What I Meant By Forever

The Beginning

2021, 20820 days later
"This project requires you to work in partners," the teacher began, raising her voice in anticipation of the whispered agreements to work together, "which have already been assigned!"
The entire class groaned in disappointment.
"Okay, so. Wilbur and Tommy will be working together, Tubbo and Ranboo, George and Clay..." the teacher droned on.
George glanced at Clay from across the room, finding his real name a little weird considering everyone calls him Dream- he couldn't remember why. He was walking to his next class when Dream came running after him down the corridor.
"You're George right?" he asked, looming over George considerably.
"Uh, yeah. You're my partner for the history project," he replied.
"Yeah, so I heard. I'm not really in any of your other classes so I figured I'd talk to you about it now. I'm free after school to plan, are you?" Dream was talking so fast George could barely understand him, but he nodded along anyway.
"Yeah, I am. I live pretty close to that new cafe in town, or we could go to one of our houses," he suggested.
"Cafe sounds nice, I could do with a break from my house and I don't want to intrude on yours," the blond decided. George nodded, bid Dream goodbye, and went to his next class.

After school he changed into his normal clothes and walked to the cafe, as it was a nice day and he didn't have far to walk. He put in his headphones and shuffled his playlist. The first song that came on was The Adults Are Talking by The Strokes, one of his favourite songs. He sat down in the cafe with one headphone in, and told the waiter he would order when his friend arrived. It felt weird using the term friend for someone he barely knew, but what else could he have said?
Dream turned up a couple of minutes late, spotted George and waved from across the room.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," he apologised as he sat down.
"Not at all, I just got here," George dismissed.
"Thank God, I was worried I'd left you alone for ages and you were gonna be mad," he sighed, relieved. George laughed and the both of them ordered a drink, a black coffee for George and a hot chocolate for Dream.
"Not a massive coffee person," he explained, "actually, I'm not a massive fan of caffeine." George raised his eyebrows and gave Dream a funny look.
"How do you stay awake?" He joked. Dream laughed and shrugged. They talked like that for a bit more before deciding to work on their project.
"So the assignment was to do a presentation on the Cold War right? But I was thinking we could make it less boring and have all this cool stuff..." Dream explained his ideas for a display to go with the PowerPoint and a way to script it to make it more interesting while George jotted his notes down and nodded. He couldn't believe how good the ideas were- he was expecting to be the hard worker but now he just felt like a slacker.
"-and I know a really cool video we can put in!" Dream finished.
"Maybe, depending on its length. We only have ten minutes to present so we're gonna have to cut down a bit, but these ideas are really good," George reminded him. Dream nodded in agreement. The brunette glanced down at his phone to check the time.
"God, we've been here for hours. Let me text my mum, she'll be worrying," he fussed.
"You need to go home?" Dream asked.
"No, if you want I can stay out and we can go next door to the arcade. I usually play newer games but they have the proper old school pac man machines in there and they're really cool," George suggested. Dream agreed and the two boys went next door to get slushies and play games.

George payed for the slushies (a blue one for him and a red one for Dream) while the tall boy promised to eliminate him at the coin pusher.
"Weird flex but ok," George joked, handing him the red slushie.
"I still can't believe you'd rather have the blue," Dream scoffed.
"Dude, it's like the only colour I see properly. Your slushie is brown to me right now!" the British boy argued. Dream rolled his eyes.
"That does not affect the taste."

The night was going perfectly well. That is, until the two decided to buy the not-so child friendly slushies instead of the normal ones and ended up a little more drunk than they wanted to be. They stumbled into the men's bathroom, laughing madly, because the more Dream laughed, the funnier they thought everything was.
"You sound like a tea kettle," George giggled, barely able to get the words out. Dream wheezed again, sending them both into fits of laughter. Finally, they calmed down.
"Oh my God," George smiled. Dream smiled back at him, and they grew closer and closer together. In his drunken state, Dream connected their lips, and a million images flooded into his mind.

Dream saw himself lying on the ground in a tunic, dried blood staining the material, George kneeling at his side and crying. Someone was trying to comfort him, but he pushed them away, refusing to let go of Dream's hand. He placed a white rose on the fallen soldiers chest.
"He died a hero," George sobbed, "a hero."
The scene then shifted, and Dream saw himself in medieval armour, kissing George in a well furnished room. George was dressed in riches, a crown balanced haphazardly on his soft brown curls.
Then, a graveyard, where he could see his body being lowered into the ground as George watched, emotionless. Dream then observed that the moment he was alone, the King would cry until he ran out of tears. There was a white rose on his nightstand.
The final scene was more recent, but not by much. Dream saw himself on the ground, a bloody handprint on his cheek. His shirt was crimson, and a rose sat upon his chest, one that was wet with his blood. This time, George was standing away from him, blood covering his hands and his shirt, screaming into the sunrise. Whatever had happened there, Dream knew he had been long dead.
"Fuck you!" George screamed. He turned to face Dreams body.
"You fucking idiot! You-" George's knees buckled and he screamed, so raw and hoarse and full of anguish that it hurt Dream just to listen.

Dream pulled away, his eyes wide.
"Uh-" George stuttered.
"I'm sorry."
Dream rushed out of the bathroom, through the arcade and out of the door before George had time to think.