I know you were getting into coding back in middle school and..." he trailed off again, unable to think of how to finish the sentence.

"Yeah, I guess." George turned to him with a little smile and a sparkle in his dark eyes. "I was messing with a few things on my old PC before we left. I had a couple ideas on how to add some interesting concepts to the game and I'm still thinking about them but I won't be able to continue working on it until I set up all my stuff again."

"That's good. Glad to see you're still into all that stuff as much as I am." A lie. Dream didn't even have a device to play the game on anymore. It was always his mother's old laptop and then that... broke.

"Hey Dream, I think the GPS is broken."

Dream froze. All thoughts of Minecraft and coding and a shattered computer left his mind in an instant and he was drawing a blank on what to say. "... why do you say that?"

"Because- okay, look at this." George pointed to a sign that passed overhead. It was green with big white text that read "Orlando" with an arrow pointing to the left. "Orlando goes that way, right? So why is it telling me to stay to the right? This section of the highway is going the complete opposite way?"

"Maybe it goes around? Like the highway turns later?"

"Then why would the sign say to turn now?"

"I- I don't know, George. Just follow the GPS." It was a bad save and it sounded like he was mad at the older boy, even if he sincerely wasn't. George raised an eyebrow and looked at him directly, dark eyes piercing holes in his chest.