Chapter Eleven
The next morning I had woken up fairly early. I went to the bathroom to do my normal morning routine, then I changed into some running gear. It was a bit chilly for a Florida morning so I changed into a pair of dark green high waisted running leggings as opposed to shorts and a matching sports bra. I grabbed my phone and wireless headphones and left my room. I approached Dream's room when I heard noise coming from it.
"Come in," he said gently after I knocked.
"I'm going for a run; just wanted to let you know," I told him. He was rummaging through his dirty laundry basket. Clothes were spewed all over the floor.
"Care for a running buddy?"
I smiled, "If you can keep up, bitch boy."
Truly, I was just mocking him. He's probably going to outrun me since he has a foot on me and his strides are longer. However, I was on the cross country and track team for my high school so it's possible that I am faster than him due to the amount of training I've had and how long I've been running.
"Ready," he chirped as he came out of his room wearing his running gear. I sat on the floor and tied my running shoes on, then stepped outside with him. We stretched together for ten minutes. Then, I started my exercise on my Fitbit so that it'd track the distance I run.
When we started, Dream was significantly slower than I expected. I wondered if that was because he was going easy due to my short stature. I decided to test this theory by speeding up little by little. Soon enough, Dream was at the point where he was actually full on running as opposed to a leisure jog. If we put it in treadmill terms, we were probably hitting about a seven or eight right now.
"Damn, you're so fucking fast. I thought I was going to have to go easy on you," he chuckled as he steadied his pace beside me.
"I've been running for about ten years. I was also on my high school's cross country team and track team. I actually committed to my college in North Carolina for cross country and track," I said in between my breaths.
"Shit, is there anything you're not good at?"
"I can't play soccer," I admitted, picking up the pace a smidge.
"Can't say I expected that," he chuckled, "I'll teach you soccer."
I smiled and nodded, "And I'll teach you how to keep plants alive," I said, hinting at the dead plants on his porch and in his house. He rolled his eyes and laughed, but didn't deny his terrible skill at gardening.
"I'll race you home," I said when I saw our cars come into view. Before he could even respond, I took off in a sprint to my car. He was right on my tail, but I tapped my car at full force and won the race. He slowed to a jog and stopped in front of me. He was holding his knees and panting with his tongue stuck out like a dog.
"You cheated."
"Even so, I would've won if we did it fairly."
"I doubt it."
"Sore loser."
"Wait until the timeline hears about you being a cheater."
He ran inside and to his room. I just jogged after him and tried opening the door, but he had locked me out. Then, I got a notification saying that he had mentioned me in a tweet on his second account.
@DreamWasTaken2: @CalPal is a cheater
@CalPal: @DreamWasTaken2 is a sore loser
The replies under the two tweets were people fighting about who was telling the truth. All my fan accounts were saying that I was telling the truth and that my point is proven because I beat Dream in the speed running record fair and square. Then, everyone on Dream's side is saying that he was telling the truth and that I cheated my way into second place. Even though what we were referencing had absolutely nothing to do with the speed run.
"You know, I see so much positivity on my feed all the time. Then, the one time I need to see positivity, there's none," Dream said as he opened the door clutching his phone in his hand.
I tried to smile to lighten the mood but I'm pretty sure Dream saw right through that, "It's fine, really—"
"But it's not. They literally have no reason to be acting like this. You haven't done anything wrong. We're friends. We've been friends for four months. They need to get used to it," he said, his voice raising and his tone getting more aggressive.
"Okay. Why don't we step away from the phones for a bit, yeah?"
He looked at me, then chucked his phone behind him onto his bed. It bounced off and onto the floor but he didn't seem to care. I pocketed my phone into the waistband of my pants and went to the kitchen. I tried to get something to drink, but he was out of orange juice.
"Clay, you're out of juice."
"No, I have apple juice right there," he said, reaching his arm out to the juice carton.
"But it's not orange juice."
"Why are you so obsessed with orange juice?" He giggled, "We can go to the store, if you want?"
I nodded my head, "I'm gonna go take a shower and get changed."
"Okay," he whispered and heaved himself on the couch.
I went back to my room to grab my shower things and pick out an outfit. Then, I went into the bathroom and got the shower started. It took me five minutes to figure out how to work the shower, but once I did, I stripped and hopped under the warm stream. I just took a quick wash hair and body shower, then realized my mistake when the water stopped. I didn't have a towel and I don't know where Dream keeps his towels.
"Clay?" I called out, but he didn't answer. I grabbed my phone from the counter and called him. He answered immediately.
"Hello?" He spoke, his tone confused.
"Um, I don't have a towel."
"I can bring you one."
"Can you bring me two?"
"Why do you need two?" He laughed.
"One for my hair and one for my body, duh."
I could imagine him rolling his eyes at me. He hung up the phone and a few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I got out of the shower and unlocked the door. He opened the door the slightest bit, stuck his arm in and handed me two towels.
"Thank you Clay!"
He laughed as I closed the door. I dried up the floor, then myself and got dressed. When I came back out, Dream's hair was wet as well. He probably had a shower in his bedroom. He grabbed his keys from the holder in the entrance and we left.
On the drive there, I sang along to the radio with Dream. We didn't talk much, but there was no reason to. Then, his phone started blowing up. It started with one text, but then they just kept coming and the phone wouldn't stop vibrating in the cupholder.
"Do you want me to see who it is?" I questioned.
"Uh, no, it's fine."
When we got to the store, he spent a solid ten minutes just sitting in the drivers seat going through the texts and replying to them.
"Is everything okay?"
"What?" He looked over at me, "Oh yeah, everything's fine. It's just Sap and George being idiots."
I nodded my head and we went into the store. It was a quick trip. He got some snacks and a few cartons of orange juice to appease me. Then, while we were standing in line for check out, he saw someone wearing a hoodie from his merch store. Dream glanced at me and gave me a knowing smirk.
"Hey, I like your hoodie," he said, changing the pitch of his voice so it didn't sound like him. It sounded so natural that he's must've done this millions of times.
"Oh thanks!" The girl exclaimed, "You watch Dream?"
"Yeah, he's good, isn't he?"
I rolled my eyes and turned away so the person couldn't see me struggling to hold back a laugh. She agreed with him and they talked about all his "pog" moments while we waited for the queue to move. She said goodbye to us after she checked out.
"Oh my god," I blurted finally and burst out laughing, "How often do you do that?"
"Every time I see someone wearing my merch," he shrugged, "It's fun."
"Aren't you scared of getting caught?"
"Haven't been yet, so why worry?"
When we got back into the car, I continued the conversation, "Have you planned out how you're going to do a face reveal yet?"
"Sapnap and George think it's a good idea to do my face reveal with them. Like do some kind of in person video or challenge with them and that's how I reveal my face. I think that'd be cool. It wouldn't dramatize the reveal."
"True. Because it's like, how long can you make a video for your face reveal? It's like, you show it for three seconds and then it's like, what do I do now?"
"Have you thought about it?"
I shrugged, "I thought I'd just do face cam for a stream. Then again, I'll probably have a panic attack so that's not a good idea. Honestly, I'll just post a picture on Twitter or Instagram."
Then, we got talking about our social media.
"Yeah, I have an Instagram that I hide from my followers. It's just something that my friends and family can follow. Sapnap and George don't follow it. None of my minecraft friends do."
"I have that too."
"You should follow me," he smirked.
"But you just said none of your minecraft friends follow it."
"You're different though. You wouldn't be following with hundred of thousands of followers. Think about it, if George followed my personal instagram, the fans who look through his following list will see that he follows some random account that only has like a couple hundred followers. They'll see the profile picture and see that it matches Dream's general description. Then, I'm sure it would blow up on Twitter."
"Smart thinking."
After we put away the groceries, he told me his personal account and I followed him off mine. It was so intriguing to see that he also lived a double life. Except with him, his family knows what he does for a living.
"Wow this photo's hot," I laughed. He looked over my shoulder and saw the picture I was talking about. It was a selfie from a really bad, close angle.
"I know, thanks," he smiled.
We stared at each other, then burst out laughing. It's never a dull moment with him.