Peach Silhouette

27 | pretend and presuppositions

The difference between simplicity and grandness is fucked up, let's be real. Some people want the cadence of daily life, the easy going stillness of what we like to call normal. Others want adventure and something epic. Others still want a blend of the two; and these facts could single handily be the problem of every relationship between healthy people.

Because if you find yourself wishing for simplicity, and your significant other addicted to the high of the journey, you've a problem on your hands.

But I pretend not to see it.

George found himself running through a dimly lit hallway. A silhouette remained just out of his reach. His endurance began to fail him but just as he was giving up, he burst through the doors at the end of the hallway. He shielded his eyes as light flooded his vision. He was surrounded by people, but not one of them was the man he was looking for. He stood on his toes trying to see over the crowd.

After a few moments of panic, he caught sight of a flash of familiar dirty blonde hair. He began to push through the crowd of people, but they couldn't get out of his way fast enough. He began to yell, pain creeping into the edge of his mind.

"DREAM!" His voice broke.

"CLAY!"

"PLEASE." His voice faded. "Please." He whispered.

The end of the crowd was so close, and he could see where Dream was standing. The crowd was there for Dream, not him. He finally broke through the last line of people and then-

My eyes opened wide and I felt myself shaking. I shoved Dream's arm off of my side and stood up, breathing heavily. I began to pace while Dream shifted behind me.

I felt him take my hand in both of his.

"Hey, what's going on in that pretty little mind of yours?" He asked gently, his voice breaking the stillness that had settled over the house. I shook my head and struggled to inhale. He held my gaze. "George, I need you to breathe for me, ok? It wasn't real. It was a dream. I'm here now, in real life, and I'm not leaving." 

"Are you sure?" I whispered, tears welling in my eyes.

"More sure than anything in my entire life." He answered, with no hesitation. I crashed into his warm embrace, sobbing. We stayed like that until we drifted into a light sleep. Then, as the sun was creeping over the horizon, we got up and watched the sunrise. 

"Hey Dream," I said hesitantly.

"Hmm?"

"What happens when the lease runs out on this place?"

"I'm not sure," he stared at the ocean intently.

"I know not everyone wants to live here forever." I offered, sadness creeping into my tone.

"I do." He murmured. I frowned. 

"Why is life so....annoying?" I asked.

"If I knew that, I might have had a better childhood." He replied snarkily.

"I- oh." He laughed and I smiled. "Guess we both have something to prove."

"What do you mean?" He asked curiously. 

"Well our parents failed," I paused. "So we have a sort of motivation to prove ourselves to our kids."

"That's fair." He tapped on the edge of the couch. "I guess we do have something to prove, I've never thought of it that way." 

"Let's go on a walk." I said, bored of the quietness of the house.

"As long as we can get back in time for our collab with Tommy." Dream replied, standing up. 

We walked down the stairs, doing our best not to wake up the others. He pushed open the door, holding it as I walked through. I smiled. 

"Thank you, good sir." 

"You are very welcome." He grinned. The cool air hit me all at once, and I shivered. Dream shrunk deeper into his white hoodie, and I held out my hand, my breath caught in my throat for only a moment. He glanced down with a smile and took my hand in his as we made our way down to the soft sand. 

The cloudy sky turned the landscape a dull gray, and wind whipped at the waves beyond. For a moment we remained in silence.

"Let's set the dnf shippers on fire." Dream smirked and I laughed. 

"Why not?" I felt a pinprick of jealousy for no reason at all, and the slightest tinge of fear. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and my heart warmed when I saw his pink, purple and blue phone case. He snapped a photo of our hands, but it was mostly the sunset. He opened twitter, captioning it "sunrises in Oregon are poggers". 

As soon as he tweeted it, I opened twitter to see a wildfire of dnf shippers all over my timeline. Our hands had barely been a twelfth of the photo, and they still caught it immediately. It kind of bothered me, how involved they were in our lives. 

But I guess that comes with being a content creator, and it's how we handle it that matters.

"Let's sit." He offered. I nodded and we collapsed into the cold sand. I laid my head gently on his shoulder, my eyes closing involuntarily. The next thing I knew, Dream was tugging on my sleeve. 

"George." He said lowly into my ear. I flushed red and moved away from him quickly. "Collab time!" He said brightly. I shook my head in slight annoyance, standing up and brushing the sand off me. We walked back into the house, only for a red blur to come crashing down the stairs. 

"Boss man, Georgenotfound," Tommy said, out of breath. "Shall we go to the studio room?" He asked. We nodded, and Dream rolled his eyes. 

We began to record a small manhunt type challenge, and by the time we were done I was practically furious. I didn't know what it was or why, but something particularly bothered me about the attention given to Dream and I specifically, online and in real life. 

So as I slipped into bed, Dream beside me, I began to wonder.

How many people have to know about something for it to be real?

~

inspiring song(s)

helium - glass animals

smoke signals - cavetown

mask - dream

roadtrip - dream

one day - lovejoy

~

an: hi lovely people! sorry for such a long unannounced hiatus. i just kept forgetting and life got so incredibly chaotic. now that summer's arrived, i hope to at least be a bit more consistent with updates. my therapist claims i should finish this book, since it models a recent situation in my life, but it's been tough so far. thanks for sticking around as long as you have :)

i love you all and afri out <3