ORPHANED

:: twenty-one ::

dream pulled out his phone, opening his photos to one in particular. he placed his phone on the counter and slid it to george.

"look."

george didn't have to be told twice, he sat up to stare at himself through the photo. nothing was said. dream began worrying, maybe he shouldn't have showed him that picture.

"what's your plan? why haven't you deleted this yet?" george looked up from the picture to stare at dream.

dream felt warm. "i told you i was keeping it."

george shook his head pushing the phone back to dream, and sat back in the chair with his arms crossed. "i don't want to be a model, they're held to high standards."

dream pocketed the phone, "well i'm glad you don't want to be a model, because i don't know how we'd still be friends."

"friends, who told you were friends?"

dream frowned, george was right. they'd barely spent two days together. george waved his hand in front of dream's face.

"earth to dream, i was just joking. if i knew you'd get so worked up i wouldn't have said that."

dream glared at the other.

"this reminds me of the time you almost died over black coffee. man, you should've seen your face."

dream rolled his eyes, "you have too much fun making me panic."

"sapnap would've loved to see that."

"you're making me feel less and less guilty about wanting to go to this party."

"what?" george's voice was softer now, betrayed.

"yeah, and because of it i'm going to text you the entire time about how terrible it is." dream pulled out his phone again and opened it to the dial pad.

"dream. i know, you did not just ask for my number." george stared at him with a stupid grin.

"stop looking at me like that and just put it in."

"that's what she said." george laughed, pointing at the blonde.

dream groaned. "sapnap has been a terrible influence on you."

nonetheless george picked up the phone and punched in his number. he handed the phone back to dream.

"what did you save yourself under?" dream asked, scared for the answer.

"better than sapnap."

this made them both erupt into laughter.

**

before they knew it the sun began rising and thomas came in to take over shop. although it wasn't raining nearly as hard as it had been before, it was still raining.

"you've live here for how many years, and you don't bring an umbrella with you everywhere you go?" dream was cynical.

"that's unrealistic." george open mouth smiled at the other.

"you guys are too happy for it being this early, please leave." thomas spoke from behind the counter.

dream grabbed george's wrist and pulled him out of the shop with his free hand. when they were outside dream held his board above his head. it didn't cover him at all, but it did intercept a handful of raindrops. george turned to the younger with both of his arms above his head.

"what the hell dream." george pushed himself into dream's side to try to fit under the board. a laugh bubbled in his stomach.

"wrap your arms around me so we can walk together."

almost immediately he felt two arms wrap around his waist, and a head resting on his ribs. he smiled and looked down. george was inspecting their feet.

"stop walking so fast, i can't keep up. i'm practically running." george spoke, words muffled by the fabric of dream's crewneck.

"i'm not running, i'm walking at a perfectly normal pace." dream let the wheeze free.

"yeah, well your legs are too long, stop taking big steps." george sounded frustrated.

eventually they fell into step, just as they started walking comfortably, it stopped raining.

"dream?"

"yes, george?"

"do you hear that?"

he stopped to listen.

"...no?"

"exactly. it stopped raining." george removed his arms from dream and he had selfishly wished them back. dream lowered the board from his head and shook it to rid of the remaining water. he rested the board on his hip and rolled his shoulders.

"why would you put on a crewneck if you knew it was going to rain?" george stared at dream dumbfounded.

dream stared back. "you think, if i knew it was going to rain i'd purposely put on a crewneck? i didnt check the weather, what's you're excuse george?"

george laughed, "i thought you'd bring an umbrella."

dream rolled his eyes with a smile. "you're so dependent on me."

he got a punch to his arm, "shut up."

they continued to the train station.

"karl didn't show up today?" george turned to ask dream

"no, sapnap said he was busy or something."

"oh."

"i didn't mind, i don't think either me or sapnap would be able to handle him today. both of us were pretty tired and he's kind of chaotic."

"oh."

"that's all you're going to say?" dream turned to look at george, who only looked back and smiled.

dream rolled his eyes and let out a breath.

they continued walking, talking about everything that came to mind, or at least, almost everything.

"did we miss it? what time is it?" george asked taking a seat on a bench. they made it to the station, yet no one was around.

dream pulled out his phone, when the screen lit up he was confused. "when did you have time to change my homescreen?" he stared at george who only laughed in response. there, on his phone was the picture he had taken of george at the skatepark.

"i changed it when i put in my number." george continued laughing from beside dream.

"literally how, you had my phone for thirty seconds."

again george laughed.

"well i'm not changing it back." he crossed his arms, expecting george to fight. george didn't seem to mind.

just then a train pulled into the station and together they boarded, sitting in the booth from the day before. dream sat across from george. not because there was no room, but because he wanted to be able to see his smile.

—

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