As Time Goes On

Dreaming With Eyes Open

Dream woke up almost ten hours later sweaty and confused. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and kicked the tangled blankets off of his legs. He rubbed a hand over his face and patted the bed beside him searching for his phone. When he could not find it that way, he forced himself out of bed, and moved all of his blankets and pillows around until he finally pulled his phone out from the crack between his bed and the wall. He blinked at the light streaming in through his window, even though it was not nearly as bright as it could be because it was well into the late afternoon hours.

During his sleep he had many strange dreams that he did not quite understand, and he did not know if he even wanted to begin to understand what they had meant. In his dream he had been with George, and he chopped that up to George being on his brain because he was the last person that Dream had talked to before he passed out in bed this morning. However, these dreams that he had were different than just what you would have after talking to friends for hours and then falling asleep.

He had almost convinced himself that this could have just been a random event the first time that he had ever dreamed of George coming to visit him. But after a few months had passed and the dreams came back regularly he was finding it harder and harder to convince himself that it was not something that he must be thinking about more and more. The dreams always started off pretty normal, and they always started the same way. George would magically appear at his door one day and he would be so confused when he opened the door and found him there waiting. After that they would usually change. It would always be them doing something like cooking, watching a movie, driving, one time they renovated his bathroom for no reason at all, or even just scrolled through social media apps and did not talk at all. However, it was always the end of the dream, the part that always woke him up sweaty and confused and tangled up in the blankets that he was sleeping with that got him the most.

Right before he would wake up the dream would find him and George laying in the back yard and staring up at the night sky above them. Dream always had one arm behind his head as a pillow, and the other one firmly clasped in the older man's. Sometimes he would try to wake himself up at this point. He knew what was going to happen, and he knew that if he did not wake up, he would be left to feel the same confused and helpless feeling throughout the day. But every time he had the dream, he found himself glancing down at the older man who was lying beside him and finding out that George was already looking up at him. If Dream could not force himself to wake up at that point he would be forced to think about how every time he has that dream in his sleep he unclasps their hands, gently cups the older man's face and leans in. Every time he has this dream he is forced to think, and wonder, and get angry about the fact that right before he can connect their lips, he startles awake.

With a quick glance at his phone, he grabbed the water that he had sitting on the table beside his bed and took a few long drinks before orienting himself. It was just after three in the afternoon. He had almost slept completely through the day. Sighing he shot off a quick 'I'm alive.' text to George and made his way out of his room and into the kitchen to make something to eat.

After a long time of thinking about it he decided that he was going to do the only thing that he could do to show himself that there was nothing going on between him and George, and that there would be nothing going on between him and George. The dreams meant nothing, and they could not be routed in any sense of reality at all. He was going to invite George to come see him. And soon.

. . . . .

Hours later Dream found himself sitting in front of his computer once again while debating on whether he wanted to hop on a game with someone, or if he wanted to keep up the lazy day that he had found himself having. He had spent most of the day texting with George, Sapnap, and even his mother. He was liking not feeling like he had to put up a front while filming or streaming with anyone else. He had almost launched Minecraft on his computer when his phone started ringing again. Before even saying hello, he was met with George's "They clipped your phone call last night. It is all over Tik Tok." It took him a minute to figure out what George was on about, but when he remembered what the older man must have been talking about a laugh escaped his lips. "Dream! It is not funny." George sighed out and Dream calmed himself down enough to stop laughing and he choked out a response.