ORPHANED

:: fifty-four ::

"stay out of trouble." she pointed to dream from the window of the car. "i mean it." she stepped away, waving as sapnap closed the window.

"dream, id fuck your mom."

"what."

the words left his mouth so casually dream had to think back to what he said in order to react. he turned to quackity who had his eyes glued on dream's mom as they drove away from the house. the car exploded into laughter, unbelieving that quackity would say such a thing in front of dream.

"i'm just saying what we're all thinking." quackity nudged george, who sat between the two. george shook his head turning to dream with wide eyes. waving his hands as if the action would prove himself.

"sapnap are you not going to say anything about that?" dream squeezed a reassuring hand on george's shoulder, reaching to rest his forearm on the back of sapnap's headrest. he was fulled with confusion yet didn't let the smile falter from his face.

"yeah sapnap you called her mom?" george questioned from beside the blonde. smiling at the lingering touch of dream's hand on his shoulder.

"that doesn't mean anything, he could have a mommy kink." quackity sat up from his seat when dream's mom was no longer in eyeshot.

sapnap laughed at that, shooting a wink at dream from the rearview mirror before turning back to the road.

"what the hell sapnap, that's my mom."

"she's going to be his mom soon if you don't watch out." karl spoke from the passenger seat, when the car burst into laughter, he turned out his window to avoid dream's glare.

**

"i say we split up." sapnap declared as soon as they walked through the gates of the fairgrounds. the sun was just barely dead center in the middle of the sky, the air around them feeling cool without the unnecessary wind that usually accompanied.

"but what if they try to leave again?" karl seemed unusually caught up in the idea, perhaps sapnap had filled him in.

sapnap took both quackity and karl by the arm, leading them away from dream and george. "they'll text me if anything. right dream?" he winked at the blonde as he continued traveling father into the crowd.

"well...where to first?" dream looked around, taking the scenery of the new location.

george stood beside him, looking around at the adventure that lay ahead. "we could start over here and then work our way over." george gestured from one side of the park to the other.

"well i'm counting on you, i've never been here."

"it's a tradition to always start at the mirror maze, because usually it's never packed and it's a great warm up to what the carnival has to offer." he looked down at his hands, unsure of if was really a good enough start for dream.

the blonde was quick to ease the nerves, pulling george into the preset direction of the mirror maze. george smiled hurrying behind as he tried to keep up with the quick strides.

george turned to dream when they approached the large structure that dream assumed was filled with mirrors.

"we have to do it alone..." george positioned them in line, waiting to hear dream's rebuttal.

"what? why?" dream pouted, loosening his grip on george hand.

"it's a tradition, if i wasn't here sapnap would make you do the same thing."

"can't you break the rules for me."

george frowned back at the blonde. "i'll be in there with you, we can find each other."

dream still wasn't buying it, why would he split with george if they were eventually going to get back together.

"no time to think, we're up." george stepped into the mirror maze, leaving dream to follow closely behind.

first impressions; he hated it.

he hated how bright the lights were in contrast to the warmly lit sun outside. he held out his hands to feel for the mirrors in front of himself, stepping forward only when he was sure the path was clear.

he was a few paces into the maze when he heard it, "dream?"

he turned around, expecting to meet george's eyes only for his lonesome reflection to stare back.

"this is terrible." he spoke to himself as he rolled his eyes turning back to the direction he was originally traveling.

he hated this, he hated staring at his reflection as he looked for the brunette in the mirrors. he hated watching every single movement he performed in the bright room. he hated stubbing his fingers into the practically invisible walls.

dream tried to tune out the stereotypical carnival music that slowly began driving him insane. focusing on the thoughts in his mind that told him to look for george first instead of the exit

"dream?" george's voice sounded so close yet so far, it echoed in the room.

"george?" dream rolled his eyes, hearing his voice echo back into his ears, there was no point calling out for each other, the sound traveled evenly all the way through the mirrors. there was no way to tell how far the noise was, just eerily even.

in the corner of his eyes he caught glimpse of a short fluffy haired person stepping away from him. he watched as the dark wash t-shirt he wore brushed against the back of his thighs as he walked.

"george."

he turned to walk towards the man, watching as he turned at the noise, traveling away from him.

"no, george." he scoffed heading towards the mirror george was previously displayed in.

his phone vibrated.

come find me ;)

attatched to the text was a picture of george posed in front of the mirrors, pretending to kiss dream's reflection.

he rolled his eyes again, sliding his phone into his pocket as he walked face first into a mirror. staring at his reflection like it was his fault.

"why are you staring at yourself?"

dream turned at the sound, coming so clearly from beside him.

—

i'm not sure why i got so distracted writing this, usually i enjoy writing more than i do say anything else, but hopefully i don't get distracted anymore and i can finish the carnival chapters