𝑻𝐇𝐄 𝑵𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒━━ 𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘯𝘢𝘱

29

a week before george's arrival, i was a mess. dream and nick sucked at planning things, so i took it upon myself to throw george a welcome party, too. luckily for me, alex had pushed his flight back to the same day as george's, meaning i could make it one party instead of two. yes, it was only going to be five of us at said party, but their arrival was a big deal.

as far as george arriving, dream was an absolute ecstatic wreck. nick couldn't believe it was finally happening. and i wanted everything to be perfect.

"this house is a wreck! if you two don't start helping clean up, i'm kicking you out and george and i will live here," i threatened.

"thalia, the lease is under my name," dream pointed out.

"i co-signed on it, though," i said back.

"screw you guys," nick yelled from the couch. "i pay rent sometimes."

"i don't care about rent, i want your dirty underwear OFF THE BATHROOM FLOOR!" i yelled.

"actually i'm with thalia on this. you also leave your dirty towels on the floor, and we don't want george thinking we're slobs. especially because there's only two upstairs bathrooms which means we're going to be sharing more," dream told him.

"oh my gosh guys. we don't have enough room for everything," i realized suddenly. i collapsed beside nick on the couch, laying across his lap.

"what do you mean?" dream asked, trailing behind me.

"okay so we've got my bedroom, my office, dream's room, nick's room, two computer/video rooms for you guys, and one guest bedroom that's currently a storage room. so if you're giving george his own bedroom and a room to edit and work on videos, there's no room," i explained.

"we just have to clean that room out. no big deal, thal," dream said.

"and where do you propose we put all the stuff that's in there? we can't get it in the attic until they fix those two beams, remember?" nick asked.

dream groaned and joined nick and i on the couch. the three of us squished there together, mulling over the best course of action.

"i have an idea," nick said, hesitating.

"yes?" dream and i asked in sync.

"why don't me and thalia just move into one room until the attic is fixed, and then once that bedroom is cleared out, one of us can move into it if we want?" he suggested.

"thalia? is that okay with you?" dream asked me.

i titled my head to look at nick. "yeah, i'm totally down. i'll get started on making room for you in a bit."

nick kissed me softly on my forehead. "i'll need to downsize a little. i've got a lot of crap."

"that's why you're moving into my room- it's bigger than yours," i told him. "also, george can have my office. i don't use it anyways. i normally do my work on the couch or in the basement."

"are you sure?" dream asked. "you don't have to. he can set up in his room."

"dream i literally never use the room. all i have in there is a desk and some office stuff. i'll get that cleaned out easily, and then you can do it up to your liking."

dream pushed himself off the couch, leaving me feeling a little cold. "i'm going to call the guys who are supposed to be fixing the attic and see when they can come back."

once he was gone, i rolled off of nick and jumped to my feet. "you know, the guest bedroom is actually the master bedroom."

"yeah?" nick asked, unsure of where i was going with it.

"well, why don't we move into that room and redecorate it to both of our likings? it also connects to the bathroom so that's better for both of us," i pointed out.

nick didn't take long to think it over. "that works for me. what color are you thinking we should do the walls?"

"maybe grey with an accent wall. like some sort of bold color or something," i suggested.

"sounds perfect."

"now, let's go get some work done." i held my hand out to pull nick off the couch and he took it begrudgingly.

"who's bed are we using?" he asked as we made our way upstairs.

"definitely not yours. i am not spending every night losing sleep over the fact that i can feel every spring in the mattress."

"it's not that bad," he protested.

"yes it is!" dream yelled from his room. "your mattress sucks."

"no one asked you!" nick yelled back. "aren't you supposed to be cleaning right now?"

"i'm still trying to get ahold of someone to fix the stupid attic problem," dream said, sighing.

i rolled my eyes and opened the door to our makeshift storage room- aka the master bedroom. there were boxes of all sizes piled all around the room, causing me to sigh. "okay, let's move these boxes into my office for now. and then we can quickly go to the store and get paint, then tomorrow we can move all our stuff in."

nick agreed, and we spent the following hour lugging boxes down the hallway and stacking them into my office. once the final box was moved, i sent nick to change into something other than ratty shorts and an old shirt.

"dream!" i yelled down the hall.

"what?" his answer came from downstairs, so i went that way to find him.

"me and nick are going to the store to buy paint. do you need anything?" i asked.

"i don't think so. ooh, unless you happen to find those drinks i like. i've not seen them in awhile and i'm craving them."

"okay, will do."

it didn't take long to get to the store, but it took nick and i forever to decide paint colors. both of us being indecisive helped nothing at all. after a lengthy discussion, we finally settled on a dark grey for all four walls. instead of doing an accent wall, we decided to make it into a collage of pictures, something i had always wanted to do.

with dream helping nick and i paint and move in, it only took us two days to get moved into the master bedroom. we decided to give george my old room and used nick's old room as a temporary storage room.

once i cleared everything out of my office, dream took over making it into a gaming room for george.

we didn't fully finish until the day before george arrived, which stressed me out. i was up until three in the morning decorating for his arrival and making different foods for our little party. george was supposed to be arriving before alex, which was perfect because it gave us a little more time to get george settled in.

word count: 1152