🐚 | vineyard promise, snf

[015]

sapnap blinked his eyes open, the bright light of his classroom hurting his eyes. a blurry figure bent over his desk, the sound of a pencil tapping on a plastic desk directly next to his ear. when his eyes adjusted, his professor stood over him, glasses perched on his crooked nose.

"i would've let you sleep if you hadn't woken up," sapnap's professor sniffed. he turned around and stalked back to the board at the front of the class. "as i was saying..."

completely ignoring that sapnap had only just woken up, he shifted his gaze to the window, where snow was falling. sapnap hadn't seen snow in so long, considering in texas snow was a rare almost once in a lifetime thing. and, even though it was a dead giveaway, sapnap didn't know it was gonna be cold out so he only grabbed a hoodie when he left his apartment.

"oh, whatever. you've all been here forever. you can go now."

sapnap jumped up, along with the other college kids in the classroom with him, and began to race out of the class. it was high school all over again.

"have a good christmas, everybody!" sapnap heard his professor calling faintly from still inside the classroom. he tuned his teacher out as he ran into the snowy courtyard, the cold air hitting his face in an icy blast. almost instantly, sapnap was freezing; the fabric from his hoodie was too thin.

but he paid no mind to that. tonight, he and george were boarding a flight to texas.

sapnap breathed out a breath he hadn't known he was holding as he slid into the passenger side of punz's car, the hot air exploding against his frozen skin. the blond glanced up from his phone, chuckling at sapnap's shivering figure.

"dumbass."

sapnap glared at him. "shut the hell up. i didn't know it'd be snowing."

"whatever." punz started up the car again, shrugging his shoulders as they pulled out of the parking lot.

the car ride was mostly silent. neither boy had the energy to talk. even with all this excitement, sapnap's was exhausted. the second he set foot in his room and he'd stripped off his wet hoodie he was collapsing into his warm bed until george was at the door. and, because sapnap is such a good planner, he'd been packed since the last week.

when they reached the apartment building, punz laughed as sapnap practically hopped up the stairs. the garage and stairwell were, if not colder, just as freezing as the outside. as were the hallways; the windows looked like they were frozen over; the plants were wilting because nobody wanted to come out of their rooms to water them; the paintings were all the same.

the next thing sapnap remembers is a blurry figure standing over him just like earlier in class. except now, instead of his professor, it was punz glaring down at him with his blue eyes.

"it's time to go." punz grabbed the edge of the blanket covering sapnap and tossed it away, leaving the younger boy in confusion.

"george is here!"

sapnap shot up in bed. he scrambled off of the mattress and ran out the room with his suitcase, but not before checking if his hair was fine.

"hi, george," sapnap said. george stood by the door with his hands stuffed in his jean's pockets. he was wearing the red pullover sweatshirt he'd worn when him and sapnap went out for the apple pie and even the same shoes of that night. sapnap felt incredibly underdressed in his crumpled hoodie and jeans.

"do you mind if i—" sapnap pointed over his shoulder at his room again. george nodded, smiling, and punz burst out laughing. sapnap backtracked into his room and shut the door.

"you're gonna be late for your flight if you don't get out soon, sapnap!" he heard punz yell.

"shut up!" sapnap shouted back.

he emerged a few minutes later in a fresh green sweater, black ripped jeans, and his black converse.

"now you guys match like the fucking holidays. was that your goal?" punz grumbled. sapnap just grinned at him and punz shoved them out of the door.

"have fun!!"

sapnap and george exchanged a look, smiling, before the set off down the hall again.

"wait. he's supposed to drive us, isn't he?"

"i talked to him earlier. niki's driving us now!" george beamed. sapnap laughed at george's enthusiasm and followed him down the long hallway to the elevator.

"hey, niki," sapnap greeted the pink-haired girl. niki waved from the front seat, smiling brightly at them. she popped the trunk open so sapnap could lift his suitcase into it next to george's.

sapnap slid into the backseat, as george was in the front, and made himself comfortable.

"and you'll feed her every day? like thanksgiving?" george was asking about niki taking care of his cat while he and sapnap were in texas.

"yes, george. and i'll change her litterbox as well, okay?"

"thanks, niki." george leaned over to give her a side hug. niki only smiled.

when they reached the airport, all three of them got out of the car. george and sapnap got their baggage out and niki gave them both hugs.

"bye, niki," sapnap called while george waved to her as they walked into the airport.

"have a safe flight!" niki shouted after them. george gave her a thumbs-up as they passed through the automatic doors.

the airport was absolutely swarming with people getting on flights to go home for christmas or people trying to get out of the airport. they almost lost each other more than a few times until george had to literally hold sapnap's hand and pull him through the sea of people to their gate. to find sapnap again took ten minutes alone.

"you're an idiot," george grumbled when they found their gate. there were no seats left on the cushioned benches so they had to sit against the wall together.

"is your phone charged?" george asked after they'd gotten settled.

"yes, mom." sapnap rolled his eyes. george shrugged and leaned his head back on the wall. it'd be around another hour before their flight was actually called, and sapnap had been smart to sleep before they left. george eventually let himself fall onto sapnap's shoulder in an attempt to be comfortable sitting against a rough wall.

"sleep on the plane, not here." george hardly heard sapnap, sighing because he knew sapnap was right. if he slept here, he wouldn't get up and they'd miss their flight because george wanted to sleep.

the hour was painfully slow for both of them. the flight was finally called, and a mob of people rushed to the front to get on the plane first. sapnap and george lingered sort of towards the back, knowing it'd take even longer to get on the plane.

when they finally did, george claimed the window seat. sapnap was grateful they got only a pair of seats and not a line of three like some of the seats.

"have you ever been on a plane?" sapnap realised he never asked. george shook his head, hand clutching the leather covering on the armrest tightly. sapnap laughed and lifted the armrest, taking george's hand again.

"just relax. it isn't that bad," sapnap murmured. george nodded and squeezed sapnap's hand. sapnap ignored how his heart fluttered and wanted to burst out of his chest, busying himself with his phone.

george practically broke sapnap's hand as the plane started taking off, leaving sapnap to laugh out loud, disturbing some of the other passengers but he ignored them. george cowered into sapnap's side and the raven wrapped his arm around george's shoulders.

"how long is the flight?" george asked. his voice could hardly be heard over the noise of the plane.

"ten hours, about."

"fuck."