i accidentally met dream

nine

After entering the bathroom, I immediately called Dani and went into a stall to change. "Hello?"

"You're on speaker and I'm in a public bathroom at the beach, just letting you know." I said, taking off the pants I was in and slowly putting on his.

"Oh. Alright. So, why are you in the bathroom at the beach? Wait- Did he take you to the beach?" She asked.

"Yeah. He did and it was nice, but I pushed him in the water and got him soaked, then he tackled me and soaked me. He had a change of clothes and let me borrow them." I sighed. "Don't make this weird."

"No, no, that's really cute. Making your crush on him better tho?"

"No, it's making it worse. I wasn't even crushing on him before. I just looked up to him and I aspired to be as good at Minecraft as him. I didn't intend to have a crush on him." I pulled his shirt over my head and placed my wet sandy clothes in the bag, zipping it up. I opened the door and walked over to the sink, washing my hands. "Anyways, I'm going to be heading home soon so hopefully I can video chat with you later. Also, that means I'm hanging up now."

"Alright sweets, text you later. Tell Dream I said hello." She hung up before I could say anything. "Dream. Pssh." I mumbled, walking out of the bathroom. Clay is waiting for me in his car. I threw the backpack in the backseat and hopped in the car.

"Ice cream first, then we'll head back." He said.

"Hey, weird question." I started. He nodded, allowing me to continue. "Do you have a hoodie? My arms.. feel bare."

"Oh yeah, it's that red one in the backseat. You're lucky I keep forgetting to bring that inside." He chuckled. I go to grab it and put it on without seeing that it's his 200k merch.

"You're a fan of Dream?" I hide the fact that I know that it's him. He still hasn't told me that it's him, so I am respecting that.

"Oh, uh-" Caught him. "Yeah, he's chill." He coughed. "Sorry. I just forgot that's the hoodie I have in here. I just knew I had a hoodie in here." He sighed. "Is it good enough for you?" Goddamn, a good lie to be honest.

I nodded, burying my face into it, taking in the scent he left on the hoodie. It's perfectly over-sized and smells nice, like safe and homey. I whispered "comfy" to myself but he heard it.

"So it's soft?" He glanced over and drove a short way before parking. The ice cream shop wasn't far.

"Yeah." I mumbled, shying away and blushing into the hoodie.

"Do you wanna stay here or go inside?" He asked, opening the door.

"I'll come in, it's fine." I opened the door and hopped out, closing it behind me. We both walked into the ice cream shop and I went over to the menu first, pulling out my wallet.

"Haha, no. Put that away." He came up behind me. "You aren't paying, no matter what."

I tried to fight back but he shook his head. I've been defeated. He said his order first, then I said mine.

The man at the counter smiles and tells him the price. "You two are really cute, I overheard." He smiled.

"Thanks." Clay said back before I could even respond, and paid. "She's really something though." He mumbled, but I heard him. I sighed, giving up trying to speak up. We aren't dating, what is he doing? We moved away from the line to wait.

"Clay, that was unnecessary." I mumbled to him while we waited for our ice cream.

"Did I make you uncomfortable? I'm sorry." He looked at me sincerely sorry. "I was just joking around."

"Yeah, it did." I said, hugging myself, rolling back on my heels for a second. 

+++

"Is the ice cream good?" He asked, finishing his own right before I finished mine.

"It was." I paused, throwing away my spoon and cup. "Thank you."

"Well, since we're done, why don't we go now, yeah?" He threw his own spoon and cup away, sighing quietly. He looked back at me before unlocking his car. I nodded and we hopped in. He turns on some tunes, making the volume quiet. "I just wanted to apologize again for making you uncomfortable with the couple thing. I didn't intend for you to feel that way."

"It's alright now. I understand that you were just joking around, but please don't do it again. It's weird, especially because we aren't dating. We're just friends. We haven't even been friends for long either." I said, leaning my head against the window.

"Yeah, I get that." He said, drumming to the song with his thumbs on the wheel as he drove down the highway. "I apologize. You're a cool person and losing you as a friend would suck a lot."

"Also. This friend thing. When did that happen?" I paused for a second, then added, "Because we ran into each other a few times and then randomly just went, 'Yup we're friends now'."

"That's literally it." He glanced over at me and smiled softly. "You were spot on there." He chuckled, focusing back on the road.

+++

A good hour and a half passed with a few naps here and there. We changed the music a few times, but other than that, the ride has been dead silent. I thought back to when I lied and he took me on this trip, the lie I still feel really bad about. As if he heard my thoughts, he spoke up.

"Did this make you feel better after yesterday?" He glanced over at me.

"About that..." I looked down at my lap, avoiding eye contact. He let out a hum. "I didn't have a date. It was a lie."

His mouth was slightly agape, he shut it quickly. "So you robbed me?" He said with a dramatic gasp.

I hit his arm with the hoodie sleeve. "No, of course not. I obviously offered to pay for that ice cream too." Shaking my head, I looked over at him. He's focusing on the road.

"So-"

"-It was a dare from my friend to call you. I just made something up because I didn't expect you to pick up. I panicked. I walked over to a coffee shop and drank a drink and ate a sweet for like an hour, then called you. It was-"

"Hey, it's fine. Take a breath. I'm not mad." He laughed softly, "Thank you for telling the truth though. I kind of had some suspicion that the date thing was fake, but I didn't want to pressure you into telling me." He glanced over at me. "We've both recently become friends and we don't know each other very well." I know you though, well the stuff you share online. "So I didn't want to assume or put pressure on you."

"Well, I trust you, so I wanted you to know."

"Trust me? I could've murdered you at the motel."

I laughed. "Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think you're that smart." He looked offended, but the cheesy-acting kind.

"I have you know, I code things, I am very smart." He gripped the steering wheel and let out a sigh before laughing.

"Very smart, mmm sure." I giggled, looking out the window.

"But really. Thanks for trusting me. It means a lot." His voice was soft and calming, like how he would read those meaningful donations on stream, but this was a lot more personalized. As if no one but close friends and family heard him. It was a delicate voice and made me feel safe.