Roommates // DNF

23

In the days that followed, George tried his best to not be overbearing. He wanted to believe everything that Dream told him, and to give him space like he normally would.

But inside, he was a mess of nerves and suspicion, and it seemed like he was constantly picking up on things that weren't quite adding up to him.

Some days, Dream would wake up and be irritable, his hands shaky and unsteady. But then he would slip off to class, and when he returned he would be different, his hands steady and a relaxed smile on his face.

And while George didn't want to outright accuse him of lying about where he was going, he couldn't seem to shake the lingering thought that the blonde was probably skipping out on his classes and running off to somewhere he shouldn't be.

But still, Dream never returned home completely out of it, so George could never quite be sure whether he was just overthinking the situation or not. It was new territory for him, and the last thing he wanted was to push the blonde away.

It had been about two weeks now, and George was sitting beside Dream in their computer science class. He had had to practically drag the blonde out of bed and to class that morning, which was becoming a recurring theme these days.

George was just happy that Dream eventually relented and came to class, as it was the one class that he could be sure the blonde was actually attending. And even if he spent the entire time drawing in his notebook or completely zoned out, at least he was there next to George; he always felt better when he had Dream in his sight.

Towards the end of class, the professor decided to give them free time to work on their projects. George hadn't been able to get Dream to help him with the project as of yet, and they were quickly falling behind on it.

"Dream," George said, nudging the blonde with his elbow to pull him out of his zoned out trance.

"Huh? What?" Dream responded, his green eyes hazy.

George sighed quietly, turning to face him as he said, "we really need to start working on the project together, or else we're never going to get it done in time."

Dream picked up his pen, still distracted as he began drawing in his notebook and mumbled back, "I thought you started it when you went on one of your little dates with Wilbur? What do you need me for?"

George fell silent, not sure how to respond because the topic of Wilbur had become an increasingly uncomfortable one between the two. Any time his name came up in conversation, Dream would instantly get irritated, but he refused to ever talk it over with George.

George had been trying to keep his distance from Wilbur, he hadn't really been able to get a read on him anyway, and he didn't want to do anything to upset Dream while he was in this state. But if Dream wasn't going to help him with the project, he didn't see what else he could do beside seek help from the TA.

So George only sighed in response, pulling his attention back to his own work, attempting as best he could to continue working on the project alone.

While he worked, he heard Dream's phone vibrate against the table, Dream's hand quickly reaching for it. George tried not to care, but he couldn't help and notice that Dream quickly scanned over the text notification before clearing it from the screen completely, quickly shoving the phone into his pocket as his cheeks flushed pink. George made a mental note to ask him about it as soon as class was over, although he was sure Dream would be annoyed by his questioning.

But it was yet another thing that George had been noticing over the past couple of weeks, Dream's tendency to quickly clear texts from his screen before shoving his phone out of view completely.