ORPHANED

:: eighteen ::

dream focused all of his attention towards george. scanning his face and feeling the corners of his mouth twitch upwards.

"uh..." george hesitated looking off behind dream. dream decided to turn to face what the other was distracted by.

with his very eyes he watched as sapnap wobbled on karl's skateboard flying at them quicker than he could slow down. this was a recipe for disaster. karl was laughing, enjoying watching sapnap suffer.

"jump off and roll you idiot." dream shook his head, watching as sapnap took a step off the board and tumbled to the ground. the board slowly approached dream's ankle and he planted a foot on the tail to stop it from moving. karl walked over to pick up his board and sapnap followed, out of breath.

"we came over here because i just got some interesting information." karl smiled, holding his board horizontally against his abdomen. sapnap echoed karl with the nod of his head. dream turned to glance at george, who only met his eyes briefly.

"go on," dream spoke to karl, however sapnap beat him to it.

"my friend is hosting a party, you wanna go?" sapnap smiled at dream.

"i know we didn't have a good experience the last party we went to, but this one will be different. i can promise you that much." karl looked to be begging dream to say yes.

dream turned to george who sat with his hands in his lap staring at the toes of his sneakers. "when is it?" after he spoke he turned back to karl to hear his answer.

"this weekend...is that-" karl's eyebrows rose.

"that is not a yes, not yet. i'll see if i feel like it when the time comes around."

dream could see sapnap roll his eyes at the older. karl didn't seem to mind. "yes, okay, just let sapnap know so he can tell me." he punched sapnap in the arm and turned to run in the other direction. dream turned to george, who hadn't seemed to have moved from his previous position.

"what do you think?" dream turned all his attention back to the other.

"i think you should go." george didn't raise his eyes from the floor.

dream's eyebrows met, "you don't want to go?" the sun would be completely gone in a few minutes, the late night breeze settling in. george shook his head.

"there is nothing for me at parties."

dream frowned, he wouldn't have nearly as much fun if he'd be left with chadnap at a party alone.

"c'mon i can't go alone." he nudged his knee into the older's.

george lifted his head to look at dream, "but you won't be alone, you'd be with karl." george looked away just in time to miss the disappointment that rose to rest on dream's face. dream didn't know what to say. he'd use the excuse that he didn't know karl that long, be he didn't know george any longer. he turned away from george and his eyes lingered on his own hands.

hanging out with the guys was a good distraction to take his mind off of ripping the skin beside his nail. in a situation like this, he figured his sorrow was justification in itself. the skin was still raw but there were many signs of healing. he dug his nail into the pad of his finger, then brought the finger to his mouth to rip the skin with his teeth.

"i want to go home now."

dream lowered his hand and turned to see george stood from the bench.

"i'll go get sapnap and karl." dream spoke, doing anything in his power to remove himself from the situation that felt to be strangling him. he also stood from the bench and made his way to the other guys.

"made up your mind yet?" sapnap joked.

"actually i was thinking we should head back, i've been out past curfew three times too many this week." dream pointed a thumb behind his shoulder, slightly ripping the skin of his lips.

"oh, yeah, we can go back now." karl stepped off the board and popped it into his hand. the three of them walked to meet george who had been leaning up against the gate of the skatepark.

"we should all take the train together." karl smiled jumping up and down where he stood, full of excitement.

"yeah. we can all take the train." sapnap grinned back to karl. they both stood on either side of dream, and the blonde did the expected. he slid his arms around both of the guys shoulders. crouching down to stay in level with them. the warmth karl and sapnap shared with dream warmed only his skin.

he frowned and turned back to see george trailing behind the three, face rid of readable emotions.

the train station wasn't far, the four of them slid into a booth, george and sapnap sitting together, leaving dream to sit with karl. karl was brimming with energy, sapnap attempting to match his spirit. dream tried to engage in the conversation but couldn't help it when his eyes turned back to watch george from time to time.

when the train came to its first stop karl and sapnap fake cried, sad they had to leave. as a form of goodbye sapnap pressed a wet kiss to dream's cheek. when karl stepped up to also offer dream a kiss, the blonde's eyes met george's. as the two stepped off the train, dream was left with the miserable state george was currently in. george rested his head against the window looking anywhere but the other, dream smiled at him softly.

"they have a lot of energy all the time, huh?"

again there was no response, nothing out of the ordinary but it felt different this time around. he returned his hand to his mouth and teared at the skin.

"stop peeling your skin, it's not a good habit."

george might not have had any bad intentions, but the sentence deepened the frown that dream shamefully don.