As George boarded his plane, overnight bag clutched protectively under his arm, he could only excitedly remember the events that led up to the current moment, head feeling light and butterflies flittering madly in his stomach.
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The first event, almost two weeks ago, was during a casual call between his friends, Sapnap and Dream, after they coaxed him into taking a break from coding one of his and Dream's newest ideas. The call was filled with a playful and friendly air, laughs and giggles circulating between the trio, but it wasn't until Dream began a new conversation that the call turned memorable.
"Are you guys doing anything in two weeks?" Dream casually inquired.
"No, not that I'm aware of," Sapnap replied after a moment, followed by George replying with, "No, I'm free that week, why?" Both of them figured Dream wanted to record a video one of those days, but boy oh boy, were they wrong.
"Great! Do you want to come over to my house for the week then?"
Something akin to adrenaline shot through George's chest. Was Dream- Did he really-
"Oh, hell yeah!" Sapnap's enthusiastic answer snapped George back to reality before he completely lost himself in his mind, and George swallowed nervously.
"Wait, you're serious?"
"Of course, you idiot!" Dream laughed out, a wheeze interrupting his comments. "What, did you think I was going to ask you 'Hey wanna come over?' and then be all like 'Sike, get memed!'?" George remained silent for a few moments, his head spinning as he began to truly grasp the situation.
"I think that silence is a 'yes', Dream," Sapnap teased when he didn't answer, and George sputtered out to defend himself.
"No it does not!" His yell dropped to a more flustered voice. "I'm just really surprised. I thought you didn't want us to like, meet up IRL." The call inexplicitly fell silent for what felt like hours, but in reality was only a couple of seconds, and George was tempted to keel over and die, or make a noise similar to a dying seal, whichever came first.
"You're an idiot," was Dream's delayed response, an almost unnoticeable dip in his voice as it softened slightly, "an absolute idiot." The softness didn't last though, because his voice grew back into its naturally loud and playful tone as he continued. "Of course I want to meet you in person, George!" And once more, his voice dipped back into the prior faint softness as he finished what he had to say, speaking ironically confidently, "I'm just a little shy about it."
"It's true," Sapnap backed Dream up, "When we met up for the first time, I actually couldn't believe it was him because he looked so nervous!" Sapnap began chuckling at the last half of his sentence as he went through his memories. George suppressed a laugh with a "pfft-" as Dream dragged out an accusing "Whhhaaaaat?!"
"I wasn't that nervous, Sapnap!"
"You didn't even look me in the eyes for the first thirty minutes, Dream!"
George let his friends argue as he sat back and allowed the situation to fully settle on him, causing a large smile to spread on his face. He couldn't believe it. Excited began to build in his chest, causing a small release of butterflies in his stomach. He was finally going to meet his best friend in person.
Best friend.... A small prick of guilt muted part of his excitement. He was going to meet his best friend... the one he'd fallen in love with, against all odds.
A sigh almost escaped George as the prick started to grow. Would he have still been invited if Dream knew his true feelings? Would they still even be friends? Would Dream get uncomfortable?
A violent wheeze brought George from his thoughts.
"That's it, I'm revoking my invitation from you, Snapmap!"
"Snapmap?! I told you, Dream, call me that again and we're going to have issues!"
"Oh, what are you going to do about it, huh?"
George smiled and shook his head at his friends. Enough of those thoughts.
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The second event happened a handful of days later, during another relaxed day. George had just ended a stream with himself and Dream, and was scanning the money he made through donations when he realized it was just enough for a plane ticket or two.
"Hey, Dream, look at my screen," George playfully begun, enabling the screen-sharing option and allowing Dream to look.
"What am I looking at?" Dream questioned in reply.
George circled his mouse around the amount of money he earned. "Look."
"Oh, nice amount!"
"Guess what."
"What?"
"Watch this." Dream snorted a tiny wheeze at George as his mouse shot to his bookmarks bar and clicked on the most recent one, labeled "ticket". The page went white as the screen updated, and Dream's laughter fell silent as a page filled with plane tickets loaded.
"George! Don't you dare!" Dream yelled. "I said I was paying for them!"
George simply switched his screen-sharing off. "I don't care, I'm buying one right now."
"You're a liar!" Dream accused, his voice gaining in octaves, "You're not going to buy a ticket right now."
Giggling, George found the appropriate ticket and hit purchase immediately. "But I just did, Dream."
"You're a liar!" Dream repeated, and George began to giggle harder.
"I'm not, I just did."
"George!"
"Calm down you big baby!" George laughed, "You're acting like it's the end of the world!"
"But it is!" Dream whined, dragging out his sentence in an attempt to annoy George. "I was going to buy a ticket for you!" George could hear the frown in Dream's voice, which sounded equally serious and joking.
"I'll be in Florida for a week! Just spend that money on me and Sapnap if you're so concerned!" he reasoned.
"Okay, I will." Dream replied, his tone challenging. George only rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Hey, have you bought Sapnap's ticket yet?"
"No, not yet. I was going to buy them tomor-" George cut him off as he clicked and purchased another ticket, using the rest of the money he earned in his stream.
"I just bought Sapnap a ticket."
"What is wrong with you?!" Dream nearly shrieked, and George busted out into laughter. "Seriously, what is wrong with you?! You better be lying!"
"I'm.. Not.." George managed to say between rounds of laughter, and his reenabled his screen-sharing before leaning back with laughter after hearing Dream scream again.
"You're an idiot!" Dream said for the third time that conversation. "That's it, I'm PayPal-ing you the ticket money."
"No!" George refuted, but it was too late, because George could hear the furious clacking of keys as Dream silently typed, and moments later found his PayPal had increased.
"Dreeeeaaaaaam," George whined in defeat, "Why did you do that?"
"Because you're an idiot!" Dream said, and wheezed.
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The third event happened the day before George's flight. The three of them were discussing their plans, and a certain topic had been brought up.
"So wait, how will George know it's you, Dream?" Sapnap had suddenly brought up.
"Oh, I thought you wanted to get him from the airport since you're arriving a couple hours before him," Dream replied.
"No? I thought you would pick him up?"
"I could always Uber," George pitched in.
"You are not going to Uber to my house," Dream deadpanned playfully. "Fine, I'll pick you up. Just text me when you land and I'll call you and meet up with you inside the terminal."
"How will I know it's you though?" George questioned.
"I'll wear, like, a blue hoodie and jeans or something so I stand out more, or something," Dream replied. "I think you'll know when you see me though, regardless of clothing." A small blush wormed its way onto George's face.
"That sounded sketch," he said, and Sapnap barked out a laugh as Dream wheezed out a confused "What?!", and George joined in on the laughter with a giggle.
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That same giggle bubbled up and almost escaped George as he sat down in his seat, slotting his bag under his seat. He stared out the window and out into the mid-morning sky, a large smile on his face, feeling incredibly giddy, and trying to blissfully ignore the faint stinging of guilt in his stomach that was being drowned in butterflies.
"Just ignore those feelings, George," he silently mumbled to himself, shutting his eyes. "Don't let them ruin anything."
His eyes remained shut until his flight began, and then, George's eyes remained glued to the window as he watched the world below him, his excitement overthrowing the stinging and leaving him as nothing but large smiles and giddy glances to the elderly lady sitting next to him, who seemed sweet.
George couldn't wait.
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If there was one thing George hated the most about flying, it was the jetlag. His internal clock screamed that it was seven in the afternoon, but his phone auto-connecting to the airport's public internet told him it was only two.
So George hauled his overnight bag with his and walked to the luggage carousel, silently cursing the existence of time zones, and quickly sent Dream a text saying he was in Florida.
If there was one thing George loved most about flying, it was the excitement of other people finding out he's landed. It was only five seconds after he sent the text, not that he was counting, of course, when his phone started vibrating in his hand alerting him of an incoming call. A large smile overtook George's face as he answered.
"Hi!" Dream happily called into the phone. "Where are you?"
"I'm waiting to grab my suitcase," George replied. "Where do should we meet up?"
"Oh, I know where you're at, I just read the flight information on the board," Dream said, and George could hear some faint conversation of other people in the background. George smiled wider and finally spotted his luggage, and he stepped up to grab it. "I'll come get you, just stay put."
"Okay, but once again, how will I know it's you?" George asked.
"I'm wearing as much blue as humanly possible, like I said I would," was Dream's simple and casual reply, which caused George to laugh.
"You weren't lying when you said that?"
"Of course not! You see blue the easiest, right?"
"Y-yeah," George said, and quickly glanced around, flustered. He didn't think Dream knew that much about his colorblindness.
"Okay." The short comment from Dream made George furrow his eyebrows in confusion, and he slowly took a look around the airport again, phone still up to his ear.
There were quite a lot of people around, and George soaked up the appearance of everyone's faces before his eyes froze on a young man standing not too far from him, who was staring back at him with grayish-yellow looking eyes.
George had no clue why the man was staring at him, but holy shit was the man beautiful. Hair a light ash brown and shaggy, and a face sculpted like a renaissance statue. His skin fell on the more pale side, but was still more tanned than George's. A small, lopsided smile and teeth almost perfectly straight, as if the stranger wore braces but not to completion, was directed towards George, and the only thought that passed through his mind was that the stranger looking towards him was the most gorgeous man he's ever seen.
George then noticed the stranger was holding a phone up to his ear, the case a bright shade of yellowish-gray. Why was this man staring at him if he was on the phone with someone? He then noticed a deep, dark blue sleeve on the arm holding the phone, and took in the vivid blue color of the stranger's hoodie. Wow, that was an aggressive shade of blue.
George then noticed the bright pair of blue jeans the man wore. The dark blue of the hoodie and lighter blue of the jeans surprisingly fit well together, and he scanned his eyes down further and noticed the man was wearing a pair of crocs, blue crocs.
George's face soured slightly in confusion. Why was this man wearing nothing but blue?
Dream giving an airy chuckle made George blink, and he suddenly noticed the man's smile had grown into a very handsome grin. George blinked in greater confusion. Why did Dream laugh?
George watched the stranger as his shoulder shook subtly with a compressed laugh, and at the same time George heard Dream softly chuckle again.
"Wh-" George began to vocalize his confusion, but he was cut off.
"Hey George," Dream said softly, fondly, and George watched the stranger mouth the exact same two words at George with a face of elated admiration.
Wait.
George's eyes went wide.
Wait.
"Dream?" George meekly replied. The stranger's smile grew, the edges of his eyes slightly crinkling. But that man was actually no stranger, not anymore.
That man was Dream.
And George suddenly understood what people meant by gay panic. Because the most attractive man George had ever seen was his best friend, the one he just so happened to be in love with.
Fuck.