Mark My Words || DNF Soulmate AU

Chapter 43

Dream's not gonna do it.

He's not.

He refuses.

He will be a good business partner and not impulse-message his crush/best friend/it's-really-complicated/business partner whom he hasn't talked to in a week, at one in the morning.

Nope.

Dream breathes in, breathes out, and deletes the message he had typed into the Discord chat bar.

Okay.

He should sleep now, before he makes some stupid mistake that can't be reversed in the morning. Sleep will speed up time, and provide Dream some much-needed rest to face another dreadful, miserable day.

With that thought, Dream reaches for the power button on his computer and feels its ridgeline against the pad of his finger.

He lingers, withholding the pressure that stands between him and regrettable decisions.

What if he sends one message?

Just one message, it doesn't even have to be serious. Hell, it's six in the morning for George, he won't be awake. Dream can delete it if he wants to after he sends it.

So he grips his mouse again, pulls up Discord, and tabs into the typing box.

Dream

wanna play bedwars

He deletes it before his pinkie can even hit "enter."

No way this is what he sends George after a week of practically no contact, it feels too lighthearted and casual, not the vibe he wants to communicate at all.

Dream

just waiting for the thing to be finished and i'll tell you everything and we can be friends again :)

He frowns, watching his cursor blink against the dark background.

Why does it read so idiotically?

Does it even make sense?

Is it fitting too much into one sentence?

Does it make it sound like they're no longer friends anymore?

But they are, that's for sure, things have just been more complicated and different.

It's only that Dream thinks he will actually collapse if he has to act upbeat and energetic for the audience again, despite the growing distance between him and George that makes him listless in everything that he does. It's only that Dream has slept on the couch George once spent their sleepover on just to feel something, and dozed off against the hard springs and stiff cushions when it seemed an impossible feat on his expensive mattress. It's only that Dream has been obsessively monitoring his inbox activity for any sign of the report that could end this purgatory and finally mend their friendship.

It's only that.

Dream uses the mouse to skip around in his message and, with a sigh, highlights the whole thing in blue and deletes it once again.

He shouldn't do it now, when he's so caught up in his own feelings of desperation, misery, and longing. It'll just make him sound pathetic.

He forms his hands into fists and pumps them a little, encouraging himself away from the computer and into his bed, where he should have been sleeping in hours ago.

His hand once again reaches for the power button.

He pauses, contemplates, grits his teeth, and shuts his computer off.