𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖗 𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖓 𝖆𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗'𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖊
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punz was a confident guy, he always had been. but there was something about today, dream noticed, that seemed to be stressing the older boy out.
"but what if it's awkward?" punz worried, drawing shapes onto the mosaic below him.
"punz, we literally spoke to them for hours at your party," dream reminded the other. "plus didn't you say q is bringing weed? even if it starts awkward, we'll relax in no time."
"but sapnap wasn't with us for like, most of the party," punz pointed out. "what if he unbalances the atmosphere we had and so it all goes wrong?" he thought for a moment before adding, "maybe we should cancel."
"it's too late for that now," dream shrugged down at his phone. "quackity said they're on their way," he said, "so they're literally gonna be here any second now."
"well, thanks for the heads up!" punz retorted sarcastically, standing up and pulling his shorts down from where they'd risen. he looked down at his friend, who had remained seated by the pool. "aren't you coming to let them in?"
"nah," dream shrugged, laying his back down on the hot tiles, "i think i'll let you take this one."
punz huffed, glaring at his friend before walking back into his house to hear the end of the melodic doorbell chimes. he walked through, pulling the door open and smiling, as genuinely as he could, at the four boys.
and, as he'd suspected, it was a bit awkward at first.
not so much that it would make an onlooker uncomfortable, but there were just a few too-long silences and people going to speak at the same time that seemed to throw the conversation a bit to begin with.
and, like dream suspected, it was absolutely fine once they started smoking.
"are you sure you don't want any?" george asked for the sixteenth time, handing the blunt to sapnap who just passed it straight by to dream.
"yeah, i'm sure," sapnap assured, watching the second blunt be passed to punz, "it's best if one of us is sober enough to make sure no one drowns."
"that's probably a good idea," karl agreed with a laugh. sapnap was happy to see karl so relaxed around the two blondes.
in fact, sapnap was happy just observing the whole group. and, if anything, being the only sober one made their intoxicated behaviour even funnier to watch.
sapnap turned to dream as he spoke about something, but his attention faltered slightly as punz exhaled a lungful of smoke, the ravenette boy's gaze slipping down to his lips as the cloud of grey rolled passed them.
sapnap felt like someone kicked him in the heart, and for a moment he wondered if he'd gotten second-hand high before realising they were sitting outside and there was no way they'd smoked enough for that.
regardless, he ignored the feeling.
he could worry about it some other time.
everyone seemed reluctant to be the first one in the pool so, eventually, punz stood up to usher everyone in and speed up the process.
he pulled his shorts down his thighs, and if the group saw his scars then they didn't say anything- the faded marks went completely unspoken about as they all got up to swim.
well, all except karl and sapnap, who stayed seated on the warm mosaic, watching their friends fuck around in the, presumably chilly, water.
"aren't you guys going to swim?" punz asked, swimming up to the edge closest to them and lifting his head up on the side with a smile.
"i'm just babysitting to make sure you're all okay to swim first," sapnap explained.
"and i'm keeping sapnap company."
"which you don't need to do," the ravenette retorted quickly, "i'm more than happy to watch by myself for a few minutes."
"are you sure?" karl questioned sceptically, receiving a genuine nod before swiftly taking his shirt off and canon-balling straight in.
"come on, sapnap," punz pouted, batting pleading eyes up to the younger.
"i will in a bit," he promised, watching the blond nod in appreciation before turning to swim away.
punz made his way to dream, immediately falling victim to whispered bullying from the other.
"i can't believe he's not even getting in," he wheezed quietly, hid hands routinely trying to hit against each other but failing under the pressure of the water, "and- and his shirts still on."
punz looked back at his best friend with a straight face and a glare. "if you don't stop, i'm going to go shoot my shot with george." it was an empty threat, for now.
"yeah, yeah. i'm sure you will," dream nodded sarcastically, momentarily turning to look at where the short brunette was attempting to drown quackity.
"i'm more likely to than you are," punz challenged, excited to see the daring spark erupt in his friend's eyes.
"oh yeah?" dream smirked, too full of his own pride, "watch this then."
and, before punz had the chance to stop him, dream was at george's side, grinning at the brunette as he spoke, "george, i was thinking, we should totally go on a date sometime."
george and quackity shared a knowing look, the whole group being well aware of dream's adoration for the brit.
"hm, i'm not sure about that one," george smiled mischievously, "nice try though."
dream turned back to his overly amused looking friend with an unimpressed impression, making eye contact for a few short moments before punz burst out laughing, the younger of the pair moving quickly to tackle the other under the water.
it was funny, punz thought, wrestling dream around in the pool. though, his opinion quickly changed when they stopped for long enough for him to notice that sapnap had, at some point, made his way into the pool- and that he had completely missed it.
after sapnap joined them all in the pool, the time seemed to move a lot quicker. an hour passed, then two, and before they knew it they were getting out.
sapnap had tried to avoid getting his hair wet, so he was blessed to not need to sit and dry it- unlike the others.
sapnap watched with a laugh as george shook his hair around, drying it like a dog would, before shifting his view to punz.
punz was very well built -likely a result of his athletic hobbies- but sapnap figured he must have a good diet to keep his body that pristine, though maybe the shine of the water reflecting off his abs was helping to-
...
not that sapnap was looking at his abs...
the ravenette snapped out of his spiralling thoughts, turning to his left to see george already looking back at him. they held eye contact for a few short moments before breaking it when dream spoke. "do you guys want to play football or something?"
"absolutely not," quackity declined quickly, "football is so dead."
"you say that, but i swear to god you lot don't like any sports," punz retorted. "like, is that not boring?"
"that's not true, sap really likes basketball," karl defended, gesturing to the ravenette.
sapnap quickly turns to the brunette, staring at him with an expression that could only be read as 'why the fuck you say that?!'
"no way," dream argued, shaking his head.
"no, he actually does," quackity replied, "he's really good, too."
"i wouldn't go that far," sapnap laughed, waving his hand dismissively. "i'm really not good at all, honestly."
"no, go on, let's play some basketball," punz smirked, getting up from where he had just sat, dream following him towards the hoop on the side of his house.
sapnap turned to his friends with a straight face. "i'm going to embarrass myself and i hate you all," he glared, dragging himself up and following after the pair.
sapnap tried to argue that both of them being on a team against just him wasn't fair, but it was irrelevant in the end when he did better than the blondes by a landslide. it's not that they were bad at the game, not by any means, they were clearly just specialised elsewhere and fell short at the basketball-specific skills like dribbling or aiming specifically into the hoop... you know, the most important parts.
punz took a water break while sapnap dribbled around dream, watching with a laugh as the blond darted around to try and chase the ball.
he watched sapnap squat as he aimed the ball, the muscles in his legs flexing as he shot it effortlessly through the hoop.
dream muttered some curse, looking to punz for some help and receiving a half-hearted shrug.
punz continued to watch as sapnap went to grab the ball, bending over to scoop it up into his hand. the blond decided he would just sit out and watch for now. he enjoyed watching sapnap play, the brunette clearly in his element, but it was hard to focus when his main priority was making sure his towel discreetly covered his lap.
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the next chapter is one of my favourites in the whole book and i think i'm gonna post it later today because i'm not sure i can wait till tomorrow :P
i love uuuuu
-kit