The week had been a bit over the top for Dream. With the renewal of reality, which they gained back once they arrived home, Dream found himself even more lost than he was before.
The feelings were easy. Without a doubt in his mind, he was incredibly attracted to Sapnap. That part was simple.
The hard part was figuring out exactly what he wanted to do with that attraction.
He could confess, as that would quite possibly be the best plan, but something in him decided he should make it as difficult as possible. Every time he made an effort to put himself in a place where he could admit how he was feeling, he slipped under the pressure and ended up blurting out something useless.
It was becoming even harder to work anything out, especially with the impending doom of figuring out what would happen to them after summer.
There had been a moment where Dream truthfully believed that they would be living together in an apartment outside of town, domestically bonding under the impression that they were nothing more than friends, destined to part at some point.
But now, Dream saw himself leaving Sapnap, as Sapnap was becoming much more comfortable around others, seemingly settling elsewhere. He was hanging out with other people, going out much more frequently, and it almost seemed as if he had taken the initiative to go ahead and start the parting of ways, far earlier than Dream could've possibly appreciated.
It was on this night in particular, and this night only, that Sapnap asked Dream to attend a party with him.
Dream had been reluctant; parties had never been his thing, much more of Sapnap's idea of fun, but a part of him wanted to agree, with the hopes of becoming closer with this new version of his best friend.
So, Dream agreed and they made plans to attend some dude's party later that night. Dream wasn't exactly sure whose party he was attending, but in the end, did it really matter as long as he got to have some fun with Sapnap?
While Dream spent an hour worrying about what to wear and how the fuck he was supposed to dance at a party, Sapnap had apparently been vomiting his guts out. They had to call off their plans.
Except, now Dream was overly disturbed by his nerves that he had built up while preparing for this party, and he couldn't waste his confidence now. So in the long run, Dream decided he'd go to the party, without Sapnap's knowledge, and make it up to him later by picking him up soup on the way home.
***
Dream walked into the house, low lighting taking a lot longer than anticipated to get used to. He basically stumbled into a crowd of people, somehow appearing more drunken than anybody else there, even though half of the young adults wandering around were absolutely wasted.
It was at times like these, when he was standing alone in the midst of a house party, not sure where to go or what to do, that Dream wished he would've taken advantage of Sapnap being sick and just stayed home so he could take care of Sapnap until he was feeling better.
But he was stuck here now, and what better thing to do than wander aimlessly and hope to God he somehow navigates towards the alcohol, or whatever was making these people so energetic and proud to be alive.
Turns out, whoever owned this house, had placed the boos on the kitchen island, providing a less than safe environment for all the drunken attendees. Dream must've seen at least six people slip on the dampened kitchen tiles since he arrived in this disaster of a kitchen, and it was less than appealing to sit back and watch - although, he must admit, it was somewhat amusing.
Dream struggled to get the first drink down, it burning as it hit his taste buds, tasting as though somebody had poured their back wash into his mouth, the cheap alcohol so much worse than he could've possibly imagined.
It wasn't that he hadn't had his fair share of underage drinking, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it. In truth, Dream wasn't even sure why he was drinking, as after Junior year's incident, he had vowed to never drink again.
Let's just say, Dream had to have had at least five different types of beer, and that pool had looked so refreshing, and he felt so gross. All he wanted to do was take a little dip, and somehow he had wound up in Sapnap's backseat, sucking down strawberry milkshakes like his life depended on it.
It doesn't make sense on paper, but it doesn't make anymore sense in Dream's head. Nobody has the full story, however Dream certainly remembers how intense the hangover was, and that was history he never wanted to repeat.
Dream was about to toss his solo cup into the trash and leave, but something - or rather someone - caught his eye before his hand released its grip on his cup. As he looked over who he had seen, eyeing them up and down, he idly filled up his cup with whatever suspicious liquor was sloshing around in the punch bowl, and then headed off towards the direction of the person.
He didn't know this person, in fact Dream had never seen this person in his life. It was unusual, as most people his age were at least somewhat familiar, him having either aged with them, or had seen them at some of the local teen hangouts.
Everyone shared similar social spaces, and if you didn't recognize someone from school, you'd have definitely seen them at the local skate park or on the warmer days, the recreational center's outdoor pool.
Dream rolled up his sleeves and confidently walked up to the person standing in the corner. The stranger seemed oddly uncomfortable, his hands fiddling with each other, and he was licking his lips frantically - not that Dream was looking.
There was a faltering moment where the alcohol seemed to disappear from Dream's system entirely and he considered the logical option of turning around and heading out the front door, completely abandoning this shitty party.
But, deciding Dream's decisions all had to be poorly made, his mind told him to keep on moving, and that's exactly what he did.
"Hey," Dream reached out a hand as he approached the boy, "You don't seem to be having much fun."
He looked at Dream with surprise, as he apparently hadn't seen Dream approaching him. Dream laugh comfortably, settling in closer to the stranger's side - proper greetings and boundaries be damned.
"Well, actually," He turned to face Dream, a suddenly noticeable sparkle in his eyes, that Dream caught himself staring into, "if you must know, my friend is hosting this party, and I simply don't feel comfortable, and the alcohol isn't doing wonders as my friends had proposed."
Dream sighed quietly, barely audible beneath the blasting music, seemingly picked from a playlist made up of the worst party songs ever. He took a deep breath before giving it his all, giving in to all his temptations, and turned to face this extremely attractive man.
"I'm not having much of a great time either," He laughed, "My friend actually bailed on me last minute, so I'm here alone. I'm not actually sure why I came."
"I dunno. Maybe you had a psychic vision that you'd find the hottest guy here and go get him a drink."
Dream rolled his eyes, but still grabbed onto his acquaintance's hand and pulled him through the crowd, back towards that awful kitchen.
He was quick to hand the corner kid a drink, the same as whatever he had in his cup, offering it as if it were the world's next best creation. In reality, it was still just as terrible as it was before.
"Real quick before I give you this, actually," Dream pulled back the drink and watched longingly as his lonely buddy pouted and made grabby hands, reaching for the beverage, "Give me your name so I can stop calling you stupid things in my head."
"What were you calling me?" He raised an interested eyebrow.
"I dunno," Dream pulled the cup further away, standing on his tippy toes to keep it away from the brunette, "Things like pretty boy and cutie, I guess."
"You were calling me those things?" His expression fell soft, "Thank you."
Dream nodded, finally giving in to handing over the drink. 'Pretty boy' took a long sip, before parting ways with the cup momentarily, so he could reveal his identity.
"I'm George," He introduced himself, "I'm a transfer student from Europe, only really here because my friend Karl forced me to. I'm attending college not too far from here."
"Lucky you," Dream watched as George licked his pretty pink lips, ridding them of any alcohol, "I'm just a local resident, struggling with the fact that I should probably go to college, but I'd rather not."
George looked at Dream, seemingly interested. Eventually, he moved so that he could prop himself up on the far from clean counter, and then pat the spot next to him, urging Dream to sit down.
Dream did as he was told, jumping up to adjust himself on the counter. There was probably something working on sticking itself to and staining his jeans, but at this point, the party was so filthy, there was no way he would have gotten out of here with clean pants, so why even bother trying?
"Why don't you want to go to college?" George asked, "What do you plan on doing instead?"
"You know," Dream laughed and scooted closer to George, "The more I think about it, maybe I should go to college, if it means I get to meet people like you."
George laughed, his British accent even managing to seep into his laughter, melting Dream's complicated heart, and throwing any distractions he could've possible developed to the wind. His full attention was now focused on George, and rightfully so.
"Am I really that great?" George teased, leaning his shoulder into Dream's, giggling innocently.
They seemed to have close to the same intentions, progressively getting closer to one another, starting with innocent flirting, and then moving on to lingering touches, focusing on one another's features and perfections, slurring out compliments as their alcohol intake increased.
At some point, not that Dream could remember ever moving, they had relocated to the couch, and Dream was sitting comfortably, sinking into the cushion, his arm wrapped around George's slightly smaller shoulders.
His fingers were tangled up in the brunette strands, twirling the hair around and around, mesmerized by the soft texture and fruity scent. Considering George had told him he used some sort of 5-in-1, after Dream had so forwardly asked, it was surprisingly enticing.
Dream pushed himself into a more comfortable position, preparing to make the move he had been wanting to make all night. He cleared his throat to attract George's attention, and then he oh-so-forwardly requested what he so desperately needed.
"I think we should kiss," Dream announced aloud, "But like really kiss."
"What does that mean?" George giggled dramatically, his laugh filling up whatever leftover silence had been spared for them, the party still raging on, "Something like this?"
George shifted to the side, and then he was straddling Dream, their hips pressed together, Dream seemingly losing every ounce of confidence he had mustered up. He smiled nervously, running a hand through George's hair, and then brought it down to cup his jaw.
"Like this?" George pressed a quick kiss to Dream's cheek, then continuing to move up the side of his face, until he got to the middle of Dream's forehead.
From there, he kissed down his nose, finally stopping when he reached the tip of Dream's nose, placing an incredibly long and lingering kiss there before backing away to look at the blushing mess he had created, so effortlessly.
"Maybe like this?" George asked, pressing their lips together for no more than a second. He did that a few more times, teasing Dream as he waited for a response.
When Dream finally let out a weak whimper, begging for more, George finally slotted their lips together, a sloppy rhythm somehow managing to develop. It was rough, harsh, far worse than Dream could've hoped for, but they were each drunk and judging their kissing abilities right now would be pretty snobby.
Dream pressed further, wrapping his arms around George's neck, deepening the already intense kiss.
There was an incredibly odd moment, where Dream imagined Sapnap.
But not on his lap, kissing him senseless. Sadly, he was more than aware that the person he was making out with was a foreign transfer student named George.
No, he had seen Sapnap in the corner, watching him sadly, almost judgmentally.
Except, when Sapnap called out to him, and George also pulled away, surprised by somebody else calling out to the person he was kissing, Dream realized that Sapnap was really there.
Dream wasn't sure what to feel.
He could feel disappointed that the only sexual relation he had taken part in ever since his last break up had been cut short. He could feel angry, since Sapnap had quite literally lied to him. He clearly wasn't sick, as he was standing in the middle of this party, which suddenly sounded and smelled way worse than Dream had remembered, prior to him making out with George.
Or, he could feel guilt for cheating on his fake boyfriend with somebody who was probably going to be nothing more than a one night stand, quite possibly going completely unnoticed by anybody else.
Somehow, that guilt was all he could manage to feel, as he quickly dismissed himself from the entire party, waving goodbye to George before slipping out into the warm night, deciding it'd be easiest to walk all the way home, rather than calling his dad, who had told him that he wanted to be the one to pick him up.
***
Word Count: 2,302