(direct continuation of the previous chapter)
The two boys sat and pondered on what they would do today, both generally unsure of what they could do. Dream, however, had an idea lingering in his head, though he wasn't entirely confident in how well it would turn out. He hesitated for a moment before quietly saying "I have an idea." His words were met with George turning to look over at him, nodding as he did, which signalled him to continue on. "Well I was thinking about it... What if we streamed? I mean we've both lacked any form of content and it might be fun?"
He took notice of the shift of expression on his friends face, going from intrigued to concerned. "Dream are you sure that's a good idea? Are you going to be able to handle it?"
He shrugged, letting out a "yeah." He would be fine, right? What's the worst that could happen?
George paused, debating on whether that could be the truth, before ultimately stating "Well then, I guess I'll set my stuff up here. We're both streaming?"
"I mean that's what I had in mind but whatever you want." He replied with a smile.
"Yeah so we should probably be in different rooms. Where should I go?"
He showed George to his spare desk in the room next to his office space, and followed by going to his own computer to set up his stream.
After a short period of time, the two friends had set up both their streams, just waiting to press the light green button that read "go live."
"You ready George?"
"Of course"
"This is so stupid we're calling each other from two rooms right next to each other"
"Well we aren't supposed to let people know I'm here right?"
"I guess" He shrugged again before telling George he was about to go live. In a mere five seconds, he watched his viewers sky rocket up to 8,000, which was much larger than his normal count on his occasional streams. His chat was flooded with people saying "OH MY GOD HI," or "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN." He felt his heart patter a bit faster than normal, which confused him. Why should he be nervous? It's a normal stream, no? He shook off his own thoughts, switching on his pretty upbeat personality.
"Hello!" He said excitedly, earning a giggle from George through his headset.
///
The stream began pretty averagely, apart from his hectic chat spamming "Why did you and sam unfollow each other," and different variations of that message. They were all itching to know what really happened, but luckily for Dream, he was able to stay focused on the survival world rather than the chat. He spent time annoying George by constantly chasing after his in game character, trying his hardest to kill him. He was also responding to the floods of donations that all seemed pretty kind and humorous.
All was going well for George and Dream, well that was until the people dying to know what happened to Dream entered the TTS. Thats when all the joy Dream gained from playing minecraft with George after a long time, the kind donations, and the general rush you gain from streaming completely drain from his body.
It was nearly impossible to ignore the overwhelming amounts of questions about his situation at this point. His breath caught in his throat as his heart rate began to rapidly increase.
"I uh" He stuttered "Its personal what happened. Im single, yes." He struggled to get out. He mentally cursed himself for saying anything, because the only thing this lead to was more people asking what happened. He had just drawn all the attention to the topic he most desperately wanted to avoid.
Sure, in any other circumstance he would have no issue with annoying questions, or the people who fixate themselves on a singular topic, but these questions affected him in a way he'd never experienced.
anxiety tw??? its not much but just be aware that this is a theme for the majority of everything below this
Dream felt a tingle rising from his hands to his arms, his body feeling tight and numb. The only sounds filling his ears was a robotic voice reading donations, but his mind could only hear the repeating of "Sam."
His throat felt like it was closing as he shut his eyes tight. It was too much for him. Just too much. His heart was thudding against his chest, but not in a way that was desirable. He muted his mic as he gasped for air, his chest falling and rising rapidly. He managed to let out a strained "I'll be back" into the mic as he pressed his finger nails into his palm. He threw off his headphones, ending his stream in a panic as he did. He pushed his chair back, standing up to press onto the desk in front of him. He felt like the air in the room had become much thicker and heavier, and whilst he knew that he wasn't going to die, it sure felt like the world around him was crushing him.
George on the other hand, took notice of Dream's silence, but was unaware that his stream had ended, or that he was being spammed with comments relating to his ex. He wanted to check on him, but was worried about leaving his stream with no body to entertain them. He sat for a moment, wondering how best to manage this situation, and decided on messaging sapnap.
George:
hey man
could you get on the survival server?
Dream and I were streaming but he's stopped talking.
I want to make sure he's ok but I don't wanna leave the stream unattended
Snapmap:
wow I feel used
George:
Im serious
Join vc on discord
Snapmap:
Alright give me a second
George placed his phone back on the wooden table, releasing a suspended breath in relief. He smiled when he heard the notification that sapnap had joined. He made sure to start a conversation with Sapnap before saying that he was going to get some water to his stream, trying to not make it obvious that he was checking on Dream.
He muted his mic, and ran out of his room with Haste, knocking at the door of Clay's office. "Clay?" He asked softly, but as soon as he was met with no response he turned the knob of the door, gasping at the sight in front of him. He rushed to Dream side, placing a hand on the back of his trembling friend, rubbing circles as he did. He bent over to level his face with dream's, which was loosely hanging, facing the desk he was standing over.
"Dream listen it's ok, you're fine. I'm here" He said in a soothing voice, brining his own hand to rest atop Clay's.
"Im sorry" His friend choked, prompting George to shake his head.
"No there's nothing to be sorry for" He paused before tugging lightly at Dream's arms. When he felt little to no resistance, he pulled his friend into a hug, to which Dream took willingly. Even with the height difference, the younger boy had no issue nestling his head into the neck of the shorter boy, wrapping his arms loosely around his neck. George rubbed his back slowly, feeling the shakiness of his lungs as he struggled to breathe properly. He pulled him closer, so that their chests were pressed against each other. "Focus on my breathing, try and copy it."
Dream took many attempts and slowing down his breathing enough to be able to match the other's. After a couple of minutes of George whispering words of encouragement and "I'm right here" into Dream's ears, he managed to breathe at the calm pace that George was.
They stood in the middle of the room, gripping onto each other as if one of them could fade away if they let go. Though eventually, George pulled back, grabbing onto Clay's hand as he did.
"Lets get you some water"
------
bro this is such a bad place to leave off but its fathers day and I want to make this a two part thing.
Y'all wanted angst, well a scary amount of you wanted angst. But I couldn't really understand who wanted what so I kinda combined it.
This book is not gonna be a slow burn, but its not going to happen as soon as I planned either. This doesn't mean my book is ending any sooner than it would otherwise, but instead will just include more wholesome stuff ig.
anyways thank you for almost 30k reads, I don't deserve them. Legit im a shit writer I don't know why people like this book so much but thank you!!
mwah