the last | awesamdude

Ch. 10 - The Old Friendships and the Obvious Height Differences

Asteria

***

I left Sam's house sometime around 3 in the morning. It was fun, I'll admit, having to maintain secrecy in our "relationship". Sneaking around with the guy I liked made me feel like a dumb kid again, instead of a girl raised on war and a tragic backstory.

After waking up a few hours later, I decided that today was the day to see old friends. Dream had isolated me for nearly a year until he was all I had, and I never want to go back to that. Even if none of them want to be my friend, or not as close as before, I still want them to know. They need to know everything about Dream.

He stays in power through others fear and their misconceptions of him.

And I can take that away.

***

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you're not fucking with me right now."

Punz sat across from me, taking in every word I said. We were sat in the grass outside his house, just hanging out.

Jokingly, I crossed my eyes and said, "I absolutely am not fucking with you right now."

I told him everything that went on with Dream. He had been one of my closest friends before we hooked up, and I wanted more than anything to put that behind us and see it as a dumb joke. Thankfully, he felt the same.

"Okay, so you and Dream were never a thing, but now...Sam?"

My face went red and I hid behind my hands, "Uhh, yeah..." I peeked through my fingers to see a stupid grin on his face.

He laughed giddily, excited, "Okay, okay, I won't pester you about that right now. But I will continue asking questions. Have you spoken to Sapnap and George recently? You said Dream kinda drove the three of you apart."

I scratched the back of my neck, "No, I haven't. Do I want to, though? What if they hate me?"

"Chances are, they won't. I don't think they'll hate you considering Dream kinda betrayed them as well."

"I mean, I don't know...George is good at holding grudges."

Punz shrugged and took a sip of the apple juice I gave him, "It's worth a shot. At least an explanation of what's happened will do some good."

"Yeah, you might be right."

"As always."

***

Knocking on this door took an incredible amount of courage.

It was even harder that his house was mostly made of glass and in the middle of a pond, so there was literally no way for me to hide or prep myself before he answered. Sapnap could see my face easily through the transparent window panes. As he walked closer, the confusion was evident on his face.

"Aster?" he breathed as he opened the door, looking at me with wide eyes.

"Hey, Sapnap. Mind if I come in?" I smiled sheepishly, a bit nervous.

He nodded, stepping aside and gesturing for me to walk in. I did so, and took a glance around his living room as I did. There were pictures on the wall, mostly with Karl or Quackity. One big one featured the three of them, posing like female video game characters with their ass on full display. It almost made me chuckle. There was also a picture of him and Punz hanging off the wall, but it was just one of the two of them doing the "ice in my veins" pose atop Punz' house. I smiled.

"Would you like to sit?" Sapnap asked, drawing my attention back to him instead of his pictures.

"Yeah, that would be great." He led me to the couch, and sat down on the chair opposite.

He fiddled with his hands as he spoke, "So...I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing here?" His lips tightened into a straight line, "It's been about a year, you know. Since we've spoken."

I nodded, trying to push down my guilt as much as possible, "I know, Sapnap. I'm sorry, I never meant to push you away like I did. Allow me to explain?"

"By all means."

"So, Dream..." and with that I delved into the story of how Dream has manipulated me for the last five years while I followed blindly. He listened intently the whole time. His poker face was excellent - I had no idea what or if he was thinking and feeling. If he was hurt about his failed friends, then he didn't show it. Eventually, I was done talking and he nodded.

"Yeah, seems like Dream."

"Seems like Dream?" I repeated.

His eyes widened, "Oh shit, that sounds really insensitive. I'm sorry for everything that happened, that's really shitty of him. I just meant that some similar things have happened to me, but not near as bad as yours."

"What'd he do to you?"

"He stole Beckerson, lied to me and led me along, told me I was being an idiot when I confronted him about Tommy." He shook his head, "he still talks to me sometimes. He thinks I'm a blind follower of his."

"Like I was."

"We all were, Aster. That's his thing."

I nodded, staying quiet. I wasn't quite sure what to say to that. It was a comfortable-awkward silence. Neither of us minded the lack of conversation but we both knew damn well what the other was thinking about.

"We were such a team," I finally chuckled, "the Dream Team."

Sapnap broke a smile, "Yeah, we were. D'you remember how much Dream would hit on George just to get him all flustered?"

More laughter from me, "Of course! And we'd all mock his accent. And be like, Dream don't toch me, yeah? You gonna be ge - in' a bother on, innit?"

Sapnap's signature giggles started, "A-and the height battles you and I had? I swear you and I were the same height for so long."

"How tall are you now?"

He shrugged, "About 5'9"."

I began to smile, and his face dropped.

"Don't tell me you're..."

"Sapnap," I grinned, "I'm 5'10"."

"Bullshit! C'mere, stand up."

I stood up as he looked at me face-to-face, inspecting any difference that may indicate whether or not he was taller. It was hard to tell, honestly, it was pretty close. Sapnap seemed to think so too.

"C'mon, we gotta settle this." He walked out of his house and I followed.

***

"She's definitely got at least half an inch on you Sapnap."

"No, this is BULLSHIT, she's...she's...she and Wilbur have the same genes, that guy was freakishly tall!" Sapnap finally reasoned.

I snorted, "He sure as hell was. 6'5" motherfucker."

George was stood on a box, since he was 5'8" himself to accurately see the height difference between Sapnap and I. His goggles fell down his nose but he pushed them up.

When Sapnap arrived, dragging me behind him, George appeared a bit taken aback. It had been even longer since I spoke to George, and for a few moments he was actually angry. He was pissed that I had cut myself off from him with no explanation, but after a bit of yelling and explaining everything that had occurred between Dream and I, we got back to normal pretty quickly.

"George, kiss me."

"You're dirty and gross and I'm colorblind."

Yep, back to normal.

***

i am in love with punz <3

He, Sam, Ponk, and Connor deserve all the love in the world