tonight | dnf

chapter eighteen.

The doorbell chimed as George entered the fresh smelling store. His eyes darted around the area before stopping on the counter with all the coffee. He ambled over and started to prepare a drink for himself, light coffee, fair amount of sugar and plenty of creamer, the same thing he always got. 

He stirred it up while thinking if there was anything else he needed to grab while he was there. He thought about basics like bread, milk, and so on before remembering he had plenty of uneaten food at home, stocked in his cabinets from the last time he went grocery shopping. 

After putting the lid on and popping all the pop-up buttons on it, George brought his drink to the register to cash out. 

The cashier was a man who had a kind face and a nice smile. He wasn't very chatty, saying not a word to George as tapped in the purchase of his the coffee. George thought it was just because he was awkward, shy maybe but he found that wasn't the reason at all. 

He couldn't seem to figure out how to put the coffee price into the computer, since each size was a different price they didn't scan the cups--instead they put the price into the computer. He was most likely knew and hadn't had a job as a cashier before, because it seemed fairly simply. Who knew, he didn't and obviously the employee didn't. George waited patiently, he was in no rush and didn't want to be one of those people.

Coming up behind him was a lady with darker and coily hair, rolling her eyes and she lightly nudged him out of the way. "Go clean up in the back, I've got it." The worker laughed as the other left with a red face. 

"Alright hun, is this all?" She asked with a warm smile, radiating the most positive energy. 

George hummed as he thought about it one more time, "Actually, can I get one of these too?" He grabbed and set down a package of skittles, one of the few sweet things he could actually stand.

"Of course." 

As George waited for her to add up his total, he noticed the name on her pin. 

"Jo?" 

Jo furrowed her eyebrows as she looked back to him, "Thats my name." She laughed, waiting for him to say something else. 

A smile tugged at the corners of Georges lips, "Yeah no, I know. My uh," He stopped in the middle of his words for a second, thinking about how he'd refer to Dream. "my boyfriend Dream, mentioned you once or twice, I know you guys were close and I'm sorry." 

Her expression immediately softened, her eyes collecting water but no tears falling. "Oh, George is it?" Her voice cracked through the thick southern accent as she made her way over to George, pulling him into a tight hug without warning. 

He reciprocated the hug a bit awkwardly, but after she didn't let him go for another few seconds, he melted into her warm hug. She seemed like such a strong woman and George admired that. 

"I don't know how I didn't recognize you from that jacket your wearing,"

"Yeah he wore it like every living day." George interrupted, letting his arms fall from around Jo as she did the same. 

Jo made her way back to behind the counter, pushing his items towards him. 

"How much?" George asked as he pulled out his wallet. 

She just shook her head with a soft smile. "Go on, just do me a favor yeah? You take care of yourself." 

George nodded and left Jo with a hug to remember and he left with a favor to fulfill. If Jo could manage grief, taking care of herself and working all at once, George was sure he could he could balance taking care of himself and checking up on his friend. Seeing how strong she was gave him motivation, it was a nice feeling he hadn't felt in some time. So on the idea he wasn't just going to return home to his bed, George set his stuff down on a picnic table and pulled out his phone. 

He tapped away at a message, giving it a once over before hitting send. It was an invitation to Sapnap reading, "hey, wanna meet at the park and maybe do smth?"

Almost immediately his text bubble popped up on screen and George impatiently waited, he hummed a tune he picked up from Dream as he read what he had sent. 

"sure, only if u'll give me a hug"

George picked his coffee and candy up in one hand and texted Sapnap with the other. He began to walk down the side walk amongst many other people, only about 5 minutes away from his designation. 

Sapnap said he'd be there in ten, which would leave George with a few minutes to himself and the fresh autumn weather. 

(okay so i wrote this next part before remembering george was colorblind and don't feel like rewriting it so deal w it)

He got there sooner than expected and sat down on a bench that faced the trees and creek. He never really realized how beautiful this area was, it was on the better and more populated side of town to be fair, but he'd never sat down just to admire the scenery.

Leaves stained orange by fall fell to the ground leaving the trees naked and all of the sudden the warmer colors of the town seemed to pop; the creek, surrounded by bushes and rocks, flowed smoothly; the clouds were in perfect places to make them all looks pretty; and on top of it all, the autumn breeze added a relaxing feeling to it all. 

He decided he'd go through his gallery a bit before Sapnap got there, delete a few unneeded photos and look back on a few other ones. 

He scrolled through them boredly, nothing gaining his attention or catching his eye. Most photos in his gallery were photos of Cat, or just of pretty views he wanted to look back on. The deeper into his camera roll he went, the more photos he found of the trio together. He didn't cry at them though, he just reminisced and smiled about the times, letting the flashbacks flow into his mind. 

The three of them stood in the stand, George was looking off, most likely zoned out as next to him Dream and Sapnap played a game of bloody knuckles, laughing until they eventually settled down. 

They must've decided on going into the ocean while George wasn't paying attention because before he knew it, he was being dragged into the sea by his wrists.

"Will you two let go!" He'd shout at them through laughs, not resisting because he really didn't mind. 

Neither of them payed a thought to George because they knew he didn't care as well.

The water was cold and the tide made it worse. But they were having fun, splashing each other and enjoying themselves. They'd probably be too embarrassed to act so careless--falling over into the water, jumping onto each others backs so they could be slammed into the water for the fun of it--but there was no one there to stop them. The sun was setting, reflecting hues of pink, orange and yellow onto the water they hung out in. The same night, George had managed to get a photo of Dream on Sapnaps back, both drenched in water. He was in front of it to be included. 

It was definitely something to remember. He started scrolling again before stopping only a few seconds after. He looked at the photo with a smile but before he had the chance to think about it in full, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Immediately, he put his phone in his pocket and stood up to face his friend. 

They didn't even exchange in a hi or hello before pulling each other into a tight hug, swaying side to side the smallest bit. They continued to hold each other for a bit, it was something they both definitely needed.

"I missed you." Sapnap said, finally letting his arms drop from Georges after a hot minute. 

"I missed you too, we should go catch a bite, talk over food yeah?" George suggested, unable to rid himself of the smile on his face. He really did miss Sapnap--and his tight bear hugs.

"Yeah, how about Hemingways?" 

George nodded and the two started to walk together. They caught up on all sorts of stuff, but none having to do with Dream. Things felt oddly normal, all except for the screaming thoughts bouncing in his brain. It'd definitely be healthy to talk to Sapnap about these feelings, these thoughts and urges but he just couldn't. Sapnap was dealing with this too and the last thing George needed to do was dump his suicidal thoughts onto him--especially now when everything was going okay. But George didn't let his mind drift too far into those thoughts, instead he focused back onto whatever Sapnap was rambling on about as they walked the small distance to the diner, together and content.