Empty Boxes

Chapter Two

TW/CW: Mentions of SH

When George woke up, it was to the sound of pounding on his front door. Blankets shuffled around as he stretched and checked the clock on his nightstand for the time. It was nearly 3:00 in the afternoon. He had slept for almost an entire day.
Ignoring the throbbing pain in his arms, he slowly got out of his bed and went to go answer the door. He looked a mess - eye bags deep with emotional baggage and exhaustion, hair greasy from lack of care, dried blood on his arms. He looked like he had been through hell.

He knew as soon as he opened the door that his day was about to get 10 times worse.

"George!"

George stood in disbelief and stared. "Oliver?"

Oliver gently made his way past George and into the apartment, glancing around like he hadn't been there two nights ago - to shatter George's heart. "I wanted to check up on you," he said. His eyes, George's favorite shade of blue, gave him a once over, frowning when they saw the marks on his arms from the night before. He grabbed George's wrist, inevitably pulling the shorter man closer.

"I thought you stopped," he said softly, voice filled with concern. George frowned, still trying to catch up with the events of the past few seconds.

"Well, I thought you were the love of my life. Guess we were both wrong."

Oliver flinched and dropped George's arm, shuffling his feet nervously. "Listen, I...I just wanted to make sure you were taking care of yourself."

George shook his head, confused. "You broke up with me, Oliver. It's not your job to check up on me anymore. Go take care of - what's his name again? - Edward. Obviously he's pretty important for you to throw two years of love down the drain." George crossed his arms, staring at the floor. "I don't want you to come around here anymore."

Oliver sighed and moved closer, resting one hand on George's shoulder and the other on his chin, tilting his head up. George looked away, unable to meet his gaze.

"George," he said earnestly, almost begging. "I'm sorry, okay? Is that what you want to hear?"
George shut his eyes and yanked his chin out of the other mans grasp. "Please leave," he whispered. "I can't do this. Please leave. Don't come back."

Oliver shook his head. "I can't just leave you like this! Obviously you're, you're-"

"What, Olly?" George snapped, backing away until his back hit the wall next to the front door. He crossed his arms and raised a sharp eyebrow.
I'm what?"

"Unstable! Just let me stay until I know you're okay and then I'll go, you'll never hear from me again-"

"Just get out of my house! I don't want you here!"

Silence fell over the two of them, the only sound being George's angry breathing as he glared at his once-lover. Oliver's face fell.

"Alright," he said quietly. "Okay. I'll go. Just...take cafe of yourself, Georgie. Please."

The apartment door closed behind him with a sense of finality and George choked, another sob getting caught in his throat.

He hated this.

A week passed before George opened Discord for the first time. Seeing that Dream and Sapnap were in a call together, he hesitated before joining, slipping his headphones on to cover his ears.

"GEORGE!"

He couldn't help the small smile that grew across his face, the first since Oliver had dumped him. "Hey guys," He said happily, their infectious energy spreading through him in an instant.

"Where have you been?" Dream demanded, Sapnap echoing his question. George sighed.

"Oliver and I...We broke up. Last week."

Silence. And then-

"WHAT?!"

"What the hell happened, George?" Sapnap said, sounding astonished. "Last we heard you guys were doing great!"

"I thought we were doing great too," George sniffled, tears filling his already swollen eyes. "He found someone else. They're together now."

Dream scoffed. "After what, two years of being together? There's no way he moved on that fast-"

"Listen," George interrupted. "I really don't want to talk about this anymore. Can we play Minecraft or something?"

His friends quickly agreed, both knowing internally that George would need all the support he could get.
It could only get worse for him from there.

TW: Mentions of SH

He hadn't managed to get himself to eat anything other than a granola bar and a glass of water since Oliver had last been over. Food wasn't appealing.

Nothing was.

He didn't know what to do with himself anymore.
One night, after watching blood run freely down his sink for the fourth night in a row, he contemplated calling Dream, asking the man to come to England, suddenly desperate for his presence.

He could never be so selfish.

He distanced himself from his friends, hating the words of pity that fell through their lips. He didn't want to hear it. He tweeted that he was taking a break from streams, from social media altogether, and then had deleted every app where people could get a hold of him, not wanting to hear their fake words.

All he wanted was Oliver.

He wanted to feel the man take him up in his arms and hold him close one last time, wanted to feel the affection he put into his touch, hear the sweet words that came out of his mouth like honey. He missed him. He hated sleeping alone.

So he didn't sleep. He sat up all night, crying hysterically until he became physically exhausted and couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

He was crumbling, falling to pieces without anyone noticing.

What was he meant to do without Oliver?

Sleep consumed him, and he welcomed its sweet relief with open arms.

And when he woke up in the morning, he did it again.

AN: thank you to everyone who's reading this!! all your comments and votes mean the world to me 💚 i'll try to post more of this tonight!