dreamland | dreamnotfound

0

content warning: car crash, mentions of homophobia.

immerse yourselves. :)

-
0 - prologue ; ghosting | mother mother

george vividly remembers the smile on his face, it was the best accessory he has ever worn; and it was the perfect timing for him to wear the said accessory, nothing was going wrong after all. he and his family walked out of the small cafe happily, they truly were a perfect family - void of toxicity, worries, doubts or distractions. the night was so lovely, george visited his family for the first time in a while, he has been so busy running his tiny flower shop, and they enjoyed each other's company; basking in each other's presence as time passed by.

his mum's smile lines and his dad's wrinkles showed everyone the marks time has given them, however, regardless of time's damage; the pure love within their eyes never faded. george has been so lucky to be raised in a house full of love and warmth. they never had much, but they never fell short; they just had enough, and george was happy about that, he wasn't a big fan of luxury.

but. god decided it was just too perfect. and so, he decided to put a stop to it. the lovely night george had? gone.

whenever george was alone with his thoughts, he often played the car accident over and over and over again, just like a movie; he slowed it down, sped it up - you get the idea.
it's actually a tad bit funny how george tries so hard to see how it happened and why, considering he never really remember it very well. the details are blurred at the edges, the horror was dulled down - it didn't have the same bite it once had when it had just happened.

to be honest, george should've taken that as a small blessing from whatever god was watching over him that he can't remember it perfectly, he should be grateful, but he isn't - it drives him up the wall that he can't really recall the finer details of things; he can't remember when he flew off the road, he can't remember how it felt slamming into the tree, he couldn't remember because he was laughing with his parents just moments before.

he did remember one thing, he remembered when he woke up, the stench of gasoline and metal (which he has come to realize was blood) invading his lungs, he remembered how his skin was buzzing. george remembered using most of his strength turning his head to look at his parents, he was thrown outside of the car and naturally he wondered where his parents were.

he remembered staring into his mum's blank eyes, his father's figure weirdly bent.

he remembered very clearly that he wasn't numb anymore, he didn't want to die. he realised how much of his life he spent pursuing nothing but his grandparents' unattainable happiness, he wanted to go and visit nick - to tell him how great of a friend he was despite him being...him. he wanted clay to visit his flower shop once more, he missed it when nick would unexpectedly come and bug the crap out of them.

george wanted to roll his eyes at sapnap's jokes once more, he wanted to hear clay's tea kettle wheeze. he wanted a chance to live.

he was so scared, he thought he was going to die. and he'd never been more terrified. but as he laid down on the pavement, amongst the wreck, he tried desperately to banish those thoughts from his head, but he failed.

george had a thing with cars after that, it was understandable. nobody really talks about it, not really. sapnap doesn't know much about it, because he didn't want to pressure george into answering questions as to how his family died.

clay knows it's a thing, but he didn't know that it looms over his best friend 24/7, the trauma hanging off of his shoulder, whispering disturbing thoughts into his ear. and darryl, darryl knows it's a thing; he was the first person george called after it happened, he went to the hospital two hours after it happened. darryl cried, and laid the gentlest hand on george's shoulder, reminding him that he loved him and that he was loved.

so, darryl knows about it, but they don't really talk about it. he drives george everywhere after the incident, clay and nick were too fast and reckless. darryl is a good driver and doesn't scare him like nick does, so, george can comfortably sit inside the car and feel okay about it for a millisecond; his mind pumps a constant flow of statistics - 2016, estimated 7,277,000 police related traffic crashes, 37,461 killed, 3,144,000 injured, 102 died, one fatality every 14 minutes.

but, his mind shuts up once he's in darryl's car.

one thing nobody knew about what happened after george's accident was the weird dreams he had afterwards. dreams of him and people around him but, in a different timeline. it was peculiar, and george didn't know what to make of it.

"george, we're here now." darryl's soft voice broke george out of his trance, he stared at darryl before smiling and nodding. they planned to come over to clay's place to just hang out and play minecraft, but george felt strange when he was with clay - was he catching feelings? or was it because his best friend was in the dreams he was having?

george and darryl hopped off the car and into clay's place, once you've known someone for years, you'll inevitably develop a habit of not knocking once you enter their place, clay didn't mind. sapnap was already there, typing a shit ton of stuff on his laptop while clay pestered him.

"c'mon sapnap, school's overrated, just drop the essay." clay draped himself over the ravenette, effectively stopping him from typing altogether.

"bad - clay's bothering me and i have an essay due in an hour." sapnap whined, dragging his name out. clay looked up and smiled at the sight of george and darryl - but mostly george.

"it's your fault for procrastinating and doing your schoolworks last minute," darryl joked, making sapnap groan.

"you're here!" clay beamed, removing himself from sapnap to stand in front of george, which, george seemed so small when he was with clay, but - even if they were to transfer to a world where clay was a little shorter, george would still be tinier than the green eyed boy.

"indeed we are." george responded, a smile crawling onto his face as clay continued beaming at the fact that the brit arrived.

"i baked brownies, come! let's eat!" clay smiled warmly at george, and no matter how awkward george felt - he reciprocated.