CHAPTER TWENTY.
"irl."
an alarm ringing throughout the hotel room caused liv to shoot up out of her slumber. she looked around, taking in her surroundings. she was still in dream's hotel room, on the couch where they had premiered her video the night before. to her right was nick, with his arm loosely around her waist, still asleep. the alarm hadn't woken him up. she looked around the suite, seeing their mess from the night before. fastfood wrappers littered the counters and tables, dream and george's luggage scattered everywhere, everyone's shoes mixed up all over the ground. with her pounding headache, she was surprised that there was no alcohol in sight. apparently jetlag and extreme adrenaline mixed together could also feel like the worst hangover ever.
dream slumped out of his room, making his way to the kitchen. he glanced at the couch, grinning, and doing a double-take once he realized liv was awake. "morning, livvy! sleep well?" he looked pointedly at sapnap, who was still out. she rolled her eyes at dream.
"i feel like i'm dying, to be completely honest. my head is killing me," she complained, carefully trying to move out of sapnap's grasp without waking him.
he rummaged through one of his bags on the counter, pulling out some advil. he shook the bottle at liv. "don't worry about being quiet. he needs to wake up anyways, we've gotta leave in like two hours." she turned to sapnap, gently nudging him.
"hey, bud, you gotta get up," she told him, only earning a groan in response. she rolled his eyes and got off of the couch. she took the advil dream had offered her. he laughed at the sight of her. "what? what's so funny?"
"your hair!" he wheezed, reaching to ruffle it. she swatted his hand away and combed her fingers through her hair. he started making coffee in the hotel provided coffee pot.
"i'm gonna head back to mine and go get ready. what time are we leaving?" she asked dream, gathering her belongings that she had brought over the night before.
"gotta leave here around 8:30 so that we can get out before the traffic gets too bad." she nodded, trying to make a schedule in her brain for herself. she had agreed to do a meet and greet around 11 am and then needed to be backstage on the dream smp panel by 1:30 pm so that she could watch without having to sit in the audience.
"alright, i'll see you in a bit," she smiled, glancing back over at nick, who was still asleep, before heading back across the hall. she scanned her card to get back into her room, quietly opening the door. it was still fairly early so she didn't want to be loud. she looked around the room, seeing her barely touched luggage and all of her editing equipment still strung out on her couch. she decided she would pick it up later. it was time for her to get ready.
it was 8:15 and liv had just finished getting ready. she showered, did her hair, makeup, and picked out her outfit. she decided on a green cardigan and jeans, just to keep it simple. her nerves were starting to hit her, as it was her first time going out in public since her face reveal. she opened twitter to remind everyone of her meet and greet, but got lost scrolling through all the reactions of her video from last night. while there were certainly negative comments, there weren't nearly enough to outweigh the positive. she smiled and tweeted out the time and location of her meet up.
after tweeting out, she grabbed her tote bag full of necessities for the day and headed back across the hall. she knocked lightly on sapnap's door, assuming he would be back in his room by now. she heard clambering around in his room and the door was opened a few seconds later. he stood there, toothbrush and toothpaste in his mouth.
"hi, livvy!" he smiled at her, toothpaste covering his teeth. she laughed at him, waving him back into his room so he could finish brushing his teeth. she followed behind him, sitting on the ledge of his bathtub while he spat out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth. he turned to look at her. "you look nice."
"thank you," she smiled. "so do you!" he was wearing what he always wore, but she always thought he looked nice. he grinned back at her and held out a hand to pull her back to her feet.
"thanks!" he pulled her up, their hands staying intertwined for a second longer than necessary. "how are you feeling about today?" he made his way through the hotel room, picking up everything he needed to take with him. she sat on the arm of the couch, eyes tracking him around the room.
"a little nervous, not gonna lie, but i'm mostly excited! the support's been crazy," she glanced at her phone which still had twitter open.
"don't be nervous, everyone's gonna love you! they already do, obviously!" he smiled at her. "plus, i'll be there if you need anything!" he gestured towards the door, signaling it was time for them to leave. she hopped to her feet and left the hotel room, sapnap hot on her heels. they needed to be in the lobby in three minutes, and they were 10 stories up.
"you don't have to stay with me during the meet up! i'll be ok," they made their way to the elevator, bumping into each other and arms brushing every so often. neither of them could seem to walk in a straight line.
"oh, i won't be standing with you! but i'll be around. i don't wanna take away from your spotlight." as much as he hated to admit it, they both knew that sapnap being there would turn liv's meet and greet into sap's meet and greet. that was the last thing he wanted. the elevator door slid open and they stepped in.
"okay, sounds good. i can just call you if i need anything," she smiled at him, pressing the button for the ground floor. the elevator sped down at a pace that made liv's stomach lurch. she watched the numbers count down from ten until they finally reached the lobby.
the doors slid open and they were back in the lobby they had met in for the first time less than 24 hours ago. not far away from the elevator stood dream and george, staring at their phones. the pair stepped out of the elevator and made their way to the boys. dream looked up to see them.
"oh my god, finally!" he laughed. "you guys took forever! i was gonna make you get your own uber!" he nudged sapnap, making him roll his eyes.
"you told us 8:30! it's 8:30 on the dot!" he nudged him back. george's phone pinged with a notification.
"guys! our driver is here! we need to go," he started ushering the group out the doors to the car that waited for them. they all slid into the car, george sitting in front with the driver since there was only three seats in the back. liv was forced into the middle because she was the shortest. george conversed with the driver the whole way there, while sapnap and dream had a conversation with liv in the middle. she would have joined but she was too busy calming herself down. sapnap noticed her silence and lightly grasped her hand, not breaking away from the conversation with dream. he rubbed his thumb back and forth on her knuckles, hoping it would help her calm down. surprisingly, it did.
george had the uber driver take them to the back entrance so that they wouldn't have to fight with the crowds of fans. they all had to show their passes to one of the guards in order to be let in, but thankfully, no one forgot theirs. the driver let them out and sped off, hoping to get out before traffic got terrible. right outside of the entrance, dream looked at sapnap, then looked pointedly at his and liv's intertwined hands. liv got the message and dropped sap's hand. she knew that fans would go apeshit if they saw them holding hands. dream turned back around and opened the door, holding it open for everyone. cheers erupted as soon as george stepped foot into the convention. then sapnap. then liv. and then dream. the fans crowding around the entrance screamed for the dream team (plus liv.) they all shared confused glances before smiling and waving at the crowd. a twitch employee came and led them to a twitch partners only room.
"i'm so sorry about that! we weren't able to keep them out of the lobby and then they refused to leave," the employee explained, holding the door open for the group. sapnap and liv looked at each other, even more confused. this was a twitch event. why weren't the security handling the crowds?
"it's okay. could you potentially put in different security measures to make sure it doesn't happen again tomorrow?" dream asked politely.
"no." the employee replied, earning a cackle from george. he clearly thought it was ridiculous that they refused to even try to manage the crowds. with that, the employee left the group alone. they all looked at each other before bursting into laughter.
"are you serious?" sapnap asked in between laughs. "they can't even put security guards by the doors or some shit?"
"i'll talk to somebody about that," dream pulled out his phone and scanned his contacts for what was presumably a twitch representative that could actually do something. "because that's fucking ridiculous. someone could get hurt."
"seriously. if the lobbies are this poorly planned, imagine how bad everything else is," george joked. surely the rest of the convention wouldn't be that bad, right?