ORPHANED

:: ninety-six ::

wilbur kept his promise, he came back to check in on dream a few days later, he came in with nothing, no laptop, no wallet, just his full attention, and a strong intention to keep the blonde company. they talked about his plan to go home for thanksgiving, a movie tommy had told him he wanted to watch, and a few concerning conversations about anteaters.

their interaction was shorter than dream would have wished for, wilbur was gone as soon as he showed. the few hours they did spend together, separated by the counter, and monitored by the other people in the shop, reminded him of the day's they'd walk through the forest talking about anything that came to mind.

dream wanted it to be that easy again.

normally friday was dream's favorite time of the week. the day lead into the weekend, which was usually spent with his friends. now, with how everything was going, friday just meant he was left alone with nothing to do for two extra days. these two extra days were filled with whining, sleeping, and isolating himself in his room for hours on end, everything that made his sister want to bust into his room and keep him connected with the outside world.

he spent these weekends with patches curled on his lap, as he strained himself over his desk, trying to put his feelings into words on paper. he wanted to find out where he had gone wrong, but unfortunately he already knew the answer. instead he should have spent that time looking for a way to apologize, something he wasn't necessarily very good at.

"hey dream."

the blonde's eyes lifted from his sneakers to the origin of the bubbly voice, he ran his fingers through the tips of his hair that stuck out from underneath his hood. it felt like just minutes before he was walking through the glass doors of The Grind to start his shift, but now he watched bad store away a chair that had been sitting outside the windows of the shop since that morning, a routine that always took place during the last few minutes they were open on friday's.

"hey bad." he returned the gesture making an effort to meet the man on the otherside of the counter to assist him in bringing in the table and chairs.

dream tried not to pay too much attention to how uneasy he felt in bad's presence. the truth was, he spent a lot of time in his head wondering what he could do and who he could talk to to hopefully make him feel better about the entirety of this situation. a few people came to mind, but bad seemed easiest to access.

**

dream watched the other's skilled hands operate the coffee machine with confidence the blonde had never felt. he made his way out from behind the counter and took a seat at the stool he sat at everyday before he was hired. bad offered him another smile. "is something on your mind. you're usually gone by now."

dream's eyes wandered to the counter he'd always lean against, imagining how much of himself would be on show for whoever sat in this stool, a stool that would now normally seat an impatient brunette who would be equally as excited for the weekend as the blonde. "i thought i'd help you close today."

bad dropped his hands onto his hips, turning to the blonde and pursing his lips with an unsatisfied look. "well i know you don't actually want to do that, don't you have friends to visit?"

dream rested his arms on the counter, propping his head up just enough to keep his eyes on bad. "everyone is busy, it's almost a holiday after all." he shook his head. one way or another he'd have to bring up his problem, he debated with himself about it all week, there was no walking away from this now, he was already here.

"well in that case, i guess i don't mind your company."

dream turned away from bad, staring out the large window to his left, just the darkness that sat on the other side made him weirdly cold. he knew what he wanted to ask but he also didn't want bad to think of him differently depending on how strangely he described his predicament.

"bad." he waited for their eyes to meet before he continued. "if i asked you for advice about something, would you keep it just between us?" the blonde's eyes traced the man who stood feet away from him thoroughly enjoying his cup of coffee.

bad stared down at the liquid, "well i suppose so." their eyes connected for a brief moment. "is there something you need advice about?"

dream sat up from the counter and fidgeted with his drawstring, feeling watched under bad's inspecting eyes. "well that's the thing, i know you'd probably give me great advice, but i'm also scared you're going to say something i don't want to hear."

bad nodded, slowly sipping from his cup again. "what do you say i make you a coffee, and in the time it takes to finish, you think about if you really want my help?" the brunette began to reach for another mug off the heating rack.

dream's eyes landed on the cups. it was probably in his best interest to think this through one last time. he found that he could be very impulsive, when not given time to think twice about his actions. that was mainly the reason he was in this problem in the first place.

dream nodded his head, "yeah, okay."

bad seemed to enjoy his compliance, waving him off to find them seats at a booth. dream sat down with a heavy stress he felt build in his chest. he wanted to fix this, he knew george was here, yet he was just out of reach. all the blonde could've asked for was a way to cancel out the distance he felt between them.

—

wattpad is nerfing me by only allowing 1000 notifications per day, if i don't go through the comments then and there, i won't see them ): also i think it needs a pin comment feature, because then i could pin comments that i've responded to so i don't have to keep answering the same questions. listen wattpad i know what you need, just add me to your development team i can help you /hj