ORPHANED

:: thirty-five ::

george returned to the table with a stone cold frown. dream averted his eyes from the man. the look on george's face killed the hunger that sat in dream's stomach. he didn't want to talk to george, no matter how badly his body tried to. this was unfortunate because the only thing george wanted was for dream to talk to him. to ask him if he was alright, to smile at him with a smile that felt like a hug. george wanted it, but dream wouldn't offer it.

so they sat away from each other, dream attempting to keep the atmosphere light and george ignoring it completely. dream thought back to the train ride home. the night they had been in such a similar situation. he didn't want to be on bad terms with george. he sighed, tearing apart the pizza that he no longer felt compelled to eat.

"i say we head back now." sapnap stood, everyone stood with. they were plenty done with today, having no more energy and feeling awkward at the silent table.

dream threw all of the used plates into the box and then threw the boxes away. he was avoiding sitting with george in the car. he knew he wouldn't be able to prevent himself from talking with him.

as he caught up with the group, he noticed how far the sun had set since they arrived. stepping out into the nippy air he pulled his sleeves down. he walked to the car and saw that the passenger seat was open.

"looks like you're up." sapnap smiled from the driver seat.

dream glanced into the back of the car to lock eyes with george for a second. he looked away and slid into the front seat.

"i'm so tired." dream felt karl's head hit the back of his headrest.

"you can say that again." sapnap spoke into the car and no one spoke back.

the ride was quiet, sapnap didn't put music on which was extremely uncharacteristic of him, yet dream was too worried about george to notice.

he listened to the blinker, then the road, then the air, then the yawning in the car. he watched sapnap's fingers drum against the wheel, he watched cars that passed with too bright headlights. he focused on everything and nothing in attempt to clear his brain.

he felt a buzz in his pocket. finally, his savior.

he opened the notification to a picture of the sunset from earlier. he smiled at the picture, it was really pretty out. dream closed the picture and could feel his eyes widen when he saw who had sent the photo.

'better than sapnap' sat on the top of his screen, dream tried to calm his breath. he exited his messages, staring at the picture of george he flaunted everywhere he went.

i can see you staring at that picture of me

dream swiped away the text.

are you going to ignore me forever? :(

dream frowned back at the emoticon.

it's not fair, he spoke to the frowny face through his mind, i want to kiss him. he closed his eyes and turned off his phone. he wanted to be back in the bathroom alone with george. he wanted to be there with the courage to kiss the man. he wanted to go back and see what would've happened if he did. but he couldn't and he knew it was wrong to want.

i guess you are

dream read the words, and his body defied him. he sent back a sad face.

i just watched you ignore me twice...

i still have a headache

george opened the message and didn't respond. dream sighed, yeah, he deserved that much. when his screen turned off dream could see how dark the bruises had gotten. he tried to press into bridge of his nose only to let out a hiss in response.

"you alright man?" dream could see sapnap glancing to him from time to time.

"yeah my face is just sore."

dream rested his head on the window. he tried to avert his attention outside of the car, but he kept getting tugged back into reality to deal with a sour george. he sighed. slipping a hand into his pocket he retrieved the paper.

typing the number into his phone he could feel his hands shake. he lowered the brightness of his screen.

i need help

it got the point across, hopefully she would know it was him. he turned off his phone turning back to the passing trees. he felt his phone vibrate and turned back to his hands.

glad you changed your mind, i'm red :)

dream stared at the notification. he couldn't believe he was doing this, he should just text george. but he couldn't, because he was being ignorant.

'i almost kissed george in the bathroom earlier'

he stared at his message, the words danced on his screen. seeing the sentence in real time freaked him out. it actually happened. dream actually almost kissed george. he stabbed his nails into the palm of his hand.

'oh i see.'

'and i keep thinking about wanting to kiss him, but we're just friends.'

'have you tried talking to him?'

'out of the picture, he's mad at me.'

'why is he mad at you?'

'i'm not sure, we just haven't really talked yet.'

'sleep on it, see how you feel tomorrow'

he read the words on his screen. he read the last sentence, then he reread the entire conversation. it didn't click. he never felt this way about sapnap, dream never thought about kissing sapnap unprovoked. he put his hands in his hair, tugging at his scalp. he screwed his eyes shut. it wasn't worth the brain power.

he counted in his brain, distracting himself in the best way he knew how. he bit into his bottom lip. dream hated not being able to talk to george, but it was good for no one if he kept fantasizing about kissing the other man.