ORPHANED

:: eight ::

to say dream felt uncomfortably was an understatement, he was extremely out of his element. both himself and george were pressed into the corner of the house closest to the back door holding red solo cups full of who knows what. he didn't dare drink it. sapnap and karl handed them cups and then split with them a long time ago. there wasn't much they could do.

"have you tried the drink?" george practically had to yell to catch dream's attention, dream shook his head in response figuring i'd be the best way for george to understand him without having to yell.

"im starting to get thirsty, there's not enough fresh air in here." george side eyed the people who occasionally bumped into him too harsh.

"drink it."

"what?"

"drink it."

"are you insane, i don't know what they put in this." george held up the cup to his head pointing with his other hand.

dream rolled his eyes, "c'mon it was just sapnap, he wouldn't poison you or anything like that."

george's eyes widened, "that's what you think, sapnap nearly pushed me infront of a car once." dream laughed at the serious tone in george's voice.

"this party isn't as fun as i thought i'd be." george stared into the cup of undesired liquid.

"at least you don't have to watch all these kids grinding on eachother, seriously being this tall has far too many downsides." dream sniffed the inside of the cup.

"yeah? like what? being mistaken for a giraffe?" dream began laughing again.

"no, like not being able to sleep on a couch comfortably."

"...and?" george looked up at dream expecting more downsides.

"that's all i can think of right now..." dream smiled scratching the back of his neck.

"what a first world problem dream, think of all the short people around the world who would love to be in your situation. you're really sitting here complaining about not being able to sleep on a couch. just don't sleep on a couch."

dream began wheezing trying to keep up with george's accusations.

"no, wait, you don't understand. sometimes i just want to fall asleep watching netflix without having to move back to my bed."

again george rolled his eyes and smiled. "you have no idea how many short people would give up netflix entirely just for the chance to be tall."

"well i've never experienced being short before though."

"well maybe that's your problem, you never had to experience our daily struggles."

dream crossed his arms. "really, like what."

"not being able to see all these kids grinding on eachother."

dream began wheezing again."you perv."

"no. wait, no. i'm just joking. i didn't mean it like that." georges attempts to clear his name only made dream laugh harder.

"see you would never survive in my shoes."

"why, because i'm too tall."

"exactly."

"are you guys really at a party talking about how tall you are?" george and dream turned to face sapnap with a smile plastered on his face.

"you don't understand how terrible it is to be able to see what all the people in this room are doing." dream tried to defend himself.

"you guys want to go outside?" sapnap asked pointing towards the door behind the two boys.

"i thought you'd never ask." george quickly opened the door and stepped out before another word could be spoken about the idea.

"i guess we're going outside."

dream laughed and followed after sapnap outside of the house, closing the sliding door behind himself. although it was dark out, dream could make out a table with chairs.

"bingo." he made his way towards the chairs and took a seat, only then realizing how exhausted his knees where from standing for so long. george and sapnap followed him to the table and they all sat together.

"my legs, oh my god, my legs." george rested all his weight into the chair throwing his head back and gripping his knees. dream giggled. sapnap picked up the the two cups that were now sat on the table.

"you guys still haven't drank anything yet?" both dream and george turned to make eye contact and began smiling.

"you never told us what it was?" george picked up the cup swirling the liquid inside.

"oh, it's just sprite." sapnap shrugged.

both dream and george locked eyes again, but this time with confusion. dream picked up his cup and looked into it.

"sapnap, i'm pretty sure sprite isn't black." dream tilted the cup to face sapnap.

george started laughing staring at the dark liquid inside the cup.

"it's a halloween party, it's supposed to be spooky or something." sapnap eyes both of the boys who were inspecting the cups of supposed soda.

"well thank goodness because i'm so thirsty." george brought the cup to his lips and dream followed suit. the only difference between their reactions was george immediately spat his drink back into the cup.

"that's not sprite." george seemed offended by the drink.

"oh, i forgot, they ran out of sprite so i filled one of the cups with apple cider vinegar."

dream and sapnap began laughing and george only rolled his eyes.

"here george, you can have mine i'm not thirsty." dream finally finished laughing pushing the cup towards george.

"at least someone cares about my well being." george stuck his tongue out to mock sapnap. sapnap returned the gesture.

"so what happened with karl?" dream asked wondering if he had left already.

"oh...actually i don't know, i left him behind to talk with some girl when i came looking for you guys." sapnap turned to look at the door back into the house, then shrugged.

"what a great friend you are sapnap." george joked.

"shut up george you're in love with me."

"whatever you say."

dream, sapnap, and george, sat in the back of the house making no effort to socialize with the rest of the party. the music could be heard from through the walls and the boys sat in silence, having no idea this would be the calm before the storm.

—

if you want to save yourself from seriously bad second hand embarrassment i recommend you skip past the next three chapters! (or don't i can't really stop you) eventually i will come back and rewrite these chapters so they aren't terrible but i also made a promise not to touch them until the book was completed so, until then <3