To Be A Prize

Chapter 3

"Umm, hello?" Dream is the first to pick up, his voice filled with sleep and confusion. I feel a pang of guilt, quickly remembering it's the middle of the night, now closer to morning.

"I need to talk to you" I say with as much conviction as I can summon.

"Ok... I was actually just thinking about you" he responds. He's thinking about me? Suddenly I realise the magnitude of what I'm doing. In the middle of a fight with my boyfriend who has just accused me of infidelity, I have decided to call the very person he believes me to be cheating on him with. I curse the rash decision but continue with the plan.

"Why would you be thinking about me?" I ask, letting curiosity get the better of me.

"Well we heard you and Karl bicker and then there was a loud noise and he left the call. We thought that maybe he had... well you know" he stutters.

"What? You thought he had done what? Spit it out, Dream", beginning to lose my patience.

"We thought he hit you!" he bursts out. Is that concern in his voice?

"Karl would never hit me" I assure Dream as much as I assure myself. "He hasn't been acting himself recently but I don't believe he would ever do such a thing".

"Whatever you say. As long as you're ok" Dream says genuinely. The combination of his concern and the gentle but firm way his voice floats from the speaker is enough that I start to imagine a world in which Karl is right and I am in fact cheating on him with Dream. Just as I begin to picture what his strong hands would feel like on my skin as his green eyes stare into mine, another voice pops into the call almost as if to save me from thinking the unthinkable.

"Y/N are you ok?" Sapnap almost shouts down the phone. His voice is rougher than Dream's and in my hot state my mind subconsciously floats to wondering if he would also be rougher in bed. No, stop, I tell myself

"Yes, of course I'm ok. I just needed to talk to you all" I say, bringing myself back from the precipice.

"He didn't hit her, Sapnap" Dream assures the concerned man who lets go a sigh of relief. But where has all this concern come from? The boys have never shown that they even like me before and now all this? Because they think I'm in danger?

"Where's Punz?" I ask, he's the only one who hasn't joined the call yet and his sleep schedule is as messed up as mine so theres no reason for him to not be awake.

"He was really mad and worried when we thought you'd been hurt" Dream replies

"Yeah, we couldn't calm him down. He said something about driving down to you guys in North Carolina" Sapnap continues.

"That's a 10 hour drive? What did he think he would achieve driving all the way from Massachusettes?" Is Punz insane, I ask myself. This is all too much to process, in a short space of time, three boys who I believed to dislike me have suddenly decided they care for me, with one possibly driving 10 hours to come and see me.

"He's visiting family in South Carolina, it wouldn't take him that long to get to you" Dream informs me, and as if by magic, the door bell rings.