||ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏʏ ɪ ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴍᴇᴛ||ᴅɴꜰ|| COMPLETED!

17

George

I'm on a train going into the city for no reason. On a Thursday when I should be at school. And I'm currently debating with Sapnap about whether you scratch an itch or you itch an itch.

"It's scratch!" I insist. "Itch is just completely incorrect"

"No but you itch an itch do you not?" Sapnap retorts. "Because if it's itchy, you itch it, that's the entire point"

"No!" I say, exasperated.

"You don't scratch an itch George, you itch an itch" Sapnap continues. "You understand?"

I shake my head and Dream coughs. "It's scratch" he says. Sapnap throws his arms in the air, dropping his mouth open.

"Excuse you!" he says. "Who's side are you on?!"

"George's" Dream says, giving Sapnap a searing glance. "Because he's right"

"He is" a stranger calls from a few seats away. "I used to be an english teacher, scratch is right"

None of us can take it seriously anymore, bursting into embarrassed laughter. The stranger sits down with a small smile and I'm covering my mouth to stop the giggles from coming out. Sapnap is lying across two seats and Dream is next to me, being forced to be my foot rest. He looks unbothered, staring out of the window. Our carriage isn't busy, it's mainly us with about four others around. I look around and when the train stops at our platform, I stand. We wander off the train and outside into the central part of the city.

Boy, it's busy. People are crowded everywhere, on the streets, crossing the roads or walking into stores. I'm overwhelmed by the noise, feeling my eyes flicker across the mass of people. My ears ring but I find myself following Sapnap who seems to have a small idea of where we're going. We walk past trees and my arm bumps into others a few times. I apologise quietly but Dream is dragging me so quickly that my words are washed away in the other noise. Sapnap stops abruptly, turning on his heels to face us. Dream, who's looking at me, runs into him. He backs up and laughs.

"Woah, dude" Sapnap says. 

"Okay I'm sorry about that" Dream says. "I was busy looking behind me"

"Uh huh" Sapnap says. "Anyway, I was thinking we could just go some place to eat, walk around, explore. You know, do stuff"

"Sure" I say. "Sounds good to me"

Dream nods and we walk, crossing the street in the middle of the crowd. Sapnap veers right into an alleyway and I follow, Dream behind me. I look at the graffiti on the walls, words and letters that I can't read. We walk past two girls who are sitting down, cigarettes in their mouths and a box of matches on the ground. When I look up I nearly run into Sapnap's back. He's stopped short but I keep walking.

I'm paying attention to my pace when a guy suddenly runs in front of me, holding a black jumper. He looks drunk and when I try to pass him, he steps in my way.

"May I help you?" I ask. Dream comes up beside me.

"Do you have a dollar?" the man asks loudly. I freeze, the 'no' stopping on my tongue. Dream suddenly grabs my hand and pulls me away. I turn back to see Sapnap stalling. 

"Don't look just go" Dream hisses. "I'll deal with Sapnap"

He pushes me in the back and jogs to Sapnap, the man shouting after us. He swears and my fear flares, the main road ahead of me seeming awfully far away. I force myself to keep going, to keep running to get to the crowd that I was so desperate to get out of moments ago. I hear Dream whisper-shouting at Sapnap to move and when I get out onto the main street, I lean against the wall panting. They appear a few seconds after and everything that just happened doesn't really settle in until I see the panic on Dream's face.